382.1163 Watch Tower/56
The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Acting Secretary
of State
No. 309
Berlin, December 4,
1933.
[Received December 14.]
Sir: With reference to my despatch No. 158
[156] of September 20,61 on the subject of the
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, I have the honor to enclose
copies and translation of a note verbale
dated November 13, from the Foreign Office, and of its enclosure,
the decree of June 2462 issued by the Prussian Ministry of the
Interior suppressing the activities of the Society in Prussia and
confiscating its property. The Ministry’s decree is based on the
Presidential decree of February 28, suspending, on the ground of the
existing danger of a communist uprising, certain articles (114, 115,
117, 118, 123, 124, and 154 [153?]) of the
German Constitution relating to personal guarantees. This decree is
still in force.
The Departments’s attention is invited to the first sentence in
paragraph 3 of the note verbale, wherein
allusion is made to the legal remedies alleged to be available to
the Society, although in the following sentence the Foreign Office
appears to express the belief that the Treaty of 1923 gives the
Prussian authorities the right to withdraw their approval of the
Society, in accordance with the laws of Prussia and the Reich.
On December 1, however, the Embassy gave a copy of the pertinent
excerpt from the note verbale to Mr. Harbeck,
the Society’s superintendent for Central Europe, who had just
arrived from Switzerland. He expressed grave doubt whether the
remedy suggested by the German Government would afford any relief
but added that he would consult the Society’s attorney. The Embassy
has learned subsequently from the Consul in charge, Mr. Geist, who
is thoroughly familiar with this matter, that he had been informed
by Mr. Harbeck of the latter’s intention to press the case in the
courts.
During the conversation on December 1, Mr. Harbeck stated that the
Society’s property in Magdeburg had been restored to it, as set
forth in paragraph 4 of the German Government’s note, but that all
religious activities are forbidden.
Respectfully yours,
For the Ambassador:
J. C. White
[Enclosure—Translation]
The German Foreign
Office to the American
Embassy
No. III A 3495
Note Verbale
In reply to note verbale No. 61 submitted
here on September 20, 1933, by Mr. O’Donoghue, Secretary of
Embassy, relative to the branch of the American Watch Tower
Bible and Tract Society in Magdeburg, which was forbidden by
order of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, the Foreign
Office has the honor to inform the Embassy of the United States
of America as follows:
The grounds on which the Prussian Government, within the scope of
an action directed against the International Association of
Bible Students together with all its subsidiary organizations,
dissolved and prohibited the branch of the above-mentioned
American society known in Germany as the Watch Tower Bible and
Tract Society, are shown in the text of the Ministerial Decree
of June 24, 1933, of which a copy is enclosed and to which
reference is made. The procedure adopted in the action against
the Society conforms with the pertinent legal provisions of the
Reich, or States.
The claim to free admission to the courts provided for in Article
XII of the German-American Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and
Consular Rights of December 8, 1923, has been complied with in
that the legal recourses provided for in the Prussian Police
Administrative Law include also suits in the administrative
court. The principle contained in the second paragraph of the
same Article might, however, be looked upon as decisive in the
present case, namely, that the right of the forbidden society to
carry out its activity in the Free State of Prussia was
contingent upon the approval of the Prussian Government given in
conformity with the Reich and State laws, but that it ceased
automatically at the moment that the previously granted approval
was revoked in accordance with the Reich and State laws.
As the Prussian Ministry of the Interior informs the Foreign
Office, it was at the time suggested to the Watch Tower Bible
and Tract Society to remove its organization to some other
country, and it was expressly permitted to move its machines and
other equipment from here to such place for that purpose.
Besides, out of consideration for the representations made by
the Consul General of the United States, the Regierungspräsident
in Magdeburg was instructed on September 26, 1933, to rescind
the confiscation of the property of the prohibited Society.
Furthermore, the former personnel of the Society was permitted
to live in its buildings again.
[Page 416]
On the other hand the preparation of pamphlets and broadsheets
carried on by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in the
past, as well as its activity with regard to teaching and
holding meetings, must remain forbidden. Consequently the
regulation will also remain in force, in accordance with which a
guarantee must be insured, by means of supervision of the
pertinent buildings of the forbidden Society, that neither
printed matter of any kind is prepared there, nor political or
religious meetings held, nor any teaching done.
Berlin,
November
13, 1933.
