GERMANY: Octogenarian President

Came the 80th anniversary of his birth to General Field Marshall Paul Ludwig Hans von Beneckendorf und von Hindenburg, President of the German Republic. In Berlin 1,000,000 people gathered on the streets to greet him as he drove through a 12-mile lane formed by guards of honor, at the back of whom were cheering men, women and children. For once all shades of political opinion forgot their differences and joined in homage to the aged President. All over Germany similar scenes of joyous ovation were enacted.

The celebration started a day ahead of time and lasted throughout the birthday anniversary the next day. Every state in the German Commonwealth agreed to give many political pardons in honor of the President, who himself signed a release for 75 men convicted by the Federal Courts.

Presents poured in upon the President. Chancellor Wilhelm Marx and Vice Chancellor Oskar Hergt called at the Presidential palace to present their chief with a 500-piece set of Prussian porcelain—a replica of the set given to Frederick the Great 160 years ago. German Industrialists presented him with a deed to the old Hindenburg estate, Gut Neudeck, the ancestral home of the family. Porcelain ceramics, fine carvings and a bottle of hundred-year old Chateau Magaux were among the thousands of presents that were received, not the least of which were a new top hat, a decorated coat hanger, phonograph records and a huge and luscious cake from his grandchildren.

Every state in the world sent the aged President of Germany its felicitations, 500 such messages alone coming from the U. S. Ambassador and Mrs. Jacob Gould Schurman sent a huge basket of 80 American beauty roses, and the entire Presidential palace was decorated with flowers, chief among which was the lily of the valley, the President’s favorite. Later these were given to the poor and the sick.

Berlin in gala attire dwarfed even the splendors of Imperial days. The figure 80 was displayed in electric lights in many parts of Berlin. Flags and bunting festooned the city almost from end to end, and might have been more conspicuous had Berlin department stores been able to fill the orders. One store alone was unable to fill orders for 600,000 yards of bunting, despite the fact that the stores had laid in a special supply of 1,000,000 yards for the occasion.