As Seen From Afar 11/21/2016

IT IS A LETTER THAT CHANGED WORLD HISTORY, writes the German newspaper Bild.  Friedrich Trump – yes, the grandfather of – in vain asked permission to be allowed to come back and stay in Germany early in 1905.  When that was denied, he returned to America, the country where his grandson soon will be the 45^th president.

Friedrich Trump (1869-1918) was a 16-year-old from Kallstadt, Rhineland-Palatine, who as a barber’s apprentice had realized that there wasn’t going to be enough trade for him and knowing that he could be called to military service soon,  traveled to America to make fortune.  Trump apparently left secretly in the night, just leaving his mother a note.

He succeeded in amassing a fortune first, from 1894, by running a restaurant in Seattle’s Red Light District which included "Rooms for Ladies", a common euphemism for prostitution.  He then moved on to Monte Christo, Washington in 1894 and acquired some land through some backhanded dealing with the corrupt US Land Office in this gold and silver mining town. He didn’t become prosperous by mining himself, but by “mining miners” (from Blair, Gwenda (August 24, 2015). "The Man Who Made Trump Who He Is") by running another restaurant-brothel on the land he acquired in Monte Christo. By then he had become an American citizen. It’s interesting to note that Grandfather Trump was a true founding father of the Trump dynasty: he was elected to office, winning the 1896 election for justice of the peace by a 32-to-5 margin in the little town.

Friedrich Trump in 1918Friedrich Trump really made his fortune on the back of the Klondike gold rush when he set up a new business in British Columbia in 1898, opening the The Arctic House, which soon became one of the largest and most decadent restaurants in that region of the Klondike. Of course this restaurant also advertised "Rooms for ladies.” But after a few years the government was about to crack down on prostitution, gambling and liquor and Trump saw it coming. He sold his share of the restaurant and left the Yukon. Biographer Blair wrote that "once again, in a situation that created many losers, [Trump] managed to emerge a winner."

He continued a business as a barber and hotel-owner in New York, but in 1905, he returned as a rich man to his homeland Germany, depositing his life’s savings of 80,000 marks, equivalent to $505,248 in 2016, in the bank there. But the authorities were neither impressed nor best pleased.  They didn’t want him back, because he had not fulfilled his military service and he was labeled a draft dodger.

In the letter Trump wrote to make his case to stay, he pleaded with the  "most-beloved, noble, wise and righteous” Bavarian Prince regent Luitpold to make an exception for him.  This “request in great servitude” was rejected.  The letter was dug up from the archives of the State immediately after the election of Donald Trump.

Bavaria didn’t want him and made no exception for him, so Friedrich Trump was made to understand that he had to pack his bags within months.  Eventually he would board a steamer on 1 July 1905, back to the US.  Three months later Fred Trump junior, the father of Donald, was born there.  

 Incidentally the real estate family later maintained for a long time that they are of Swedish origin. Friedrich Trump's son Fred denied his German heritage, instead claiming his father had been a Swede from Karlstad, a small but significant change to the German Kallstadt. This legend was also perpetuated by grandson Donald in his 1987 autobiography.
“They had many Jewish tenants and in those days it was best not to be German,” explained the family historian.

From Wikkipedia and the Bild article we really get a good sense of some of the strong family characteristics that are now ‘trademark’ of the Trump dynasty.

Cross-posted at Care2