One of them is the Benedictine Father Ansgar Pöllmann in Beuron. I had been facing a Benedictine Father in court once before. His name was Willibrord Beßler and called himself a professor. He had published a serious insult against me in the "Stern der Jugend" <Star of the Youth>. I found out that he had his domicile in the Benedictine abbey of Seckau in Styria; so, I travelled there and had him summoned to the district court of Leoben. There, it turned out that he did have the right to bear the title of a professor at all. He gave me the following written apology:
"Responding to a request to give a more detailed definition of the terms `professor' and `author for the youth', attributed to me in various writings, I hereby state that I am a teacher at the private secondary school of the abbey of Seckau and that I am a correspondent for the youth-magazine `Stern der Jugend'. Furthermore, I truthfully declare that I regret the article contained in the above mentioned magazine (1903 No. 25) on the medical conditions of the author Karl May and that I formally take back those words he objected to in court.
"Seckau, October the 20th, 1904.
Father Willibrord Beßler
O.S.B." [a]
| Father Willibrord Beßler O.S.B." [a] |
[a] OSB = Ordinis Sancti Benedicti (of the order of Saint Benedict). The original book incorrectly reads "O.S.P.".
And now there was once again a Benedictine Father, I had to sue in court! The name of the abbot seems to be Ildefons Schober in both cases. Might it be the same person? Not in Seckau and not in Beuron, but elsewhere, Benedictines have printed lots of illegal copies of my "traveller's tales" without my knowledge, until I forbade them to do so. I do not know how it is possible for an religious order to print and distribute my works without any permission, and still to insult and persecute me in such a public manner, or rather to put me and these very same works under the ban! In vain, I am making every effort to find a logical connection between these two. After all, it goes entirely without saying that I could not possibly have allowed this printing to go on! By the way, this Father from Beuron is the very same who wants to "put a figurative noose around my neck, to whip me out of the temple of German art with it". So, first they print copies of my books without asking me, and then they drive me out with their whips! This is how Father Pöllmann characterises his own order, which has truly done more than enough for the benefit of our literature, so that it should not be given such a reputation by one of its members!
Father Pöllmann has written a series of articles against me in the Catholic magazine "Ueber den Wassern" <Above the waters>, and I have answered them in the magazine "Freistatt" <asylum (literally: place of freedom)> from Vienna. This ought to have settled things between us, and it would have been up to the readers to decide, whether they would take his or my side. But, while I, quite naturally, was as factual and polite in my responses as possible, his articles consisted of almost nothing else but insults, so that he will have to be inconvenienced to appear in court. And furthermore, his personal relationship and the relationship of his writings to Mr. Lebius, the lawyer Gerlach, and the Münchmeyers' plan, to "destroy" me in the newspapers, has to be ascertained. He has denied to be in contact with Lebius, Gerlach, etc.; but these kinds of relationships of his are very easily proven. This point has to be clarified. For even he cannot deny that he had most forcefully taken part in "destroying" me. His articles in the "Wasser"-magazine are most eagerly used against me in both trials, the one against Lebius and the one against Pauline Münchmeyer. He has even been named by Lebius as a witness or "expert" and will have to testify in Berlin in this capacity.
Concerning our trial for gross insult, Father Pöllmann adheres to a tactic, which I cannot approve of. I have to wonder, if it is part of this tactic of his to deceive the reading audience. At first, from time to time, certain articles were published in an ironic and patronising tone, making fun of the fact that I had not carried out my threat to sue him. And now, as he has to see that I did keep this promise, certain newspapers hostile to me keep on pretending that my complaints for gross insult had been dismissed by this or that court and that I would have to be liable for all expenses. This is not fair, perhaps even undignified. The question was only which court had the jurisdiction, nothing else. When I filed the criminal charges against Father Pöllmann, I was under the jurisdiction of the Inferior Court of Dresden. In the meantime, the Inferior Court of Kötzschenbroda had been founded, which is now in charge of my district. Therefore, the question was raised, whether the matter, as a consequence of this, had to be tried here or there or elsewhere. Until this has been decided, is has to be suspended. Whoever portrays it differently, can only be either ignorant or vicious. I know nothing about any expenses.