The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1922-07-07
ASSASS|NS SLAY
DIR. RATHENAU
Berlin Police Head Raises Offer
of Reward for Capture to
100000 Marks.
GOVERNMENT TAKES ACTION
Check Put on Roylists-Army DEM
onstrations Forbidden-State OF
Emergency to Be Pro-
claimed.

BerIin.-Dr. Walter Rathenau, Ger
man foreign minister, who was more
closely identified than any other
German with the efforts for the re
Mobilization of this country since the
war, was shot and killed by two or
more unknown assassins while on his
way from his residence to the for
aign office.
The minister was subjected to Il
hail of bullets, one of them striking
him in the throat and passing up
ward to the brain, while others
struck him in various parts Of the
cody. Hand grenades also were
thrown, almost wrecking the car in
which Dr. Rathenau was riding, and
:nflicting further injuries on him.
DR.. Rathenau was struck by at least
eight bullets, any one Of which would
nave proven fatal, according to the
autopsy.
Chancellor Wirth's government Is
marshaling the nations liberal ele-
ments to the defense Of labor parties,
as it did during the Kapp revolt. An
nouncement is made that the govern
ment will establish extraordinary
courts for the trial of Nationalist
plotters, and that a state Of emer-
gency for Prussia will be proclaimed.
All regiinental reunions and mill
taristic demonstrations areEtHe pro-
hibited. Yet, despite vociferous cries
Of Long live the Republic" which
resounded through the reichstag
chamber at the close Of memorial
session for Rathenau, thoughtful men
of all ranks and parties were silently
but gravely apprehensive for the ma
tons fate.
While the heat of resentment and
partisan feeling has not sufficiently
cooled to warrant sure appraisal OF
the direction in which the political
effect of Rathenau's assassination Will
spread, yet this much is certain-the
government is facing far more pre-
carious situation than it did when
Nationalist bullets struck down Err
berger in the Black Forest ten months
ago.
The minister was shot and instantly
killed as he was leaving his residence
in Grunewald, a suburb of Berlin, for
the foreign office in an automobile. 1t
has been established by the police
that the shots were fired by two per-
sons in a strange automobile, and
that they used automatic pistols.
Chief of Police Richter personally Is
conducting the investigation.
Some witnesses of the assassina-
ton declare three men were In the
motor car from which the shots were
fired at Dr. Rathenau, and that he
was accompanied by woman when
he left his villa at Grunewald for the
foreign office Five minutes later the
automobile returned to the villa with
DR.. Rathenau dead.
The prefect of police raised the
offer of reward for the capture of
DR.. Walter tRathenau's assassin to
100000 marks.
DR.. Rathenau, who was unmarried,
uSeu dllClhdlCtS 40 u ASSiNSASS AAAS
town villa situated in the garden ad-
joining the foreign Office. He also
had country seat at Freinwald, not
far from Berlin.
The emotion which marked the brief
addresses of Chancellor Wirth and
President Loebe before the reichstag
on the assassination reflected senti-
ments which were shared by many
others, while the rioting Of the radi-
Gals throughout what was to have
been a decorous memorial to the dead
foreign minister reflected the feeling
of unrelenting vengeance vowed in be-
half Of the German proletariat. Never
did the reichstag witness such scenes
of turbulence and eXecratiOns DR..
Karl Helfferich, the nationalist leader,
who had attacked Rathenau in a saw
age speech in the reichstag, sat curled
up in his seat far to the right of the
house. He appeared to be in very
depressed and somewhat fearful state.