Monday, Nov. 03, 1930
''Ruffian Methods"
Following the "plate glass riots" in Berlin, when nearly every Jewish department store had its windows smashed (TIME, Oct. 27), Prime Minister Otto Braun of Prussia decided last week that he needed a new, ruthless Minister of Interior. (In European countries generally the Minister of Interior controls the police.)
Logically Prussian Braun thought of Herr Wilhelm Karl Severing who, recently Minister of Interior for all Germany, handled his Schupo (national police) with such hard-boiled dash that they nicknamed him "The Dragon Slayer." Asked if he would consent to become Minister of Interior of the State of Prussia, Herr Severing accepted instantly, believing that it is in Prussia, in Berlin, the Capital, that Schupo must break Fascist Adolf Hitler's "brownshirt" movement if they can.
"It is not our purpose to have heads roll in the sand!" barked the newly appointed Minister last week, paraphrasing Herr Hitler's famed threat (TIME, Oct. 6). "What we want is to create political common sense! If anyone believes we must keep quiet and accept disorder and window breaking, then he may as well know--and this is no mere phrase--that I take an oath that physical power will not be only on the side of the others. Whoever imagines he can attack republican institutions will learn that ruffians must be dealt with by ruffian methods."
Strong for Law & Order, Socialist Karl Severing began his career as a locksmith.
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