As to Person: My name is Georg Berghausen, born at Cologne o.Rh. on February 1st, 1881; Old Catholic.
As to Case: I am Battalion Surgeon in the Landsturm Infantry Battalion Neuss, and arrived at the station of Louvain with the 1st Company of this regiment on August 24th, 1914, at noon. I lived with the Staff in the Hôtel "De la Ville," and in order to prepossess the proprietor and the employés I immediately paid out of my own pocket 50 francs for the purchase of provisions. The evening of the 24th and the night passed quietly. At noon on the 25th I was on duty at Herent and Bueken. At about 4 p.m. I was again in Louvain. At about 5 o'clock I heard that there was a battle proceeding at Bueken. The 1st Company of the Landsturm Infantry Battalion Neuss, under 1st Lieutenant v. Sandt as company leader, marched to the north-west exit of Louvain. I had gone there previously by motor, and went as far as the fighting-line before Bueken, where I was repeatedly fired at whilst sitting in my car, though I was wearing the white armlet with the red cross. I returned to Louvain in my car at 11.30 p.m. I got out near the town hall and sent my car with the chauffeur to the station. I myself went on foot along the Rue de la Station in order to go to the station where I was living. On the way, between the town hall and the station, I was fired at from the windows of the houses about ten or twelve times. Close to where the Monument stands, I saw a German soldier lying dead on the ground; he had been shot in the head (mouth). His comrades, with whom he had passed the Monument, told me on inquiry as to who had shot the soldier, that the shot had been fired from the corner house of David Fischbach. With the help of my servant I broke open the street door, and there first encountered the occupant, old David Fischbach. I questioned him regarding the murdered soldier, because, as the other soldiers declared with certainty, the shot that had killed the soldier on the Monument place had been fired from his house. Old David Fischbach declared that he knew nothing about it. His son, young Fischbach, then came down the stairs of the first floor, and from the porter's lodge came an old servant. I immediately took father, son, and servant into the street. At this moment a tumult arose in the street because the soldiers, standing near the Monument, and I myself, were being terribly fired on from a few houses farther away on the same side. During this time I lost Fischbach, his son, and the servant in the darkness.
Lively firing proceeded from a house obliquely opposite the present commando, Rue de la Station, No. 120. Just in front of this house, No. 120, two officers of high rank and several soldiers passed, hurrying in the direction of the station on account of the violent firing. I can state with certainty that the officers and soldiers, who went along the Rue de la Station during the time that I passed from the town hall to the railway, did not fire. Accordingly, it is certain that while the German soldiers did not fire, the inhabitants fired on us German officers and soldiers from their windows in the Rue de la Station on the night of August 25th to 26th, at between 11 and 12 o'clock, and, particularly that when we passed the house No. 120, Rue de la Station, I saw myself that a murderous fire was directed upon us officers and soldiers from the second floor of this house. That we, or some of us, were not killed, I can only explain by the fact that the officers and soldiers ran along on the same side of the street from which the firing took place, and that, moreover, it was dark.
A few minutes later I met, near the Monument, the commissariat Commandant, Major v. Manteuffel, with the Belgian president of the Red Cross, the prior of the Dominican Monastery, and the old priest of the town. We four or five all saw the shot soldier and, a few steps farther, the old Fischbach lying shot in front of the Monument. I assumed that the comrades of the shot soldier, who had seen the firing from the house of Fischbach upon their comrade, had immediately carried out this punishment on the owner of the house. I then joined the Commandant with his group of eight soldiers and the three hostages. The Commandant went with his soldiers and the three hostages through the main streets of the town, and the Father Prior announced in a loud voice in Flemish and French that no Belgians should fire upon German soldiers, otherwise the hostages would have to be shot and the town would have to pay a fine of twenty millions, and furthermore the houses, from which German soldiers had been fired at, would be burnt.
From this statement of mine, which I can conscientiously swear to, it can be clearly seen that on the night of August 25th to 26th, and also on the forenoon of August 26th, the inhabitants fired repeatedly and frequently upon German officers and German soldiers without any cause, that is to say, without a German officer or a German soldier having first fired upon the inhabitants.
Finally, I wish to add that during those days I saw myself a 1st Surgeon, a Captain, and a Landsturm soldier wounded by small-shot, the two former in the face; I treated the Landsturm soldier myself; he had shot-wounds in the forehead, on the right hand, and the right thigh. I also treated a fourth wounded, a Landsturm soldier with shot-wounds in the thigh.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: Dr. Georg Berghausen.
The witness was then sworn.
Signed: Dr. Ivers. Signed: Rambeau.