Court of the Government-General at Brussels.
Present:
Dr. IVERS, Judge of Military Law.
Secretary, RAMBEAU.
LOUVAIN, _September 23rd, 1914_.
First Lieutenant Telemann of the Reserve, Supply Commando, declared as
follows:
As to Person: My name is Paul Telemann, born at Nordhausen on October
20th, 1877; Protestant; Royal President at the Ministry of Public Works
in Berlin.
The witness was informed that the Governor-General, Field-Marshal
General Baron von der Goltz, had arranged judicial proceedings for
the purpose of ascertaining whether German military persons, and, if
so, which, were guilty and deserving of punishment; he then made the
following statement:
As to Case: Since noon on August 25th the infantry barracks, Rue
de Tirlemont, with about 300 men suffering from foot trouble and
a few slightly wounded doing guard duty at Louvain, were under my
supervision.
On the evening of August 25th I and two 1st Staff-Surgeons were
having supper in the Café Royal--since burned down--in the market.
Suddenly--as far as I remember, soon after 8 p.m.--I heard lively
firing in the market, which steadily increased. The hostess, a German,
immediately switched off the electric light, and we and the other
guests of the establishment, chiefly officers and non-commissioned
officers of our army, went into a back room so as not to be hit from
the street. As the greater number of us were without arms, we decided
for the present to wait there.
When after a time the firing ceased, we hurried into the street, and
there met German soldiers going along the houses for the purpose of
taking action against those from which inhabitants had fired. As far
as I remember, only isolated shots fell at that time. We went over to
the town hall, where I met a group of people from my barrack who had
gone to the town hall to look for me. I at once went with them to the
infantry barracks. During this time also only isolated shots were fired
behind us.
The guard and a large number of soldiers stationed there stood in front
of the infantry barracks with their rifles ready, and they showed me
several houses in the Rue de Tirlemont from which inhabitants had fired
on them. I forbade them, under threat of heavy punishment, to set
these houses on fire as they had intended, as I wished to protect the
"Military Hospital" opposite the barracks and the barracks themselves
with the wounded. A short time afterwards we heard continuous firing
from the direction of the adjoining Place du Peuple, and in this
direction we also saw several houses burning. Motor-cars arrived
now, bringing German wounded to the "Military Hospital." As far as I
remember, there were in all about thirty to thirty-five, amongst whom
were also some severely wounded, as, for instance, Captain v. Esmarch,
who had shot wounds in the head and had dislocated both arms in his
fall from horseback.
Owing to the fairly strong wind the entire blocks of houses behind the
field hospital began to catch fire, apparently from the houses set
alight in the Place du Peuple; I had thus to direct my whole attention
to the safety of the wounded. Fortunately the wind abated somewhat
later on and drove the flames to the other side, so that after bringing
up fire-hose, it was possible to save the field hospital.
During the night the crack of isolated gun-shots and the explosion of
ammunition in the burning houses continued intermittently.
In the early hours of the morning a division of pioneers marched
through the Rue de Tirlemont, who asserted that they had just been
fired on from the houses of this street, and they also wanted to set
the houses on fire. I forbade this for the reasons already mentioned.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: PAUL TELEMANN.
The witness was then sworn.
Signed: Dr. IVERS. Signed: RAMBEAU.