A Real Memorial

Today is, of course, Remembrance Day, and Berliners made at least an attempt to honor and remember the millions of dead and wounded in the Great War that ended eleven years ago today. This is not a day to debate the futility or purpose of the war. History will do so in time. It is rather the important task of today to remember the fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends, relatives and neighbors who's lives were ended or forever scarred by the experience.

The City has erected a small monument to our "fallen sons" - the German ones we may presume. And this is both fitting and necessary. Today it was briefly a gathering place for those who wished to share their remembrance with others.  But as the silence ended, too often the remembrance did as well, and the talk returned to the parties, gatherings, shopping and other vital issues of the day.

It seems to me, having lost two parents, three brothers and a country to that idiotic waste of life, that while public memorials and expressions of sorrow have their place, that there is really only one memorial worthy of those who spent their blood so desperately - and it is not stone markers or fine speeches. Rather we remember, we honor, we memorialize our beloved lost by how we choose to live our lives today. Did they truly perish so that we could live lives of selfish accumulation, mindless parties and egoistic one-upsmanship?

If you want to honor the war dead, get about the business of society that they can no longer do. Buy a few less dresses and send the money to a worthy charity. Or better yet, go and give of your time, talent and your indignation. Skip the next self-aggrandizing tea at the Adlon and find something you can make better for others. Remember our dead by living well. Close a door so there is more coal for others to burn. Start a business so there is work for others to do.  Do something for someone else. Start to build a world our honored dead can be proud of.

Police Action Misguided and Pointless.

Unable to solve any burglaries, assaults, suspicious deaths, murders or other genuine crimes, the fearless Berlin Police forces conducted a daring raid against the inebriated and unarmed revelers at the El Dorado Club. Oberwachtmeister Danitz, the celebrated "Butcher of Mayday", proudly announced the success of the daring and danger fraught operation, in which largely harmless people, such as noted American Philanthropist Walter Gedenspire, were arrested and given "warning sentences" for petty violations of drug statutes.

The Police will, no doubt, hide behind their usual excuse (We do not make the laws, we cannot choose which to enforce, we just enforce them all). In fact they selectively enforce the laws as a matter of routine. If they dislike you, your opinions or perhaps just the color of your cap, they find a law to harass you over. If they cannot find one, they make one up on the spot. Or after the fact. Whether brutalizing citizens on the streets, breaking into private homes, throwing prisoners down flights of stairs or collecting "fees" to release them, our Police force is a monument to dishonest incompetence. You want to be safe? Buy a pistol.

The "Great Experiment" in America has clearly demonstrated the futility of trying to enforce laws regulating behaviors without victims. All it does is provide criminals with opportunity, and the Police with a pretense to claim they are "doing something". Go solve a real crime.

Police Investigate Helstein Murder

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Nov 22, police received a call that someone was lying under the Schloss Brucke. The officer who investigated found the dead body of a woman, tentatively identified as Stephanie Helstein. She had apparently been murdered. No further details were immediately available. Anyone having any information regarding the crime should contact the police.

USA Financial Markets Collapse: Impact on Europe Uncertain

Following a short lived rally after the disastrous 11% market decline of October 24th, the American financial markets collapsed on the 29th. Lead downward by the stock exchange in New York, which lost another 13% of its market value on the 28th followed by a further 11% decline the next day, American investors went on a panicked selling spree that evaporated over $30B(US) of market value in less than two days. American financiers, among them the Rockefellers and the Durants, were said to be purchasing vast amounts of equities in an effort to stabilize the markets, but stock prices continued to decline at a record pace on record volumes.

The scene on New York's Wall Street as the US stock
markets collapsed on October 29th.
(AP Photo)

Internationally the price of gold soared to $120 (US) per ounce from its pre-crash price of $80 (US) and European bourses fell slightly as investors, banks and governments began to assess the damage. In London, noted economist John Maynard Keynes issued a statement saying that, "The extraordinary speculation on Wall Street in past months has driven up the rate of interest to an unprecedented level." He went on to suggest that the crash was only a severe correction to these speculative excesses and that once the speculators had been "driven out" prices would quickly stabilize at a sustainable level.

In Germany, reaction was muted but concern over the value of investments in American stocks and the effect on American imports of German products was beginning to take hold. Economics Minister Robert Schmidt released a statement yesterday urging calm and echoing Keynes earlier statement that the precipitous decline was merely a correction and that princes would soon stabilize.

Economics Minster Robert Schmidt
arrives for a Cabinet meeting on
October 29
(AP Photo)

Meanwhile in Washington, US President Herbert Hoover reiterated his strong support for the pending Hawley-Smoot Tariff Bill, which is expected to raise US import duties on over 20,000 agricultural and industrial products, including many from Germany, to near record levels. Canada, Britain, France and Germany have been strongly urging the measure not be adopted, but it is poised for final passage by the US Senate in the next few weeks. Hoover's statement that the market downturn would not change his support for the bill is said to have depressed prices further on the 29th, with investors concerned about Canadian and European retaliation. German President Paul von Hindenberg had made a personal appeal to Hoover to reconsider his support for the legislation but to no apparent effect.

With one more trading day before the markets close for the weekend, the eyes of the world are on Wall Street and the American President. As calls for calm seemingly fall on deaf ears, investors have moved from nervousness to a full scale panic, suggesting that the "hands off" approach favored by most governments and economists is not having a salutary effect.

German markets have declined an average of 6% over the past 2 days.

World Reaction to Stresemann Death

Condolences poured in from around the Nation and the World in reaction to the death on Monday of German Foreign Minister and Statesman Gustav Stresemann. In Geneva, the Polish Delegate to the League of Nations arose to deliver a reflective eulogy at the session opening, and Dr. von Schubert, the Delegate from Germany, received official expressions of sorrow throughout the day. Helen Dukas, secretary to the noted Berlin University physicist Albert Einstein, wrote an obituary in the Berliner Zeitung expressing the hope that Stresemann's tireless work would be carried on and not forgotten. NSDAP Chairman Adolph Hitler said that "given the dire circumstances with which he was faced, no man could have done more than Gustav Stresemann."

Dignitaries from across Europe attend the funeral service for German
Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann.
(BAZ Photo)

Chancellor Hermann Meuller presided at the official State Funeral, delivering a lengthy speech describing Stresemann's many successes and contributions, and announcing that the former Chancellor and Foreign Minister would be interred in the Luisenstadt Cemetery at Südstern in Berlin Kreuzberg, and that a suitable monument, including work by the German sculptor Hugo Lederer, would be erected in his memory by the Republic.

Meanwhile, Dr. Julius Curtius (DVP) was named to succeed Stresemann as Foreign Minister. Curtius was the former Economics Minister.