VON BLOMBERG ON WAY BACK TO EUROPE

Southland Times, Issue 23513, 20 May 1938, Page 5

VON BLOMBERG ON WAY BACK TO EUROPE

SHORTS AND TENNIS SHOES ON HONEYMOON COLOMBO, May 18. Field-Marshal Werner von Blomberg, formerly Minister for War in the German Cabinet, and his wife have arrived on their way back to Europe after. a honeymoon. They posed for photographers, Field-Marshal von Blomberg wearing shorts and tennis shoes. _ Field-Marshal von Blomberg indicated that he was giving up politics and retiring into private life. He spoke enthusiastically of Herr Hitler, whom he described as “my great z friend.” The uproar in Germany caused by the marriage of Field-Marshal Werner von Blomberg to Erika Grunn, the daughter of a carpenter, emphasizes the rigid rules of the army, says The New York Times. The rules are aptly based on l tradition, going back to Frederick the Great, who was in the habit of selecting wives for officers of his acquaintance, a favour that was considered a distinction. Such regulations were more strictly executed under the reign of the last Hohenzollern. Wilhelm II held the right to approve the marriage of every commissioned officer. After thorough investigation into the prospective bride's social standing, conducted by an officer’s commission, the commander of the regiment concerned submitted his report to the Military Cabinet of the Kaiser. Although it Is doubtful that the Emperor gave his personal consent, the permission to marry was, granted in his name. The permission, which had the force of an imperial decree, read as follows: “The Imperial Military Cabinet, in the name of his Majesty the Emperor and King, who most graciously granted his consent, has given permission, and so on. . . ” The decree was then published in the "Army Gazette." Less rigid, yet executed with the same thoroughness, were the rules concerning the marriage of a non-commissioned officer. He had to apply to the commander of his regiment. An investigation into the bride’s family was made, and the commander gave his approval in the name of the regiment and its officers. CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS The procedure in the cases of commissioned and non-commissioned officers indicates clearly the outspoken class consciousness which, especially in Prussia, has always marked the social life of the ruling class, especially in the army and in the vastlyexpanded civil service. The Junkers predominated in the Prussian Army. The nobility served in the diplomatic service and in the highest posts in the bureaucratic machinery. Every regiment had its social standing. The Garde du Corps, stationed in Berlin, was composed of crack regiments. Only titled persons were its officers. The further away from the capital, where the court life centred, the less distinguished were the corps and their regiments. An officer who was punished for having offended the code of honour was transferred to the “line’’ and served with an obscure regiment near the French or Russian border unless his offence was so severe that he had to quit active service or preferred to continue with coloured troops in the German colonies. It is doubtful whether Field-Marshal Hermann Goering, who married an actress, Emmy Sonnemann, would have received permission to do so under the monarchy. The theatre was considered below the army’s social standard. Some officers had to, quit because of intimacy with actresses. It was also the rule that any woman who had to work for a living was not eligible as an officer's wife. The only work a woman could do that was not suspect in army circles was voluntary social or relief work.

Although the Nazi regime, boasting its achievements as a political party, also claims to have restored the woman's place in the reshaping of the nation, Marshal von Blomberg's resignation results from his marriage to a woman of the working class. The conflict also appears to be contradictory to the assurance of the regime that it has abolished class distinction.