Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 169, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1920 — Teuton Bandit’s Arrest Ends a Daring Career [ARTICLE]

Teuton Bandit’s Arrest Ends a Daring Career

- II Max Hoelz Establishes Communist Regime With Series of Bold Rascalities. '• — ; TOOK PART IN RED REVOLT 1 - .♦ — Brigand Boasted of Touching Off World Uprising From Seat of Government —Seized Mansions and Burned Them Before Quitting. Bertin. —The arrest of Max Hoels several days ago in Bohemia, closes one of the most romantic chapters in the history of revolutionary Germany. It Is also one of the most significant chapters, for It shows how communist doctrines work out practically when held by a criminal of exceedingly er* ratlc mind; how far some of the German working classes will go in making common cause with a common robber, if be but throw the charmed halo of socialism about his head, and how weak socialist government Is in dealing with such a situation. Hoelz suddenly appeared upon the German firmament at the time of the Kapp adventure and he was soon registered by newspapers as a star of the first magnitude. But he had a previous history. Last year he had played a prominent part in Spartacist turbulence in the Vogtland, as the southern pert of Saxony is called. When the military moved into the region and the situation grew serious Hoelz decamped in good time, leaving his followers In the lurch. These latter were captured and were in prison since then, awaiting trial toward the end of March. Hoelz was meanwhile living In concealment somewhere In northern Germany. But his opportunity to rehabilitate himself arrived when Kapp held sway in Berlin. At Plauen, chief town of the Vogtland—noted for its manufactures of lace and embroideries—the Reichswehr, or national troops showed signs of wavering and going over to Kapp. This caused trouble with the working population and a clash seemed Inevitable. But the military was withdrawn. That was Hoelz’s opportunity. He was apparently holding himself in readiness just behind the scenes, for the next night he •appeared in Plauen.

Frees Follower* In Prison. Gathering together a handful of his former followers —they still had faith hi him, for the man has a dangerous gift of voluble and fiery rhetoric —he stormed the prison the next morning at dawn and liberated his 18 accomplices of last year. Then they betook themselves to the prosecuting attorney, hauled him out of bed and demanded the documents in the cases against these liberated prisoners. He was not able at once to produce them, and so they carried him off as hostage to Falkensteln, a town about 15 miles to the east Here Hoelz seized the old castle of Baron Trutzler von Falkenstetn, dismissed the baron, and made it his seat of government for the following four weeks. By the afternoon the prosecuting attorney had thought better of the matter and had the documents produced. Hoelz burned them in his presence and then discharged his hostace. Then Hoelz inaugurated his communist regime with a series of highhanded rascalities. He dismissed city officials or drove them out of town. He levied upon manufacturers and requisitioned their automobiles. Mounted In these he and his chosen bend made incursions upon neighboring towns, making people think that the far-off period of robber bar-

on* had returned. Reorganized his little army and had his little scrimmages with such opposition as presented Itself in his way. With 120 of his band on automobile trucks he went to Markneukirchen—famous for the manufacture of violins—disarmed the home guards after, a little fight, and then liberated the Spartlcist prisoners in Jail there. Incidentally he carried off 100,000 marks, “as pledge that the arms would be delivered up,” he said.

Made Threats of Slaughter. Wherever he went he breathed out threatenings of slaughter. His proclamations teemed with expressions like “will be shot.” Hoelz delighted in strong talk. In giving himself the airs of a bloody bandit; but he was not half so bad as his talk. In fact, there was a quality of mercy In his rascalities. Once he had the Munich-Berlin express train held up and searched by his band, but they harmed nobody and apparently took nobody’s purse, though one report said so. They were evidently looking for somebody, and when they heard that several passengers who looked suspicious had got off and gone to the leading hotel they went there and searched it. One of the guests was correspondent of a Leipsic newspaper. They arrested him and took him off to Falkenstein because they found on him a notebook containing the substance of a news report .which he had telephoned to his paper. In the castle at Falkenstein he found two young university men w’ho had been held in captivity for more than a week, waiting for some kind friend to pay the 20,000 marks ransom demanded for them by Hoelz.

Warned Tender Heart*. As Hoelz grew in fame and renown as an outlaw he found that he was touching many tender female hearts with his deeds of courage. He was flooded with letters from women that annoyed his virtuous soul. Finally, he had printed in heavy type in the Falkenstein Anzeiger a notice warning “all unmarried and married women persons. upon pain of heavy fines and the publication of their names, against tempting him with love letters and less obvious allurements.'* He was a married man, the notice concluded, and he "energetically forbade” this indiscriminate love-making. While Hoelz was amazing all Germany and the world with the boldness of his robberies and impressments, the Saxon government was_equally the cause of amazement through Its supineness, Herr Gradnauer, the socialist minister-president of Saxony, at first did nothing whatever against Hoelz, and later explained that he had hoped the workmen would themselves take measures to restore order or, failing in that, would come and ask the government for troops. As late as April 3, about two weeks after Hoelz began his “reign," Gradnauer was still calling upon the various “action committees” that had been formed in the larger towns of the Vogtland to “see to it that the unconstitutional state of things instituted by the communist Hoelz in the Vogtland be remedied as speedily as possible.” If this were not done in the very next days, this pronouncement went on, the government "would be compelled in the general interests of the state to restore legal conditions with all the power at its disposal." Workmen Ordered to Arm. At the same time news from Chemnitz, which lies near the Vogtland, was to the effect that Gradnauer had promised no troops should be sent for the present, and was depending upon the Chemnitz executive committee (of the socialist organizations) to negotiate

with the “action committee* 4 ’ In the Vogtland to put a speedy end to Hoelzes doings. This statement wa> made at a general meeting' of the shop councils of Chemnitz, whereupon a resolution was adopted calling for arming the workmen and declaring that a general strike would be proclaimed at the first attempt of the government to send troops through Chemnitz. The executive committee had promised several days before this that it would settle the Vogtland troubles by peaceable means, and Minister Gradnauer was still promising mild treatment for Hoelz and his gang. This attitude of organized labor at Chemnitz corresponded to the attitude of the more extreme socialists elsewhere. The independent socialists either excused or openly encouraged Hoelz. Their leading organ at Dresden declared that the workmen would resist an armed intervention by every possible means, and “the responsibility would fall with full weight upon the government”. And the Freiheit, the national organ of that party, saw nothing worse in Hoelz’s doings than a breach of party discipline. He was "acting contrary to the .Interests of the revolutionary proletariat.’* “Proletarian campaigns,” this organ continued, "require closed ranks at the battle front, obedience to general orders; and all dancing out of one’s turn means weakening and hurting the 'revolutionary struggle.” Decide to Fight Bandit, Finally about three weeks after Hoelz had been in possession at Falkensteln. Gradnauer decided with extreme reluctance, that he would have to ask the Berlin government to send the RefchswetA* against the marauder. His hoped that the workmen la the Vogtland would come and i»y“The thing can’t be done without the Reichswehr,” had* not been realized. attempt was made by Plauen workmen. Indeed, to shake Holz, but without success at first. The action committee there called four big meetings; at which a resolution against him was to be proposed; but Hoelz himself boldly appeared at the meetings, and by means of his usual fiery harangues defeated the resolutions. As the troops began to move, however, the laboring people began to assert themselves. At Chemnitz, the decision of the shop councils to call a general strike in support of Hoelz, was nullified by a large majority on a general vote of the entire laboring population; and about the same time, a conference of the communists at Chemnitz voted to expel him from their party. On the other hand, about the time when the troops were drawing their net around Vogtland a conference of socialists at Gera, attended by delegates from many Thuringiat towns, voted unanimously to demand that the troops be recalled, otherwise to declare a general strike for all Germany. Hoped to Make Escape. But the troops gradually gathered around the Vogtland, coming in with many apologies and explanations on the part of the Dresden government and the general. Airplanes were sent in advance to scatter handbills designed gently to soothe the fears of the workmen. Moreover, a civil commissioner was sent along with the troops to restrain their thirst to kill on sight Hoelz and his band. Hoelz scented the danger from afar, but he made good use of the few days of grace still left him. He did not remotely dream of making a stand against the troops. When they were still several days’ march from Falkensteln he shifted his headquarters over to the little town of Klingenthal, which lies immediately -on the Bohemlai frontier. On the last day of his stay at Klingenthal he made hay in two way*. He sent a detachment of his forces once more into Plauen to raise money by going into the leading restaurants and emptying the pockets not only of guests, but even of waiters. Then at Klingenthal he summoned fifteen of the leading manufacturers to a conference at the town hall, demanded of them 1,000,000 marks before nightfall, and locked them up as hostages till it should be produced. Later he decided to let them go out and make their arrangements to obtain the money. At the appointed hour they returned and counted out the money for him on the big center table. Burns Mansions Before Quitting.

Before quitting Falkensteln Hoels had set fire to the mansions of five leading manufacturers, after he had been mulcting them for several weeks to meet the expenses of his “army.” He also ordered the detachment that went to Plauen to rob the restaurants, that they also burn several fine villas there, but this was apparently not done: the valiant band contenting themselves instead with pillaging several homes. As the troops closed in on the scene of war they began to make captures of Hoelz’s Red guards, all stuffed witl stolen money. There was a sort o skirmish somewhere, in which Hoel was engaged until things grew too ho for him. The official report record the fact that his automobile was car rured, containing his hat; but tha. Hoelz himself escaped, “ostensibly in woman’s clothing.” He succeeded in some way in get ting across the frontier, which wai probably not very hard to do, as it is a wooded, semi-mountainous region Several days later the Czechs arrested him at Marlenbad; and now he is t« be brought back to Germany for trial. If a military court tries him it is not doubtful what bls fate will be; but more probably he will be brought before a civil tribunal. In that event bf may get five, perhaps eve* tan yean in the penitentiary.