Hermann Goedsche

Sir John Retcliffe
Sir John Retcliffe
	Hermann Goedsche.
Born	Hermann Ottomar Friedrich Goedsche; 12 February 1815; Trachenberg,Kingdom of Prussia
Died	8 November 1878(aged 63); Hirschberg im Riesengebirge,German Empire
Occupation	Writer
Language	German

Hermann Ottomar Friedrich Goedsche(12 February 1815 – 8 November 1878), also known by his pseudonymSir John Retcliffe,was a German government employee and author who is remembered mainly for hisantisemitism.

Life and work

Goedsche was born inTrachenberg,Silesia,then in theKingdom of Prussia,now part ofPoland.In 1848 he worked for the newspaperNeue Preußische (Kreuz-)Zeitung,together with famous Germans likeTheodor Fontane,Otto von BismarckandGeorge Hesekiel.In 1853, he travelled as a journalist to Turkey.

Goedsche maingenreof fiction was historicalromance,as typified by SirWalter Scott,Charles SealsfieldandTheodor Mügge,but he was also influenced by authors likeEugène Sue,Alexandre Dumas, pèreand George Hesekiel. Some of his works are critical of Britishcolonialism.He was explicitly antisemitic and, although adopting an English pseudonym, he was a Prussian chauvinist who had a profound aversion against the British. His political opinions concerning "perfidious Albion"are expressed in his novels.

Goedsche worked as a postal employee, but was also anagent provocateurfor the Prussian secret police. He forged letters which were used as evidence to frame democratic leaders. In 1849, he was caught after forging evidence for the prosecution of political reformerBenedict Waldeckand had to quit the postal service.^[1]

He died at Bad Warmbrunn, nowCieplice Śląskie-ZdrójinJelenia Góra,in 1878. Several years after Goedsche's death, his novelBiarritzwas plagiarized in the antisemitic forgeryThe Protocols of the Elders of Zionpublished at the turn of the twentieth century in theRussian Empire.^[2]

Role in fabricating Jewish conspiracy theory

In his 1868 bookBiarritz,Goedscheplagiarizeda book by the French satiristMaurice Joly,The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu,and made an addition: the chapter "At theJewish Cemetery in Prague"described a secretrabbinical cabal,Council of Representatives ofThe Twelve Tribesof Israel, which meets in the cemetery at midnight for one of their centennial meetings. They report on the progress of their long-term conspiracy to establishworld domination.Among the methods to achieve this goal are the acquisition of landed property, the transformation of craftsmen into industrial workers, the infiltration into high public offices, the control of the press, and so on. The chairman Levit expresses at the end of the meeting the desire to be the kings of the world in 100 years. This fictional "Rabbi's Speech" was frequently quoted later as an authentic episode and invoked as a proof of the authenticity of the forgeryThe Protocols of the Elders of Zionfor which, in fact, it is considered to have been a source.^[3]InNazi Germanythe chapter was re-printed independently in many editions.^[4]

To portray the meeting, Goedsche borrowed heavily from the scene in the novelJoseph BalsamobyAlexandre Dumas, pèrein whichAlessandro Cagliostroand company plot theaffair of the diamond necklace,and likewise borrowed Joly'sDialoguesas the outcome of the meeting.

References in other works

Goedsche appears as a character in the novelThe Prague CemeterybyUmberto Eco.In the novel, the protagonist Simone Simonini approaches Goedsche in an unsuccessful effort to sell a forged antisemitic document to the Prussian secret police. Simonini later discovers to his dismay that Goedsche has appropriated the contents of the document for a scene of his novelBiarritz,causing other potential buyers of Simonini's forgery to think that he had merely plagiarized it from Goedsche.

Works

Der letzte Wäringer. Historisch politische Novelle aus den letzten Tagen Constantinopels(1835, as Theodor Armin)
Vaterländische Romaneske aus den Zeiten Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossas(3 volumes, 1836, withBurg Frankenstein)
Die Sage vom Ottilien-Stein(1836)
Die steinernen Tänzer. Romantische Sage aus Schlesiens Vorzeit(2 volumes, 1837)
Nächte. Romantische Skizzen aus dem Leben und der Zeit(2 volumes, 1838–1839)
Schlesischer Sagen-, Historien- und Legendenschatz(1839–1840)
Mysterien der Berliner Demokratie(1848, as Willibald Piersig)
Enthüllungen(1849, anonymously)
Die Russen nach Constantinopel! Ein Beitrag zur orientalischen Frage(1854)
Sebastobol. Historisch-politischer Roman aus der Gegenwart(4 volumes, 1855–1857)
Nena Sahib, oder: Die Empörung in Indien. Historisch-politischer Roman1858-1859
Villafranca, oder: Die Kabinette und die Revolutionen. Historisch-politischer Roman aus der Gegenwart(3 volumes, 1860–1862)
Biarritz. Historisch-politischer Roman(3 volumes, 1868)
Um die Weltherrschaft(sequel toBiarritz,5 volumes, 1877–1879)

Footnotes

^Keren, Daniel,Commentary on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,10 February 1993.Archived29 July 2014 at theWayback MachineRepublished as accompanying introduction toThe Protocols of the Learned Elders of Ziontranslated by Victor E Marsden. [The relevant part is on page 4 of the pdf file.]
^Rathje 2021,p. 56.
^Segel, Binjamin W (1996) [1926],Levy, Richard S(ed.),A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,University of Nebraska Press, p. 97,ISBN 978-0-8032-9245-1.
^"The Jew in the modern world: a documentary history", by Paul R. Mendes-Flohr, Jehuda Reinharz, 1995,ISBN 019507453X,a footnote at p. 363

Sources

Rathje, Jan (2021). "'Money Rules the World, but Who Rules the Money?' Antisemitism in post-Holocaust Conspiracy Ideologies ".Confronting Antisemitism in Modern Media, the Legal and Political Worlds.Vol. 5. De Gruyter. pp. 45–68.doi:10.1515/9783110671964-005.ISBN 978-3-11-067196-4.

External links

German page about Retcliffe's life and work^{[permanent dead link]}
"The History of a Lie"- book that excerpts the "Cemetery" story

[1] Keren, Daniel,Commentary on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,10 February 1993.Archived29 July 2014 at theWayback MachineRepublished as accompanying introduction toThe Protocols of the Learned Elders of Ziontranslated by Victor E Marsden. [The relevant part is on page 4 of the pdf file.]

[FOOTNOTERathje202156-2] Rathje 2021,p. 56.

[3] Segel, Binjamin W (1996) [1926],Levy, Richard S(ed.),A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,University of Nebraska Press, p. 97,ISBN 978-0-8032-9245-1.

[4] "The Jew in the modern world: a documentary history", by Paul R. Mendes-Flohr, Jehuda Reinharz, 1995,ISBN 019507453X,a footnote at p. 363

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