Foreign News: Ludendorff v. Jews

Two years ago General Erich von Ludendorff, Wartime Chief of Staff of the Imperial German Army, surprised his countrymen by becoming a convert to the worship of Woden, fierce Teuton god. Said the general last spring: “Charlemagne introduced Jewish Christianity into Germany. He destroyed the Teutonic faith in Woden. . . . Behind all our troubles lie Charlemagne and the Pope” (TIME, June 16). Other recent eccentricities of General von Ludendorff include an interest in alchemy and the manufacture of gold from baser metals. Consistent with his Woden worship, he published and had his second wife edit a journal called Volkswarte, dedicated to antiSemitism. Through Volkswarte the von Ludendorffs spread the news that Jews and Masons were plotting to kill certain German notables, that Jews had wrecked railway trains to increase the sale and use of Jew-made motors and airplanes.

From the Berlin office of the Jewish telegraphic agency came spicy news last week. General von Ludendorff had turned his back on Woden, alchemy, and Jew-baiting ! He was suing his second wife, Dr. Mathilda Kemnitz von Ludendorff for divorce on the grounds that she, a one-time psychiatrist, had deluded him into espousing activities which had brought him into ridicule, which his friends had finally persuaded him to abandon. Jews rejoiced, but not for long. Came a blast from Wodenist Ludendorff. He was not suing for divorce, he still loved his wife, still hated the Jews. What he had done was file a petition for dissolution of their financial partnership so that Frau von Ludendorff might be protected from the mounting pile of libel and damage suits registered against Volkswarte.