DRIVEN TO SUICIDE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10623, 11 December 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

DRIVEN TO SUICIDE.

LIEUT. TON HAHNKE AND THE EMPEROR WILLIAM. , For blacking Emperor William's eye, young Lieutenant Von Hahnke, of the German. Davy, disgraced in the eyes of all his fellow-officers, has committed suicide, and one more scandal is added to the already long list of those which have made Wilhelm's reign the most notorious in German history. This is not the first time that the Emperor has caused the suicide of a German officer. When ho was still Prince William he had a violent quarrel with the lieutenant of a regiment quartered in Potsdam. Furious with anger, the Prince struck the officer. The latter could not retaliate in kind, but sent a challongo. The Prince refused to fight on the plea of inequality of rank, and the officer shot himself. The story of tho Von Hahnke episode is one of studied concealment on the part of the official chroniclers of Court news. The black eye of His Majesty, so it is given out, was merely the result of the bursting of a cable with which he came in contact. Von Hahnke, so they have told us, is dead, sure enough, but the poor fellow tumbled off his wheel headlong over a cliff, and they produced a bicycle at the top of the cliff to give plausibility to the yarn. THE KAISER RECEIVED lIIS BLACK EYE on board his yacht, tho Hohenzollern, while voyaging through the Norwegian fjords last July. Soon after it was announced that one of his adjutants, Lieutenant Von Hahnke, was mysteriously killed. The official papers at the time had their explanations ready:— " The Emperor was struck by the end of a cable snapping in two," and " Hahnke lost his balance whilst bicycling on the edge of a torront and was drowned." The latter story received a number of elaborations during tho following weeks. " The Emperor was deeply affected by his young friend's misfortune," wrote the Imperial Gazette, "and, in order to locate the body, caused a dummy figure to bo dropped into tho torrent whoro he fell. It was drawn out afterward, torn in many pieces, and scarcely holding together." That appeared several weokß ago. Lately, it has been given out that Hahnke's body has beon recovered from the falls, and that, by a miracle, or something of the sorb, it showed no marked disfigurement after floating among the ragged rocks for twenty days or moro.

THESE EXPLANATIONS WERE ACCEPTED with more or less credulity in tho Fatherlaud ; for in Germany, whero on an average fourteen years of imprisonment is meted out week by week to editors and others found guilty of " insult to Majesty," it does nob pay to bo inquisitivo. However, the true story of William's black eye aud poor Hahnke's suicide are gradually leaking out, and incidentally one learns a thing or two about tho causes that forced William to limp and grow a beard upon his roturn from former Northland trips. Tho information comes from the officers aud crew of the Hohenzollern, which is now in German waters, and partly from poor Hahnko's family and friends. Tho lato lieutenant's father, as. is well known, is General Von Hahnke, chiof of the Kaiser's military cabinet, and other membors of the Hahnko family hold high positions in the army and. Government service. It is therefore not likely that these people would givo crodeuce to any story that contains grave charges against their master, the Emperor, if tlioy had not every roason for regarding it with the utmosb confidence.

The Journal correspondent had a conversation with a cousin of the late Lieutenant Hahnko, who gave the facts of his death as

follows :— "On July 10, whilo the Hohenzollern was anchoring in the neighbourhood of the Landven Lake, tho Kaisor came on deck whilo HAHNKE WAS RIDING HOUND ON HIS BICYCLE, a practice which, though forbidden by the commander of the yacht, had been permitted to the younger officers on board by His Majesty himself. " The Kaiser, on that morning, had evidently forgotten this; and when he saw Hahnke he called out, 'Get off thab whoel, Lieutenant, and report to the captain your breach of discipline. You will remain in your cabin for the next three days.' " This rebuke was givon in the presence of several officers and in front of a line of soldiers. "Hahnke did as he was bidden, dismounting with the customary words, 'At Your Majosty's orders.' But as honscendod to the bridge to report himself to the captain, His Majesty called out imperiously, 'Dare not mount thoso stops. They are reserved for the Kaiser. You are not worthy to crawl where the chief war-lord walks.'" Hahnke turned, as if stung. He was white with rape. "I am an officer like Your Majesty," ho said, "and allow no one to insult mo. I will roport ifi Your Majesty's cabin presently, and demand satisfaction." With that, he started to go below, the Emperor following. " You little upstart," cried Wilhelm, "I will have the epaulettes torn from your shoulders and your sword . brokon as an ungratoful and mischievous servant." " Sorvant I" cried Hahnke, and with that his right arm shot out and his fist landed on the Emperor's left eye. Then he threw himself upon William's staggering form and was about to hurl him to the deck when the witnesses of the affair grabbed him and. bore him off. The Kaiser was helped to his feet and carried to his cabin. THE GREAT WAR-LORD

was indeed a sorry spectacle. His eyes was bleeding and lie frothed at the mouth, while crying for Hahnko's blood. He ordered a court-martial to be held immediately. ' Hahnke was roughly handled by - his brother officers on being dragged to bis cabin; but his comrades soon recovered from their first anger and held a hasty council of war, in which it was decided that he should be put ashore at once so as to give him an opportunity to escape an ignominious death and military disgrace," for ill is a capital offence in Germany to raise one's hand against royalty, let alone blacking the Emperor's eye. ; ,!1 S; - : So poor Hahnke,' after giving up his sword to the captain and donning civilian dress, was hustled 1 into a " steam launch and landed at the shore lof ' the lake. '

" That," concluded the poor lieutenant's cousin, "was the last the officers of the Hobsnzollern saw or heard of him. They had his word of honour that he would d 6 away with himself, and implicitly trustedhim, expecting soon to be informed of the discovery of his body in the neighbourhood." ' 1

WHEN THE KAISER RECOVERED from the shock of this extraordinary affair ho was disposed court-martial the captain and his entire staff of officers''for, allowing the oriminal to escape, but after a while ho was porsuadod that the course : taken was thebesb one after all. Upon the captain's advice, Hahnke's bicycle was broughb ashore during the night and thrown over the rocks at the falls. There ib was discovered next day by. the natives, and thus the story that the young man met with a bicycle accident gained credence. As a matter of faob young Hahnke lived ten days after leaving the Hohenzollern, staying at a peasant's hut in the neighbourhood of the lake. During that time he wrote letters to his relatives and friends, in which lie told them that he had engaged himself 011 his word of ; honour. to commib suicide, while guilty of no offence .in the eyes of the world at Urge. !■•-/ > !. -J IS*s He must.have drowned himself about the 22nd or 23rd of July, or shortly after that, and, to make certain his drowning, weighted | his pockets with lead and also hung a piece of lead on his neck. A similar version of the story is circulating in naval circles in Kiel, and the Kaiser's provoking attitude toward Hahnke is there characterised as his usual "midsummer madness." '• e :"These ,Northland. trips,'- said a jwellknownnaval surgeon ;to the New York Journal correspondent, are undertaken for a specific purpose. '.I THK KINO'S PH73IOIAN3 think his peculiar derangement, reappearing every year in July, might be cured in a cold' climate, and it baa actually abated to soma

extent in the last few seasons. Of course, there is no way of guarding against sudden outbreaks, and the crew of the Hohenzollern is therefore made up of old and tried men, in whom perfect confidence is placed,whileall the officers and members of the suite are His Majesty's personal friends,' This was young Hahnke's first trip in Attendance upon the Kaiser and for some reason or other he had not been informed of what might be expected of William at any time. If he had known the facts ho would have treated the insult offered him with perfect indifference, as the other officers on the Hohenzollern do -and would be alive to-day." Further inquiries developed the fact that the injury to the' Kaiser's leg received on his Northland trip of 1894 was the result of a fall incurred while chasing Count Philip Eulenburg, now Ambassador to Austria, sword in hand. On that occasion ho fell down the salon steps. On another trip he was forced to let his beard grow, as for two weeks nobody dared approach him while he was suffering from "dementia of persecution." When he recovered he found that the beard suited him, and let it grow. It is said that

THE KAISER REALLY seems to DEEPLY P.EORET the sorry circumstances of Hahnke's death. He has been more attentive and kinder to the General, the Lieutenant's father, than ever, and has promised his victim's uncle on his mother's side, General of Cavalry von Buelow, the post of Imperial Chancellor after Prince Hohonlohe's retirement. . In conclusion, it may be said that the dummy story, so assiduously circulated by the official press, was invented to account if necessary for Hahnke's entire disappearance. It was thought possible that the young man might change his mind and choose to go to some foreign country under an assumed name. In that case—that is, if his body were not recovered— theory that it had been completely undone upon the rocks and swept away by the torrent was to be advanced,—New York Journal.