GERMAN BRUTALITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17324, 25 May 1918, Page 11

GERMAN BRUTALITY

An i instance of feudal infajny is reported in 'the Mecklenburg Volkszeitun«r of January 28:— Herr Wilhelm von Oertzen, lord of tho manor at Raggow, and owner of vast estates] is a landowner of tho true old feudal type. * _ He caught a man in the act of placing m "a sack a few ears of cut wheat which he had picked up Herr yon Oertzen, with tho assistance of two of his rangers, stripped the man completely naked, bound him securely to a tree by means of leather thongs, gagged him to prevent him from raising an alarm, and then thrashed him for an hour with a riding whip until his body was one mass oft livid weals, from which the blood poured in streams. The following day, when tho unhappy gleaner called on a doctor, the latter refused to gTant him a certificate testifying to his brutal maltreatment. Subsequently, on the case being brought before the Assessor's Court, the charge was dismissed, the judge remarking that, as lord of the manor, Herr von Oertzen possessed a sovereign right o»-er the bodies of his tenants, who had been given a whole some lesson to abstain from pilfering on a feudal estate.