1920sberlinerpost no2

Page 1

1920s

Berliner Post No. 2 MAI/JUN

5 reichspfennig - 5 Linden

BLUTMAI / BLOODY MAY DAY ! BERLIN, MAI 1ST: Reported by Zeno McAuley and Gstone Turas

“From the sanctuary of his humble pine-box at the foot of Bergabstrasse, vagrant Georg Langer noticed that today something seemed to be different. The rats seemed somehow bigger, and they were carrying flags. He took a pull on his meths bottle, rolling the clear, acrid liquid around his tongue as he struggled to form the word. ‘Flags...’ he muttered to noone in particular. ‘Whatever next?’ And then he rolled over and went back to sleep.” He appears to have been the only Berliner to get any rest whatsoever during the two days of rioting which ensued after the Polizei descended on illegally gathered Kommunist ‘agitators’, batons flying.The May Day Rally had been deemed unlawful in the light of the Berlin Police President’s

Photograph: Jo Yardley by Zeno McAuley

ban on all open-air political meetings, first instituted on December 13th 1928, and repeated during April 1929; however, the Kommunist Party (KDP) chose to ignore this directive, calling for the rally to go ahead, despite the lack of a permit. Red coloured leaflets covered the streets of Berlin, an omen if ever there was one, foreshadowing the blood-- red in more than once sense, which would later run in the gutters of our city. CONTINUED PAGE 2.


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