HOW GERMANS HAVE MADE WAR

Southland Times, Issue 17929, 5 November 1918, Page 6

HOW GERMANS HAVE MADE WAR

SOME PAST INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE HUN. The world has stood aghafit at the horrors perpetrated during the last four years by the “disciples of Kultur”—-horrors which ’(it has been popularly, declared)' are absolutely without precedent. Such, however, ia far from being the case. A writer in a Birmingham paper recently dug somewhat extensively into-the historic past of Germany, and the following incidents he has selected from a host of others of- a similar number, as illustrating the methods the “gentle and gentlemanly” German has adopted in order to “get one better” than his enemy. As will bo noted, the incidents cover a period of about eleven hundred years, and there is a somewhat remarkable “family likeness”,running through the whole series. They tell their own story and point their own moral, so that further comment is quite unnecessary? - Incident I.—Louis, son of Charlemagne (A.D. 814-840), regarded his nephew Bernard ,the son of his elder brother) as a dangerous rival. He ordered his wife, the Empress Irmgard, to send for the young man, with the solemn that ha would be allowed to come and return in perfect safety. Bernard came accordingly, and Louis caused his eyes to be torn out in so barbarous a fashion that he died a few days afterwards.

Incident H.—Lothair (the son of Louis) revolted against his father, and, after a sharp siege, took the city of Chalons, which sided against him, and which was defended by Duke Bernard, one of the Emperor’s counsellors. On his entry into the town Lothair murdered Bernard’s son. Hia daughter, a schoolgirl in the Convent, was dragged from her sanctuary, fastened up in an empty wine cask, and thrown from tha city walls into the river. . Incident lll.—Henry the Sixth (A.D. 1195) quelled a revolt against his rule with a “mailed fist.” Count Jordan, one of tha rebel leaders, was punished by being placed on a red-bot iron throne and having a red-hot iron crown nailed to his head. Hia colleague, Richard, Count of Palermo, was tied to the tail of a horse, dragged through the streets. of Capua, and afterwards hanged by one leg to a gallows. Here hj« remained for two days, until the King’s fool put an .end to his agony by mercifully tying a great stone to his neck. Incident IV.—ln the Hussite wars (early fifteenth century) Ziska, a one-eyed leader of the Bohemians, burned two hundred people in the church at Brod. The secretary to the Chapter at Prague had tha misfortune to fall into the hands of this “mighty” champion,” and was tortured by having his flesh iom off by pincers, and was afterwards roasted in a tar-barrel. At Altenburg men, women, and children were carted to the blazing cathedral and burnt by hundreds.

Incident V. —In 1525 the Peasant Army captured ,Weinsburg. They then formed up in two lines, armed with swords, scythes, pitchforks, and other rustic weapons, and their prisoners were made to run down the lane thus formed, to be hacked to pieces by the victors. The Countess of Heiferstein, carrying her baby, flung herself at the feet of “Little Jack,” the Peasant commander, pleading for the life of her husband. “Friends,” shouted “Little Jack,” “behold.how I treat the daughter of an Emperor!” He threw her down and knelt on her breast. The child was wounded by a sword-prick and the Wood spurted over the Countess’ face. She was then held up that she'might witness her husband’s murder. Finally, a cart was heaped with dung, the Countess and her wounded child were mounted on it and driven away ’midst tho jeers and laughter of the mob. Luther wrote,a pamphlet against the Peasants, in which he called on the princes and rulers of Germany “to strangle and stab them, even as a man would a mad dog”! Incident VI. —Count Tilly (1630) took th« city of Magdeburg after a severe struggle and a siege by a force of Croatian mercenaries. For two days after the city had fallen Tilly left the victorious army entire liberty to loot, burn, massacre as they pleased. On the,third day, when he made his triumphal entry, the stark bodies of 20,000 civilians lay in the streets. •

Incident VII.—In the Franco-German war (1870-1)' the victorious army used the most “barbaric methods.” Towns, villages, and hamlets were swept out of existence. The penalty for cutting telegraph wire or for damaging railway tracks was the taking of ten men from the nearest village and shooting them without the slightest semblance of a trial. The whole of the country from tha Rhine to Paris was swept bare. All men found with arms were shot out of hand. Brutality, bestiality, were unchecked. Such are a few specimens from the inexhaustible past of Germany. Yet is it a moot question whether she has not “improved” on her former methods—whether, indeed, she has not only “broken all records,” but reached—the “limit”!