Evening star., 1944-02-13
Russians Took
Berlin Before
BIZ James Waldo Faucet.

Americans who visited Berlin during
the years between the First World War
and the second invariably were i'm
pressed by the hostile attitude of all
classes of people there toward Russia .
and the generality Of Russians. The
psychology of fear was evident in the
constant excited repetition of the same
cliche phrases Of antipathy. 1t was ap-
parent that Muscovites Of every sort
Communists of course particularly
were hated.
Why this allergy was a question to
which there was no satisfactory answer.
Now, however an explanation begins
to emerge. The steady, relentless ap-
proach of the armies of the Soviet
Union represents the tendency of his
tory to repeat and the populace Of
Berlin is conscious Of the fact. If
community may be said to possess a
capacity to remember through sue
cessive generations, the residents of the
capital of the Reich might be recalling
| the occasion when the Russians came
| in the 18th century.
The exact date was October 3, 1850.
With Russia, Austria, France, Sweden
and SaXony allied against him, Fred
erick the Great had been fighting the
battles Of the Seven Years War since
August 20, 1756. He had won some
victories and suffered some defeats. but
| the final issue of the conflict still was
| in doubt. The King himself kept to the
| field, commanding his troops in person.
So it happened that Berlin was left
unprotected against sudden attack.
| An Irish officer strange as 1t may
seem, planned and executed the ma
neuver. His name was Franz Moritz
| Lacy and he was the son of a Jacobite
| cavalier who had followed the for
tunes OF James II when that unfortu-
nate sovereign fled England to live out
the rest of his career an exile on the
Continent. Educated in Germany, the
young soldier had entered the Austrian
Army while only boy He had cam
paigned in Italy Bohemia, Silesia and
the Netherlands and risen to the rank
Of lieutenant colonel at an age when,
most lads of his generation were yet
in school. When but rs he was adj
vanced to full colonel and given COM
mand of an infantry regiment Grad
ually thereafter he rose to the rank of
"feldzeugmeister" The Empress Maria
Theresa favored him with her con-
fidence and her son Joseph II regarded
him as one of his most trusted coun-
selors. After the treaty Of Hubertus-
burg he was given the task of REFORM
ing and administering the Austrian
Army-a task which he carried out
very efficiently
That Count Lacy was not exclusively
strategist and a military statesman,
however is demonstrated by the cir
cumstance that he was wounded in five
different engagements. The assault on
Berlin was undertaken principally as
diversion. German historians refer to
it as siege; other writers consider
it raid" Admittedly the attack con-
tinued for week.
Russian cannon on the heights Of
Rixsdorf fired missiles over the walls
into the city at intervals during at least
six days. The royal palace was hit
and the commandant of the local garri-
l76O, two officers bearing a white flag
and accompanied by bugler walked
from the Cotbus gate toward the head
quarters of the Russian generals serV-
ing in association with Count Lacy,
Berlin, the ENJOYS were told, must
surrender Internationally. Because q
large portion of the city already was
in flames, those terms were accepted.
But capitulation was only a new be-
ginning. of the burghers' troubles.
Count Lacy laid the community under
contribution of 100000 guilders and
100000 crowns-a tremendous indem-
nifty when it is taken into account that
the population of Berlin then was only
about 10000.
While the money was being collected,
the Russians marched into the town,
occupied the defenses, blew up the
arsenals, burned out the foundries, de-
stroyed great quantities of arms and
munitions, looted and celebrated" to
their hearts content. Civilians nat
urally were terrorized The invaders.
as they saw them, were "barbarians'
in behavior as we'll as in their appear
arce. But the disorder did not last
very long. News of the taking of the
capital had reached Frederick, and he
hurried to the relief of the city with
out delay. Count Lacy, anticipating just
such a development, rounded up his
Austrians and their Muscovite allies and
discreetly retired before the Prussians
arrived. The war terminated in 1853,
leaving Europe pretty much as it had
been prior to the outbreak of hostilities
except that Saxony ceased to be indie
pendent.
Further service to Austria was rem
dered by Count Lacy in the War of
the Bavarian Succession and in the
War with Turkey. He died at his castle
of Neuwaldegg, near Vienna, Novem-
ber a. 1901, aged rs.
BY that date new military genius
had come to prominence-Napoleon
Bonaparte was making all Europe per-
sonal property The road to Berlin was
trod by his armies in 1906, and the
same artery of travel accommodated the
Russians when they came to France
in 1873
Rightly or wrongly, Berliners have
cultivated the habit of fearing Russia as
the source of violent interference. The
inciden. of 176c is related to everything
that has happened since in that now