Court of the Government-General at Brussels.
Present:
Dr. IVERS, Judge of Military Law.
Secretary, RAMBEAU.
LOUVAIN, _September 23rd, 1914_.
First Surgeon, 2nd Mobile Landsturm Infantry Battalion Neuss, Dr.
Berghausen made the following statement:
As to Person: My name is Georg Berghausen, born at Cologne o.Rh. on
February 1st, 1881; Old Catholic.
As to Case: I am Battalion Surgeon in the Landsturm Infantry Battalion
Neuss, and arrived at the station of Louvain with the 1st Company of
this regiment on August 24th, 1914, at noon. I lived with the Staff
in the Hôtel "De la Ville," and in order to prepossess the proprietor
and the employés I immediately paid out of my own pocket 50 francs
for the purchase of provisions. The evening of the 24th and the night
passed quietly. At noon on the 25th I was on duty at Herent and Bueken.
At about 4 p.m. I was again in Louvain. At about 5 o'clock I heard
that there was a battle proceeding at Bueken. The 1st Company of the
Landsturm Infantry Battalion Neuss, under 1st Lieutenant v. Sandt as
company leader, marched to the north-west exit of Louvain. I had gone
there previously by motor, and went as far as the fighting-line before
Bueken, where I was repeatedly fired at whilst sitting in my car,
though I was wearing the white armlet with the red cross. I returned to
Louvain in my car at 11.30 p.m. I got out near the town hall and sent
my car with the chauffeur to the station. I myself went on foot along
the Rue de la Station in order to go to the station where I was living.
On the way, between the town hall and the station, I was fired at from
the windows of the houses about ten or twelve times. Close to where
the Monument stands, I saw a German soldier lying dead on the ground;
he had been shot in the head (mouth). His comrades, with whom he had
passed the Monument, told me on inquiry as to who had shot the soldier,
that the shot had been fired from the corner house of David Fischbach.
With the help of my servant I broke open the street door, and there
first encountered the occupant, old David Fischbach. I questioned him
regarding the murdered soldier, because, as the other soldiers declared
with certainty, the shot that had killed the soldier on the Monument
place had been fired from his house. Old David Fischbach declared that
he knew nothing about it. His son, young Fischbach, then came down the
stairs of the first floor, and from the porter's lodge came an old
servant. I immediately took father, son, and servant into the street.
At this moment a tumult arose in the street because the soldiers,
standing near the Monument, and I myself, were being terribly fired on
from a few houses farther away on the same side. During this time I
lost Fischbach, his son, and the servant in the darkness.
Lively firing proceeded from a house obliquely opposite the present
commando, Rue de la Station, No. 120. Just in front of this house, No.
120, two officers of high rank and several soldiers passed, hurrying in
the direction of the station on account of the violent firing. I can
state with certainty that the officers and soldiers, who went along
the Rue de la Station during the time that I passed from the town hall
to the railway, did not fire. Accordingly, it is certain that while
the German soldiers did not fire, the inhabitants fired on us German
officers and soldiers from their windows in the Rue de la Station on
the night of August 25th to 26th, at between 11 and 12 o'clock, and,
particularly that when we passed the house No. 120, Rue de la Station,
I saw myself that a murderous fire was directed upon us officers and
soldiers from the second floor of this house. That we, or some of us,
were not killed, I can only explain by the fact that the officers and
soldiers ran along on the same side of the street from which the firing
took place, and that, moreover, it was dark.
A few minutes later I met, near the Monument, the commissariat
Commandant, Major v. Manteuffel, with the Belgian president of the
Red Cross, the prior of the Dominican Monastery, and the old priest
of the town. We four or five all saw the shot soldier and, a few
steps farther, the old Fischbach lying shot in front of the Monument.
I assumed that the comrades of the shot soldier, who had seen the
firing from the house of Fischbach upon their comrade, had immediately
carried out this punishment on the owner of the house. I then joined
the Commandant with his group of eight soldiers and the three hostages.
The Commandant went with his soldiers and the three hostages through
the main streets of the town, and the Father Prior announced in a
loud voice in Flemish and French that no Belgians should fire upon
German soldiers, otherwise the hostages would have to be shot and the
town would have to pay a fine of twenty millions, and furthermore the
houses, from which German soldiers had been fired at, would be burnt.
From this statement of mine, which I can conscientiously swear to, it
can be clearly seen that on the night of August 25th to 26th, and also
on the forenoon of August 26th, the inhabitants fired repeatedly and
frequently upon German officers and German soldiers without any cause,
that is to say, without a German officer or a German soldier having
first fired upon the inhabitants.
Finally, I wish to add that during those days I saw myself a 1st
Surgeon, a Captain, and a Landsturm soldier wounded by small-shot, the
two former in the face; I treated the Landsturm soldier myself; he had
shot-wounds in the forehead, on the right hand, and the right thigh. I
also treated a fourth wounded, a Landsturm soldier with shot-wounds in
the thigh.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: Dr. GEORG BERGHAUSEN.
The witness was then sworn.
Signed: Dr. IVERS. Signed: RAMBEAU.