Two-Faced Supreme Court

Stolidly believing that theirs is not to reason why, square-headed Berlin police seized fat and foxy Premier Otto Braun of Prussia on July 20 and forcibly barred him from his office. Last week Dr. Braun came back. Waddling up the steps while a friendly throng shouted "Hail, Freedom!", he exposed his bald head, bowed several times from the waist, replaced his hat, entered his office, took off his hat and sat down once again as Premier of Prussia. "I do wish," said Dr. Braun, "that President von Hindenburg had consulted me before signing that decree. It is not enjoyable to be turned out into the street with one's whole Cabinet. However, my Ministers and I will now consult with the Federal Government, being guided exclusively by what is best for Prussia and for Germany."

Reichsgericht. Premier Braun was back in his office as the result of doings last week in Leipzig, aloof seat of the Reichsgericht or German Supreme Court. In its dim and stately chamber, Chief Justice Dr. Erwin Bumke handed down what would have been a momentous decision if it had not been one of the most ambiguous verdicts ever given by a Supreme Court.

On the one hand Chancellor von Papen's ousting of the Prussian Cabinet under a decree of President von Hindenburg is annulled and Premier Braun & Ministers are empowered to represent the Government of Prussia. On the other hand the chancellor's appointment under the same Presidential decree of Dr. Franz Bracht as Acting Federal Commissioner to govern the State of Prussia is upheld. In effect the Supreme Court decision recognizes simultaneously two conflicting authorities in Prussia.

"This verdict cannot be understood," said the Nationalist Nachtausgabe, stanch supporter of President von Hindenburg. "The Supreme Court's ruling is two-faced," snapped the Industrialist Allgemeine Zeitung. Dryly the Socialist Vorwaerts recalled the Judgment of Solomon, heaped ironic praise on Chief Justice Dr. Erwin Bumke, declared "The child has been nicely cut in two and each contending mother has received one-half."

Serious Invasions. Since the child (Prussia) obviously had to be put together, President von Hindenburg invited Premier Braun to a consultation at which Chancellor von Papen was present. It ended in a furious quarrel over what the Supreme Court had meant, though the President, the Chancellor and the Premier all professed extreme respect for the Court's hopelessly ambiguous verdict.

Next day Chancellor von Papen tried to absorb the Prussian Cabinet into his Federal Cabinet. He created a Federal Ministry called the "Ministry of Interior of Prussia," and gave it to Dr. Bracht, who has been ruling Prussia as Acting Federal Commissioner. A Dr. Johann Popitz was popped into the State and Federal Cabinets as "Minister of Finance of Prussia." Finally the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Baron Magnus von Braun, added to his titles "Minister of Agriculture of Prussia."

Thus Chancellor von Papen hog-tied the Prussian Free State to the German Federal Government but left bald Dr. Braun loose as Premier of Prussia.

For sheer, high-handed awkwardness this arrangement could scarcely be surpassed. It meant the undoing by Chancellor von Papen of his own oratorical efforts to convince the Bavarian Free State that he really has no intention of encroaching on "States rights."

Profoundly disillusioned, the Cabinet of Bavarian Premier Dr. Heinrich Held dashed off a telegram to President von Hindenburg, accused Chancellor von Papen of "serious invasions into the constitutional status of all German states."

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