Evening star., 1922-06-24
German Foreign Minister
Victim of Unknown Men,
Who Flee in Car.
FUR0RE IN REICHSTAG
FOLLOWING TRAGEDY
Socialist Shouts, you Are Mur-
derer,' to Nationalist Deputy
When Wirth Announces
Staying.
Fy the Associated Press.


BERLIN, June 24.-Dr Walter
Eathenau. German minister of for
etgn affairs. was assassinated today
The minister was shot and instant
ly killed as he was leaving his resi-
dence in Grunewald, a suburb of Ber-
lin. for the foreign Office in an auto
mobile.
The murderer, who was driving in a
motor car. slowed up as he was near
ing DR.. Rathenau and shot twice
at the foreign minister. the shots tax
ing immediate fatal effect. Putting on
high speed, the assassin escaped. No
clue to the identity of the murderer
had been discovered up to noon today.
Visited HouKhton Last Night.
DR.. Rathenau was guest at din
ner last night of Alanson b. Hough-
ton. the American ambassador. On
receiving news of the assassination
OF the foreign minister this morning
the American embassy promptly
hoiSted its flag to half-mast
Official announcement of Dr. Rathe-
nau's death was made in the reich
stag.
The assassination of DR.. Rathenau
followed hard upon a vitriolic attack
on the foreign minister by Dr. Karl
Helfferich in the reichstag yesterday,
when the nationalist leader grilled
the government generally and DR..
Rathenau in particular concerning the
cabinets reparations policy and its
Rhineland and the Saar Valley
The news OF the assassination reached
the reichstag at II o'clock, just when
the commission on taxation had con-
Eened- Chancellor Wirth announced
the assassination, upon which pande
monium broke out among the various
party groups.
Refehsta1 in ~E1s1o&l.
Two socialists jumped up, shouting
20 DR.. Helferich; you are the assas-
SIM" They threatened to pounce upon
him. and DR.. Helfferich hastily left the
committee room.
In one of the reichstag lounges a
heated outbreak of recrimination oc-
CURED between deputies belonging to the
left and a party of representatives Of
the other extreme in the chamber.
When the news was communicated
to the reichstag itself at 11:25 o'clock
It was received with deep emotion. Then
amidst a turmoil the reichstag ad-
1ourned.
There were two persons in the auto
mobile from which the shots that killed
DR.. Rathenau were fired. His car was
nearing his home and had reduced its
speed when the machine containing the
asSassins was encountered. Both the
occupants are said to have opened fire
upon the foreign minister, who fell to
the floor Of his car fatally wounded. ex-
pIring shortly afterward. aLrge forces
Of police were quickly on the scene and
a firing squad was dispatched in the
direction the mufderers were believed to
have taken.
Drastic Action Planned.
Following the assassination Of For
eign Minister Rathenau 1t was an
nounced this afternoon that the gov
ernment would Immediately decree
the establishment of extraordinary
courts for the trial of nationalist plot
ters and would proclaim a state of
emergency for Prussia. All regi-
mental reunions or militaristic DEM
onstrations will be prohibited.
Up to 1870 o'clock this afternoon
the, police were without a clue to the
assaSsins. Of whom nothing had been
heard since they succeeded in speed
ing off after the shots were fred, the
motorcycle patrols which took up
the pursuit losing the trail shortly
after its beginning.
DR.. Rathenau was only a short dis
taAce from his private residence in
the fashionable Grunewald suburb
when he was murdered. and his body
was. Immediately removed to his
home.
Ablest Man In Cabinet.
DIR. Rathenau, regarded as prob
ably the ablest man in the Wirth
cabinet, with a decisive influence in
shaping the governments policy with
respect to reparations and other
questions, also was the minister most
disliked among the nationalists, who
objected to his policies and also held
his Jewish extraction against him.
This latter circumstance especially
has made him the target of humiliat-
ing attacks in anti-semitic quarters
and he recently was referred to in
scuRrilous terms in ribald song
sung at the reunion of nationalist
regiment.
Phe assassination. which occurred
Iust before IL o'clock this morning,
comes close on the heels of recent
rumors circulated among the So
ciaiists that nationalist plotters had
rejected June "a, which is Mtd-Sum-
mer day, or the feast of st. John the
Baptist, for "St. Bartholomew FEAST
IN which persons whose names were