Plane from Nuremberg
The plane from Nuremberg was one or more French planes that, according to a hoax, dropped bombs near Nuremberg on August 2, 1914 , immediately before Germany declared war on France the next day .
Hoax
On August 2, citing military sources, it was reported in several separate sheets that French planes had dropped bombs near Nuremberg without a French declaration of war, i.e. contrary to international law . According to Max von Montgelas , reports of bombs being dropped on the Würzburg – Nuremberg and Ansbach – Nuremberg railway lines were received by the Nuremberg Line Command on August 2 , which they telephone the General Command of III. Bavarian Army Corps passed. This reported to the General Staff with reservations . After the reports were found to be false, that was also reported. In addition, the line command in Nuremberg had informed the railway department of the Great General Staff without having followed up with a correction.
According to the mayor of Nuremberg, Otto Geßler , some of the landsturm people who had to guard the railway lines were the originators of the report. They thought they recognized planes in the game of cloud shadows and then reported this to their superiors. These reports were then passed on without checking. Even if there was neither a bombing nor a French plane on August 2nd, a French plane flying over Nuremberg may have been shot at on August 1st.
In any case, the report met the wishes of the General Staff very much. On August 2, the Bavarian military representative from Berlin reported to Munich:
“Then the welcome message arrived from our III.AK about the bombing by a French plane near Nuremberg. Now the War Ministry and General Staff declared, without waiting for a diplomatic act, that France was the enemy. "
consequences
It is not certain what role the report actually played in the decision-making process for the declaration of war. In any case, the alleged incident is mentioned in the German declaration of war on France on August 3, 1914 (handed over at 6 p.m.), and the report was also passed on to Italy and England on August 2 without further examination, although probably clear at that time was that there was a false report, because on the evening of August 2nd the Prussian ambassador in Munich had telegraphed the Reich Chancellor that there was no confirmation for the reports (the telegram allegedly did not arrive until the afternoon of August 3rd).
This did not prevent Reich Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg from establishing on August 4th, including with reference to the alleged attack:
“Gentlemen, we are now in self-defense; and need knows no command. "
In the Reichstag speech, however, "Nuremberg" was not explicitly mentioned, Bethmann Hollweg only spoke of "French air raids as far as southern Germany" . Wilhelm II noted on August 2, 1914 regarding the alleged incident:
"... with airplanes throwing their bombs, the French started the war and the breach of international law."
At the same time there were also rumors about aircraft attacks on railways near Wesel and Karlsruhe , all of which turned out to be false. An official denial was never published. After the end of the World War, the plane from Nuremberg became part of the bitter debate about the question of war guilt .
In a 1916 article in the New York Times , to complete the confusion, a telegraph report dated August 1 reports that bombs were dropped near Neuenburg am Rhein . From "Neuenburg" should be in the newspaper reports "Nuremberg" have become.
literature
- Florian Altenhöner: Communication and Control. Rumors and urban publics in Berlin and London 1914/1918. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-486-58183-X , pp. 171-173.
- Oscar Bloch: La Vérité sur les avions de Nuremberg. Étude sur les responsabilités de la guerre. Dangon, Paris 1922.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Welt-Blatt of August 4, 1914, p. 4 [1]
- ↑ Altenhöner: Communication and Control. 2008, p. 171
- ↑ Otto Gessler: On the Nuremberg mayor's chair in World War II. 1914-1918. In: Festgabe for His Royal Highness Crown Prince Rupprecht. Verlag Bayerisch Heimatforschung, Munich 1953, p. 101
- ↑ Marc Bloch: Apology of History. 2nd edition, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-12-915090-0 , p. 112
- ^ "The bombing of Nuremberg." In: Vossische Zeitung of October 10, 1919
- ↑ Bernd F. Schulte: New documents on the outbreak of war and the course of the war in 1914. In: Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 1979, 25, pp. 123-185
- ^ Karl Kautsky : How the World War came about. Cassirer, Berlin 1919, p. 149f, quoted from the declaration of war: “French troops crossed the German border yesterday at Altmünsterol and on mountain roads in the Vosges and are still on German territory. A French airman who must have flown over Belgian territory was shot down yesterday while attempting to destroy the railway near Wesel. Several other French aircraft were unequivocally established over the Eifel region yesterday. These must also have flown over Belgian territory. Yesterday, French planes dropped bombs on railways near Karlsruhe and Nuremberg. France has put us in a state of war. ” Digitized ; New edition: Elektrischer Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-943889-33-8 .
- ↑ Max Montgelas (ed.): The German documents on the outbreak of war in 1914. Vol. 4, No. 738, p. 191
- ↑ Fritz Fischer: War of Illusions. German politics from 1911–1914. Düsseldorf 1970 (2nd edition), p. 730.
- ↑ Altenhöner: Communication and Control. 2008, p. 173
- ^ Klaus-Dieter Schwarz: World War and Revolution in Nuremberg. A contribution to the history of the German labor movement. Klett, Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-12-907900-9 , p. 108.
- ↑ Imanuel Geiss (Ed.): July 1914. The European crisis and the outbreak of the First World War . dtv, Munich 1986, p. 355., ISBN 3-423-02921-8 .
- ^ Richard Gottheil: "A Further Discussion of the Charge of French Air Raids on Nuremberg." Edition of November 5, 1916, online