Re: [Harp-L] re: history

["Dave Payne, Elk River Harmonicas" <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Ross,

You wrote about a Mr. "Bauschman" 
I want to know who that is. So I asked you who he was. 
You dismiss it as: "A misspelling of Buschmann."

I simply don't believe this.  I believe that you meant what you  
originally wrote in terms of the spelling of Mr. Bauschman and you are now
backtracking from an untenable position.
 
Otherwise, thank you for your the dissertations on Bohemia, etc. I am positive that never, in the long, glorious history of Harp-L, were such words were strung together by mortal man so effectively on Bohemian nationalism, nor done so on any other harmonica board.
 _________________________________
Dave Payne Sr. 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com
 



----- Original Message ----
From: Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 6:17:06 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] re: history

"O.K. I didn't consider it a claim. I was thinking more along the  
lines of Richter being the Abner Doubleday guy of harmonicas and I  
meant Joseph is who people were probably actually talking about. I  
didn't go into detail because it wasn't my point. My point was Anton  
Richter was a plumber. He didn't make any harmonicas. Thus you can  
scratch Anton off the Richter scale.
On Joseph, personally, I think there is no evidence. It's doubleday  
commission all over again, only this time with the only non-religous  
thing as sacred as baseball - the harp. "

I simply don't believe this.  I believe that you meant what you  
originally wrote in terms of the origins of the harmonica and are now  
backtracking from an untenable position.

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
()  ()
`----'



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