The Washington times., 1922-07-19
TWO WORATHENAU
SLAYERS MEET
. DRAMATIC END
Pair Kill Selves in Ruins OF
Old German Castle as
Police Come.
By KARL H. vONwIEGAND.
Uniyersal Service

-. Universal Service.
| BERLIN, July 19.-Dramatic was
the end Of the pursuit Of the as.
sassins OF Dr.. Walter Rathenau, Ger
man foreign secretary, for whose
capture 1000. 900 marks had been Of
fered as a reward. and the police Of
all Germs fy had been mobilized. D.
Hunted like foxes by hounds for
days. their exhausted nerves fraz-
zled by the relentless pursuit, sur
rounded aud despahing, Erwin Kern,
former reserve lieutenant in the
| navy and Hermann Fischer, an engi.
| neer, the young men who had rid.
died the foreign minister with bull
lets, acted as their own executioners
and killed themselves Monday eve
ming when they saw all hope Of es-
cape was gone.
End Crime in Castle.
The scene was in the tower ruins
OF the Castle Sealeck, one of the pic
turesque ruins crowning a steep
cliff overlooking the river Saale,
| near Badkoosen in central Germany.
One OF the two towers had been
made habitable, and was occupied by
1t was there that Fischer and
Kern sought to rest up and lay low,
but whether this was with or with
out the knowledge of Stein Is not
known as he was absent.
Two strolling tourists reported at
Halle that they believed the Rath-
enau murderers were in the tower.
The police began to advance on
the castle shortly after o'clock in
the evening. The two men appeared
for a moment at the top of the tower
and shouted:
"Hoch auf Ehrhardt." -.
Then they disappeared inside.
Police Find Pair Dead.
Ehrhardt is the naval captain who
commanded the Marne brigade which
took the Berlin arch in 1920 during
the Kapp revolution and organized
the now famous Organization con.
sul," secret band of tanatical super.
patriotic young Germans.
When the police broke open the
door OF the tower, they found Fischer
and Kern dead.
Each had shot himself or each had
placed revolvers against the others
head and pulled the triggers simul.
taneously.
Ernst Techow. the third OF the trio
who drove the car from which
Fischer and Kern fired the shots that
killed Rathenau is in jail in Berlin.
He had taken refuge on the farm Of
an uncle near Berlin. who gave his
nephew the choice Of suicide or sur.
rendering. Not doing either. the
uncle turned him over to the au-
thorlties
Large stores of arms and ammu-
milton which had been secreted in /
various parts Of Germany are be-
ing unearthed, IL was revealed to-
day. A big cache Of arms. includ.
ing dumdum bullets, has just been |
located at Potsdam.
II was reported from Stuttgart |
that the interallied military control |
commission has. found 500 machine
guns which had been hidden there.
1t Is reported that some OF the
arms and munitions had been col
lected for revolutionary purposes.
More Arrests Predicted.
President Richter, of the Berlin
police department. said that he
believed a number of arrests will |
be made within the next few DAYS
in connection with the assassina-
ton of DR.. Rathenau.
The Socialists are continually re- |
iterating the allegation that the
nationalists (monarchists and mill |
tarists) have laid nationwide plans |
for a revolution, the names of |
Ludendorff, Won Tirpitz and others
being mentioned in connection with |
the alleged revolutionary con-
spiracy.
The police are not convinced that |
a revolutionary plot was respoh- |
sible for the assassination Of |
Rathenau.
There are now twenty-five per- |
sons in Jail in connection with the |