The "Schleswig-Holstein Volkszeitung" declared, on the 24th of July:
"Austria is provoking Seryia. Austria-Hungary wants war, and is committing a crime that may drown all Europe in blood… Austria is playing va banque. It dares a provocation of the Servian state that the latter, if it is not entirely defenseless, will, certainly refuse to tolerate…
"Every civilized person must protest emphatically against the criminal behavior of the Austrian rulers. It is the duty of the workers above all, and of all other human beings who honor peace and civilization, to try their utmost to prevent the consequences the bloody insanity that has broken out in Vienna."
The "Magdeburger Volksstimme" of July 25th said:
"Any Servian Government that even pretended to consider these demands seriously would be swept out in the same hour by the Parliament and by the people.
"The action of Austria is the more despicable because Berchtold is standing before the Servian Government and before Europe with empty hands.
"To precipitate a war such as this at the present time, means to invite a world war. To act thus shows a desire to disturb the peace of an entire hemisphere. One cannot thus make moral conquests, or convince non-participants of one's own righteousness. It can be safely assumed that the press of Europe, and with it the European governments, will call the vainglorious and senseless Viennese statesmen energetically and unmistakably to order."
On July 24th the "Frankfurter Volksstimme" wrote:
"Upheld by the agitation of the clerical press, which mourns in Franz Ferdinand its best friend and demands that his death be avenged upon the Servian people, upheld by German war patriots whose language becomes daily more contemptible and more threatening, the Austrian Government has allowed itself to be driven to send an ultimatum to Servia couched in language that, for presumptuousness, leaves little to be desired; containing demands whose fulfillment by the Servyian Government is manifestly impossible."
On the same day the "Elberfelder Freie Presse" wrote:
