ASTOR MILLIONS

Evening Star, Issue 20509, 13 June 1930, Page 11

ASTOR MILLIONS

' CLAIMS BY GERMANS The fantastic story of , a fortune A £28,000,000. now in the hands of the Astor family, but due for division among 116 German heirs, has more than once cropped up' in _ the Press. in Berlin. It may bo put to the test of criminal proceedings, for a warrant is out against the map who has played the chief part in it (says the Berlin correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph'). According to the account given in the German papers, the fortune is derived from a certain Nikolaus Emmerich, a petty Westphalian shopkeeper, who emigrated 130 years ago to the United Stalest where he is said to have been the partner of the founder of the house of Astor. Under Mr Emmerich’s will his large fortune was to remain in the business ninety years, accumulating at compound interest, and then to be distributed among his kin in Germany. When, however, the set term elapsed the heirs could not be found, and it wae only a few years ago, during the demolition of a church in New York, that documents came to light indicating where they were to be sought. However much truth there may be in this tale, it is said to be a fact that 115 members of the Emmerich family, _ mostly peasants living in small Westphalian villages, commissioned a man to go to America and assert their rights to the millions. The idea, it appears, originated with the man himself, who was equipped with full powers of attorney by all the expectant heirs.'

The man duly left the neighbourhood and was understood to have gone to America. Not so long ago he cropped up again, and called the Supposed heirs together at Pyrmont. He told them that he had effected a compromise with the Asters, and that the shares in the inheritance would be paid out on March 16 in a Berlin hotel. A week before the date mentioned, however, the heirs received a communication to the effect that the distribution had been postponed. Inquiry revealed that the man in question was not to be found, and now the police are looking for him. Those who expected in a few days to become at least dollar millionaires are naturally much concerned*. Some of them believe that the man who had been trusted has actually secured the entire £28.000,000 and made off Hth them. A few more sceptical spirits eeem already inclined to the view that the whole story has been a gigantic imposture from beginning to end, with the object of securing the money which the delegate required for hia mission to America, but did not necessarily use for that purpose. However, direct inquiries have been addressed to the Astor family. The problem is somewhat complicated by a statement in a Berlin journal.: According to this paper ‘he Publife Prosecutor in Berlin has received from lawyers in Brunswick information raising “'the suspicion that (he agent, through middlemen, Sold to the Astern the documents favourable to the claim of the Emmerich family.” Meanwhile, the man referred to has adopted tactjcs which do not seem likely to favour continued concealment m ins part. In a letter from Munich to t.-;e Emmerichs* lawyers, he announced that at the end of April he would carry out the definite allocation of the fortune >.t Brunswick. But he also wrote to ore of the supposed heirs living at Munich that he intended to lejye Germany by aeroplane for a land which would nos extradite him. And these are no* *he only communications by which he has supplied clues as to his whoreaboaku