In memoriam Lawrence D. Stokes Thomas Wolfe's interest in Germany was rooted in fairy tales, an early admiration of Goethe, and his father's Pennsylvania Dutch descent. It kept growing during his European trips, all of which but the first in 1924-25 took him to Germany. Of his six visits there between 1926 and 1936, it was the last one, in 1936, that opened his eyes to the evil of Nazism, ending his love affair with Germany--father's land and second fatherland--on a somber note.