Foreign News: Hindenburg’s Ballot

Two soldiers always flank the door of a certain large but unpretentious mansion on the famed Wilhelmstrasse. Changed every few hours, they stand while on duty absolutely motionless, eyes front, shouldering heavy service rifles which are never seen to move, to tremble. Early one morning last week these soldier automatons turned suddenly as though on pivots, snapped to salute, and again became motionless as President Paul von Hindenburg, 81, strode forth with a Feldmarschall’s tread, passed down the Wilhelmstrasse into the Taubenstrasse and entered a reeking, beery saloon.

There, in a corner decked with sweet smelling blossoms, the president of the German Empire† found a polling box and gravely deposited therein his ballot for the

German general election (see p. 14). Never before had Old Paul von Hindenburg voted in the city of Berlin. How he voted is his secret.

† Such is the official English translation of Reich (realm or empire) which most democratic Germans would prefer, however, to translate “republic.”