BERLIN’S SUICIDE PROBLEM

Hawera Star, Volume L, 26 July 1930, Page 18

BERLIN’S SUICIDE PROBLEM

CUICIDE is so .common in Berlin at the present moment that a semidfficial .society is being formled to Counteract it. An association of the kind has existed in Vienna for some time. E very welfare centre of -the city and police headquarters are interested in the movement, and every religious body will have its own suicide's aid department. Tlid Salvation Army's) . German branch was the pioneer of the movement. Suicide is not a criminal offence in Germany, and no punishment, awaits the unhappy man or woman ■who is brought back to -life either by the effort's of the fire brigade,, who administer oxygen in- certain' -eases, or by the waterside police, who administer first-aid! to the apparently drowned. 'But though rescue is- effected, and a certain- morbid public interest, aroused, the victim finds it no easier to- get a job. He or she; is generally in a state of destitution, and prepared to take the same fearful step again. It is such cases- that the new organisation has specially in mind. : Tlie ease -of men and women in comparatively good situations who have been convicted: of embezzlement or theft is a more difficult one. The

shadow of a prison sentence hangs over them. Loans to help the weaker vessels to start a new life in an- un-

Alarming Features

known district might bo 'of the greatest. possible assistance. Typical of tragedies inspired by newspaper publicity are the many identical suicides of farmers in the neighbourhood of Berlin. These have first waded into a lake and then shot themselves. It is argued that if there were any kind 'of centre which -would help such people to tide over temporary difficulties, the fatal step would not be. taken. In each case either a family has been left penniless or the wretched father lias, first murdered his children. These frequent country suicide's, which were once rare of their kind, fall into the category of those who can be helped by the emergency loan.

Other painfully recurring “typic.V cases ” are those of the highly sensitive schoolboy who resorts to desperate measures. These show no signs- of decrease. The child who -has been sent out -on an errand, loses- its money, or plays truant, and, fearing to return • home, hangs- or drowns itself instead, is a new and alarmingly frequent feature of Berlin life. The statistics of unhappy lovers who resort to the murder and suicide pact remain more or less the same throughout, the years. The plight- of the unhappy survivor is . one that will specially engage the attention of the new Suic-ide Aid Society.