Baron Cramer-Klett alerts Pacelli that the French plan to compel the dissolution of the Einwohnerwehr, a large armed paramilitary force in Bavaria that constituted a violation of the Versaille Treaty's limits on German military strength - Oct. 23, 1920
Source: Timeline
Oct. 23, 1920 Baron Cramer-Klett alerts Pacelli that the French plan to compel the dissolution of the Einwohnerwehr, a large armed paramilitary force in Bavaria that constituted a violation of the Versaille Treaty's limits on German military strength.
English translationPacelli forwards to Rome Cramer-Klett's request that the Pope intervene to prevent the dissolution of the Einwohnerwehr. Source: www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document Nos. 341 and 3434
Oct. 23, 1920 Cramer-Klett to Pacelli:
Most Reverend Excellency and dearest Monsignore,
In all haste - my train for Frankfurt leaves in a few minutes - allow me to make known to you that I heard yesterday semi-officially that the French are trying anew to destroy the Einwohnerwehr! Just at the moment when order is being re-established, and ordinary life is being re-established. Just when winter is threatening us with food shortages. They are threatening to send garrisons not only to the Ruhr Valley but also to Munich. It seems these hysterical Crazies want to establish bolshevism in all of Germany. This great Peril requires me to say this to Your Most Reverend Excellency: and to exorcise it by asking the Holy See to do everything possible to prevent this insanity. The demonstrations by the Einwohnerwehr were such as to strike fear in the lowlife and have been greatly successful. - (the split in the Independent Socialist Party). No one in the Einwohnerwehr is thinking of war! Without Artillery Arms etc. The will to destroy enemies is manifest. Once again I implore the Holy See to prevent the disarmament of the People of Order in Germany and especially in Bavaria. In this case Minister Kahr will indeed go away and we will have Chaos again!
Excuse my haste and my handwriting but this seems to me of the greatest importance and Peril in [illegible]
I kiss your hand and ring and glory in being
Your Most Reverend Excellency's
most humble and faithful servant
Cramer-Klett
Source: Vatican Secret Archives, reprinted in www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document No. 3434.
Pacelli transmitted Cramer-Klett's letter on the same day to the Vatican, with a cover letter stating:
Allow me to transmit here-enclosed to Your Most Reverend Excellency a letter from Baron von Cramer-Klett, in which he invokes the supreme intervention of the Holy Father to prevent the threatened dissolution of the civic guard (Einwohnerwehr).
Source: Pacelli to Tedeschini, Oct. 23, 1920, Vatican Secret Archives, reprinted in www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document No. 341.