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SEPTEMBER 9, 2017: [Disaster relief] [DACA] [Earthquakes] [School breakfast programs]
ARCHIVE / 2017 / MARCH < Previous Article | Next Article >
THE CURRENT ISSUE
READINGS From the March 2017 issue
The Emigrants
By Friedrich Trump
From a letter written in 1905 by Friedrich Trump, Donald Trumps
grandfather, to Luitpold, prince regent of Bavaria. Trump had been
ordered to leave Bavaria for failing to complete mandatory military
service and to register his initial emigration to the United States twenty
years earlier. Prince Luitpold rejected Trumps request for repatriation;
the family later settled in New York. Translated from the German by
Austen Hinkley.
M
ost Serene, Most Powerful Prince Regent! Most
Gracious Regent and Lord! SEPTEMBER 2017
I was born in Kallstadt on March 14, 1869. My parents were honest, plain, pious W.W.E. the People
vineyard workers. They strictly held me to everything good to diligence and piety, to By Naomi Klein
regular attendance in school and church, to absolute obedience toward the high
authority. Now and Then
By Rebecca Solnit
After my confirmation, in 1882, I apprenticed to become a barber. I emigrated in 1885,
in my sixteenth year. In America I carried on my business with diligence, discretion, The Rise of the Valkyries
and prudence. Gods blessing was with me, and I became rich. I obtained American By Seyward Darby
citizenship in 1892. In 1902 I met my current wife. Sadly, she could not tolerate the
climate in New York, and I went with my dear family back to Kallstadt.
Class Dismissed
By Alexandria Neason
The town was glad to have received a capable and productive citizen. My old mother
was happy to see her son, her dear daughter-in-law, and her granddaughter around her; All the Last Wars
she knows now that I will take care of her in her old age. By Charles Glass, Don McCullin
But we were confronted all at once, as if by a lightning strike from fair skies, with the Bringing in the Beans
news that the High Royal State Ministry had decided that we must leave our residence By Ted Genoways
in the Kingdom of Bavaria. We were paralyzed with fright; our happy family life was
tarnished. My wife has been overcome by anxiety, and my lovely child has become sick.
Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family. What will our fellow
citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree not to mention the
great material losses it would incur. I would like to become a Bavarian citizen again.
In this urgent situation I have no other recourse than to turn to our adored, noble, wise,
and just sovereign lord, our exalted ruler His Royal Highness, highest of all, who has G E T H A R P E
already dried so many tears, who has ruled so beneficially and justly and wisely and
softly and is warmly and deeply loved, with the most humble request that the highest of P R I N T , I N
all will himself in mercy deign to allow the applicant to stay in the most gracious D I G I T A L A C
Kingdom of Bavaria.
O U R 1 6 7 - Y
Your most humble and obedient,
A R C H I V E A
Friedrich Trump $ 4 5 . 9 9
TAGS [1777-1918] [20th century] [21st century] [Bavaria] [Bavaria (Germany)] [Correspondence]
[Deportation] [Donald Trump] [Emigration and immigration] [Family] [Family relationships]
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2017 Harpers Magazine Foundation. September 2017 cover illustration by Tavis Coburn
