TYPICAL GERMAN JUNKER

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15358, 5 October 1923, Page 5

TYPICAL GERMAN JUNKER

ARRAIGNED FOR MURDER. A FIENDISH ACT. BODY LEFT FOR WILD BOARS. Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn. Received October 5, 11.30 a.m. LONDON, October 4. The Daily Telegraph's Berlin correspondent says the trial of von Kaehne, charged with the murder of Laase, has commenced at Potsdam. Kaehne arrived at Court fully armed. During the hearing von Kaehne showed himself a typical junker.- He admitted cutting down a soldier with a sword and shooting a trespasser, whom lie loft lying badly wounded in the snow.

Witnesses stated that von Kaehne shot Laase, whom he found trespassing on his grounds, and then smashed has face with the butt of a rifle. Von Kaehne gave instructions that the body be left for wild boars.

The curious habits of a Junker family named von Kaehne were revealed at the Potsdam Court in February of last year. They lived in a castle commanding the south-western approaches of Berlin. Motorists and pedestrians 'are obliged to pass through the park, and the von Kaehnc's objected. They pounced upon wayfarers', holding them up at the point of the revolver. In one case the 72-ycar-old grandmother pursued a motor car on horseback, firing an automatic revolver, and she also sprayed passersby with a hose, while the son shot a man through the lung and left him lying in the snow. On this occasion the family were fined an equivalent of £l3. They pleaded that it was a family tradition to carry revolvers and shoot when necessary.