Ambassador Luther Booed at Columbia Address

Braving a demonstration by student and New York anti-Fascist organizations, Dr. Hans Luther, German ambassador to the United States, lectured before a large audience in the Horace Mann auditorium at Columbia University Tuesday night.

In sharp contrast to his address last Wednesday before enthusiastic celebrants of German Day in the Madison Square Garden when he launched a severe attack on the Versailles Treaty, Dr. Luther was strictly on the defensive before his highly critical audience at the university. Despite the efforts of large detachments of police who had been stationed within and outside the auditorium, heckling and anti-Nazi protests were distinctly more significant of popular sentiment than the support gained by the German ambassador.

Repeated charges by police and their severely enforced restrictions against loitering outside the auditorium failed to dampen the ardor of anti-Fascist groups of Socialist, Communist, and independent organizations.

Luther, lending his address to a defense of his chancellor’s policies, confined his remarks to denials of Germany’s reported desire for war and export of Nazi propaganda, particularly to the United States, for the purpose of undermining the constitution of this country.

From 116th Street and Broadway to 120th Street where Luther spoke and where antagonist groups held their demonstrations, Broadway was spotted with placarded denunciations of Hitler. A number of cardboards contained only a large black swastika dripping red.

Stopped by police from meeting in the shelter of the Horace Mann Auditorium, hundreds of protestants met on the far, unsheltered side of the street, where speakers berated Nazi agents, Dr. Luther in particular, and regaled the police for their interference with free speech. One speaker, addressing his street audience from a soap box, declared in part: “We know that Nazi organizations are being formed in this university and in every university in the country. They are plotting to overthrow our government under our very noses.” He demanded action in ousting foreign propagandists from Columbia.

Inside the auditorium Dr. Luther met heavy opposition. He had no sooner mounted the rostrum than, “Why did Hitler burn the homes of German professors?” a young woman in the audience flung at him. Perceptibly embarrassed, the ambassador attempted to begin his address, as another question was shrieked from the same interrogator. By this time police and ushers had begun carrying her from the room.

Three times the ambassador attempted to address his audience, and three times he was interrupted. Likewise, on three occasions the police attendants sprang into action, muffling the cries of hecklers with their hands as they dragged them from the auditorium. One of the hecklers, who screamed “Down with Hitler!” until she was carried out, was identified as a woman teacher of German at Columbia.

The “Bronx Cheer” was heard in the austere atmosphere of Morning-side Heights as Russell Potter apologized at the end of the address for “the ill-mannered children”, who contributed to the interruptions. Tardy hecklers, however, appeared to lack the spirit that marked early objections to the ambassador.

Luther declared in his speech that Germany was prepared to disarm to the last rifle if other European nations would do likewise. He explained that Germany had carried out the requirements of the Versailles Treaty despite the fact that other nations had violated every clause of the disarmament section.

He denied the “absolutism” of the German Government. He stated that it was not a commodity for export.

The ambassador said that “Germany has not started propaganda in the United States with the idiotic aim of undermining the American Constitution.

“I myself would certainly not devote myself to such propaganda,” he said.