DR. R. GRELLING DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 566, 19 January 1929, Page 13

DR. R. GRELLING DEAD

GERMANY’S ACCUSER (Australian ■and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) BERLIN, Thursday. The death has occurred of Dr. Richard Grelling. Deceased was the author of the book, “J’Accuse, in which he denounced Germany as having been responsible for the Great War.

The late Dr. Richard Grelling was born in Berlin in June, 1853. He adopted a legal career and was also secretary of the German Authors’ Association. As early as the ’9o’s he had become a pacifist and he grew steadily more hostile to the spirit of pre-war Germany. result was that he left his native land and since 1900 had lived _ abroad—in Brussels and Paris and then in I' lorence, where he bought a villa. He occupied himself with anti-war propaganda. After the outbreak of the Great Wai Dr. Grelling transferred liis activities to Switzerland and it was there that his book, “J’Accuse,” was published in 1915One of the most scathing attacks on German policy and mentality that appealed during the conflict, it was made great use of by the Allies in their propaganda. Similar books were published by Dr. Grelling in succeeding years. They ineluded, “The Starting Point,’ The Crime,” “The Revelations of the Sucliomlinoff Trial,” “London-Berlin-Vienna-Petersburg.” These were issued anonymously and even when Dr. Grelling was fixed upon as the author, he denied that he had written the books. It was only after the collapse of the Central Powers that he admitted their authorship. In the Freie Zeitung,” the organ of the German Democrats in Switzerland, as Dr. GrelJing’s group was called, he took a similar line against Germany. Since the war he had not played a prominent part. His offer to give evidence before the Reichstag committee on the war-guilt question was declined. His son, Herr K. Grelling, strongly resented his father’s attitude and has written two pamphlets on the subject—“Anti.J’Acuse,” which appeared in 1916. and “Germany’s German Enemies” (1923).