Excerpt from The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. 19 of 20: Masterpieces of German Literature, Translated Into English Is this still the people to which Goethe belonged? At a time when a common cause with Austria conjures up again the shade Of the dear Old Holy Roman Empire no other verse in Faust seems SO inept as that concerning the ugly political song. Today we should rather say An unpolitical song, an ugly song; for to the people that but a few weeks ago was mindful Of naught but works Of peace everything has become a matter of indifference except the burning question Of the hour. Even though the longed-for peace Should soon return, the year 1914 must leave a deep mark in the development Of German literature. As yet we can only look back, not forward, from this milestone; and even in so doing we cannot escape from the present. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.