REICHSTAG TRIAL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 253, 22 September 1933, Page 7

REICHSTAG TRIAL

OPENED AT LEIPZIG. EXPLANATION BY PRESIDENT. A HIGH TREASON CHARGE. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 22, 8.10 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 21. When the trial of the accused in the Reichstag fire case opened at Leipzig the Supreme Court was brilliantly illuminated. Everyone rose, giving the Fascist salute, as the Judges entered. Vanderlubbe’s * hands were heavily handcuffed behind his back and the hands of the other four accused were unfettered. The President, Dr Bunger, in his opening address, referred to the unprecedented prejudging of the case in the foreign Press. Foreign counsel had not been admitted because it was considered that the motives were less to guard the interests of accused than to awake distrust in German justice. Vanderlubbo was charged with high treason coupled in an incendiary attempt on four Berlin buildings, the former Royal Palace, the Reichstag, the City Hall and the Welfare Office, for which the death penalty is pre* scribed. A statement, allegedly written at Vanderlubbe’s freewill, was read, stating that he wanted no defence and refused all offers of foreign counsel, including a Dutch lawyer sent to Leipzig at the request of his own family. Asked whether he was a Communist, Vanderlubbe replied “no.” He refused to admit any political convictions. A report by the Dutch police described him as a continual agitator, first as an anarchist and then as a Communist. Frequently arrested, he had abandoned his agitation ir. 1931, presumably because, he had left the Communist Party. Vanderlubbe sat in a dejected state. He admitted that lie left the Communists in 1929 because he was not made leader of the espionage organisation A former Socialist, May Brelkewitz, was questioned regarding a telegram sent to members of the Reichstag in March, alleging that Vanderlubbe stayed with Brelkewitz and enentertained local Nazis. It was admitted that it might be a case of mistaken identity Vanderlubbe laughed and when questioned he said: “I am laughing at the trial.” The Judge suggested that the cause of the mirth was the statement that he was associated with. Nazis. Vanderlubbe insisted that lie was only laughing at the trial, which has now adjourned.