Virendranath Chattopadhyaya - in Germany

In Germany

In Germany to avoid suspicion, he enrolled in a university as a student. As a student in comparative linguistics at the University of Saxe-Anhalt in April 1914, Viren met Dr. Abinash Bhattacharya alias Bhatta and some other nationalist Indian students. The former was well-known to the influential members as belonging to the Kaiser’s immediate circle. Early in September 1914, they formed a “German Friends of India” Association, and were received by the brother of Wilhelm II. The Indians and Germans signed a treaty in favour of German help in order to oust the British from India. With the help of Baron Max von Oppenheim, who was an expert in Middle Eastern affairs in the German Foreign Office, Viren informed Indian students in thirty-one German universities about the Association’s future plans.

Among its first members were Viren alias Chatto, Bhatta, Dr. Moreshwar Govindrao Prabhakar (Cologne), Dr Abdul Hafiz (Leipzig), C. Padmanabhan Pillai (Zurich), Dr. Jnanendra Dasgupta (Zurich), Dhiren Sarkar, Narain S. Marathé, Vishnu Suktankar, Gopal Paranjapé, Karandikar, Shrish Chandra Sen, Satish Chandra Ray, Sambhashiva Rao, Dadachanji Kersasp, Mansur Ahmad, Siddiq. Other prominent revolutionaries who soon found their way to Berlin were Har Dayal, Taraknath Das, Mohammad Barakatullah, Bhupendranath Datta, A. Raman Pilla(A.R.Pillai),Chandrakanta Chakravarti, M.P. Tirumal Acharya, Herambalal Gupta, Jodh Singh Mahajan, Jiten Lahiri, Satyen Sen, and Vishnu Ganesh Pingley <

On September 22, 1914, Sarkar and Marathé left for Washington, D.C. with a message for the German ambassador, Von Bernstorf. He ordered Von Papen, his Military Attaché, to arrange for steamers, and purchase arms and ammunition, to be delivered on the eastern coast of India. On November 20, 1914, Viren sent Satyen Sen, V.G. Pingley and Kartâr Singh to Kolkata with a report for Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin. Bagha Jatin sent a note through Pingley and Kartar Singh to Rash Behari Bose, asking him to expedite preparations for the proposed armed uprising. In 1915, Viren went to meet Raja Mahendra Pratap in Switzerland and tell him of the Kaiser’s personal invitation to meet. He was dogged by the British agent, Donald Gullick, and an attempt was made to kill Viren.