Carl von Ossietzky convicted

On 23 November 1931 the publicist and pacifist Carl von Ossietzky is sentenced by the Reich Court in Leipzig to 18 months imprisonment for „divulging military secrets“. Previously the magazine „Weltbühne“, which he publishes, had reported on the secret maintenance of military aircraft in Germany which violated conditions of the Versailles Peace Treaty. The conviction – a serious attack on the freedom of the press – evokes considerable dismay and protest in democratic circles both at home and abroad.

© GDW Free again: Carl von Ossietzky with his daughter Rosalind in his Weltbühne office, 1932