In the Flatland

Abstract

It is impossible to give a scientific definition of motherland. Partly, this is because the word concerns our private, intimate, spiritual sphere, and we dislike invaders in it. It is also because of the weakness of the analytic method of our science. It fails to split the whole into such pieces and relations among them which can, according to systems science, be united in the same whole. Since we all have different cultural backgrounds, it is a vain project even to agree on the basic words for the definition of motherland. However, if we don’t have a definition we can’t understand the Germans and the role of Germany in their life. It is with this in view that I have chosen E.A. Abbott’s term “Flatland” to serve as an illustration, approximation, motion to the infinite boundary value, which was Germany before its culture became an object of an unprecedented reeducation campaign [1.1]. Walter Noll, who was born in Berlin on January 7, 1925, remains a German in his heart.