Category Fringe History
The Rogue Reverend: A Tale of Deception and Fraud (part 3 of 3).
(continued from part 2) Reporters at the Cincinnati Enquirer eventually did the most to put the pieces together. For the last week of his life, Schade had lodged at the hotel and had entertained a stream of visitors, mostly Germans investing in his Panama colonization project. Schade had associates in this plan too, but […]
The Rogue Reverend: A Tale of Deception and Fraud (part 1 of 3)
In 1899, a German Reformed minister named Augustus E. Schade self-published a book called The Philosophy of History.[1] The book was pure sophistry, some four hundred densely-filled pages of esoteric nonsense masquerading as scholarship. It is a window into the mind and career of a huckster. Not just an intellectual fraud, Schade’s entire career as […]
Book Review: Augustus Schade, The Philosophy of History (1899)
In 1899, an obscure German American named Augustus Schade wrote what is, hands down, the most absurd book ever written on the philosophy of history. Schade self-published his “The Philosophy of History” in Cleveland, Ohio, of all places. The book claims to be based on the works of a German thinker, Rudolf Rocholl. Schade’s influences […]
Making fun of the pay-to-play scheme
A few days ago, I received a message asking me to submit my work to the International Journal of Modern Engineering Research. Of course, this is some pay-to-play outfit edited by a host of shady and non-existent characters. Anyway, I read through some back issues online, found the best parts, and assembled them into this […]
Georg Weisserman
Could it be true that George Washington was actually a German immigrant named “Georg Weisserman”? New research indicates that this is a distinct possibility. A Virginia man claims to have found a 18th century diary in a German archive that proves just this. George, or Georg, as he was known in his hometown of Hannover, […]
Michael J Douma 