Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-09
PRUSSIA PUTS BAN
ON WORD VERBOTEN
Will Scrap Laws Dating
Back to Frederick
the Great.
CORRESPONDENCE. 81 The Star and the New
York World

correspondence 81 The Star and the New
York World.
4 BERLIN August 1.-THE Prussian
state government is shortly TO begin a.
. great offensive against the word in the
German language best known outside
of Germany "verboten." Several
thousand Prussian police regulations,
some of which were introduced as far
back as the reign of Frederick the
Great, are to be scrapped and re-
formed and unified police code is TO be
adopted.
Details of the Prussian govern.
ment's plans on this question have
just been given in an interview by DIR.
Abegg. head of the police division of
the Prussian ministry Of interior,
which is presided over by Karl Sew
ring. German Socialist. The fact that
the Prussian ministry Of interior has
been in the hands of a Socialist since
1921 is undoubtedly mainly response.
BILE for the success Of the movement
for the reform of the police regula-
tons, Which goven the 100000 peo-
pie of Berlin and the inhabitants of
the rest of Prussia.
million" Laws Involved.
1T has been decided" said DIR.
Abegg, Ito undertake a radical reor.
ganization of the Prussian police ordi-
nances. and the result will be that
about 100000 police regulations will
be done away with. This number
shows we are suffering from a super.
fluffy of police ordinance and that
the citizens of the state are today
bound down by an enormous number
of restrictions of which the magis-
trates. lawyers and judges know only
a small fraction.
he OF hot IF
these ordinances should have died a
natural death by reason of having be.
come archaic and therefore Of no prac-
tical force. But il can happen some
times that an oVerenthuSiaStic police
official will suddenly exhume such a
regulation. If these out-of-date ordi-
nances are no longer enforced, then it
IL ridiculous TO retain them. If they
are enforced, then it is trickery of the
people.
In fact. the courts have in many
cases already ruled against the legal.
fly Of some of these regulations. Be-
tween the years. 1910 to 1924 alone 1921
police ordinances have been declared
illegal by the court. OF this number
only q part were introduced during
recent years.
Date Back More Than 100 Years.
MdIly Vi tnciIl ale HlOIc tIdH lUU
years old, and despite the fact of their
recently having been declared illegal
have lead to the infection of many
sentences. That is the present impos-
sibe situation which it is to the great
est interest of the police to do away
with. SO the facts necessitate that
our next work is to undertake first
thorough overhauling of the police
regulations and then unification of
the police code Is necessary.
For this reason a set of emergency
police regulations should he put into
force for certain period of transition
between the time when the present
police regulations are abolished and
the new ones introduced. During that
Interval a committee should go care
fully through the old laws. wedding
out those which are no longer of
value, after which the remainder
would be re.enacted. Later on, how
ever, there should he final unifica-
tion of the police code.
This radical reduction is the mum.
Der OF police regulations is easy and
pra cticaI to effect. Neither technical
nor political difficulties stand in the
way"