Vossische Zeitung
- To the World
- The Jewel Robbery Solved
- Chamberlain–Mussolini Meeting Today
This Berlin page led with an emergency telegram from the mayor of Germersheim in the French-occupied Palatinate, who told the League of Nations that a French officer had struck down three young townsmen on the night of 26–27 September, blamed the League for all victims, and demanded an impartial tribunal and the withdrawal of French troops. A local report described how Berlin police, sifting 150 tips, traced the Tauentzienstraße jewel robbery to Breslau, where a 29-year-old laborer was arrested while selling the loot; his accomplice, a young Polish woman who had worn men's clothing during the raid, apparently fled across the border with half of it. From London and Rome came forecasts of an imminent Chamberlain–Mussolini meeting, with Italian papers linking it to Thoiry and Locarno and floating a scheme under which Germany would regain full sovereignty over the Rhineland by taking on Allied war-debt payments to America.
Translation
To the World
News service of the "Vossische Zeitung"
ek Germersheim, 29 September
The mayor of the town of Germersheim has, in the name of the population, addressed the following telegram to the League of Nations; its wording has also been communicated by telegraph to the Reich government and the Bavarian state government.
Emergency appeal to the whole world! For eight years the Palatinate has languished under the yoke of French occupation. What the population has suffered in this long time cannot be described in words. Despite all the speeches of peace and reconciliation, despite Locarno and Geneva, the French occupation regime has become a veritable scourge of the population. The town of Germersheim in particular has long been left helplessly at the mercy of the arbitrary conduct of the French troops; its citizens are no longer safe in their lives. In addition to other repeated serious offenses by members of the occupation, now, in the night of the 26th to the 27th of this month, three decent, defenseless sons of citizens have fallen, entirely innocent, victim to the wicked and coldly calculating murderous hand of a French officer. The population of the town of Germersheim, agitated to the utmost, raises before the whole world a burning protest against the slavish mistreatment, unworthy of a civilized nation, at the hands of a foreign power. It holds the League of Nations responsible for all present and future victims. The entire citizenry unanimously demands unconditional atonement for the shameful crime against three of its sons. It demands the immediate establishment of an impartial court of arbitration to investigate the bloody deed, and it demands the swiftest removal of all French troops from within the walls of its town [?]
The Jewel Robbery Solved
[?] Surprisingly quickly, the police authorities have succeeded in solving the audacious robbery of the jewelry shop of Marotti & Freint at Tauentzienstraße 7. Of the 150 leads communicated to the Berlin criminal police over the course of four days, one, which led to Breslau, proved useful. There, yesterday afternoon at about half past two, as most of yesterday's evening edition was already able to report, the 29-year-old laborer Hans Spruch of Kopernikusstraße 28 in Berlin was arrested while selling the stolen jewels. His accomplice turned out to be a woman, the 21-year-old Pole Sonja Igniatew, an alleged actress, whom Spruch had met some time ago on Friedrichstraße. The girl had taken part in the sensational robbery dressed in men's clothing. She has apparently escaped across the Polish border with half of the loot. Spruch has made a detailed confession. The jewels found on him have been secured.
The First Leads
Among the jumble of communications, [?]
Chamberlain–Mussolini Meeting Today
… with the exception of the patrols, may no longer enter the street from 9 o'clock in the evening. had received, two leads immediately appeared especially important, both of which pointed to eastern Germany. One at the station
New Meeting Chamberlain–Mussolini
whe London, 29 September
Within the next 48 hours a meeting between Mussolini and Chamberlain will take place at Civitavecchia, Rome's naval port. According to English forecasts, the conversation is to be confined exclusively to Mediterranean problems. The invitation to this conversation came not from the English side but from Mussolini.
mp Rome, 29 September
Forecasts about the probable content of Chamberlain's talks with Mussolini diverge. At one moment specific problems such as Tangier and Abyssinia are said to form the subject; at another it is said to be a sounding-out of a general European character. The view, also voiced in diplomatic circles, that the Mussolini–Chamberlain meeting is the direct consequence of the Thoiry talks is taken up in particular by the "Lavoro d'Italia", which writes: "The meeting belongs within the framework of the general policy of Locarno. If the two guaranteed nations feel the need to build their relations on a different basis, the guaranteeing powers must also enter into an exchange of ideas." The "Giornale d'Italia" assumes that Tangier and Abyssinia would come up for discussion. But to it, too, the reorientation of German-French policy seems the most important matter; for the German-French understanding, it says, is only a consequence of the Locarno Pact, which Italy and England had guaranteed. In the "Lavoro d'Italia" one also finds a clear allusion to the lines of thought of Italian foreign policy. The paper writes in its leading article: A transaction with Germany would be possible if Germany undertook the obligation to pay America as much as the Allies must hand over to America. Germany would thereby obtain complete sovereignty over the Rhineland. The technical side of such a transaction requires discussion. There would still have to be an advantage in it for the Allies. And the closing sentences of this article read: Paris should know that it is dangerous to compromise the future for the sake of a momentary need for billions. Besides, the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles would not permit this. The most direct route would be finally to solve the reparations problem. [?]
Context
What happened in Germersheim on the night of 26–27 September 1926?
The telegram describes the event now known as the Rouzier case. After German civilians and French soldiers quarrelled in a tavern following an evening of drinking, the French sub-lieutenant Pierre Rouzier fired three shots in the early morning of 27 September; the townsman Emil Müller was killed near the post office, and two other men, Josef Mathes and Richard Holzmann, had already been wounded. The mayor's wording that three sons of the town fell victim to a murderous hand therefore folds one death and two woundings into a single charge. Accounts diverged from the start: the German press took Rouzier's guilt for granted, while French papers said he had been attacked and acted in self-defence. The fortress town had seen repeated friction with French troops since their arrival in December 1918, and the relaxation that followed Locarno was scarcely felt there. Rouzier's unit was transferred to Verdun on 30 September 1926 as previously planned. That was not the general withdrawal the telegram demanded.
Could the League of Nations deliver the tribunal Germersheim demanded?
The mayor's appeal went to Geneva barely three weeks after Germany had joined the League, on 10 September 1926, with a permanent Council seat. But the occupation was not a League institution. It rested on the Treaty of Versailles and the parallel Rhineland Agreement, under which the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission was the supreme Allied authority in the occupied territory. Germany kept civil and criminal jurisdiction there except for offences against the occupying troops, which fell to Allied military courts. The Locarno arrangements did give the League Council a role in settling disputes among Germany, France and Belgium, but these were disputes between states. They offered no machinery for a town to obtain an inquiry into a soldier's conduct. In practice the case went where the Rhineland rules pointed: on 17 December 1926 Rouzier's trial opened before the French military court at Landau. He was acquitted, while the German defendants received prison terms of three months to two years. They were pardoned on 25 December after German diplomatic pressure.
Why did Italian papers call Britain and Italy the "guaranteeing powers"?
The Rome dispatch quotes the Lavoro d'Italia as describing France and Germany as the two "guaranteed nations" and Britain and Italy as the "guaranteeing powers". That wording comes from the structure of Locarno. Its main treaty was a treaty of mutual guarantee among Germany, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Italy. Under it, the parties guaranteed the Franco-German and German-Belgian frontiers fixed at Versailles and pledged to respect the demilitarised Rhineland. The treaties took effect with Germany's entry into the League in September 1926, barely two weeks before this page appeared. Italian commentators therefore argued that any bilateral Franco-German rapprochement, such as the one they associated with Thoiry, concerned the guarantors too. On that reading, the meeting Mussolini had requested was the guarantors' chance to take part in the conversation. The dispatch's own account of the agenda is unsettled: London spoke only of Mediterranean questions, and Roman papers mentioned Tangier and Abyssinia. What the page reports about Thoiry and the purpose of the meeting is contemporary speculation.
Could Germany buy back the Rhineland, as the Lavoro d'Italia suggested?
The Italian editorial linked the Rhineland to money: Germany would take over the Allies' payments to America and in return win full sovereignty over the Rhineland. The link was built into the occupation itself. The occupation was meant to protect France and Belgium and to guarantee German reparations, and Versailles set it for up to fifteen years, with zones to be evacuated in stages if Germany met its obligations. Money did in the end decide the timing, though not through the transaction imagined in Rome. After a new reparations settlement, the 1929 Young Plan, the Allies left the last zone on 30 June 1930, five years ahead of the treaty date. For Germersheim that meant French troops stayed for almost four more years after the mayor's telegram.
Original
An die Welt
An die Welt Nachrichtendienst der " Vossischen Zeitung " ek Germersheim, 29. September Der Bürgermeister der Stadt Germersheim hat im Namen der Bevölkerung an den Völkerbund das nachstehende Telegramm gerichtet, dessen Wortlaut auch der Reichsregierung und bayerischen Staatsregierung telegraphisch bekanntgegeben worden ist. Notruf an die ganze Welt! Seit acht Jahren schmachtet die Pfalz unter dem Joch der französischen Besatzung. Was die Bevölkerung in dieser langen Zeit gelitten hat, ist mit Worten nicht zu schildern. Trotz aller Friedensund Versöhnungsreden, trotz Locarno und Genf ist das französische Besatzungsregime zu einer wahrhaften Geißel der Bevölkerung geworden. Die Stadt Germersheim namentlich ist der Willkür der französischen Truppen seit langem machtlos preisgegeben, die Bürger sind ihres Lebens nicht mehr sicher. Neben anderen wiederholten schweren Verfehlungen von Angehörigen der Besatzung sind jetzt in der Nacht vom 26. auf den 27. d. M. drei brave, wehrlose Bürgersöhne der ruchlosen und kalt berechnenden Mörderhand eines französischen Offiziers gänzlich schuldlos zum Opfer gefallen. Die aufs höchste erregte Bevölkerung der Stadt Germersheim erhebt vor aller Welt flammenden Protest gegen die sklavische, einer Kulturnation unwürdige Mißhandlung seitens einer fremen Macht. Sie macht den Völkerbund verantwortlich für alle gegenwärtigen und zukünftigen Opfer. Die gesamte Einwohnerschaft fordert einmütig unbedingte Sühne für das schändliche Verbrechen an dreien ihrer Söhne. Sie fordert die sofortige Einsetzung eines unparteiischen Schiedsgerichts zur Untersuchung der Bluttat, und sie fordert schnellste Entfernung aller französischen Truppen aus den Mauern ihrer Stadt [?]
Der Juwelenraub aufgeklärt
[?] Ueberraschend schnell ist es den Polizeibehörden gelungen, den verwegenen Raubüberfall auf das Juwelengeschäft von Marotti u. Freint in der Tauentzienstraße 7 aufzuklären. Von den 150 Spuren, die der Berliner Kriminalpolizei im Laufe von vier Tagen mitgeteilt wurden, erwies sich eine, die nach Breslau führte, als brauchbar. Dort wurde gestern nachmittag gegen ½3 Uhr, wie im größten Teil der gestrigen Abendausgabe bereits mitgeteilt werden konnte, beim Verkauf der gestohlenen Juwelen der 29 Jahre alte Arbeiter Hans Spruch aus der Kopernikusstraß e 28 in Berlin verhaftet. Sein Komplice entpuppte sich als eine Frau, die 21 Jahre alte Polin Sonja Igniatew, eine angebliche Schauspielerin, die Spruch vor einiger Zeit auf der Friedrichstraße kennengelernt hatte. Das Mädchen hatte in Männerkleidung an dem sensationellen Ueberfall teilgenommen. Sie ist anscheinend über die polnische Grenze mit der Hälfte der Beute entkommen. Spruch hat ein eingehendes Geständnis abgelegt. Die bei ihm gefundenen Juwelen wurden sichergestellt. Die ersten Spuren Unter dem Wust von Mitteilungen, [?]
Heute Begegnung Chamberlain—Mussolini
mit Ausnahme der Patrouillen von 9 Uhr abends ab die Straße nicht mehr betreten dürfen. halten hatte, erschienen sofort zwei Spuren als besonders wichtig, die beide nach Ostdeutschland wiesen. Ein am Bahnhof Neue Begegnung Chamberlain-Mussolini whe London, 29. September In den nächsten 48 Stunden wird eine Begegnung zwischen Mussolini und Chamberlain in Civita Vecchia, dem Kriegshafen Roms, stattfinden. Nach englischen Voraussagen soll sich die Unterredung ausschließlich auf Mittelmeerprobleme beschränken. Die Aufforderung zu dieser Unterredung ist nicht von englischer Seite, sondern von Mussolini ausgegangen. mp Rom, 29. September Ueber den voraussichtlichen Inhalt der Besprechungen Chamberlains mit Mussolini gehen die Voraussagen auseinander. Bald sollen bestimmte Probleme wie Tanger und Abessinien den Gegenstand bilden, bald aber handelt es sich um eine Fühlungnahme allgemeinen europäischen Charakters. Die auch in diplomatischen Kreisen geäußerte Ansicht, die Zusammenkunft Mussolini-Chamberlain sei die unmittelbare Folge der Besprechungen von Thoiry, eignet sich besonders der " Lavoro d'Italia " an, der schreibt: " Die Zusammenkunft gehört in den Rahmen der allgemeinen Politik von Locarno. Wenn die beiden garantierten Nationen das Bedürfnis spüren, ihre Beziehungen auf einer anderen Grundlage aufzubauen, müssen auch die garantierenden Mächte in einen Gedankenaustausch eintreten. " Das " Giornale d'Italia " nimmt an, daß Tanger und Abessinien zur Diskussion kommen würden. Aber die Neuorientierung der deutsch-französischen Politik scheint auch ihm das Wichtigste zu sein; denn die deutsch-französische Verständigung sei nur eine Folge des Paktes von Locarno, den Italien und England garantiert hätten. Im " Lavoro d'Italia " findet man außerdem eine deutliche Anspielung auf die Gedankengänge der italienischen Außenpolitik. Das Blatt schreibt in seinem Leitartikel: Eine Transaktion mit Deutschland wäre möglich, wenn Deutschland die Verpflichtung übernimmt, an Amerika so viel zu zahlen, als die Verbündeten an Amerika abgeben müssen. Dadurch würde Deutschland eine völlige Souveränität über die Rheinlande erhalten. Die technische Seite einer solchen Transaktion bedarf der Besprechungen. Es müsse dabei für die Verbündeten noch ein Vorteil herauskommen. Und die Schlußsätze dieses Artikels lauten: Paris möge wissen, daß es gefährlich ist, die Zukunft wegen eines augenblicklichen Milliardenbedarfs zu kompromittieren. Außerdem würden dies die Unterzeichner des Vertrages von Versailles nicht zulassen. Der geradeste Weg wäre, endlich einmal das Reparationsproblem zu lösen. [?]