Show SUICIDE EPIDEMIC SWEEPING GERMANY economic depression given as the cause berlin A grim and mysterious epidemic of suicides bulc ldes la Is sAve sweeping germany Geri many of the leading dailies now carry a regular section tucked away lu in nu an obscure corner of tho the paper lind bearing the caption die apt rpt adealle die epidemic of 0 self belt destrie tion in ili this the dally daily list of suicides Is given many of them receiving only a line the more sensational cases get a short notice of ten to twenty lines one has the tha impression that many cases are not reported ut at lill all or at least not published epidemics epidemic 3 grow through imitation and tills this the authorities wish to avoid tito the causes of the abnormal rato rate of in present day germany are no doubt tho the widespread economic depression dor der pr eslon r the increased tempo of modern life the depletion of nerve dorco i through tile tho war w ar and the tremendous financial and personal losses the war brought about the shaken condition of tile tho structure tind and a general fear of life which has overtaken thousands all these factors tire are augmented in tile the cade cabe of the german by his tendency to brood to ponder the riddles of existence to regard life and its trials and problems from the anglo angle of some particular philosophy of welt anschau ung where pessimism lingers when the mans philosophy goes to pieces upon the rocks of experience the man himself often goes to pieces likewise and the unfortunate human creature Is driven to the last positive net of which lie he Is capable the act of self set anni fanni f hl lation it Is also often lit in the nature of a grand gest gesture lire nt at one blow lie destroys the whole visible and palpable world tor for himself suicide lias has at times even it a romantic tinge in germany sentimental remnants front from the days of goetges Go ethea ethes S sorrows or of werther Wert lier of philosophical pessimism front from the alie works of or von hartin hartmann tin in III no ot other tier r country ore are young lovers so prone to end their lives if parental permission to marry Is not forthcoming lit in no other country Is the proportion of child suicides so great these cases of juvenile self destruction mania usually arise front from fear of punishment at home or nt at school fear of disgrace or morbid conceptions of honor connected with failure to pass examinations at school but it Is not only the poor the distraught the lovelorn or the inexperienced who lay violent hands upon themselves in tile the german republic the list of prominent well to do apparently patently ly happy people who have recently ended their lives in germany Is appalling to mention but a few cases there Is paul cassirer the art dealer husband of the famous german actress tilla durieux Dur leux who shot himself in the lawyers office whither he had bad gone with his wife and daughter to arrange a divorce settlement blumen rothe a famous florist of berlin whose body was found long after lie he had vanished under pines in the forest of grunewald plunged into info lee ice cavern there Is also the mystery of the death of a beautiful and celebrated star of the national opera int at berlin lit in private life frau frail bremer who went to zermatt Zer matt in switzerland months ago and threw herself into the icebound ice bound ravine under the lofty devils bridge apparently without the slightest cause tier her body coro com ing to light a few weeks ago after the melting of the ice there is the case of carl ilau hau once a well known lawyer who had been accused of murdering his mother in law and sentenced to life imprisonment twenty years ago lie ile was recently pardoned and began writing and publishing his prison memoirs in a big berlin dally daily the state attorney of Wurt reopened proceedings proceeding s against him ilau fled the country to italy and threw himself into the sea from a train strange tragedies are of dally daily occurrence day after day the newspaper reader Is confronted with such little notices as this suicide of an aged married couple 11 and then the th sordid inevitable details the cau for the grim act often described by one word sorgen food worries |