Neue Freie Presse
- Crisis Talk.
- Report of a Spanish and Italian Naval Demonstration off Tangier.
- Paul Kammerer’s Lasting Contributions to Biological Science:
The Neue Freie Presse of September 27, 1926 linked speculation about Ramek's departure to urgent financial business: bank advances, unemployment burdens, beer taxation and the next budget. A London dispatch reported an anticipated Spanish-Italian naval visit to Tangier and French alarm over its possible political purpose. A personal tribute to Paul Kammerer mourned his death as a Moscow opportunity approached, tracing his experimental skill to patient observation and affection for animals.
Translation
Crisis Talk.
The death knell is sounding for the Ramek ministry. Already, every conceivable version of how the funeral will unfold is being told. It has long been known throughout political circles that a crisis would break out this autumn, and nobody doubted that the former Federal Chancellor, Dr. Seipel, would succeed Dr. Ramek. Nevertheless, we believe that the timing of the resignation and the change of government is by no means settled. For political circles assume that several important matters should, in any event, be resolved before the cabinet changes. The Zentralbank affair must certainly be clarified to some extent. It is also necessary to finish the preliminary work on the budget quickly and finally submit the state budget estimates to Parliament. Last year it proved possible to communicate the estimates for the following year to Parliament as early as September, making it possible, for the first time in the Republic's history, to establish a definitive budget without resorting to those disagreeable provisional arrangements! This practice ought to be followed this year too, if only for the impression it makes abroad. That, however, requires a substantial acceleration.
The same necessity applies to settling the beer tax. Clarity on this matter must be reached by the first of October. It is impossible to shoulder the increased burdens of unemployment unless the settlement reached between the parties in the summer takes effect: specifically, by giving the federal government an opportunity to pass on its burdens so that the individual public bodies also bear part of the increases. Likewise, reimbursement of the sums advanced for the Zentralbank must be carried out shortly; otherwise the state budget estimates will be shattered, and all hopes for stability and all promises made abroad will dissolve into nothing. These matters require settlement, and we believe that every effort will at least be made to accomplish this programme—and it is certainly no easy one—before the cabinet's fate is decided.
Report of a Spanish and Italian Naval Demonstration off Tangier.
London, September 27. (T.-K.)
According to the Daily Chronicle and the Daily News, there is great agitation in Tangier over the possibility of an Italian-Spanish naval visit. The Italian flagship Pisa, accompanied by several other Italian warships and the Spanish flagship Alfonso XIII, is expected in Tangier on Wednesday. The local French authorities are said to be alarmed. It is believed that the demonstration is intended to emphasize Spain's claims to Tangier and to show that Italy supports those claims.
According to the Daily Chronicle, the French Foreign Ministry has already made representations in Madrid and Rome to dissuade the two governments from their plan, since it would be bound to heighten agitation among the indigenous population. In diplomatic circles, this report recalls Agadir.
Paul Kammerer’s Lasting Contributions to Biological Science:
Paul Kammerer, my first pupil, longtime assistant and collaborator, has given up the struggle of life. The news shakes me profoundly. It comes unexpectedly at this moment, when he was finally to receive the long-awaited opportunity to establish an institute of his own for his experimental work. Even if it was in distant Moscow. But Kammerer was no fighter, however fierce his replies to his numerous opponents might sound. This man—or rather, this eternal youth, who never managed to advance beyond his years of storm and stress to a state of serene composure—hated the struggle for existence. For him, the constructive principle, in nature as in human life, was mutual aid, not that struggle. Light and shadow were abundantly mingled in him: what his intellectual gifts could build, his unbridled temperament constantly threatened to destroy. A deep love for every living creature, springing from his innermost soul, was one of the fundamental qualities that had drawn him to the study of zoology. Absorbed in the affectionate observation of animals, however unattractive or even repulsive others might find such creatures as toads and newts, he acquired the intimate familiarity with their habits and abilities that he put to use in his experiments.
Context
Why financial business could delay Ramek's departure
The editorial treats a change of chancellor as likely while making its timing depend on who would absorb immediate financial liabilities. It demands repayment of bank advances and implementation of the summer agreement allowing the federal government to distribute increased unemployment costs among other public bodies. Beer taxation and prompt budget submission belong to that same argument: an orderly succession required a credible account of expenditure and revenue. The Zentralbank affair concerned the Centralbank der deutschen Sparkassen; a University of Vienna study connects its troubles, alongside those of the Postsparkasse, with Ramek's eventual fall. The Austrian National Bank's history places fiscal discipline within the framework established by the Geneva Protocol of October 1922, helping explain the editorial's concern with promises abroad. The State Archives' published cabinet records subsequently move from Ramek's meeting of October 15 to Seipel's of October 21, 1926.
Tangier's disputed control and the memory of Agadir
Spain's claims had a concrete diplomatic form before this report appeared. On August 15, 1926, the American ambassador relayed Spain's wish to incorporate Tangier into its protectorate or obtain a temporary mandate leading toward permanent control; he also reported that France had not yet agreed to Italian participation in the international administration. On August 26, another American dispatch recorded Mussolini's willingness to consider Spain's proposal sympathetically if Italian interests were protected. These documents explain why a joint naval appearance could be read as political support, while the newspaper supplies the reported French protests against that particular visit. Its Agadir reference invokes the German gunboat Panther's dispatch to Morocco in July 1911 to pressure France into negotiations over colonial compensation. The analogy casts the expected warships as instruments of diplomatic coercion and connects the dispute over Tangier's administration with the memory of an earlier confrontation over Morocco.
Przibram's defence of experimental skill
Hans Przibram's tribute locates Kammerer's lasting value in the practical foundations of experimental zoology: close observation, familiarity with animal behaviour and the ability to put that knowledge to experimental use. His affectionate attention to toads and newts makes care for living animals a scientific qualification, while the contrast between intellectual gifts and uncontrolled temperament gives the obituary its personal, protective tone. Moscow represents an anticipated chance to build an institution around those abilities. A later Nature obituary, published on October 30, 1926, also records his Moscow university appointment and responsibility for establishing a laboratory. The reputational stakes emerge more explicitly in Przibram's October 16 Nature letter, which reports Kammerer's denial of scientific deception and his allegation that a specimen had been manipulated. These reported defences show the controversy surrounding his reputation without resolving it. The newspaper passage builds its case for enduring merit around the observer's knowledge and relationship with animals.
Original
Kriselei.
Die Totenglocken ertönen für das Ministerium Ramek.
Mit allen möglichen Variationen wird |jezt schon erzählt,
wie das Begräbnis sich abspielen soll. Es war in allen
politischen Kreisen längst bekannt, daß in diesem Herbst
eine Krise ausbrechen wird, und niemand zweifelte, daß der
chemalige Bundeskanzler Dr. Serwpel die Nachfolge Doktor
Rameks antreten werde. Wir glauben dennoch, :daß der
Zeitpunkt für die Demission und für den Regierungswechsel
noch keineswegs feststeht. Denn in polisischen Kreijen wird
angenommen, daß jedenfalls vor dem FKabinett8wechsel
noch einige wichtige Angelegenheiten bereinigt werden sollten.
Die -Zentralbankangelegenheit muß unbedingt m gewissem
Maß geklärt sein. E3 ist auch notwendig, daß rasch. die Vorarbeiten für das Budget abgeschlossen und der Staats:
voranschlag endlich dem Parlament vorgelegt werde. E3 ist
voriges Jahr gelungen, noch im Septeml as Prälimmare
für das nächste Jahr dem Parlament mitzuteilen, und
durch wurde es möglich, zum erstenmal in der Geschichte
der Republik ein definitives Budget zu schaffen ohne Einschaltung der widerwärtigen Provisorien! Auch heuer müßte
diese, Rraxis geübt werden, schon wegen des Eindruchs nach
außen hin. Dazu bedarf es jedoch wesentlicher Beschleunigung.
Die gleiche Notwendigkeit besteht auch für die Regelung
der Biersteuer Bis Ham. een Okiober müßte -in Gele
Kıgtung Klarheit gefunden werden. Es ift unmöglich, daß
die erhöhten Lasten der Arbeitslojigkeit übernommen werben,
ohne daß der im Sommer geschlojsene Ausgleich zwischen.den
Parteien in - die Erscheinung. tritt ; insofern nämlich, als
dem :Bund Gelegenheit gegeben wird, seine Lasten zu überwälzen, damit auch die Einzelkörperschaften einen Teil der
Erhöhungen zu tragen haben. Ebenso muß auch die Refundierung Der- für die Zentralbank vorgejchoffenen Beträge
binnen kurzer Zeit durchgeführt werden, weil sonst der Staats3voranschlag zerschmettert ist und alle Hoffnungen für die Stabilität und alle Versprechungen an das Ausland ins Nichts
zerflattern. Diese Angelegenheiten bedürfen der Bereinigung
und wir glauben, man werde mindestens alles daranseken,
dieses Programm — und es ist wahrlich kein leichtes — einzuheimjen, che die Situation des Kabinett3 sich entscheidet.
Meldung über eine Flottenkundgebung Spaniens und Italiens vor Tanger.
London, 27. September, (T.-K.)
In Tanger herrscht, wie „Daily Chronicle“ und „Daily
News8“ melden, wegen der Möglichkeit eines italienis<spanischen Flottenbesuc<hes große Aufregung.
Das italienische Flaggschiff „Pisa“ wird mit einigen anderen
italienischen Kriegsschiffen und dem spanischen Flaggschiff
„Alfonso XIII“ am Mittwoc in Tanger erwartet. Die
lokalen französischen Behörden seien erregt. Man glaubt,
die Kundgebung habe den Zweck, die Ansprüche
Spanien3 auf Tanger zu betonen und zu zeigen,
daß diese Ansprüche von Jialien unterstüht werden.
Das französische Außenministerium habe
bereits, 'wie „Daily Chronicle“ meldet, in Madrid und
Rom Vorstellungen erhoben, um die beiden Regierungen von ihrem Vorhaben abzubringen, da es die Erregung der Eingebornen steigern müßte. In diplomatischen
Kreisen wird durch diese Meldung die Erinnerung an
Agadir hervorgerufen.
Paul Kammerers8 bleibende Verdienste um die biologische Wissenschaft:
Paul Kammerer, mein erster Schüler, langjähriger
gie und Mitarbeiter, hat den Lebenskampf aufgegeben.
Erschütternd trifft mich die Nachricht. Ueberraschend in diesem
Augenblicke, da er endlich die lange ersehnte Gelegenheit bekommen sollte, für seine experimentellen Arbeiten ein eigenes
Institut zu errichten. Wenn auch im fernen Moskau. Aber
Kammerer war keine Kampfnatur, mochten auch seine Antworten an die zahlreichen Gegner noch so grimmig klingen.
Dieser Mann, vielmehr dieser ewige Jüngling, der nie über
die Sturm- und Drangzeit zu abgeklärter Ruhe vorzudringen
vermocht hat, häßte den Kampf ums Dasein. Ihm war nicht
dieser, sondern die gegenseitige Hilfe das bauende Zine wie
in der Natur so im Leben der Menschen. Licht und Hatten
waren in ihm reichlich verteilt : was seine Geiftesgaben auf
zubauen vermochten, drohte stet3 das unbändige Temperament
zu zerstören. Eine tiefe, aus innerster Seele dringende Liebe
zu jedem lebenden Geschöpf war eine dex Grundeigenschaften,
ie ihn zum Studium der Zoologie hingetrieben hatte. In
die liebevolle Beobachtung der Tiere versenkt, mochten es für
andere noch so unansehnliche oder gar abscheuliche Wesen sein
wie Kröten und Molche, gewann er die innige Vertrautheit
mit ihren Gewohnheiten und Fähigkeiten, welche er in seinen
Versuchen verwertet hat.