Vering – Salomon duel
.jpg)
The duel Vering – Salomon was a pistol duel that was held by the students Carl Vering and Eduard Salomon on February 6, 1890 near Freiburg im Breisgau . The Albert-Ludwigs-Universität and the courts and ministries of the Grand Duchy of Baden had been dealing with the fatal outcome for Salomon for years.
Carl Vering studied law and had been a member of the Corps Rhenania Freiburg since 1889 . Eduard Salomon came from a Jewish family in Neuwied and was in the medical state examination.
history
On the evening of February 2, 1890, members of the Corps Rhenania Freiburg met privately and without a couleur in the entertainment venue Gambrinushalle , which later became the Astoria Palace. When there was an exchange of words with the neighboring table about a singer, the uninvolved Salomon and his doctor friend Julius Schwarz tried to mediate. Schwarz boasted numerous saber and pistol duels. When the actually uninvolved Salomon Verings dispute with Schwarz "disturbed", Vering let himself be carried away - allegedly opposite Schwarz - to the statement: "Shut up, shut up, you crooked Jewish boy!" - allegedly at that time in Vering's Hanover homeland common insult. Black was silent; But Solomon also lost his composure: "If you say that again, I suggest you a behind the ears!" The unsolvable, long recipierten Rhenanen Gustav Bothe he summoned: "Keep this mouth, you fox !" As bystanders tempers had calmed down and Salomon was confronted, Salomon denied the facts, but temporarily withdrew his remark. In Schwarz's presence, Salomon asked Vering to explain to whom the “Jewish boy” was meant - Schwarz, specifically not Salomon. With all the discrepancies apparently resolved, Vering left the bar.
An hour after the scandal, Salomon told a friend in a Viennese café that he had "morally slapped a Rhenanen" - the most serious insult according to the understanding of honor at the time. That was brought to the senior of the Rhenanen the next morning. Duped, Vering went from insulting to insulting and challenged Salomon to a pistol duel ten paces away with targets and three ball changes. Rhenane Jänecke, a witness to the dispute between Vering and Schwarz, had the same demand made. Bothe asked for sabers. The cartel holder was Vering's corps brother Helmcke . During his visit to Solomon, Vering's “crooked Jew boy” turned out to be a central problem; But Salomon first admitted the offer to slap and accepted Vering's request. He refused Jäneckes request for reasons of content, Bothes for physical reasons. On the other hand, he accepted Bothe's offer of a pistol duel 20 paces away and two ball changes, and finally Jänecke's request. He took gun protection at Corps Suevia Freiburg .
Court of honor
According to the Freiburg SC comment , the three challengers first had to face a court of honor. It was convened by the Corps Hasso-Borussia Freiburg :
- Chairman Dr. Friedrich Krumbein († 1945)
- Paul Gottlieb († 1944)
- Konrad Helmcke († 1950)
- Gustav Pralle († 1936)
- Wilhelm Keßler († 1952)
- Friedrich Meyer († 1945)
Walter Reich († 1937) kept the minutes (without voting rights ).
The court repeatedly explained to Solomon that the "Jew boy" was not referring to him but Schwarz. Regardless of this, Salomon refused to withdraw the slap offer or even to apologize . In a secret ballot with 5: 1 votes, the court declared Vering's claim to be admissible, but increased the distance between the duelists from 10 to 15 paces. Jänecke was persuaded to withdraw his demand, Bothes demand was rejected as unfounded.
Jänecke
Helmcke
Kessler
rich
duel
They met on the morning of February 6, 1890, on Vering's 19th birthday, in the Mooswald between Sankt Georgen and Tiengen . Vering's seconds were his corps brothers Helmcke and Pralle . Salomon was seconded by the Freiburg Swabians Buchmüller and Keßler . Reich was more impartial . Arbitrarily, he measured the shooting distance not with walking but with jumping steps in order to further defuse the duel. Were used breech-loading guns of the caliber 7 mm from the possession of senior Convents . An attempt at reconciliation was unsuccessful; Solomon refused to revoke.
Vering's first shot did not go off, Solomons was missing. Another attempt at reconciliation by Reich failed. In the second course, the duelists shot at the same time. Salomon missed again and was shot in the stomach. Verings timpani doctor Bräuninger , assistant doctor at Freiburg surgery, picked him up and put on an emergency bandage. Bräuninger drove to his clinic to report to his boss Paul Kraske . He left his opponent in the care of Schwarz, who was supposed to take him to the clinic in Vering's carriage. Solomon's friend and tympanic doctor Schwarz failed completely. For reasons that are not clear, the journey took six hours, not one and a half. It cost a lot of blood, because the bullet had grazed the liver, stomach and lungs, stuck out between the ribs and injured the left upper arm. After an immediate operation in the clinic, 26-year-old Salomon recovered. On the morning of the sixth postoperative day, he had severe internal bleeding, which he succumbed to after half an hour.
Vering immediately turned himself in to the public prosecutor's office and was arrested. He was released on bail of 8,000 marks. When the public prosecutor found out that the money had been raised by corps brothers, he had Vering's father's financial situation established. When Carl Hubert Vering had paid in the required 50,000 marks, the son was released on February 22nd.
When Salomon was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Freiburg , the Karlsruhe Rabbi Dr. Adolf Schwarz the funeral oration .
Aftermath
In the German Empire , apart from the duels of the Lords of Schrader vs. von Kotze and von Ketelhodt vs. Zenker (1896), no duel of comparable breadth and fierceness discussed, nor did the death of Ferdinand Lassalle , who fell against Janko von Racowitza (Iancu Racoviţă) in 1864 . First the duel Adolf von Bennigsen vs. Oswald Falkenhagen (1902) led to well-known social resistance against this kind of satisfaction in Germany and Austria through the anti-duel league .
Relegation and suspension
On the day of Salomon's death, the university's disciplinary authority initiated disciplinary proceedings against all persons who were even remotely involved in the duel (and who were enrolled in Freiburg). On February 26, 1890 announced Vice Rector Jacob Lüroth the judgment: Vering was for four years, Helmcke, Gottlieb, Pralle, Kessler and Meyer for a year relegated . Reich, Buchmüller, Jänecke and Bothe were punished with prison sentences . Rhenania was suspended for two semesters .
The Senate could not take action against the chairman of the court of honor and the pulmonary doctors because they had been de-registered and no longer had academic civil rights.
The Corps Hasso-Borussia and Suevia submitted to the Senate's decision without reservation. The Freiburg Swabian Buchmüller evaded the sentence by moving to Marburg , where he served his prison sentence a year later.
Appeal
It is true that the accused Reich, Meyer, Buchmüller, Jänecke, Bothe and Gottlieb had not been heard; however, the legality of the Senate's decision could not be challenged, but its proportionality.
Rhenania's appeal against the suspension was rejected by the Senate, so that the resolutions came into effect on March 4, 1890; with his approval, however, the corps continued to exist as Helvetia (green-red-gold) from March 4, 1890 . About her later honorary member Leopold Neumann , lawyer and city council chairman in Freiburg, Rhenania's old rulers wrote the appeal to the Grand Ducal Ministry of Justice, Culture and Education in Karlsruhe on March 9 - with reference to the 75th Foundation Festival and the construction of the Corphaus . At the end of April, the ministry announced the decision that the suspension would be shortened by one and a half semesters to May 1, 1890 and that Gottlieb and Pralle's one-year expulsion from the university would be suspended and converted into two-week prison sentences . The appeals from Jänecke and Bothe were rejected as unfounded. Minister Wilhelm Nokk (a fraternity member ) personally signed the correspondence and the decision.
process
On April 16, 1890, the Freiburg Regional Court opened the jury trial . Indicted were Vering because duel with death, Crookshanks and the students Helmcke, Gottlieb, Pralle, Kessler, Meyer and Reich for aid, in addition Helmcke for cartel wear. In addition to Neumann, the defender was the later Chancellor Constantin Fehrenbach . As a member of the Hercynia Freiburg in the Cartell Association of the Catholic German student associations , he was a determined opponent of duels, but presented Vering as a victim of the then concept of honor . His defense is considered a masterpiece of legal rhetoric. Fehrenbach met the irrelevant press reports about the duel and the smear campaign against Rhenania with witnesses who had seen Salomon in conflict situations. They testified to rowdy behavior, sexual harassment, slaps (also against his class teacher in lower secondary school) and lashes. This gave the process an unexpected turnaround, especially since Salomon's friend and drumming doctor Julius Schwarz lost his (remaining) credibility.
The medical reports of the district doctors Reich and Kirn had determined the "violent death" and the "masterful treatment" of Solomon.
After hearing 19 witnesses, the taking of evidence was completed. The court sentenced Vering to two and a quarter years, the other members of the court of honor to six months imprisonment . Reich was completely acquitted and Helmcke acquitted of the charge of supporting the cartel .
Pardons
Except for Vering, the convicts made several (lost) requests for clemency in the summer of 1890 . On September 3, 1890, the Ministry of Justice sent a pardon to the Grand Ducal State Ministry. A week later , Grand Duke Friedrich I pardoned the convicts and shortened the sentence to three and a half months.
A year later, on September 9, 1891, Vering's father, Carl Hubert Vering , asked the Karlsruhe Ministry of Justice to give his son a discount. After hesitant approval from the regional court, the ministry supported Carl Hubert Vering's petition for clemency and passed it on to the Grand Duke. In contrast to the appeal decision, the ministry assigned the “blame” for the duel to Solomon for the first time. Carl Vering was pardoned on November 1, 1891, went to the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and became a two-band man at Guestphalia Bonn .
reviews
The Grand Duke's son Friedrich and nephew Max were Corps students , Max was also Vering's corps brother. The public prosecutor and one of the three judges in the trial were Heidelberg Swabians and thus corps brothers of the heir to the throne of Baden ; The pardon was based on the statements of the public prosecutor and the regional court and corresponded to nationwide customs of convicted duelists. 60% of the requests for pardons were successful. A lieutenant Liskow was released from Königstein Fortress in 1835 after a year . The Polish Jew Heinrich Tykociner , a Freiburg chemist who shot the Tübingen Rhenan Karl Grimm in Tübingen in 1880 , did not serve a quarter of his two years and eight months' imprisonment. Second Lieutenant Schack , sentenced to two years in prison, was released after six months.
“There can be no question of a potential protégé. Rather, the example of the entanglement of prosecution, defense, judge and defendant, as in the present case, is intended to make it clear that perversion of the law was not common among corps students. "
Curt Abel
The Vering-Salomon duel met with lively public sympathy, but (initially) with all its explosiveness - "Corps student shoots Jews" - not a defining topic in the local press; because in February 1890 the Reichstag election in 1890 and the replacement of Otto von Bismarck were due. That changed with the announcement of Curt Abel , a close friend of Solomon. With untrue assertions in the Baden academic papers , he carried the conflict beyond Baden's borders. An article was adopted by the Catholic-conservative Berlin Germania on February 20, 1890, the day before the Reichstag election in 1890 . The newspaper was close to the German Center Party and acted against duel and corps, but had proven itself to be extremely anti-Semitic with the distribution of Wilhelm Marr's inflammatory pamphlets. The Seniors' Convention in Freiburg was forced to publish its position across the Reich in the Kreuzzeitung ; although monarchical-conservative, it behaved neutrally towards the corps students. A Freiburg newspaper printed the stenographic minutes of the court hearing to enable readers to form their own opinions. The Karlsruher Zeitung and the Breisgauer Zeitung condemned the duel itself, but abstained from judging the Freiburg duel.
When doubts arose about his reports, Abel held back, willingly , but wrote a 42-page (polemical) summary of the affair. The Badische Academischen Blätter made a U-turn and welcomed the ministerial appeal decision and the reconstitution of Rhenania.
Opinion makers
The response in the liberal press was completely different . The Frankfurter Zeitung , which was considered one of the most respected newspapers in Germany, but was described in the association newspaper of the Kösener Corps , the Academic monthly books, as the "main opponent of corps interests", took up statements by Abel in an "unusually poorly researched report" and printed it in the Evening edition of February 13, 1890 a first comment, earlier than the Freiburg local press. In it, the duel distance was reduced to 3 m and the duel was referred to as "murder". This kindled a storm of indignation in Germany, which a correction only two days later could only inadequately calm down. The left-liberal Vossische Zeitung - at that time still the royal privileged Berlinische Zeitung of state and learned things - referred in its article of February 15, 1890 to the Frankfurter Zeitung as a source, but revealed doubts about the truthfulness and innocence of Solomon. In its last article, the Frankfurter Zeitung referred to the counter-statements by the Freiburg SC: “The Rhenania corps has tried to wash itself white in the press; The procedure of the ak [ademic] senate proves, however, that this attempt was completely unsuccessful. "
The Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums , published in Berlin, also took over the first article word for word from the Frankfurter Zeitung , but did not report any doubts. In the next issue she showed a certain distance from Salomon. Like most newspapers, she saw the cause of the duel in anti-Semitism . The AZJ's final comment related to the university's disciplinary decision. The court decision was not reported.
The “organ for the general interests of Judaism” - the Jewish press - spoke of a blood sacrifice that anti-Semitism had demanded. The "loud Rhenanen" and the "hurrying away" Vering were held responsible. The AZJ was outraged by the "Urgermanen" Vering: "The hunter has more pity for the game that was shot than this flower of the German youth."
Not only the moderate and Reformed , but also the Orthodox Jews spoke up. The Israelite and Yeschuran , their organ appearing in Mainz , began to deal with the verbatim reprint of the first Frankfurt article - a week later and without reference. At the beginning of March, the paper published a more detailed, but equally polemical, summary of Curts Abel's reports in the Badische Academischen Blätter , which it referred to.
The Kreuzzeitung left it with the reproduction of the reply from the SC. The Germania brought in February the imprint of Abel's comment, but refrained from further comments. The Jewish press and Rudolf Mosses AZJ remained silent after the criminal trial, the outcome of which only the Frankfurter Zeitung reported (without comment).
“With all the false reports, both the little man in Freiburg, the liberal upper-class bourgeoisie and the Catholic conservative in the Reich - not to mention the Jews - suggested a despicable 'cold-bloodedness' of the German corps student. With titles like murderer , hunter or Urgermanen , many press organs tried to underline their sometimes tendentious reporting - the reality of which is shown to laugh at the actual meaning of the word mockery. The fact that a wave of indignation spread under the circumstances described cannot be blamed on the readers of many a newspaper. But after the sheets had to gradually reprint corrections, they must have achieved the exact opposite for many a reader. Because radical philosemitism is just as inadequate as anti-Semitism for interpersonal dealings, and it even encourages it. "
review
The Vering-Salomon duel is typical of its time and can be seen as unus pro multis . But it probably marks a turning point in the relationship between Jews and Corps students . The assimilation of the "Western Jews" in Germany took place not least in the corps. Not only in Prague , Breslau and Chernivtsi , but also in the south, west and (Prussian) north of the empire, the monarchical-liberal corps had quite a few (baptized) Jews in their ranks. Corps student Moritz Alsberg , a Jewish anthropologist, expressly addresses this change. Walter Bloem deals with it in his novel Brotherhood (1922).
literature
- Tobias C. Bringmann : Duel, student and Star of David. Satisfaction and anti-Semitism in Germany 1871–1900 . Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, ISBN 978-3-8107-5060-0 .
- Tobias C. Bringmann: The Vering – Salomon duel . Einst und Jetzt , Vol. 40 (1995), pp. 83-126.
- Ruben Frankenstein: Monument and Name - The Good Place Freiburg. Documentation of the Jewish cemetery with special assistance from Lina-Mareike Dedert. Freiburg 2009, 334 pages (= vol. 34 of the publications from the archive of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau).
- L. Neumann, Constantin Fehrenbach : The duel Vering Salomon. Stenographic report on the proceedings of the Freiburg jury court on April 16, 1890 , digital copy (Harvard)
Remarks
- ↑ Krumbein was Göttingen Braunschweiger and Hessen-Prussia since 1883 . As a doctor, he became the technical director of the Serum and Vaccination Institute in Bern. - Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 40 , 666; 31 , 55.
- ↑ Gottlieb had been Hessen-Prussia since 1886 and became an honorary member. He was a medical councilor in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. - Kösener corps lists 1960, 31 , 85.
- ↑ As Rhenane from Freiburg (1886), Helmcke became a member of the Hannovera (1886) and later an honorary member of Rhenania Erlangen, which he reconstituted in 1894 . Because of his services to relocate the three Pépinière Corps from Berlin to Hamburg, he received the Suevo-Borussia ribbon in 1920 . Most recently, he was a doctor at the Hamburg Harbor Hospital. - Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 35 , 487; 42 , 753; 24 , 33; 61 , 444.
- ^ Pralle was Rhenane from Freiburg (1887) and became a medical councilor in Cologne. - Kösener corps lists 1960, 35 , 498.
- ↑ Solomon Testant Kessler was Freiburger Schwabe (1889) and Hesse-Nassau (1890). He became a higher regional judge in Stuttgart. - Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 36 , 452; 99 , 452
- ^ Meyer was a Swabian from Freiburg and a lawyer in Trittau. - Kösener corps lists 1960, 36 , 456.
- ^ Reich was Hessen-Prussia (1888) and became a medical councilor in Hanover. - Kösener corps lists 1960, 31 , 97.
- ^ Grave location: Documentation Frankenstein grave no.347
- ↑ see H. Kater, Einst und Jetzt , Vol. 25 (1980), pp. 29-59.
- ↑ Bringmann's book never appeared. The HochschulVerlag in Freiburg had already printed it; but during delivery the truck crashed on black ice and the book project became an insured event. After years of conflict, the publisher was sold. The texts are on three discs with the author.
Individual evidence
- ^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 47 , 529.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h T. C. Bringmann (1995)
- ↑ The Israelite (February 17, 1890)
- ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums (February 28, 1890)
- ^ Neumann: Kösener Korps-Lists 1910, 47 , 259.
- ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 10 , 605.
- ↑ Peter Dieners: The duel and the special role of the military. On the Prussian-German development of military and civil violence in the 19th century . Berlin 1992, p. 81, ISBN 3-428-07298-7 .
- ↑ Martin Biastoch: Ein tödliches Tübinger Studentenschicksal , in: Tübinger Blätter 77 (1990), pp. 67-68.
- ↑ Martin Biastoch: The student scale and duel system in the Empire, illustrated using the example of the Tübingen Corps Francania, Rhenania, Suevia and Borussia between 1871 and 1895 . Vierow 1995, pp. 44-47.
- ↑ Curt Abel (Musgrave) ( Memento of the original of August 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ see Neumann / Fehrenbach protocol
- ↑ Kurt Abel: The duel Vering-Salomon . Freiburg 1890.
- ^ Academic monthly booklet 6 (1889/90) of March 26, 1890, No. 72 (booklet 12), p. 716.
- ↑ Frankfurter Zeitung, March 6, 1890, No. 65 (first morning paper)
