Evening star., 1932-10-02

DltlOuS man perhaps SnOulO lOIlS 1O1
the day when the soldiers ideals can
be best realized. But personal aggran-
dizement has never been my ideal.
abhor war more than can tell. 1 have
seen too much of it. am satisfied
with it. don't want to see any
more of it. I authorize you," DR..
Budding turned to me with a smile, Ito
quote these words of our President"
had many conversations about the
President with the countryfolk in the
neighborhood of Neudeck, particularly
in the tap room of the Schwarzer Adler,
in the nearby town Of Freystadt. It
is the nearest town and the bells of its
church can be clearly heard at Neudeck.
\ hANY Of these peasants do not seem
w to know how great is the fame
of their idol in foreign lands. One OF
them asked me whether Hindenburg'S
name was we'll known in America. To
most of them he is a personal posses
sion, not so much the field marshal and
President as the good neighbor and the
hero who saved their East Prussian
fatherland at Tannenberg.
Some time ago Freystaedt celebrated
the Tooth anniversary of its birth, and
there was much rejoicing in the black
eagle and on the square. Like a good
neighbor, President Hindenburg at
tended the celebration He was neither
condescending nor aloof, and the town
took it as matter of course that the
head of the Hindenburg family-for CEN
turies distinguished noblemen in these
parts-should participate in the public
festivals.
"As long as he is with US" one of the
townsmen said, I'VE have nothing to
fear" He looked quizzically in the di-
rection of the frontier The Polish Ger
man boundary line is only some six miles
away and this Summer all East Prussia
was f1ustered by the rumors of a pro-
posed Polish invasion.
To the President of the German Reich
N'udeck means something that it can
not mean to any one else. 1t means the
long trips in his childhood when there
were no railways, on roads that were
none too good. 1t means a ride on his
pony to uncles house, for lessons from
the family teacher.
Here he saw the family gardener, at
whom even his grandfather looked with
respect. The old gardener had been a
drummer in the army of Frederick the
Great and through him Marshal Won
Hindenburg links two epochs of man.
kind more than a hundred and fifty
years apart. The last rays of the sun
of the great Frederick" the Marshal
wrote many years later, fell upon me as
a child
He remembers the delightfully."- true
stories his grandfather told the chill
dren. Many years before those delight
full Neudeck days under the linden tree,
grandfather was charged to call on no
less a person than Napoleon the Great,
whose headquarters were in the nearby
castle of Finckenstein. Otto Ludwig Won
Hindenburg was to induce the Corsican
hero not to collect the levy imposed
upon the district. But Napoleon cut
short grandfather and sent him on his
way before he could utter many words.
In Neudeck thoughts sweep far back
into ages in which historic records were
scarce. AS early as the thirteenth CEN
tury the family of the Beneckendorffs
and Hindenburgs played role in these
regions. They fought in the armies of
the Teutonic knights, missionaries of
the heathen Prussians and colonizers Of
the savage East. The last Won Hinden-
burg died in 1772 and his name was in
herited by the allied family of Won Be-
neckendorffs. It was the last Hinden-
burg who received the royal grant Of
Neudeck in exchange for leg lost in
the service of Frederick the Great.