Soldiers are murderers

Starting with a lawsuit against the magazine's editor Carl von Ossietzky for "defamation of the Reichswehr" in 1932, Tucholsky's widely quoted assertion led to numerous judicial proceedings in Germany, also after World War II and until the late 20th century.

The 4 August 1931 issue of Die Weltbühne had pacifism as its main subject matter, containing a translation of Pope Benedict XV's anti-war Apostolic exhortation Allorché fummo chiamati of 1915.

[3] The controversial quote appears in this paragraph: Da gab es vier Jahre lang ganze Quadratmeilen Landes, auf denen war der Mord obligatorisch, während er eine halbe Stunde davon entfernt ebenso streng verboten war.

[5] After publication of the Weltbühne issue, defence minister Wilhelm Groener filed a suit against editor Carl von Ossietzky who was at that time already in prison due to his conviction in the Weltbühne-Prozess.

Also in reaction to the acquittal, Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg subsequently created a new law article per emergency decree, adding a special "protection of soldiers' honour" to the criminal code (§ 134a StGB).

Especially starting with the "Frankfurt soldier rulings" in 1984, West German courts were repeatedly concerned with Tucholsky's quote, though there were earlier cases.

The two presiding judges of the Frankfurt Landgericht received death threats, the office of the counsels for defence was destroyed by an arson attack, and the Bundestag debated whether a new law for soldier's honour protection should be introduced.

[14] This led to a renewed public debate and a draft for a law protecting soldiers' honour, which however was ultimately rejected by the new government coalition in 1999.