The Approaching Storm: One Woman's Story of Germany, 1934-1938

by Nora Waln

An American woman describes her years in Nazi Germany, where her British husband studied music, and how Nazi control affected everyday life in various sectors of society

Genres: History, World War II, Germany

380 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Descended from a line of Quakers and sea captains, Nora Waln was born to parents Thomas Lincoln and Lillian Waln. During childhood, she developed a fond interest of Chinese culture after learning of a family friendship with the Lin family resulting from trading in the early 1800’s. In 1919, she began attending Swarthmore College, a liberal arts college founded by Quakers, near Philadelphia. While studying at Swarthmore, Waln was contacted by two members of the Lin family, who were traveling in the United States. They invited her to visit at their Hopei Province homestead in China. During her junior year at Swarthmore, World War I broke out and Waln left school, before graduating.

In 1920, Waln set sail for China. Upon arrival she was taken in by the Lin family as a “daughter of affection.”  Waln ended up living in the Lin house for 12 years and subsequently developed the idea for her memoir House of Exile. The family was considered “exiles” of the Canton Lin homestead because a Lin had been ordered by Kublai Khan, the Mongol Emperor from 1260 to 1294, to help work with the Grand Canal in Hopei.

While living in China, Waln met George Edward Osland-Hill, an English Foreign Service Officer whom she called “Ted.” They were married in Shanghai at the Cathedral for the Church of England in 1922. In 1933, Waln’s House of Exile was published with much esteemed praise. The 12 year memoir of her time spent in China as the adopted “daughter of affection” gave readers an inside look at Chinese culture and customs, such as the “Farmers Calendar,” in addition to the nation’s political and public hardships. Waln had been the first foreigner inside of the Lin home since its founding 650 years prior. The 1933 bestseller not only unobtrusively captured the view of daily life in the Lin household, but also reflected Waln’s insider view of the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty.

Waln’s husband retired from the service and became interested in studying music, so in June 1934, the family relocated to Germany. They arrived only two days before the “Blood Purge of 1934. From the very start of Waln’s time in Germany, she experienced much of Hitler’s Nazi movement. She felt compelled to recount her experiences and began working on her next book. Waln and her husband stayed in Germany until 1938, after which they traveled back to Osland-Hill’s native England. In 1939, Waln published Reaching for the Stars, an account of her time spent in Germany. In the book Waln shared her very optimistic view that the people of Germany would not allow Hitler’s National Socialism to last. She based her beliefs on Chinese political theory, following the notion that such an educated people would revolt after the realization of the dangerous communism in the works. By the end of World War II, however, Waln was less certain as so many of those who were strongly against the Nazis had been killed. Reaching for the Stars was a bestseller in the United States and was reissued in 1994 under the title The Approaching Storm: One Woman’s Story of Germany 1934-1938.

In 1940, Waln was granted an honorary degree of Master of Arts form Swarthmore College. Waln traveled a great deal throughout the 1940’s, seeing Asia, Europe, and the Americas. After the war, she lectured across the United States, all of the proceeds went to war relief funding. In 1946, Waln became the European Administrator for the Kappa Kappa Gamma fund for Refugee Children.

Waln contributed articles as Tokyo correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post from 1947 to 1951. She also contributed to Atlantic Monthly as a correspondent from Germany and Scandinavia, after which she freelanced. Waln was one of the few journalists to report from China and Mongolia.  In 1958, Waln’s husband passed away.  She spent her last three years residing near Malaga in Southern Spain.

Reviews

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it's a little precious in spots, but overall it is an extremely interesting peek into 1930s Germany. It has lots of details of life, and I love details.
Like how much workers were paid to build those exalted autobahns--25 marks for a 53-hour work week. The worker had to pay 5 marks to the government for various fees, he was required to save 10 marks and was only allowed to keep 10 marks for himself. Compare that to the Roosevelt administration's 40 cents an hour/ 40-hour work week--with no fees or forced savings.
Or that the tune of Deutschland uber alles was taken from Haydn, who got it from a Croatian folk song.
And that the Nazi flag was defined as the red ground for socialism, the white circle for nationalism, and the swastika for for anti-Jewishism (and anti-capitalism, the Jews being defined as the arch capitalists)
One fascinating tidbit was the list of authors whose work was forbidden entry into the Reich: Balzac, Anatole France, Victor Hugo, Andre Malraux, Romain Rolland, Norman Angell, Walter Lippmann, Sinclair Lewis, Spinoza, Maxim Gorky, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Heinrich Heine, Thomas Mann...the list goes on.
It's interesting to contrast Hitler's career with Franklin Roosevelt's: both came to power in March, 1933 and both died in April, 1945. Hitler was able to do everything he wanted to do with the Germans and Germany. Nobody protested and remained in Germany and alive. Roosevelt got blocked, defeated and sued at every turn. But nothing happened to his opponents other than the risk of losing elections. I'm reminded of this every time some European bitches out America. Talk to the hand....

Klagen und Klatchen verboten!

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a compilation of the personal journals of Nora Waln, a journalist who resided in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich. Waln took notes about all of the political goings on, the propaganda, and the persecution and disappearances of people in Germany. Her documentation of the rabid adulation of Adolf Hitler and his cronies put me in mind of similar groups of people today. People fall into unnecessary and vile worship of seedy individuals and problems begin to snowball from there. Waln was an exceptionally brave woman, and I am glad to have learned about her.

I specialized in World War II in school, and I am exceedingly alarmed by the parallels between the Third Reich and the current state of affairs in my own county. I think primary sources like this, eyewitness accounts, from those who are experiencing the effects of hate, racism, megalomania, and a host of other things are so vital to the historical record. I found this book to be very insightful.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a portrait of a culture. I read it to get insight into the Nazification of Germany from a ground level view. Waln, a Quaker pacifist, and her husband moved to Germany for his musical studies. They had extended visits throughout Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Much about the culture was winsome. "It was usual to see people whose hands were callous with toil playing musical instruments. No gathering was without its song. They scattered music over their great river, over their wine-clad hills, and along their forest ways." (p.53)

About books: "I had entered Germany with the feeling that these people had no money for luxuries, and I had not yet learned that among vast numbers of them a book is not counted a luxury. I had never heard anyone express surprise on learning that a person had gone without meals or material things to buy a book." (p.118)

By far, my favorites passages were about the vineyards. If you’ve read Wendell Berry you will appreciate the list of what is necessary for a vineyard. Hint: a stand of oaks is one requisite.

I needed the review of the Reichs:
First Reich (Deutsche) the Holy Roman Empire established by Otto the First 962-1806 Second Reich (Second) Otto von Bismark, Hohenzollern Kings of Prussia 1862-1918
Third Reich (Drittle) National Socialist government, the Nazis

But then she describes Hitler’s rule. It was impossible for a young boy to escape being in Hitler’s Youth. While they were often given extra latitude (Hitler had read and enjoyed a previous book Waln wrote) they saw the troubles their friends experienced. Soldiers were optimistic and accepted injustices to themselves with a spirited defense of the army.

One story about a Christmas dinner captured me. The hosts guests included Christians of Jewish descent. The maid and butler made a brouhaha, refused to serve the Jews, and quit in the middle of service. The hosts refused to let their friends leave and carried on amidst their own embarrassment.

Waln said that she was so traumatized in 1938 that she was unable to write.

I’m glad I read this book. Most of my questions weren’t answered, but one thing was clear. Most citizens were in denial as they gave up freedoms one by one.

I considered this a 4-star book in August, but in December I'm still thinking about it, so I'm bumping it up to 4.5 and rounding up to 5.

[Steven Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waln writes with a sense of quiet, objective, acceptance, yet the Political effects of national socialsm where already revealing that the Germans had made a mistake in their choice of leaders. In the name of change, they were now experiencing forms of social and cultural control they had not anticipated. Waln's expressions of life in the Rhineland, however, make that culture enviable, in spite of the approaching true extent of socialism.

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is an American expatriate married to a British civil servant who she met during her sojourn in China. They moved to Germany in 1934 following his retirement. He settled there to pursue the study of music. She had written a popular book about her life in China which was translated into German and published during their residence in Germany. They resided in the countryside near Cologne, and later in Austria when her husband’s German music teacher retired. They also spent time in Czechoslovakia.

The book consists of observations about Germans and German life that the author made while she resided in Germany and Austria between 1934 and 1938, and visited Czechoslovakia in 1936 and 1937. Most of her observations are based upon interactions with highly educated upper class Germans, Austrians and Czechs who were landowners, business owners and former aristocrats, and their families. Although she discusses the rise of the Nazis and describes how they seized control of the German government and German life through the inculcation of fear, and the arrest and disappearance of German citizens, and the enactment of anti-Jewish laws and boycotts, she shows a great naively about the people and the events she is observing. She speaks of good Germans and opposition to Hitler, and the belief that the addition of Austrians to the Third Reich would create a more humane Germany, while making excuses for people’s failure to rise up against him, in the same manner as she talks of German subservience and obedience to the Nazis. At times she appears enthralled by the Nazis as she speaks glowingly of some of their propaganda and accomplishments such as constructing and rebuilding infrastructure such as roads. She seeks to learn more about the Party and its agenda, despite her dismay at the arrest, imprisonment and disappearance of friends and acquaintances, and the flight of others to avoid such consequences, the militarization of Germany, and the anti-Jewish rhetoric which contravene her Quaker beliefs. She speaks of Nazism as if it is a passing fad rather than a threat to humanity. Although in her concluding chapters she recognizes that the Nazis may pose a threat to peace, her blindness throughout much of the book about the peril that the Nazis posed is appalling.

At times the book digresses into a travelogue and a commentary on German, Austrian and Czech history, laws, and customs. These sections make for tedious reading as even then the discussions often reflect positively on the Nazis as the author describes efforts to codify German laws so that they no longer differ between provinces, and agricultural and other practices which continue in place although government leaders have changed. They also describe positive feelings towards the Third Reich because it offered the prospect of improved social and economic conditions and wellbeing, as well as the union of all German people under one government. They are at times juxtaposed with descriptions of the hardships that Germans were enduring such as the rationing of butter and other foodstuffs, and the loss of their homes as the Nazis implemented their economic plans and political agenda.

Yet despite its many failings the book is a valuable as a contemporaneous record of the Nazis rise to power, their ability to co-op many people in spite of their dismay at their actions, and the failure on the part of many to recognize the threats posed by the Nazis and take action to address them before it was too late.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t bother

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

An American Quaker's view of pre-World War II Germany. A view from the German country side, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Provides a complement to works that focus on the Nazi leadership such as Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Speer's Inside the Third Reich.

[Janeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and frightening account of life in pre WW I I Germany.