18-12-2009, 02:35 PM
Helen Reyes Wrote:Fascinating stuff there Helen. Have a great time during your breakJohn Bevilaqua Wrote:I don't know Baltic or Schmaltic from Slapstick, or Flapjacks from Slapshot, apparently since I just put George de Mohrenschildt as the Nobel's petroleum geologist in Baku instead of his father and his uncle. But you point seems to be well taken though it has no direct bearing on my studies right now as far as I can tell. If it does, please educate me. ...
It's just a matter of historical milieu (sp?): the Germans left in the Russian Empire's "Northwest Territories" (the Baltic states) either skidaddled to East Prussia or became Russians of German origin, retaining some sort of nobility most likely, but not always. Livonia and Courland, roughly Latvia and Estonia, would have more German nobles than Lithuania, which had very few, although I think it might touch upon your thesis to learn that during Wilson's "Springtime of Nations" when the ethnic Lithuanian rump state was declaring independence (with some German backing), one idea was to recreate the monarchy (which had had a total of one king once upon a time, murdered; after that it was all Grand Dukes, mostly in cooperation with Poland) and the only pretender I've ever heard of was a German who would have assumed the name of Mindaugas II.
On contradictions in your sources, I didn't mean that your theory was wrong because some of the sources are contradictory. I was just wondering if you noticed those contradictions.
On Jo, I didn't see you asking who Jo(e) was, sorry, it got buried somewhere.
On Latin, pig and otherwise: non sum dignus, as any good Catholic or Wayne's World fan knows, means "I'm not worthy!" arrectis auribus means with ears perked up, i.e., listening. Judenforschung ohne juden is German and means Jewish Studies without Jews.
I believe Prussic acid aka Zyklon (=Cyclone) B is what makes Prussian blue blue on the artist's pallet. East Prussia of course was a Crusader state that began Catholic. In a bout of geopolitical revenge the Allies wiped it from the map after the war. About half of it, the southern half, is Polish territory now, and the northern half is Kaliningrad, where Putin's wife comes from. A little bit juts into Lithuania, Klaipeda/Memel-land. Immanuel Kant comes from East Prussia. The German crusaders conquered native Baltic tribes, namely the Old Prussians, related to Lithuanians and Latvians linguistically. They set up large feudal estates where the natives were little more than slaves, serfs if they were lucky. The extermination was almost complete by the end of the 17th century, and there's a lot of German crying-in-one's-beer about the lost races, a lot like modern American sentiments regarding Native Americans. It would be interesting to trace the origin of Indian reserves and Hitler's death camps to East Prussia, but not sure if the evidence supports it fully.
The Lithuanians had this pagan kingdom, essentially, but no recognition in Christian Europe, and couldn't stop the harrassment by the German crusaders, so they got smart and asked the Pope for a crown and converted to Catholicism. The German crusader organization the Livonian Order (I believe) held up the first crown shipped via Riga, but eventually this Mindaugas character got the hat from the pope and after a while the East Prussian crusader state turned inward, with no more pagan Lithuanians to conquer, and set up universities and bureaucracies and stuff. Somewhere along the way they turned Protestant like most Germans in Germany. Prussia, Austria and Russia were the main players in the partitions of Poland-Lithuania, old habits die hard I suppose. Napoleon created a rump Polish state in Warsaw during his campaign eastward with some concessions from Catherine the Great. Polish patriots played a major role in the American Revolution and in shaping the American Constitution. I think I read somewhere Thomas Jefferson had a copy of Tadeusz Kosciuszko's (or was it Poniatowski's?) May 3rd Constitution on his bookshelf. Tad was a miltiary engineer and did a lot of stuff with George Washington. I think they still have a statue of him in Central Park. So anyway, the royalists' fight with the republicans spilled over into the Americas, and threatened to come back to Europe like a boomerang, to really mix up a metaphor.
John, you are aware of the tongue-in-cheek TsOG theory of Robert Anton Wilson, right? It's hard to say when Wilson's joking, it's all straight-faced, but he makes the case for the Tsarist-Occupied Government of the United States.
Anyway, I'm away for a week or so. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas!
and we will welcome you back :dancing:
real soon!
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.