Ludwig Replies, in Berlin Paper, to Count Keyserling

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Expressing his belief that it would be improper for two German nationals to fight out a German issue in the United States, Emil Ludwig cablod his reply to Count Keyserling in a statement to the “Vossische Zeitung”. Coant Keyserling had declared that the reason for his refusal to meet Herr Ludwig at a luncheon given in his honor in New York by Mrs. William Randolph Hearst was not anti-Jewish prejudice but because he resented an inaccuracy in Ludwig’s biography of Bismarck with regard to Princess Bismarck, Keyserling’s mother-in-law.

In his statement in the “Vossische Zeituing”, Herr Ludwig declares that both statements of Count Keyserling are untrue.

With regard to the alleged unwillingness on his part to change the text of his book concerning Princess Bismarck, Herr Ludwig declares that the reason for this was that Prof. Eric Marcks, the official biographer of Bismarck declined to withdraw the same statement.

As to Count Keyserling’s denial of his anti-Jewish prejudice being the cause for his snubbing the biographer, Herr Ludwig declares: “In a very scathing review of my book on Bismarck, the Count said that a Jew could never understand the character of the Chancellor. He published the review in his own magazine, ‘Der Weg zur Vollendug’. Some years before this the same Count Keyserling wrote to me that I was one of the few men who was able to understand and analize the character of Bismarck. But at that time the Count was not yet a member by marriage of the Bismarck family and, moreover, he seemed to be unaware of my Jewish origin.”