Hermann Goedsche

Goedsche was born in Trachenberg, Silesia, then in the Kingdom of Prussia, now part of Poland. In 1848 he worked for the newspaper Neue Preußische (Kreuz-)Zeitung, together with famous Germans like Theodor Fontane, Otto von Bismarck and George Hesekiel. In 1853, he travelled as a journalist to Turkey.

Goedsche main genre of fiction was historical romance, as typified by Sir Walter Scott, Charles Sealsfield and Theodor Mügge, but he was also influenced by authors like Eugène Sue, Alexandre Dumas, père and George Hesekiel. Some of his works are critical of British colonialism. He was explicitly antisemitic and, although adopting an English pseudonym, he was a Prussian chauvinist who had a profound aversion against the British. His political opinions concerning "perfidious Albion" are expressed in his novels.

Goedsche worked as a postal employee, but was also an agent provocateur for the Prussian secret police. He forged letters which were used as evidence to frame democratic leaders. In 1849, he was caught after forging evidence for the prosecution of political reformer Benedict Waldeck and had to quit the postal service.[1]

He died at Bad Warmbrunn, now Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój in Jelenia Góra, in 1878.

Goedsche appears as a character in the novel The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco. In the novel, the protagonist Simone Simonini approaches Goedsche in an unsuccessful effort to sell a forged antisemitic document to the Prussian secret police. Simonini later discovers to his dismay that Goedsche has appropriated the contents of the document for a scene of his novel Biarritz, causing other potential buyers of Simonini's forgery to think that he had merely plagiarized it from Goedsche.

• Der letzte Wäringer. Historisch politische Novelle aus den letzten Tagen Constantinopels (1835, as Theodor Armin)
• Vaterländische Romaneske aus den Zeiten Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossas (3 volumes, 1836, with Burg Frankenstein)
• Die Sage vom Ottilien-Stein (1836)
• Die steinernen Tänzer. Romantische Sage aus Schlesiens Vorzeit (2 volumes, 1837)
• Nächte. Romantische Skizzen aus dem Leben und der Zeit (2 volumes, 1838–1839)
• Schlesischer Sagen-, Historien- und Legendenschatz (1839–1840)
• Mysterien der Berliner Demokratie (1848, as Willibald Piersig)
• Enthüllungen (1849, anonymously)
• Die Russen nach Constantinopel! Ein Beitrag zur orientalischen Frage (1854)
• Sebastobol. Historisch-politischer Roman aus der Gegenwart (4 volumes, 1855–1857)
• Nena Sahib, oder: Die Empörung in Indien. Historisch-politischer Roman 1858-1859
• Villafranca, oder: Die Kabinette und die Revolutionen. Historisch-politischer Roman aus der Gegenwart (3 volumes, 1860–1862)
• Biarritz. Historisch-politischer Roman (3 volumes, 1868)
• Um die Weltherrschaft (sequel to Biarritz, 5 volumes, 1877–1879)

• Karl May
• Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetery

• Cohn, Norman (1967). Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. London. Excerpts dealing a. o. with Retcliffe
• Klotz, Volker (1979). Abenteuer-Romane. Sue, Dumas, Ferry, Retcliffe, May, Verne. Munich: Hanser. ISBN 3-446-12690-2.
• Märtin, Ralf-Peter (1983). "Wunschpotentiale. Geschichte und Gesellschaft in Abenteuerromanen von Retcliffe, Armand, May. Königstein/Taunus: Hain 1983". Literatur in der Geschichte, Geschichte in der Literatur: 10. ISBN 3-445-02302-6.
• Neuhaus, Volker (1980). Der zeitgeschichtliche Sensationsroman in Deutschland 1855-1878. "Sir John Retcliffe" und seine Schule. Berlin: Schmidt. ISBN 3-503-01628-7.

• German page about Retcliffe's life and work
• "The History of a Lie" - book that excerpts the "Cemetery" story