THE DEAD HAUPTMANN VON HIRSCHGATEN

Today in Berlin: March 26, 1920

At 8 PM on this day in 1920 - exactly 105 years ago - a car parked in front of a popular riverside restaurant “Zum Aussichtsturm” in Berlin-Hirschgarten (now part of Berlin-Friedrichshagen) was nearly ripped to pieces by a powerful explosion.

Six men and a woman were gravely injured, one man did not survive the blast. Later, the only woman in the party, the 29-year-old Irene Zwicke, would die of her injuries, too. “Frau Zwicke” was in fact Marie Irene von Thiesenhausen, daughter of Prussian General Anton Bogislav Carl von Thiesenhausen - she died in the nearby Hospital Köpenick two months later, in May.

The horrifically mutilated immediate victim was not an unknown, accidental character: Heinz von Pflugk-Harttung was among the violent right-wing troops responsible for the killing of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht at the “Eden Hotel” in January 1919. Together with his older brother Horst - who counts as the actual murderer of the latter - Heinz took park in Liebknecht’s execution.

He also participated in Kapp-Putsch, the attempted military coup in Berlin in March 1920 - and then quickly (and for some rather unexpectedly) changed fronts becoming the Defender of the Republic. In March 1920 at the behest of General von Seeckt, he run tight military administration in where yours truly is penning these words, in Berlin-Friedrichshagen.

In short, Heinz von Pflugk-Harttung was not a blank page. Rather, there were quite a lot of blood stains on it. Even though the accusations making him responsible for the killing of the supporters of People’s Councils in Köpenick are now believed to be unfounded.