John Retcliffe

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Sir John Retcliffe

Hermann Ottomar Friedrich Goedsche (born February 16, 1815 in Trachenberg , Silesia ; † November 8, 1878 in Warmbrunn , Lower Silesia ), known under the pseudonym Sir John Retcliffe , was a German writer . He also used the pseudonyms (Theodor) Armin , Baron Persiani and Willibald Piersig .

Life

Goedsche was born the son of the mayor of Trachenberg and visited in Wroclaw the school . He passed the final exam as one of the best. Since his parents could not finance studies, he became postal secretary in Stralkowo in 1833 . After working in Suhl , Bocholt and Düsseldorf , he came to Berlin in 1838 . His first writing activities and his marriage also fall during this period.

On October 19, 1841, he married Carolina Böltink. With her he had two children, Otto Gerhard (born March 2, 1845) and Ottillie Johanna Theresia (June 24, 1847).

Goedsche was an agent provocateur for the Prussian secret police . He forged letters that were used as evidence against democratically minded people. In 1849 he was caught with forgeries in the trial against Benedikt Waldeck and had to leave the postal service. Afterwards he devoted himself exclusively to his journalistic and writing activities.

In 1848 he joined the editorial team of the newly founded Neue Preußische (Kreuz-) Zeitung . Here he was in charge of the Berlin audience column , which mainly defamed personalities from the opposing political camp. He was a supporter of the conservatives and fought fiercely against the supporters of progress . In the same year he became managing director of the "Association for King and Fatherland", headed the press office under the Brandenburg Ministry and at the same time published the calendar for the Prussian People 's Association. Among the colleagues in the editorial staff of the Kreuzzeitung were such prominent personalities as Theodor Fontane , Otto von Bismarck and George Hesekiel . In 1853 he traveled to Turkey and reported on the Crimean War . In 1874 Goedsche stopped working for the Kreuzzeitung and moved to Warmbrunn, where he took over the administration of the military spa. He died on November 8, 1878 at the age of 62 years and 9 months in Warmbrunn.

Work as a writer and journalist

As a writer, he wrote contemporary historical novels from the perspective of an extremely conservative worldview. The "historical-political novels from the present" by Sir John Retcliffe are novels of tendency enriched with adventures, which deal with all political events of his time. In literary terms, he is in the tradition of the historical novel , as cultivated by Walter Scott , Charles Sealsfield and Theodor Mügge , which he enriched with sensational elements, however, and was guided by authors such as Eugène Sue , Alexandre Dumas the Elder and George Ezekiel . The travel and war reports of Friedrich Wilhelm Hackländer and Hans Wachenhusen as well as his friend Louis Schneider, who was an expert in the field of diplomacy at royal houses, gave further impetus .

Goedsche had official and social relationships with the court of Friedrich Wilhelm IV and was therefore familiar with numerous internal matters. The perspective of his novels is Prussian through and through. Although he had acquired an English pseudonym, he harbored a strong aversion to England , and his political views, which were directed against the perfidious Albion , are also clearly expressed in his novels. He also took sides against colonization and the oppression of other peoples in his works . With his English pseudonym and the way he was presented, he gave the reader the feeling of being able to look behind the scenes of world politics.

After the turn of the century, only edited editions of his novels were published. From 1926 onwards , the Barthel-Winkler edition , named after the editor Lisa Barthel-Winkler , was published by Retcliffe-Verlag , a foundation of the Karl-May-Verlag . In accordance with the practices of the then Radebeul Karl-May-Verlag, this edition has been greatly modified compared to the original, so that it has little to do with it.

Source of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories

The chapter "In the Jewish cemetery in Prague" from his novel Biarritz (1868) forms the essential source of the later anti-Semitic pamphlet Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel are portrayed at one of their annual gatherings in the Jewish cemetery in Prague . They report on the progress of their long-term plan to establish world domination . The methods of achieving this goal include acquiring landed property, converting artisans into industrial workers, infiltrating high state offices, mastering the press , etc. Chairman Levit at the end of the session expresses a wish that they be in 100 Years will be the kings of the world. This speech (“speech of the rabbi”) was received frequently later and became an elementary part of the minutes . During the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era , the Jewish cemetery chapter appeared as a separate text in a large number of different editions. In 1926 the Völkischer Beobachter , the party newspaper of the NSDAP , printed excerpts from the book to support the thesis that the church division between Catholics and Protestants was due to a Jewish plot.

In a Russian pamphlet ("The Jews, Rulers of the World", 1873) Goedsche's fictional description is reproduced as if it had actually happened. In Germany, the popular politician and publicist Richard Kunze published the novel in 1919 as a factual report under the title The Secret of the Jewish World Conspiracy.

Goedsche used a scene in the novel Joseph Balsamo by Alexandre Dumas the Elder to create the chapter . In this scene, Alessandro Cagliostro and other conspirators plan the collar affair .

Literary adaptations

Umberto Eco lets Goedsche appear as a minor character in his novel The Cemetery in Prague . Goedsche acts as a secret agent and plagiarist in the work and is finally murdered in connection with an attempt at blackmail.

Works (selection)

  • 1835 (as "Armin"): The last warrior. Historical novella from the days of the conquest of Constantinople . Suhl: Gotthilf Müller ( SUB Göttingen )
  • 1836 (as "Armin"): Frankenstein Castle. Patriotic Romanesque from the times of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa , 3 volumes. Nordhausen: Prince
  • 1836: The legend of the Ottilien stone. Brought to the residents of friendly Suhl and told by Hermann Goedsche . (Google: 6th edition 1876 )
  • 1837: The stone dancers. Romantic saga from Silesia prehistoric times , 2 volumes. Meissen
  • 1838–1839: nights. Romantic sketches from life and time . 2 parts. Part I (1838): Altenburg. Part II (1839): Leipzig
  • 1840: Silesian treasure trove of legends, history and legends . Meißen: Ms. W. Goedsche ( MDZ ) ( archive )
  • 1848 (as W. Piersig): Mysteries of Berlin Democracy. A contribution to the lifting of the state of siege and to the reorganization of the vigilante group . 2 parts. Berlin: Self-published / Leipzig and Meißen: Ms. W. Goedsche (Google: Part I - Part II)
  • 1849 (anonymous): revelations . Berlin
  • 1854: The Russians to Constantinople! A contribution to the oriental question. Berlin: Hugo Bieler & Comp. ( Google )
  • 1856 (as Sir John Retcliffe): Sebastopol. Historical-political novel from the present , 4 volumes. Berlin: Carl Nöhring
    • Volume 1: Seine and Bosphorus ( Google )
    • Volume 2: The Reveille of the Peoples ( Google )
    • Volume 3: From Silistria to Sebastopol ( Google )
    • Volume 4: Ssevastopol ( Google )
  • 1856: Hunting pictures. Collection of the most interesting and instructive hunt descriptions from all zones, edited for young people . Berlin: Winckelmann and sons
  • 1858–59 (as Sir John Retcliffe): Nena Sahib, or: The Indignation in India. Historical-political novel from the present , 3 volumes. Berlin: Carl Nöhring (in 1963 the original trilogy was published again in two volumes in the world of adventure book series )
    • Volume I: The Tyrants of the Earth
    • Volume II: The Bad Seed
    • Volume III: The Harvest of Sins
  • 1860–61: Villafranca, or: The Cabinets and the Revolutions. Historical-political novel from the present , 2 volumes, 3 sections
  • 1861–64: ten years! (Continued from Villafranca ), 4 volumes
  • 1864–66: Magenta and Solferino (second continuation of Villafranca ), 4 volumes
  • 1867: Solferino (third continuation of Villafranca ), 1 volume
  • 1865–67: Puebla or The French in Mexico , 3 volumes (in 1964 the original trilogy was published again in two volumes in the World of Adventure book series under the titles Die Adventurer und Goldfieber )
    • Volume I: The new Argonaut train
    • Volume II: Guyamas
    • Volume III: In the Sierra
  • 1868–1879 (as Sir John Retcliffe): Biarritz. Historical-political novel . Berlin: Carl Sigism. Liebrecht
    • 1st section (8 volumes): Gaëta - Warsaw - Düppel
    • 2. Department (5 volumes): For world domination!
      • Excerpt: In the Jewish cemetery in Prague. Ed. & Included. by Johann von Leers Steegemann 1933 (from vol. The survey. )
  • 1881 (posthumously, as Baron Persiani): The peoples in arms. Novel trilogy from the present. Berlin: Kogge & Fritze
    • 1st division: The Savoy Cross. Contemporary history novel . 3 volumes

literature

swell

  • Will Eisner: The plot. The True Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. With an introduction by Umberto Eco , DVA , Munich 2005, 152 pp., 124 b / w illustrations, hardcover, ISBN 3-421-05893-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ handwritten autobiography in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich, signature: E. Petzetiana V, Goedsche Hermann and burial book Cieplice v. Nov. 11, 1878, No. 45 according to Chaplain Bol. Zajac
  2. ↑ Birth register of 1845 / No. 625 and 1847 / No. 683 Düsseldorf registry office
  3. ↑ Keren, David, Commentary on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , February 10, 1993. ( Memento of the original of July 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. see page 4 of the PDF file.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ddickerson.igc.org
  4. ↑ Cieplice v. Nov. 11, 1878, No. 45 according to Chaplain Bol. Zajac
  5. ↑ Christian Hartmann , Thomas Vordermayer, Othmar Plöckinger, Roman Töppel (eds.): Hitler, Mein Kampf. A critical edition . Institute for Contemporary History Munich - Berlin, Munich 2016, Vol. 2, pp. 906f.
  6. ^ Walter Mohrmann: Anti-Semitism: Ideology and history in the German Empire and in the Weimar Republic . Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1972, p. 124f.
personal data
SURNAME Retcliffe, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Retcliffe, Sir John (pseudonym); Goedsche, Herrmann Ottomar Friedrich (real name); Armin, Theodor (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Trachenberg , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1878
Place of death Warmbrunn , Lower Silesia