Hamburg is a seaport 75 miles from the sea. Altona is to Hamburg as Camden is to Philadelphia, a swarming, separately administered suburb on the River (Elbe). In Altona are workingmen's flats, deserted factories, ramshackle athletic clubs, empty lots cut up into thousands of little gardens each with a tool shed, many with a flagpole and a red Communist flag. Late last Sunday afternoon good citizens in Hamburg cafes looked up from their beer and ice cream as big blue busses filled with policemen careened by, buglers blowing a fanfare in place of a siren. Weary waiters opined that there was trouble in Altona. Five minutes later armored cars roared past in the riot cars' wake. Waiters, no longer weary, knew there was real trouble in Altona.
Some 6.000 Fascists in brown uniforms were attempting to parade through Red Altona. Altona Communists betook themselves to the housetops. Suddenly a burst of rifle & pistol fire poured down into the Fascist parade. Brownshirts broke ranks, dashed into the houses to attack the snipers. Altona's hopelessly outnumbered police force signalled loudly for help. Even with reinforcements from Hamburg, rioting continued until after midnight. Armored cars blazed away ruthlessly. Police attacked with rifle, pistol, hand grenade, tear gas. Communists swarmed out of their tenements and tried to build barricades. Five dead bodies were picked up in the streets. From all over Hamburg doctors were called away from their homes for emergency operations. Seven victims died in hospital wards; at least 50 were seriously wounded. Fascist leaders telegraphed Prussian Minister of the Interior Karl Severing: OPEN CIVIL WAR REIGNS IN ALTONA.
There were plenty of other split pates in Germany last Sunday. In Ketschdorf, near Breslau. a squadron of regular cavalry was called out to capture a band of 150 Communists who had barricaded themselves in an inn after waylaying a truckload of Nazis. There were brawls in Berlin, Cologne, Munich. The situation was serious enough for both Chancellor von Papen and Adolf Hitler to go out to East Neudeck and confer earnestly with President Paul von Hindenburg. First reports were that martial law was about to be declared throughout Germany. Correspondents waited but no announcement appeared. Another story was generally accepted: the 90,000 blue-coated Schupos (Prussian state police) were about to be mustered under the control of the central Government along with other state police —which would mean the practical end of states' rights in Germany.