Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1915 — NOWGERMANY'S IDOL [ARTICLE]

NOWGERMANY'S IDOL

Interesting Sidelights on Career of Von Hindenburg. Brother of Great Field Marshal Writes His Biography—Served in War of 1866 and in FrancoPrussian War. By STEVEN BURNETT. (International News Service.) Berlin.—Some interesting sidelights on the career of Field Marshal von Hindenburg are contained, in a biography of the leader of Germany’s eastern forces just Issued by his brother, who takes the pen name “Bernhard yon Burgdorff.” The future hero of all Germany fought through the war of 1866 and later the Franco-Prussian war. Included in the book are letters sent by Von Hindenburg to his parents from the front. Shortly before the beginning of the war of 1866, Hindenburg wrote: “It is high time for the Hindenburgs to smell powder. Our family has been singularly neglected in that respect.” Less than a week later Jje wrote: “Sorry as I am for not having had an opportunity to see you once more before going to the front, I am happy, on the other hand, when I look into the future, so full of promise and real life. For a soldier war is the normal thing, and I know that God watches over me. “If I die it will be the most beautiful and most honorable death; if I am wounded I will have done my best and if I return unharmed so much the better!” In another letter written a few days later Hindenburg says: “My highest aim has been reached; I have smelled powder; I have heard the bullets whistle, all kinds of them, grenades, shrapnel, rifle bullets. I have been slightly wounded and therefore am an interesting personality! I captured five cannon! Hurrah! "Above all, however, my beloved parents, I have experienced God’s love and mercy; to him be glory unto eternity. Amen!” Soon after this was written Hindenburg came within an inch of being killed. He describes his experience as follows: “A bullet pierced the eagle oh my helmet, struck my head without wounding me severely and came out behind the eagle. I fell unconscious; my men gathered around me, thinking me dead. Half an inch deeper and the bullet would have penetrated into the brain and I would be lying on the battlefield.” A vivid description of the feelings of a soldier during his first battle is given in another letter as follows: “If I had to describe the feelings that permeated my soul just before the battle* I would say they were these: First, a certain joy that at last one is to smell the powder, then a hesitating timidity and doubt whether, as a young soldier, one will do his duty sufficiently and come up to expectations. “Then if you hear the first bullets whistle (they are always accompanied by thundering ‘Hurrah!’) you are carried away by enthusiasm; a short prayer; a thought of the loved ones at home and of the old name—then: Forward! “With the increasing number of wounded around you the enthusiasm yields to a certain cold-bloodedness or even indifference. The real excitement does not come until after the battle, when one has to see the horrors of war in their most ghastly form; to describe this is impossible. My pen revolts. Later there will be a chance to tell about this or that striking feature.”

On September 23, 1870, Hindenburg wrote: “We are still before Paris in our old position, from which we can hardly move forward on account of the forts. The decisive attack, to my mind, must come from the west, from Versailles toward the Bois de Boulogne. Today the good defenders of Paris are shooting salvos of bombs —of course without hitting anyone or anything. The good people at least want to have done everything to defend themselves. If I had not so much to do life would be quite comfortable in the trenches. The only thing we are in need of is candles.”