IronBlood+Gold

IRON
In 16th century German law, when a parent died the children took on the "legal person" of the dead spouse. The male children took on the fathers' role of the provider; and the females succeeded in the maternal role of caregiver. Even by this early date, property laws were extremely complicated with over 200 different systems. Although many of these codes still exist in Germany today, most favored the surviving husbands' control of his wife's' property. However, land inheritance was concrete:

"Neither a surviving mother or father could legally dispose of the children's inheritance without the latter's express consent, especially when the inheritance in question was ancestral land (Erbgut), normally deemed untouchable."1

While the surviving spouse had administrative power of a deceased spouse (when children of minor age were involved), these properties could not be diminished in value by the time a child became legally fit to inherit. However, a spouse could make an inheritance or dowry profitable for themselves or for their children, and was expected to do so. The surviving parent was required to divide the spouses' property evenly between the children, and could not dispense of the inheritance without the consent of all children involved. This law became known as "iron property; children were to receive it undiminished in the value it possessed at the time of sequestration [parental death]." These laws most commonly accommodated entrusting financial matters to male guardians for widows, who were considered inexperienced in finance and business. This would ensure full compensation to sons when reaching mature age and protect dowries that offered a socially proper marriage for daughters.1 However, becoming of marriageable age did not constitute the award of property or inheritance for women. Dependent adult females were still the legal responsibility of the parent or guardian until marriage, unless some other form of legal separation occurred. Therefore, in certain circumstances mature women could be considered a legal minor until both parents, as well as any legal guardians ("legal persons"), became deceased.1 Of course women in any situation could not legally represent themselves. Women needed a husband, father, or legal guardian even to file a claim on any minor legal matter. A lawyer could not be appointed to a woman, nor could a woman directly hire a lawyer, without the mediation of male representation. In circumstances of a deceased father, a brother could represent a sister because he would represent the "legal stand in" of their father. Many of these laws are still in effect in Germany today.1



Amalie Jahns' father died in 1851 when Amalie was 12 years old. Her mother died by the time she was in her early to mid 20's [1863]. Amalie would not yet be married, but of marriageable age. Enormous legal complications were prone to a family with five daughters, only one son, and early deceased parents. This is exactly what did happen in the Jahns case. The only son was Theodor, who would normally be the "legal stand in" for his father Johann Jahn had he been of age (or even alive) at the time of Johann's death. If Theodor was unavailable for the paternal role of "legal stand in" when his father died, the role could easily have gone to one of Amalies' brother-in-laws, as her oldest sisters were in their 20's at the time of their fathers death. In fact the second oldest sister Mathilde married Eugene Birkholz, who at some point became manager of the Jahn Inn, where Amalie grew up in Frankfurt an der Oder. It is possible Birkholz was hired as an assistant manager to Johann Jahn before the patriarch died. Presumably, Eugene Birkholz did become Johann's "legal stand in" for Amalies mother Caroline, as well as Amalie and her sister Clara, who was the other minor daughter. Eugene Birholz would have joined the Jahn family by both marriage and through the prosperity of the famility business. He also might have taken on financial responsibilities for at least 2 minor daughters, and had an important paternal impact on Amalies social life since she was at least 12 years old. As her older sisters husband, Amalie would have also known Eugene Birkholz since before her fathers death, possibly all her life. Even in her early 20's Amalie would by law be under the control of her father's "legal stand in" as a dependent. With Eugene Birkolz as her guardian, Amalie would have needed his permission to legitimately marry.

In 1863 Amalie requested her birth certificate and an "emancipation certificate", the latter probably freeing her from her brother-in-law Birkholz' control, not her long deceased fathers' control or her recently deceased mothers control. By February, she is married to Ferdinand Friederici and therefore legally entitled to receive her inheritance, the "iron property" law. The iron property law would explain why all court matters would later end with the even division of property between plaintiffs, i.e.: the Jahn children. What it does not explain is the relationship between Amalie and her sisters' husband, who was practically a step-father. Presumably, Birkholz did not approve of Amalie marrying Ferdinand, or she wouldn't need an emancipation document to get married. Whether the presumed "fall-out" between Amalie and Birkholz began with the marrying of Ferdinand, or much earlier is impossible to say. It is fair to assume that Birkholz was aware of the strong legal ground that Amalie held as a property heir [the iron property law]. But something lead Birkholz to believe she had lost the right to inherit her family property value at the time of its' sequestration [her fathers death]. Only extreme legal cause could bring Amalie to loose her inheritance, she would have had to have done something illegal or demonstrate extreme improper behavior, sickness or incompetence. None of these seem to be the case. However, a political climate may have offered credence to Birkolz justified law suit against his sister-in-laws, who were more like step-daughters.



BLOOD
An important backdrop for the 1848 Berlin March Days was the fact that there was no Germany. The Austrian Hapsburg rule included some southern German states, but it also controlled colonial style rule over Slavic and other ethnic territories to the east. There was also in existence the large geographic area of Prussia to the north; as well as many free principalities with diverse laws and governing strategies in between. All 39 German territories were under the false boundaries of the 1815 Treaty of Versailles designed to create a balance of central European power. In Prussia and elsewhere in Germany, there were two quests: first to institute free governance such as freedom of speech, promoting a constitution, unions for workers, the right to bear arms. This ideology was known as German liberalism supported by laborers, students and academics, artisans, etc. Secondly, there was the desire for a united Germany, known as German nationalism, which was promoted mostly by the middle class. The former sought to create a government ideology while the latter sought a German ethnicity, including territory, focused on preventing the foreign invasion of a future Napolean who walked through German soil less than 50 years earlier. While different ideologies, there was enough overlap that German liberalism and German nationalism were considered `two sides of the same coin.'

It was once stated that the 1848 Berlin Revolution may have been a cause of unusually good weather. There was a unique mixture of society stepping onto the fashionable Unter den Linden partially created by the industrial revolution's exotic storefronts springing up along the avenue. For the first time, the lady, laborer, beggar, dandy, student, businessman, officer, artisan, councilor, whore, nurserymaid, nanny, gentlemen, burgher, would all share streets together. The people read the same newspaper fueling revolutionary fever with the fall of the French and Austrian Empires. Furthermore, local frustrations from mass unemployment were growing. Even if one had a job they likely worked in unbearably filthy working conditions (from today's standards), while earning intolerably low wages. The economic recession also brought daily reminders of the recent potato famine from the year before; and above all the paranoid over zealousness of the military presence offended even the simplest pleasures of walking down the enlivened Unter den Linden, especially if one wanted to smoke (as it was outlawed). Perhaps the worst contribution was the Kings medieval methods for communicating even benevolent policies, on top of which he consistently communicated those policies too late to be effective. While King Frederick Wilhelm IV may be partially to blame for the revolution, the unorganized citizens of Berlin preferred to be obedient to a somewhat fair system than be responsible for self governing system. Therefore the revolutionaries themselves may be to blame for its failure.

Nevertheless, the unpopular King saw himself in the tradition of Roman Emperors, relating with his people from a position nearer to God than to a human. Paradoxical to the context of Berliners, the Kings objective was against initiating a constitution, instead he favored becoming an Emperor to a united Germany as it existed during the middle ages under Charlemagne. Although sympathetic to his people, King Frederick completely ignored the impoverished reality of the growing working class and the social effects of the industrial revolution in the largest German industrial city, already rivaling Vienna. The population of Berlin was growing by nearly a third throughout the 1840's.

"In the greater Berlin area existed around 40 machine works... Around 40,000 factory workers, 10% of the population, lived in Berlin, of whom around 20,000 were apprenticed of various trades and who, given the general crisis in artisan trades and the transition to mechanical mass production, had only miserable proletarian subsistence to look forward to."1

While half of all Berlin residents were poverty stricken, only 25% were officially recognized as `impoverished' and growing. On a single day after the Borsig Factory closed its doors (the largest industrial employer), the "Employment Information Institute" opened and 7,000 people sought its' services.



Ferdinand Friederici grew up in Treptow, a suburb east of Stettin among a three generation family of Master Woolweavers (Raschmachermeister or Wollfabrikant) before settling in Berlin. Ferdinand resisted the "miserable" career that brought most men to Berlin, the industrial revolutions demand for manufacturing labor. He sought the old form of craft and eventually received his Master Goldsmith certificate by the time he was 30 years old. 30 was almost a young age to receive such notoriety from the Berlin Guild. By doing so, Ferdinand would have had to jump through several hoops, including being an apprentice to several Master craftsmen over a period of several years each. Since most traditional cities often had only one Master in any given trade (especially a goldsmith), and because it was necessary for an apprentice to work with several Masters, therefore apprentices were expected to also be journeymen, traveling and broadening their knowledge of the trade. Ferdinand was given the title Journeymen on his papers in the 1850's. Because of the size of 19th c. Berlin, Ferdinand may not have had to travel far to find more than one Master Goldsmith's to apprentice with. However, the rail line had it's most rapid growth in Prussia during the 1840's and 50's, including the line between Berlin and Frankfurt an der Oder. This would conveniently link Ferdinand to his future wife and home at 71 Friederichstraße in the center of Berlin. Beyond his hand skills and travel experience one also had to be of good social standing to be accepted by the Guild. He would have to be "a proper gentlemen", not drink to excess and not seen as a philanderer, etc. Although Ferdinand Friederici bridged the craftsmen of the 18th century with the industrial age of the 20th century, it is fair to say that he lived his life like a man who had high ambitions, a fearless desire for travel, as well as a temper. By the late 1850's early 1860's, living on the corner of the Friederichstraße and the Taubenstrasse, Ferdinand became a jeweler when most of his neighbors were merchants (furier, glass and porcelain) or worked at the Borsig Factory. He may have had a jewelry store front on the ground floor of his home 3 blocks from the fashionable Unter den Linden, and only a few more blocks from the Brandenburg Gate and the Zelte (Tiergarten). But in early 1848, Ferdinand was barely 19 years old and probably in or near Berlin as an apprentice artisan or considering becoming one. In March he may have been in the midst of lifelong career decisions.



In 1848, the day after the Berlin monarchy ordered artillery divisions to standby because the Paris uprisings ousted Louis Philippe, a few Berlin artisans were accused of reading an illegal communist newspaper the "Gospel of a Poor Sinner" which propagated uprisings against the government. More calmly, King Frederik allowed the United Parliament to convene causing the Prussian currency to tumble at the Berlin stock exchange. That day the Borsig Factory, the largest industrial employer, let go 400 workers.

Meanwhile, the Zelte known for its' beer houses and concert tents near the Brandenburg Gate in the Tiergarten, normally offered workers an outlet. However, because of it's location at the end of the commercial avenue of the Unter den Linden, economics turned this site into a mixed gathering for the unemployed, students, laborers, artisans, middle class liberals and other attendees as one of several meeting places to organize a mild step toward writing a constitution. Although the loss of the right to smoke in public was high on the agenda along with economic complaints, by March 7 (Shrove Tuesday), 600 citizens attended the "March Demands" professing more serious ambitions of freedom of the press; public speech; the right to assembly; amnesty for political prisoners; equal rights for all citizens; independent judges; reduction of the army; and the citizen right to bear arms; and above all "more rights for the National Assembly and the convening of a German National Parliament." The March demands were mediated and sent to the King.

Monday (March 13) was the day off for trade apprentices and artisans. On that day, Zelte discussions questioned the Kings decision to keep the army in Berlin (presumably in defense of unarmed citizens), rather than defending vulnerable Prussian borders to the unstable west? Memories were still alive of five decades earlier, when Napoleon literally walked through undefended Prussian territory on his way to conquer Russia. This led artisans and laborers to out shout each other on the Zelte's public podiums constituting social revolutions. In front of the nearby Brandenburg Gate, brewery workers were reported to light pipes "singing mocking songs, blowing smoke in soldiers faces and throwing stones." To worsen the situation, a humiliated higher ranking officer is reported to have said that "If the King gives the order, we will shoot, and gladly."

Growing numbers of troops added increased tensions as they occupied the areas around the Brandenburg Gate. By 7pm the King ordered cavalry units to proceed through the Tiergarten. When the soldiers met the citizens in the Zelte, the crowds began hissing, escalating to calling "the soldiers must go away." With such commotion, no one heard the Police President claiming the peoples demands would be satisfied if everyone "conducted themselves peacefully." The animosities intensified until people were trampled beneath military horses hooves. Ultimately a citizen was stabbed and an officer was wounded. In a fury, several artisans began to create barricades on Grünenstrasse; others "tried to storm the armories", while a crowd flooded Pariserplatz on the east side of Brandenberg Gate.

On March 14th, the King tried appeasing the public by summoning a United Parliament, with an unfortunate footnote stipulating that the public may not attend. The too little too late announcement lead the antagonistic crowd to grow louder in front of the Brandenburg Gate. However, those who jeered were now being named individually, soldiers who were mocked on the Schlossplatz drew swords at the barricade on the Bruderstrasse leading to stone and glass attacks from the surrounding windows. While defenseless burghers (civil servants), politically caught in the middle, became trampled:

"Several elderly burghers deemed it sensible to go home and were just turning out of the Schlossplatz into Brüderstrasse when a squadron of Kurassiers burst out from the other end of the street, galloping wildly towards them and shrieking as if demented, spurring on their horses so savagely that some fell over, striking the front doors with their swords and finally slashing at the people (the burghers) coming toward them. Two heavily and eight slightly wounded burghers were left lying in the street. All of them respected, elderly and inoffensive men." (3)

Frustrated citizens provoked soldiers more by building expanded cobblestone barricades, meanwhile artisans tried to break into a gun-shop on the Breitenstrasse only to be meet with the fiercest hostility yet:

"They were driven back by a burst of gunfire; the soldiers also let off their guns as they stormed the barricades. One dead man and 15 with bullet wounds were handed over to the palace guard at midnight."

Battalions were diverted to Berlin from Potsdam. Three battalions from Frankfurt an der Oder and Halle; as well as two battalions from Stettin arrived in Berlin on March 17th. Called "pallbearers with ball-bats" the 100 white armbanded burghers appeared as the bourgeoisie unarmed citizens to offer order and mediate peace. All the while, Berlin's daily Vossische Zeitung reported that unemployment was "sent by God" leading to the smashing of the newspapers windows. However, the overshadowing urgency of removing the military presence offered the King little gratitude when he announced the removal of censorship to the press.

The most important meeting on the subject of the military was held in a Tiergarten pub called "Kemperhof" with a police commissioner sent to break up the meeting, who in turn stayed to listen. Adjourning to a pub on Köpenickerstrasse, a potential revolutionary hero, August Theodor Woeniger, who was a university doctor, lawyer, and editor of "Der Staat" a liberal newspaper, advocated a peaceful demand including the withdrawal of the army, freedom of the press, and summoning the United Parliament, etc. But because of the ostentatious and ultimatum tone of Dr. Woenigers demands, the artisans and workers, (as far reaching as the Berlin suburbs) and the Police President von Minutoli, heard interpreted rumors that "Tomorrow's the day, tomorrow will be decisive."

In the morning of March 18, Berlin was "bathed in spring sunshine." The King personally stood outside his palace greeting his citizens in 17th century courtly style, publicly announcing that all the peoples demands would be met. He neglected to mention the removal of the military demand, but instead proclaimed a new black, red and gold German flag (the flag of the nationalists). King Frederick requested the crowd disperse and he withdrew from site. Unfortunately, tens of thousands of Berlin citizens did not hear the Kings' courtly style. They did see the King withdraw, the soldiers remaining, and from across the palace, an old Prussian black and white flag hurling from a balcony. The angry crowd cried out until they became a massive sway chanting "Soldiers out...Soldiers out." The incensed King ordered the square to be emptied. General von Prittwitz led his men out of the North gate. Unfortunately, the General was forced apart from his troops by the furious crowd. One of his Majors believed the General to be in mortal danger and sent a platoon against the people who were yelling and waving sticks. As the soldiers marched forward, their guns cocked, until finally infamously mysterious "two shots" were fired. The revolution had begun. The crowd believed they were trapped and cried "Treachery! they're shooting at us" even the burghers revolted in disgust. Many citizens took arms in the upper windows of buildings such as the Restaurant Rosch in the Heiligengeinstrasse.

"the town seethes like an earthquake: cobbles are ripped up, arms shops are plundered, houses are stormed, hatchets and axes are fetched out...twelve barricades rise up in Königstrasse made of droschkas, omnibuses, woolsacks, beams and of demolished pumphouses excellent, exemplary built barricades. Roofs are stripped, house by house... everyone is armed with pitchforks, swords, lances, pistols, with planks, ... baskets of big stones (were brought) onto the roofs.. People equipped themselves with boards, cudgels, pitchforks, hammers, even clearing out the theater's stock. Firearms of all sizes and epochs were brought along....marbles and coins serving for shots." (3)

Every Berliner knew Mother Schmidecke's apple vending cart on the Friederichstraße accross from the Polish Apothecary. As the angry crowds made their way westward (from the barricade of the Oberwallstrasse and Jagerstrasse) to the corner of the Taubenstrasse and Friederichstraße. Embattled burgher's helped Mother Schmideche safely store away her apples just in time for her cart to be toppled over as the cornerstone for the Friederichstraße barricade. Into early hours of the morning, the barricade would hold it's ground while confronted by one of the non-Berlin Batallions (Frankfurt a/Oder or Stettin) until only two boys were left. Wilhelm Glasewaldt, a 19 year old who just received his locksmith certificate and his buddy, 17 year old Ernst Zinna still a locksmith apprentice, were the last to stand at the Friedrichstrasse barricade fighting dozens of rifles with merely stones. Wilhelm fell first to a bullet and later died, while Ernst chose to charge the brigade even though he faced a multitude of bullets, he was shot in the stomache before finding a safe place to die. Because of their age and circumstance, Ernst and Wilhelm were widely known as heros of the revolution. Today there is a plaque on the corner of the Friedrichstrasse and Taubenstrasse commemorating the young revolutionaries.

Belatedly, the King distributed leaflets explaining the misunderstanding, as well as foolishly sending out three men with a banner. Both communication efforts were too late. Night was approaching, revolutionaries included armed and unarmed women and boys, while the men were equipped with mostly enthusiasm and anger. Soldiers however, were equipped with the order to attack the barricades head on one by one, yet they were psychologically unprepared to fight their own people especially ordinary citizens untrained at war tactics. Women, children and the elderly were in the streets, some fighting, some getting out of the way. When night fell, officers had completely lost control of their armed soldiers. Excitement and bitterness caused soldiers to engaged in excesses, including executing surrendered revolutionaries. Finally at midnight, the King ordered that positions be held and fighting to cease. In the morning he issued another leaflet for peace and withdrew his troops.


The Soldiers, after being "pelted with stones" the day before, were now "doused in boiling oil and sulphuric acid" by citizens. Soldiers hid their uniform under civilian clothes. General Prittwitz offered sentience to those psychologically burdened by incorrectly faulting the uprising on predominantly non-Prussians. This lead to Prittwitz and others documenting, in first person, events of hostile participation by Jews, French, Danes, Swiss, Dutch, Badanese and Hessians with the aim of appeasing their own consciousness. This statistically invalid fact will be exploited by historians for generations in an effort to explain future atrocities. In all 230 civilians were killed, 700 prisoners were taken, 24 officers and soldiers had been killed from attacks on 921 barricades around the city (soldiers were buried in the Invalidenfriedhof). Up to 90% of the citizens murdered were working class Prussians, with non-Berliners outnumbering citizens two to one, artisans and apprentices (handwerkers/craftsmen) suffered the highest fatality rates with factory workers suffering second. As the dozens of civilian corpses were placed before the royal couple, each with their bearers speaking on behalf of the victims:

"Fifteen years old, my only son... "
another: "Slaughtered unmercifully, after he had surrendered... "
another: "The father of five small children..."
(and so on)

The crowd sang "In Jesus is my Trust" while Queen Elizabeth is said to have murmured to King Frederick "all that's missing now is the guillotine."

The Berlin March Revolution was in the very short term considered a success, but in the months to come and to historians thereafter, this would not be true. The March Revolution is considered a failure, it lead to more stringent oppressions for Berlin citizens. All men were required to serve military duty, all minor travel required paperwork, with censorship put back into place. By 1858, the far more militant brother William I, succeeds King Fredrich William IV who has gone mad.

The Kings great great grandfather was more militant, dubbed "The Soldier King" and was responsible for creating the Friederichstraße in 1735 out of barron land on the outskirts of the walled city. The barrick like housing was a 2 kilometer facade built south of the Unter den Linden nearly without interuption of cross streets. People moved east and west mostly by going through courtyards. This design became a prototype for centuries of military housing and planned communities, the courtyard type entrances have been adopted throughout Berlin and many European cities thereafter.



The most uneasy citizens after the March Revolution were the middle class, city officials and property owners. The Kings military was suppose to uphold the lifestyle of those in power and those with good community standing, yet it betrayed the most humane rights of all citizens. The Jahn family may have easily been in this awkward position. They were middle class property owners, with a higher tier for voting rights and a high tax bracket (with artisans, and peasants having the least or no voting rights). Socially, the German class structure had been legally fixed for so many centuries, early reformation towns went so far as to create laws forbidding citizens to dress outside their class, lest it should "upset the social order." Ferdinand, however, was an artisan of 19th century Prussia, a journeymen by trade and probably not a property owner himself. It may not be a stretch to say he could have been considered to be marrying "above his class." Although they were living in the midst of middle class revolutions, middle class Nationalists were quite a different breed from working class revolutionaries, and property owners did not often support lower classes becoming middle class. This may have weighed heavily on Eugene Birkholz' mind, as he would be forfeiting legal sovereignty to whomever Amalie would marry.

When Caroline Jahn (nee Hillman) died in 1863, Birkholz began to execute the liquidation of the Jahn Inn and its' belongings; he also sought legal grounds to not give up the cash value of the family business (he worked at for possibly more than a decade) to the young woman he lived with all the while she went through adolescence. However this young woman was the legal property heir, emancipated from his custody, as well as married to Ferdinand, Amalie had become Eugene Birkholz' legal equal. A demeaning status he must have greatly resented after taking on the enormous financial and paternal responsibilities for a family that was only his own by marriage. Furthermore, at some point Birkholz' wife, Mathilde Jahn had died. There were four children from their marriage, Birkholz must have feared his passing status in the Jahn legacy. Without managing the Inn, having completed his duties to the grown Jahn children, and as father to Johann Jahns small grandchildren, Birkholz probably felt he earned more than just a third of the home in which he was fully responsible. Perhaps justifiably, he felt he deserved the full value of the Jahn Inn he managed when no one else could. It was at this time, in 1865, he would proceed with legal action to disinherit Amalie and her sister Clara. Other than obvious adolescent disobedience that may have caused friction between Amalie and Birkholz, her marriage to Ferdinand is the first documentation of Birkholz' disapproval of Amalie.

The name Birkholz appears several times as enlisted military on the register of Frankfurt an der Oder brigades during the 1848 Revolutions. Frankfurt an der Oder brigades were 2 of the three non-Berlin Batallions ordered to Berlin by the King, and most resented by the Berlin citizens. The Birkholz' family, Amalies legal guardian (practically her step-father), were likely the same Birkholz wearing the Frankfurt an der Oder Brigade uniform trotting to Berlin on the eve of the Revolution defending property rights, the class structure as well as the monarchy.

By 1851 Ferdinand was in Berlin and therefore in 1848 he was likely in or near Berlin, either as an apprentice artisan or craftsmen (handwerker), or less likely as a factory laborer. He would have been the same age as the University students, or aspiring to any of the above. Three years after the Revolution, Ferdinand saw to it that he was `honorably' dismissed from his Kings manditory military duty. Although Ferdinand had no permanent medical problems he avoided having to serve a day in the Kings army due to illness. Eventually, Ferdinand moved to the corner of the Friederichstraße and Taubenstraße, the very corner the revolutionary artisans gave their lives, as well as one block from the Gendmenmarkt which would have provided him with a community of Lutherans and French Catholics (Huegenots). His corner home was the same building built by the Soldier King over 100 years before. Most of his neighbors were renters, not property owners, who worked in the Borsig Factory via a trolly train that offered an easy commute, or they were merchants, (including an apothekary, a furier and glass and porcelain dealer) and craftsmen (handwerkers) like himself. A late 19th century would escalate revitalizing the Friederichstraße, whereby the street would become the most fashionable place for the wealthy society bragging elegant cafes, a panoptican, indoor malls and the largest train station in Berlin connecting Moscow with Paris. Ferdinand Friederici would never see this Friederichstraße, he would remember and possibly witness the revolutionary barricades of the 1848 Friedrichstraße. His Friederichstraße was where Mother Schmidecke's offered her apple cart to one of the most significant revolutionary barricades where two of his contemporaries by age and career, all apprentices as a lock, metal or gold "smith", ie: handwerkers, gave their young lives. Today, the plaque memorializing the barricade across from Ferdinand's former home commemorat s nearly the only street evidence in all of Berlin that the March Revolution ever occurred. Finally, it is conceivable that Ferdinand's age at 19 years old offered him physical strength and little to loose by supporting the Revolution; however, his geographic location in Berlin in 1851 and thereafter, places him at the center of liberal energy and violence; and most crucial is his occupation as a "handwerker" or apprentice, statistically the most influencial contributer of the Revolution as well as the most fatal; the occupation of his neighbors (laborers at the Borsig Factory) the second most fatal supporter; the drama of his infamous and heroic locksmith peers; his lack of desire to fulfill his mandatory military duty in 1851; as well as his home at the corner of a crucial barricade; and even his eventual departure from Prussia altogether; all statistically conclude Ferdinand Friederici's likely political position as a liberal revolutionist.

On the other hand, Eugene Birkolz may have been a Nationalist, more supportive of the King than what liberalism would tolerate. Two of the three non-Berlin batallions were from Frankfurt a/Oder where several entries of the name Birkholz is found on the registry of enlisted soldiers. The batallion who fought the barracade at the Friedrichstraße and killed the youths was not a Berlin batallion and was more likely than not, a Frankfurt a/Oder brigade including a soldier from the Birkholz family witnessing (or participating) in the shooting of the heroic revolutionary boys fighting the brigade with simple stones.

It is important not to dismiss the influence of the concurrent gold rush of America and Australia effecting Ferdinands career choice and continent destiny as a journeymen and "Master Goldsmith." Ferdinand avoided the more popular prospects of his neighbors in factory labor, or the safety of his brothers chosen wine and apothecary professions as merchants. Ferdinand teetered a loosing mid-19th century battle of becoming a jeweler and craftsmen, when the manufacturing of such objects were being sent overseas for cheaper labor. An entire generation of craftsmen were falling for the pitfalls of `factory laborer', a title evidently demeaning to Ferdinand because he once called himself a "Master" manufacturing laborer.

Nevertheless, if Ferdinand was formerly a provoking idealistic artisan in 1848, Amalie (then only 9 years old) may have 14 years later romantically, or naively, chosen a revolutionist to be the man who would make her a legal "equal" with Birkholz. To add to the problem, Ferdinand and Eugene Birkholz may have been closer in age and if not literally once blew smoke, threw stones and bullets at each other on the Friedrichstraße, at least ideologically they would likely be rivals. Continuing the defense of his property against revolutionaries, Birkholz wanted the Jahn Inn to be left to his children. The fact that Ferdinand had the power to diminish his business to a mere fraction of its value must have been humiliating. This would certainly explain why Birkholz took legal action, not against Amalie exactly, but legally Birkholz sued Ferdinand, as Amalies acquired "legal stand in." Nevertheless, German law would prevail to iron property, as the courts awarded one third to each plaintiff (Eugene Birkholz, Amalie and her sister Clara). It seems the Friederici's received the 500 thalers of their share after they moved to London, an enormous sum at the time. However, both parties continued contesting each other for the sum throughout 1865.



GOLD
On September 24th 1862, William I names Otto von Bismark Prime Minister of Prussia. An unpopular von Bismark was believed to be aloof to the political goals of the Prussian majority because he was an aristocrat and associated with the King. Throughout the 1860's no one saw the direction these two men were taking Prussia. A united German Empire wasn't foreseen until it happened in 1871. Preceding this, popular liberalism and nationalism were still considered two sides of the same coin. Bismark was misunderstood as both anti-nationalist and horrifying to liberals by stating: "The great question of the age are not settled by speeches and majority votes--that was the error of 1848... but by blood and iron."4 Bismark lived up to his remarks advocating and implementing external wars supported by the industrial revolution while he financed commercial military companies and transportation technologies.

The United States may have been on the Friederici's mind when considering their departure from Prussia. Ferdinand's younger brother was already in New York occupied as a clerk. However by 1862, Julius Friederici hocked his personal belongings and joined Company D., 119th NY Infantry to fight for the Union Army in the American Civil War. He and his Prussian friend Otto von Nebelsieck were quickly promoted from privates when Julius became 1st Seargent in December. The friends sometimes shared battles and tents together, while Otto's close cultural connection was aware of Julius tendancy to tell "tall tales" about his life in Prussia, Julius may have even been somewhat of a daring reckless as he seemed to be aware of his fate. Three weeks after being furloughed because of a shot in the arm in Virginia during the battle of Chancellville, and 13 months after enlisting in the US military, Julius was acting 2nd Lieutenant when he recieved a fatal stomach wound through his back on July 1st during the battle at Gettysburg. Julius was fully conscious and visited by his friend until he died July 15 1863 in a field hospital. He was later buried in the infamous Gettysburg Cemetery.



When considering the Friederici's departure from Prussia what should be taken into account is timing. Although passed draft age, it is conceivable Ferdinand was horrified by Bismarks military greed, already invading Jutland and about to step up military action by 1865. Furthermore, all the while national invasions were dwelling, Amalie was pregnant during the most heated debates of their family litigation. July of 1865 enjoyed an excellent Prussian economy overseeing Amalies' eighth month of pregnancy. A couple of weeks prior to their first daughters birth, the Friederici's left Ferdinand's jewelry business and picked up and moved to England. As the Friederici's were in the process of learning, 19th c. child birth could be a complex medical risk; the couple already lost their three week old daughter the year before. They also had the conscious risk of leaving behind the inheritance they were in the center of litigating. Waiting only one month would ensure both the safe delivery of their child, as well as successfully conclude their hard fought court business. Perhaps frustrated idealism could explain the couple who preferred their child not to be born on turmoiled Prussian soil, but instead their daughter would be of English birth and citizenry. The fact that England was the industrial leader of Europe was only one of the many causes of the inferiority complex that Prussia felt toward Britain. It was in England that Ferdinand officially called himself a "Manufacturing Jewelry Master", while other official documents called him merely a laborer. Perhaps the Friederici's were shocked that London had even more of the same problems as Berlin, including epidemics, more condensed housing, overcrowded health clinics, and mass unemployment for its' poorest citizens and immigrants. Standards of health were so appalling during the 1866 cholera epidemic, the Elizabeth Garrett-Anderson opened the first dispensary for women and children in London as part of a movement to alleviate the suffering of the urban poor. Since doctor fees were out of the question, most women lived with chronic gynecological illnesses such as uterine infections. Between 1866 and 1871 the dispensary saw over 40,000 women, sixty to ninety women visited every afternoon.4 Amalie probably brought at least one of her three children (Alma, Jennie and Oscar) to this clinic, if not all especially "little Oscar" her first son who died after 13 months in 1869. He was possibly a cholera victim when he was buried in St Giles Church Middlesex. During little Oscars presumed illness, without the conveniency of the Garrett-Anderson dispensary, Amalie's religion would have taught her to resort to "fasting and prayer" for help.



In the early 1860's trans Atlantic journeys offered passangers overcrowded voyeages taking up to 3 months. Unsafe health conditions were due to overcrowding the bowels of the ships and lack of proper sanitary conditions, leading to the spread of terminal illnesses to uncontrollable proportions. Furthermore, commercial liners were unequipped to treat or quarantine sickness once they occured leading to inevitable epidemics in these overcrowded ships. By simply reducing the time of the trans Atlantic journey, commercial liners didn't keep diseases from occuring, but the spread of disease was kept under control by docking prior to mass illnesses. Therefore the introduction of Steamships in the 1860's allowed voyeages to take only 3-6 weeks. The American designed Guion Line steamer line boasted larger amounts of passengers (and cargo) with the fastest trans Atlantic service at affordable costs, eventually carrying thousands of emigrants to America on voyages taking less than a week. Because the liner could make the trans Atlantic journey so often, it marked the highest commercial success of it's time. However, in 1869 the Guion Line offered the 2 year old Steamer Minnesota holding under 1,000 passengers for less than a 3 week voyage from Liverpool to New York. An enormous improvement of several months just years before. Although fatal accidents still occurred in the advanced Line, the Steamer Minnesota design featured 1 funnel and 2 masts because no one believed steam ships would be safe without masts. The speed of the nearly 3 ton iron hull clipper at 10 knots offered a safer and healthier voyeage.



If America was on the Friederici's minds as early as 1865, London was at least a stop on the way, as well as English speaking. They wouldn't yet have to deal with the more severe risks of an overseas journey, or worse a country at Civil War. The news of Julius Friederici's fatal participation in the famous Gettysburg Battle came during the sale of the Jahn in 1863. Perhaps the Friederici's never planned to stay in England, but had hoped the inheritance would pay for an immediate steamship to New York. When the conflict died down, perhaps they believed the Civil War diminished their American dreams. It is impossible to know if the Friederici's had planned to stay longer than four years in England; or if they'ld always planned an overseas voyage; or if they simply took advantage of the advanced technology the 1869 Guion Line offered. Besides the new marketing of steamers, perhaps the Friederici's embarked the Minnesota because they were as disappointed and frustrated with the English system as they had been with Prussia, and now they were trying America. Just a few weeks after burying Oscar, their fourth child, Amalie, Ferdinand, 4 year old Alma, and 2 year old Jennie departed Britain to arrive September 6 in New York's harbor.

With a child buried in Berlin and London, Selina Friederici was probably an infant or stillborn when she was buried in Queens New York in 1871. Even though New York offered distant refuge from their Berlin problems, Amalie stayed bound to her family and even to Eugene Birkholz. More than 20 years later, during a Brooklyn recession, in poor health herself, and with mass labor unemployment, Amalies desire for contact would initiate correspondences with her family. She received endearing letters from her nephew (who was probably more like a younger brother), who now lived in Wisconsin, as well as initiating correspondence with other Birkholz children, and even Eugene Birkholz himself. Her actions offer testimony to the strong bond Birkholz still held for Amalie. Conversely, financially burdened Ferdinand's correspondences with his own brothers took on angry tones of his troubles. It seems with the concurrent recession in Europe, his eldest brother Gustav retired his apothecary, and the income from his brother Carls winery, as well as the other brothers, were insufficient to pay Ferdinands small inheritance installments. A failed inheritance system lead to yet another bad idea, this time of dividing the Friederici property in installments. When Ferdinands father, Christian G. Friederici died, he may have left property, perhaps from his textile business, or something that was difficult to divide evenly between 5 sons. Evidently the brothers agreed to "buy Ferdinand out" by offering him years of small installments. The installments would come once every couple of months by a different brother each time! An organizational impossibility which during Berlin/New York parallel 1880's recessions led to animosities on both continents. Ferdinand did change employers, and may have been temporarily unemployed, as he was also seeking money from his deceased brother Julius' final American Civil War paycheck from 2 decades earlier. During this time, Ferdinand raged the extreme gesture of returning to Berlin to live with his brothers! He included in this gesture bringing his wife, 3 daughters and his only son Wilhelm, who was by now authoring his own bitter prayers to an unnamed "enemy." Of course the Friederici's never left Brooklyn, but instead witnessed the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge a few blocks from their Tillery Street flat, amongst their Irish and German craftsmen and laborer neighbors, and they would've witnessed the erection of the nearly complete Statue of Liberty.

However, when the Friederici's arrived in Brooklyn, medical conditions in Brooklyn hadn't yet caught up with London's charitable resolutions to epidemic poverty. Over crowding and naive hygiene perpetrated warnings to not leave dead cats and dogs in the streets. Over crowding took the form of 250,000 people living in 15,000 tenement dwellings with no sewage system. "cholera might appear once in a generation to destroy thousands of lives, tuberculosis and pneumonia killed as many each year." Other fatal epidemic diseases included typhoid, smallpox and syphilis. The New York Times reported that the cities problems were abandoned by all but women and children, as well the Church of Rome was the only institution which remained, taking in the sick, the immoral and hardworking all the same. Hygiene and illness became connected with morality and many churches, especially Protestant Churches, left the urban area altogether. While Prodestant Churches did remain, a Methodist Church bragged of being "free of paupers, idlers, poor and the unhealthy" to attract moral followers.5

By 1881 overall conditions were improving. However, the Friederici's buried 8 year old Julie, the fourth and oldest child they ever had bury, and the only one the siblings would remember loosing. In all, Amalie gave birth to 7 children in which 3 lived to be adults. These statistics are extremely high, but not completely abnormal for the very poorest conditions in all three major cities of Berlin, London and New York. Ultimately in 1888, after complaining of illness for a couple of years, and within weeks of each other, Amalie at 48 and Ferdinand at 59 died, possibly of one of several contagious diseases. They left behind their almost grown children, Alma, Jennie and William, without parents and without property. The three surviving children inherited a box of legal documents, letters and photos; while burying their parents with a simple, stoic granite stone in the celebrated Victorian Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

In 1890's New York, over 90% of German immigrants married other Germans, and although all the Friederici children could read, write and speak German fluently, twelve years after her parents died Alma married an Irishman outside of her Lutherine faith, while Jennie and William never married at all. Alma was 30 when she married the Irish Catholic engineer, James T. Herson. Six years later, Alma had her first child named Alma Genevieve (after herself and her sister Jennie). Later she would loose her two year old son Frankie, but give birth to a daughter Evelyn. At 43 years old Alma gave birth to James Thomas (Jimmy) just before losing her husband from tuberculosis in 1913. The tuberculosis tragedy came when Alma, the eldest daughter, was 12 (the same age her grandmother Amalie was when she lost her father), and Jimmy was only 2 years old. Jennie became "Aunt Jennie" and lived with Alma and her three children. Alma dutifully kept the promise to her husband to raise the three children Catholic. Alma's brother William Fredericks (formerly Friederici) had become a plumber, as well as serving a short time in the New York Infantry (like his uncle who died at Gettysburg), serving during the Spanish-American War although he never left New York. He retired on his war pension until he died in 1935. He was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery for United Spanish War Veterans in New York. Alma Friederici Herson died two years later of cancer in 1937 at 72 years old and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn. She requested her belongings be divided evenly between her sister and her two unmarried children (Evelyn and Jimmy) with whom she had been caring and she requested that all her children be "good and honest." The following year her daughter Evelyn soon married William Johnson and Jennie Friederici moved in with her niece and new husband. She was known as Aunt Jennie to her mothers great grandchildren until she died in 1956 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Canton Ohio at 89 years old. Jennie Friederici, the third child of Amalie and Ferdinand born in 1869 never married, but would live to see the drowning of her grand nephew Jimmie Herson, as well as know Carole Moren who would be 17 years old, Cliff Johnson who would be 16, Art Moren Jr 15, Gerry Johnson 14, and Bob Herson who was about 10 years old at the time of her death.

1. "The Burgermeister's Daughter" by Steven Ozment, First HarperPerennial 1997. pp 129-134.
2. ibid. pp 128.
3. "The Course of German Nationalism From Frederick the Great to Bismark 1763-1867" by Hagen Schulze Cambridge University Press 1991.
4. "Berlin: A Portrait of Its History, Politics, Architecture, and Society" by Giles MacDonogh, St. Martin's Press, New York 1997.
5. "Revolution of 1848, A Social History" by Priscella Robertson, Princeton University Press, 1952, 1980.
6. "Germany A New History" by Hagen Schulze, trasnlated by Deborah Lucas Schneider, Harvard University Press 1998.
7. "Medicine Women: A History of Women Healers" by Elisabeth Brooke. Quest Books 1997.
8. "The Cholera Years" by Charles E. Rosenberg, University of Chicago Press, 1987.

9. "Die Friecrichstrasse Im Wandel der Zeiten", by Peter Mugay, Edition Preußische Gessleschaft, Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. Germany.