With the outbreak of World War I, Casement, viewing Germany
as a natural ally for Irish independence, undertook a mission as the
self-chosen representative of the Revolutionary Directory of the Clan
na Gael based in the United States. Although his arrival in Berlin via
New York in late October 1914 boded well, his various proposals,
such as the formation of an anti-British brigade of Irish prisoners of
war, found no resonance, and his attitude toward Germany turned
from admiration to bitter denunciations. Hearing of an uprising
planned for Easter 1916, German authorities agreed to ship 20,000
weapons to Ireland, although Casement believed that such inadequate
resources, underscored by the absence of troop support, would spell
certain failure for the rebels. Hoping to avert this outcome by issuing
a warning in person, he returned to Ireland on a German submarine
but was arrested on the Kerry coast on 24 April. His trial in London
for treason resulted in a death sentence. Stripped of his knighthood,
Casement was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 3 August.CELLER LOCH. A failed attempt to penetrate the Rote Armee Frak-
tion (RAF; Red Army Faction) by West German authorities, Celler
Loch (Celle Hole) was an operation undertaken by the Lower Saxony
regional office for constitutional protection (Landesverfassungs-
schutz) and the federal office for border protection (Bundesgrenz-
schutz). On 25 July 1978, when a bomb exploded, blowing a hole in
the outside wall of the high-security prison at Celle, it bore the marks
of a rescue operation for the convicted RAF terrorist Sigurd Debus.
Eight years later, the German public learned that the incident had
been staged in order to infiltrate an informant into the RAF. Not only
did the plan misfire at the time, but the later revelation unleashed
an acrimonious debate about the proper methods of combating ter-
rorism in a democratic state. A parliamentary inquiry was convened
in Hanover in December 1986, but no criminal charges against state
officials resulted. Five years earlier, Debus had died in prison as the
result of a hunger strike.
CENTRAL-NACHRICHTEN-BÜREAU. See STIEBER, WIL-
HELM.
CHANEL, COCO. See DINCKLAGE, HANS GÜNTHER VON.
66 • CELLER, LOCH