YEAR OF FATE FOR GERMANY

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15982, 16 July 1912, Page 10

YEAR OF FATE FOR GERMANY

According to many Germans, including tho Kaiser (writes the Berlin correspondent of an American paper), tho year 1013 is destined to prove either of great profit or of eerious loss to Germany. They reach this conclusion through a calculation made by a woman reputed to ho gifted with “ second sight-.” The prophecy dates originally froni the. marriage oi Prince William of Prussia, later the first German Emperor,•in 1820. The dates of the leading events in German history, it is said, could bo traced by adding together the digits in 1820 and adding the total to tlie year. Thus, 1 plus 8 plus 2 plus 9 is 20, which added to 1820, gives 18-10, the year of the revolution which broke tho absolute feudal power of the Prussian Crown. Again, 1 plus 8 plus 4 plus 9 is 22, which, added to 1840, gives 18/1, the year of the defeat of Franco, which resulted in the acquisition of Alsace-Lor-raine and the birth of the German Empire. Treating 1871 in the same way wo get 1888, tho year of the death of the old Emperor William and his son and the succession of tho present Kaiser. Add the sum of its digits, 25, to 1888, and we get 1913, tho year which almost all Prussians are. in the habit of describing as “fichicksals jalir,” or year oi fate. FINAL STRUGGLE WITH ENGLAND. It was as a result of this figuring that 1013 was so long pointed to as the probable year of the final strugglo with England, and as 1912 advances apprehension of a great struggle coming next year increases. It is common knowledge that the Kaiser, while refusing to give car to the soothsayers, nevertheless has an uneasy fooling about the “ schioksals jahr.” ' But now it is being asserted that 1913 is not the end of the series. Tho sum of its digits added to it gives 1927, the year when tho German Navy will finally reach its complete stage, and when the prophets of evil say will bo fought the last great battle of European history-, which will break up the established order of things. Another prophecy, the . so-called “ Wisdom of Frankfort,” declares that “ when a seventh son is born to tho eldest of six sons a beloved monarch will die anil the empire will come to an end. The Kaiser has six sons, and his eldest son has already four. kaiser’s superstitions. , Among the Kaiser’s personal superstitions, mostly connected with charms are said to ha a bullot and a “ piece of tho garment of a materialised spirit, both of which he is reputed to carry on his person wherever he goes. Tho Bultowa .spur is sewn into a leather pocket in tho inside of the Kaiser’s uniforms. Tho piece of “spirit garment” was originally referred to in a book on tho “ Kaiser as a Spritist,” published in Berlin some years ago by one of the most famous of Berlin necromancers. It is now out of print and practically unobtainable. The story has never been denied. It was said that this thm piece of cobwebby stuff is carried in tho case of the Kaiser’s watch. It is well known that the Kaiser will not endure near him anything depicting death. Thus, when ho took over tho Achilleion palace in Corfu ho removed not only the famous statue of Heine but a beautiful statue of the dying Achilles ; tho latter was replaced by the new statuo of Achilles with the Spear which stands on the cliffs in front of the palace, near the private landing place. It was a copy oKt-his statue which tho Kaiser presented to Lord Haldane. WHITE LADY OK HOIIENZOfcLERNS.

! All the imperial family are said to believo in the “ Wliit-e Lady of the Hohenzollerns,” of whose reputed appearance there is contemporary written evidence dating fre.m the end of tlie fifteenth century. She lias successively “spooked” in different castles of tho ; Hohenzollerns, and for the last hundred years the castle in Berlin. 1 Sho" invariably appears, it is said, be--1 fore the death of a male member of the royal family, but tho. belief, in her i preserved rather as a pious tradition ! than as a working creed-—at least since the Kaiser had investigated the supposed origin of tho ghost, tlie Countess of Ohlamuende, who wanted to marry Albert tho Fair. Hohenzollern Prince of Nuremberg. Albert replied to the countess’s proposal that the countess fair is injured by children and eyes two i pair ” meaning "that her two children, m the eyes of his parents, were sufficient reason why ho should not marry her; whereupon the countess put her two children to death. The Kaiser himself believes that tho : ghost was traditionally that of Dorothea of Brandenburg, wife of the great elector who is shown on an old wood cut going to the funeral completely ! clothed in white.