Present: Dr. IVERS, Judge of Military Law. Secretary, RAMBEAU.
First Surgeon, 2nd Mobile Landsturm Infantry Battalion Neuss, Dr. Berghausen made the following statement:
As to Person: My name is Georg Berghausen, born at Cologne o.Rh. on February 1st, 1881; Old Catholic.
As to Case: I am Battalion Surgeon in the Landsturm Infantry Battalion Neuss, and arrived at the station of Louvain with the 1st Company of this regiment on August 24th, 1914, at noon. I lived with the Staff in the Hôtel "De la Ville," and in order to prepossess the proprietor and the employés I immediately paid out of my own pocket 50 francs for the purchase of provisions. The evening of the 24th and the night passed quietly. At noon on the 25th I was on duty at Herent and Bueken. At about 4 p.m. I was again in Louvain. At about 5 o'clock I heard that there was a battle proceeding at Bueken. The 1st Company of the Landsturm Infantry Battalion Neuss, under 1st Lieutenant v. Sandt as company leader, marched to the north-west exit of Louvain. I had gone there previously by motor, and went as far as the fighting-line before Bueken, where I was repeatedly fired at whilst sitting in my car, though I was wearing the white armlet with the red cross. I returned to Louvain in my car at 11.30 p.m. I got out near the town hall and sent my car with the chauffeur to the station. I myself went on foot along the Rue de la Station in order to go to the station where I was living. On the way, between the town hall and the station, I was fired at from the windows of the houses about ten or twelve times. Close to where the Monument stands, I saw a German soldier lying dead on the ground; he had been shot in the head (mouth). His comrades, with whom he had passed the Monument, told me on inquiry as to who had shot the soldier, that the shot had been fired from the corner house of David Fischbach. With the help of my servant I broke open the street door, and there first encountered the occupant, old David Fischbach. I questioned him regarding the murdered soldier, because, as the other soldiers declared with certainty, the shot that had killed the soldier on the Monument place had been fired from his house. Old David Fischbach declared that he knew nothing about it. His son, young Fischbach, then came down the stairs of the first floor, and from the porter's lodge came an old servant. I immediately took father, son, and servant into the street. At this moment a tumult arose in the street because the soldiers, standing near the Monument, and I myself, were being terribly fired on from a few houses farther away on the same side. During this time I lost Fischbach, his son, and the servant in the darkness.