Goerdeler and Czar (Tsar) Nicholas II.
I am absolutely new to Alexander Palace, haven’t clue about how it works, but here goes.
Googling on April 21st, I found a text written by Nicholas II about Richard Goerdeler, about whom your ‘correspondent’ doesn't seem to know much, very understandable. I can help there, and I would like some help in return.
What Nicholas II was writing about is, for the most part, contained in a pamphlet by Goerdeler from 1894, and published, in German, in New York. The title is: “Fiat Justitia!”; Nicholas even know the names of some of the doctors who testified that Goerdeler was ‘sane’. On the other hand, there is mention of Goerdeler’s date and place of marriage, Christmas Day, 1878, in Manhattan, which none of the documents written by him or so far seen about him says. One of my questions is: How did the Czar know this? Most of the other information is directly from the pamphlet. How the Czar got it would also interest me.
For those who are interested: Richard Goerdeler was the uncle of Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, once mayor of Leipzig, and famous for his role in German resistance, for which he paid with his life in February, 1945. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was the son of Julius Goerdeler, and Julius Goerdeler was Richard Goerdeler’s brother: Julius was a provincial judge and also a member of the Prussian House of Representatives (Preussisches Abgeordnetenhaus)
Richard Paul Christian Goerdeler was born in Hamm, Westphalia, on March 5th,1838. He studied, it would seem, both in the cities of Halle and Bonn (am not sure which subject, perhaps music). He learned to play piano and write popular songs, served in the Prussian army around 1860 and then, so he writes, in the Confederate Army at the end of the US Civil War in 1865. In 1870 he became an American citizen, in Danville, Kentucky, and it would seem, he was writing songs, many of which can be seen on the internet (one must enter “Richard Goerdeler” in quotation marks). In 1878, on Christmas Day, in Manhattan, he married Wilhelmine Weibezahl, of Kiel, Germany; she must have been born around 1852, because her death certificate (Nr 22327, dated Nov 19, 1938), from Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn New York, says she died on November 17th, 1938, at the age of 86, having been in the US for 69 years (which would mean she would have arrived when she was 17, in or around 1869.
Richard Goerdeler became an Agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad (NPRR) around 1882. He helped the CEO of NPRR, Henry Villard, name, invite and organize German VIPs for the great excursion to see the final “golden spike” hammered into place in Gold Creek, Montana Territory, on September 8th, 1883, his name is mentioned in several newspaper accounts and also in two books, one by Nicholas Mohr, editor in chief of the Weser-Zeitung, in Bremen, (N. Mohr, “Ein Streifszug durch den Nordwesten Amerikas. Festfahrt zur Northern Pacificbahn im Herbst 1883” Berlin, Robert Oppenheim (Publisher) 1884), and one by Paul Lindau, editor for various important papers in Berlin; Mohr’s book can be downloaded on the internet and Lindau’s book has been reprinted (Paul Lindau, “Aus der Neuen Welt. Briefe aus dem Osten und Westen der Vereinigten Staaten” Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1884 or 1885). About the railroad finances much can be learned by reading Christopher Kobrak’s book “Die Deutsche Bank und die USA”, Verlag C.H. Beck, Munich 2008. – Kobrak devotes the first 130 pages to the financing and bankruptcy of the NPRR.
In September 1883, while the VIPs were on the (rail) road, all at the expense of NPRR, the stock went down; Villard had to resign, and even the artist Konrad Dielitz, who had been attracted to paint the “golden spike” ceremony by a free trip and $2000, could not be paid; in the end, he never painted the subject.
In 1884, Goerdeler returned to Germany; in the meanwhile, his father had passed away, and Goerdeler learned from his brother Julius, that he, Richard, had inherited very little money. Goerdeler accused his brother of having manipulated the will, but got nowhere. He must have returned to the states around 1886 or 1887, and in 1889/90 was a teacher of music at the Pennington Seminary, in New Jersey (near Princeton). The records there are unfortunately very sparse.
It was around 1888 that Goerdeler started to claim that Bismarck and the German Emperor had been behind the brother’s insistence on not letting Richard have more money from the father’s estate; he had demanded the the Emperor dismiss Bismarck, and, when this happened in March 1890, Goerdeler concluded that his letter(s) must have played the decisive role in having Bismarck dismissed. Now that Bismarck was gone, but the Emperor still unapologetic, Goerdeler challenged him to a duel (New Yorker Herald, June 2, 1891), and then took a boat to Bremerhaven; he was placed under observation by two police detectives, who followed him to Marienwerder, where his brother lived. His brother promptly put him in an asylum for the insane, in Schwetz.
After many, many letters, mostly from Goerdeler’s wife Wilhelmine (he called her “Minchen”), Goerdeler was released, and back in NYC for Christmas, 1893. He immediately started to try to clear his name and wrote the pamphlet I cited. Nothing of note, however, happened until 1898, when his wife called for Bellevue Hospital to have him examined for some mental illness. This was reported in the NYTimes (November 7, 1898). My repeated letters to Bellevue Hospital have never been answered, and I have been unsuccessful in finding any notice about his death, but: I am looking.
I have some questions about the Nicholas-text: where is the original, and does it have a date? I can’t figure out how he knew the marriage date – I only learned it recently through the Mormons.
Is it source-able, i.e.: quoteable so that another person could find his/her way back to the source?
There are some obvious typos, or mis-scans, in the text, most egregiously are the variations on the name of US President Grover Cleveland.
Thanking you in advance, and hoping you can help,
I am,
Very sincerely yours,
Michael S. Cullen (here: Michael Cullen)