DEATH DRAMA

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 December 1925, Page 2

DEATH DRAMA

LOVERS IN A TAXI CAB.

“The Eternal Triangle” has led to a. dramatic love tragedy in Berlin, the victims being a young baron and the wife of one of Germany’s most famous painters, who were shot in a taxi under extraordinary circumstances. Early on a recent morning a fashion-ably-dressed man and woman stopped a taxi cab on the Kurfuerstendamm, the lively boulevard of Charlottenburg, the West End of Berlin. After a rather heated discussion, the pair told the taxi man to drive them to Spandau, a far outlying western suburb of Berlin. When about half The distance had been covered the driver heard a bang. Thinking that one of his tyres had burst, the taxi man stopped and examined his wheels. They were all right, and when he was about to look into the cab the woman put her head out at the window and said impatiently, “Oh, hurry up and get on to Spandau!” He drove oii, but had not gone a great, deal farther when the woman knocked at the window and said they had decided to go back to the Kurfuerstendamm. So the taxi man turned round and set off in the direction of Charlottenburg. About five minutes later he heard another bang." Again he stopped, but found his-tyres intact; and again the woman let the window down to tell him to hurry. ■ '' • The Kurfuerstendamm. had nearly been reached when the woman stopped the taxi’once more and told the driver they .had decided to 'go to Spandau, after all. So off westparts went the taxi again. '’ ) ' ” ■While going along the deserted and darkened Baden Allee —it was by this time approaching 3 o’clock in the morning— the taximan was surprised by another bang. Once mor's he stop-, ped, but could find nothing wrong with his tyros ; but this time he opened the door of the cab and loked inside, and saw his two fares lying huddled up on the floor. They gave no sign of life.

Tn haste he. drove to the nearest police station, where it was discovered that the man was dead and the woman unconscious- She was hurried off to the hospital; where she died. The man was the Baron Arnold von Krahne, a former officer, who, though only in his twenties then, had been one of General Lettow-Vorbeck’s right hand men in the long guerilla campaign in German East Africa. The other victim was Frau Gerda Kuhnert, the wife of Herr Wilhelm Kuhnert, a famous animal painter. She was a very beautiful woman, and looked much younger than her 42 years. The baron had been received as a guest in the Kuhnert household. Frau Guhnert, who was 20 years younger than her husband, 'fell violently in love with tlie handsome young man. Her husband remonstrated with her; friends intervened. But it was all to no purpose, and latterly Herr Kuhnert had apparently decided to allow liis wife to go her own way. Then Frau Kuhnert appeared to have discovered that the baron’s passion for her was cooling ; there were rumours that he was going to marry someoneThe servants of the house heard violent quarrels ; but, finally, all seemed to- be well again. On the evening before the tragedy 'the baron called for Frau Kuhnert, and, in happy mood, they went off to a West End revue; af,terwards they had supper together. It is probable that something happened at that meal. It was just after it that the couple took the taxi to drive to Spandau, most likely to talk things over. The talk was 'apparently unsatisfactory, and Frau Kuhnert, in desperation shot tjie baron and then turned the revolver on herself.