Struck Kaiser

Strange Case of Naval Officer Who Assaulted German Emperor.

Officially Dead, He Yet Lives In America - How He Came to Black Wilhelm II's Eye.

Officially dead and officially buried, Lieutenant von Hahnke, formerly of the German navy, remains alive despite the memorial shaft the German emperor put up to mark the spot where his body officially rests and despite the official funeral service which the emperor attended. And Von Hahnke will continue dead, for the records cannot be changed. Von Hahnke had to die, for he committed the unpardonable sin of striking the emperor.

It was while the imperial yacht Hohenzollern was on a cruise in the North sea in the summer of 1807 that the unfortunate affair happened for which the lieutenant had to die. He was an ardent cyclist and persisted in practicing with his wheel on the deck of the vessel, although it was known to be against the emperor's wishes. But Von Hahnke was a hot headed youth. His family is one of the oldest and proudest in Germany, and when one day in August his majesty caught the lieutenant at his favorite pastime and rebuked him in language so brutal that the young officer forgot his position there was a catastrophe.

Image caption: The Officer Struck the Kaiser.

The lieutenant answered his imperial master as one angry man answers other, and then the kaiser struck the lieutenant. By all the laws of custom, by all the laws of Germany, the lieutenant should have accepted the chastisement, for his majesty can do no wrong. But the Von Hahnkes are a hot headed lot and are like the furies when aroused. So it was that the young lieutenant struck his majesty - struck him with all the force and power he had in his strong right arm - struck him flush in the eye, struck him so heavily that for two weeks the emperor's eye was black and his cheek bruised. That blow meant death - official death - for Van Hahnke.

The world never has been informed of the details of what happened on the yacht after the emperor was struck down, for, it is said, the kaiser fell so heavily from the force of the lieutenant's blow that he had to be carried to his room. In all the long years of the Hohenzollern rule there has been no case like that of Von Hahnke's, and what added to the sadness of the situation was the fact that between the emperor and tbt young officer there was a strong affection. But the unpardonable sin had been committed, and nothing but death could wipe it out. Had William been other than of royal blood there would have been a duel, but there can be no duels where royalty is concerned.

And so it was that Von Hahnke had to die. He went ashore, and it was accepted and understood he would commit suicide there in the wilds of Norway. He took his bicycle with him, and when the wheel was found smashed on the rocks overlooking the sea off Odde it was announced he was dead, having fallen from the heights into the flood beneath. Six weeks later a body was found, and this was identified officially as that of Von Hahnke. A brother officer testified lie was with Von Hahnke when the "accident" happened. He said the lieutenant in trying to avoid a shying pony had run his bicycle on the rocks and was sent headlong into the current below.

But Von Hahnke doesn't seem to be dead even if be is dead officially. Those who ought to know - and there are such in Berlín, in London and New York - say the story of the suicide, the smashing of the bicycle on the rocks and the identification of the body were official romances, nothing more. Von Hahnke, they say, remained in Norway until the Hohenzollern left for Kiel, and then he came to America.