Further, I think you are confusing Richters, which is easy. There
are the late 19th century pair of Anton and Jacob Richter who made
harmonicas, and then there is the semi-mythical Richter of a half-
century earlier who later was identified as "Joseph".
"You appear to have missed a really big point in that e-mail I just
put it out there. Despite the fact they probably operated Anton
Richter and CO., Seydel employes of old never called it Richter,
they called it "HAIDER" "
"Haidaer" is the spelling. I was quite aware of it. It may or may
not have any significance, since it is unknown which term came
first. Certainly "Haidaer" follows in the tradition of such names
as Weiner and Knittlinger. "Richter" as an inventor would follow
in the lines of calling the Weiner system after it's inventor, such
as "Thei" and "Hotz" respectively.
"You were saying that Pat Missin says nobody knows the relationship
between Joseph and Anton. The German Harmonica museum says they
were brothers. How do they know these things? They went to Bohemia
and looked at records, so at the moment, I'm going to have to go
with their theory on that one until something trumps it or I doubt
it. "
Again, are you sure you are not confusing Richters? There was a
pair of harmonica making Richters late in the 19th century, one of
whom was Anton, but the other was not named Joseph but Johann. The
relationship I was referring to as being unknown was that between
these two and the semi-mythical "herr Richter" later attributed
with the Christian name of Joseph.
"I'm not exactly reading ANY contemporary histories on anything.
I'm looking at the stuff you're supposed to look at, patents,
advertising, etc. "
Contemporary histories are very useful in all fields of history.
One "should" look at everything, and be aware of the biases and
problems within all forms of evidence.
As for nationalism and the political location of Bohemia in the
19th century, I think you are missing the point entirely. The rise
of nationalism as a concept and it's creation of the nation-state
were tied deeply into the emerging racial, ethnic and linguistic
theories of the late 19th century. Not only did nationalism not
care about existing borders, it actively seeked to destroy their
legitimacy and change these political constructs. I don't and
didn't claim that the use of Richter was an example of this (it may
or may not have been, the C. F. L. Buschmann story fits better in
this mold) only that these issues surrounded anyone writing in the
day and probably deeply informed what they wrote. Moreover, by
claiming all German-speakers (to use this specific example)
including those in a place like Bohemia as being inherently part of
the German national movement, a political claim was made on the
territory as well. It was the use of culture and history to
advance political goals that was behind much of the nationalist
movement at the time, and which specifically seeked to rewrite
borders to fit this concept.
And that is probably beyond the scope of harp-l on the subject, as
we are now only tangentially relating to this specific example of
Richter and the probably influence of nationalist ideas on this
specific story.
"Who's Bauschman?"
A misspelling of Buschmann.
()() JR "Bulldogge" Ross
() ()
`----'
_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l