The essay below was originally published in 1923 by Herwarth Walden in his arts-and-culture magazine, der Sturm (the Storm). It can be read as Walden’s humorist/satirical appeal for Germans and Europeans to think beyond their own national(ist), states, or traditional government/kingdom borders. Nationalism had not only caused yesterday’s devastating world war, as Walden and others were telling readers in 1923; it would cause the next one too. -ts

Herwarth Walden: ‘Of Note’ Column
BERLIN (21. February, 1923) — Berlin is the capital
of the United States of Europe. Traveling in various directions,
(one realizes) the city is equidistant from the Neckar,
the Rhine, the Elbe and the Danube;
from all these rivers, each one steeped
in desolate poetry or, botanically speaking,
overgrown with it.
Berliners have their own language,
which only the Russians understand.
In High German, it’s called ‘Berliner Dialect’.
It is only spoken by real Berliners,
who can be found all over the world —
but not in Berlin.… —Herwarth Walden
Why have our honorable industrial groups
still not established the United States of Europe?
Otherwise, they are quite adept at producing subsidiaries,
filial offspring, affiliate family branches….
Well, in any case, it already exists,
here in this, our capital
of the United States of Europe.