Shots on the Boulevard - Unter den Linden
On the afternoon of 2 June 1878, from a second floor window of the house then numbered Unter den Linden 18, Dr. Karl Eduard Nobiling fired a shotgun into the open carriage of 81 year old Kaiser Wilhelm I, the second assassination attempt on this boulevard in three weeks.
À propos de ce lieu
Berlin's grand parade avenue, lined with linden trees since 1647, was the daily route of Kaiser Wilhelm I, who rode in an open carriage from his palace to the Tiergarten so that Berliners could see him. On 11 May 1878 the twenty year old plumber's apprentice Max Hödel fired three revolver shots at him opposite the Russian embassy and missed every one; he was beheaded at Moabit on 16 August. Three weeks after Hödel's attempt, on Sunday 2 June 1878, the 30 year old economist Dr. Karl Eduard Nobiling waited at a second floor window of Unter den Linden 18, on this stretch between Friedrichstraße and Glinkastraße, and emptied a double barrelled shotgun into the passing carriage. More than thirty pellets struck the emperor in the head, arms and back; his helmet and heavy uniform helped him survive. Nobiling shot himself in the temple as the crowd broke into the house and died of the wound on 10 September without ever standing trial. Chancellor Bismarck blamed the Social Democrats, though no link was ever proven, dissolved the Reichstag and on 19 October 1878 pushed through the Socialist Law that outlawed socialist parties, newspapers and meetings until 1890. The house itself is gone, destroyed in the Second World War, but the avenue's long straight sight line still shows why an open carriage was such an easy target.
À retenir
- 30 shotgun pellets — More than thirty pieces of shot hit the 81 year old Kaiser Wilhelm I in the head, arms and back on 2 June 1878. His spiked helmet and heavy uniform helped him survive.
- 3 weeks earlier — On 11 May 1878 Max Hödel had fired three revolver shots at the same emperor in the same open carriage, about 200 metres west opposite the Russian embassy, and missed every one.
- 1890 year — Bismarck's Socialist Law, passed on 19 October 1878 by 221 votes to 149 in the wake of the two attacks, banned socialist parties, newspapers and meetings until 30 September 1890.
📍 Unter den Linden 41, 10117, Berlin