Berlin Way
Book One – Capturing Beauty
by
John Presco
Copyright 2021
Millions of Americans, and countless people all over the world, are subjected to the machinations of Royalty, whose intrigues have come home with the marriage of Harry and Meghan, who like the Jews, own duo-citizenship. How Archie came to own the surname Mountbatten-Windsor has its roots at Balmoral Castle that was built by Albert and Victoria, and is privately owned by Queen Elizabeth. It is not part of the crown. The children of this royal couple could not stay at their private castle during world war one because of the anti-German demonstrations that arose because the free press went into much detail about who the Gothe-Saxburg family is. Millions of Brits were horrified to learn how German their royal rulers were – and still are!
I suspect my Janke and Stuttmeister grandfathers were denigrated for being the proud unification of two German immigrant linages, one owning an estate at No.1 Berlin Way, in Berlin. Were these two families happy about the marriage of Victoria and Albert? In 1850 it looked like the Western World was becoming a German Kingdom. About this time Prussia offered Mexico six millions dollars for California. Did Prussian Royalty have a list of immigrants?
It appears to me Victoria was trying to give Albert a English Image, and looked to Scotland to plant his new roots. The commoners like a good show, and when they saw images of Albert in front of his Scottish Prop, with men in tartars playing bagpipes, they went to bed reassured that the Germans were not invading Merry Ol’ England, and the Celtic ways will not be molested by descendants of the Holy Roman Empire.
It is my contention that Balmoral is the first Sleeping Beauty Castle, and these monarchs within had fashioned an escape from reality, being – Socialism was on the march – everywhere! John Fremont formed a new political party in the West with the help of the Turnverein Germans. If the Revolution came to England, would Albert and Victoria flee to Balmoral, and call on their loyal Scottish Troops (Germans in kilts) they were secretly amassing? Albert would appear on one of the pepperbox turrets wearing a tartar. A thousand red-headed blokes would give out a Wallace-like yell……
“Freedom!”
Will Archie Mountbatten-Windsor go to Disneyland with his sibling, who will be the first royal to be born in America – with a title! Keep your eye on Snow White and her gang of German Elfs. Aren’t they – miners? Consider the gold rush. Who is buying-up all the real estate on the West Coast? China? The Queen? Both? Have you played chess? When you enter Balmoral, you pass between two rooks, like Czar Nicholas did. Did he expect to be given sanctuary at Sleeping Beauty Castle after the socialists took away all his land? Yes? But, he knew that family members who made bad real estate deals, had the WELCOME mat removed for them and their lovely children, lest the socialists of Britain bring equality to the biggest chess game in the world. A board of pawns. I am sure Harry thinks of those Beauties. Does Meghan have a clue?
I had the WELCOME mat pulled away from me after I posted on the Belmont Historical Society page. What are they hiding? Well, someone dug up Carl and Doris Janke’s graves, and moved them to another city – in the middle of the night! I might be able to claim the land they were originally buried in – with the help of a attorney. The Janke’s owned a theme park for children, that was built before Disneyland.
Nicholas at Balmoral
SCENES AT BALMORAL 1896 – NO SOUND – YouTube
Queen Elizabeth II confirmed Windsor as the family surname when she ascended the throne in 1952, but in 1960, she and her husband Prince Philip (née Philip Mountbatten) wanted to differentiate their descendants from the rest of the royal lineage by giving them the last name Mountbatten-Windsor. The decision was confirmed by the Privy Council.
“The effect of the declaration was that all The Queen’s children, on occasions when they needed a surname, would have the surname Mountbatten-Windsor,” the royal family’s website reads.
Mountbatten family – Wikipedia
Archie Mountbatten-Windsor – Wikipedia
Mountbatten-Windsor descends paternally from the British royal family. He has mixed-race ancestry maternally, having African-American and European-American lineage.[8] In the 2021 television interview Oprah with Meghan and Harry, the Duchess of Sussex said that a member of the royal family was concerned “about how dark [Archie’s] skin might be when he’s born”.[9] In early 2020, Mountbatten-Windsor’s parents stepped down from their roles as working members of the royal family.[10] The family then moved to North America, and have resided in Montecito, California, since that summer.[11] Mountbatten-Windsor has dual nationality of the United Kingdom and the United States.[12][13]
What Does Mountbatten-Windsor Mean? – Why Royal Baby Archie Has a Last Name (harpersbazaar.com)
Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena of Battenberg (24 October 1887 – 15 April 1969) was Queen of Spain as the wife of King Alfonso XIII. A Hessian princess by birth, she was a member of the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was a relative of the British royal family as a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Unlike other members of the Battenberg family, who were accorded the lower rank of Serene Highness, Victoria Eugenie was born with the rank of Highness due to a Royal Warrant issued in 1886 by Queen Victoria.
Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg was born on 24 October 1887 at Balmoral Castle, in Scotland. Her father was Prince Henry of Battenberg, the fourth child and third son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine by his morganatic wife Countess Julia von Haucke, and her mother was Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her mother, as the youngest child of the lonely queen, was kept “at home” with the court, which happened to be at Balmoral when she went into labour. Victoria Eugenie was the last grandchild of a British monarch to be born in Scotland until Princess Margaret was born at Glamis Castle in Angus in 1930.[1]
Morganatic marriage – Wikipedia
Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage,[1] is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal’s position or privileges being passed to the spouse, or any children born of the marriage.
Generally, this is a marriage between a man of high birth (such as from a reigning, deposed or mediatised dynasty) and a woman of lesser status (such as a daughter of a low-ranked noble family or a commoner).[2][3] Usually, neither the bride nor any children of the marriage have a claim on the bridegroom’s succession rights, titles, precedence, or entailed property. The children are considered legitimate for all other purposes and the prohibition against bigamy applies.[3][4] In some countries, a woman could also marry a man of lower rank morganatically. As a result of the above, a king deciding to enter into a morganatic marriage who does not have children from a previous marriage thereby gives up the chance of being succeeded by his own children and accepts that succession would pass to his other relatives.
The Full Story Behind Prince Harry’s Comments Criticizing Royal Upbringings (msn.com)
In comments that sparked a significant backlash in Britain, he indicated it may date back to the way Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip brought up Charles.
The prince told hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman: “There is no blame. I don’t think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody, but certainly when it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on, basically.
“It’s a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway, so we as parents should be doing the most we can to try and say ‘you know what, that happened to me, I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.'”
The prince has been pilloried in the U.K. press, with the Mail on Sunday quoting unnamed palace aides saying they felt “bewilderment and betrayal” and courtiers reportedly discussing whether Harry and Meghan should give up their titles.
The comments were described as a “bitter swipe” at Charles on the front page of The Sun while a doctor writing in Monday’s Daily Mail suggests the prince may have had “too much” therapy.
There is no secrecy about the association, neither is there any direct connection between the different associations, although a Turner of any one city considers himself, to all intents and purposes, a member of the Turnverein of any other city.
Balmoral Castle (/bælˈmɒrəl/) is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, owned by Queen Elizabeth II. It is near the village of Crathie, 9 miles (14 kilometres) west of Ballater and 50 miles (80 kilometres) west of Aberdeen.[2]
Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British royal family since 1852, when the estate and its original castle were bought from the Farquharson family by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Soon afterwards the house was found to be too small and the current Balmoral Castle was commissioned. The architect was William Smith of Aberdeen, and his designs were amended by Prince Albert. Balmoral remains private property of the Queen and is not part of the Crown Estate.
While in Germany the Templers were regarded sectarians, the Evangelical proselytes gained major financial and intellectual support from German Lutheran and unitedchurch bodies. This created an atmosphere of mistrust and envy among the colonists of different denominational affiliation.[7]
There is no secrecy about the association, neither is there any direct connection between the different associations, although a Turner of any one city considers himself, to all intents and purposes, a member of the Turnverein of any other city.
Although a proposal to form a “Gymnastic Army” (Turnerschar) to supplement the National Guard was never realized, gymnasts manned barricades and participated in crucial fighting during the revolutions. Early in the revolutionary period, the eighty-odd members of the Kiel Turnverein took arms against Denmark in the conflict over Schleswig-Holstein. Although soon defeated, their actions won praise from moderates in the organization who contrasted their “unpolitical” dedication to the cause of the nation with the more radical social and political programs of gymnasts in other regions. Exemplifying this latter trend were the gymnasts in the mob that murdered Prince Felix Lichnowsky and General Hans von Auerswald in Frankfurt in September 1848, during a popular protest against the armistice with Denmark, and those who fought, often in the club uniform, to defend the city of Dresden against Prussian forces in May 1849. Turnverein clubs also participated in the veneration of Robert Blum, who had been killed by counter-revolutionary forces in Vienna, by holding services in his honor, marching in memorial parades, and helping to raise money for his family.
The Turnverein as an organization was most closely associated with the uprisings in Baden, the center of the radical sentiment in southwest Germany. Gymnasts had been among the defenders of the city of Freiburg in early disturbances in the province in April 1848. In the late spring and early summer of 1849, violence erupted again and brought about some of the most prolonged fighting of the revolutionary period. After agitation for a democratic nation-state had forced the Grand Duke to flee, other German states, led by Prussia, sent in troops to crush the movement. The gymnastic organization of the Rhineland province of Hanau organized a march to Baden to defend the province. Although this force gathered around 600 men along the way, it was poorly armed and led and easily outmatched by the regular armies it encountered. About 240 survivors of this effort managed to cross into neighboring Switzerland, where they received a hero’s welcome from Swiss gymnasts and students.
The aftermath of the 1848 revolutions devastated the German gymnastic movement. Clubs were disbanded, property confiscated and leaders lost to jail or exile. The various attempts to form a union of gymnastic clubs likewise fell victim to the Reaction. In these circumstances, the Turnverein turned away from politics to concentrate on its gymnastic program. It was only with the revival of the drive for German unification in the late 1860s, that the gymnastic movement rediscovered its purpose and was able to regain he momentum of the revolutionary era.
Secret Family Orders
Posted on August 7, 2011 by Royal Rosamond Press
The bones of female were found in an old Oddfellows Hall.
Inside was a black wooden box. Curious, Wallace tugged it from its dark resting place. A white shroud appeared. Then leathery ribs. Then white candles.
“It was like a Dracula movie,” Wallace said. “The top of the skull was covered, but you could see the rib cage and the sinew.”
In the Rosicrucian tale by William Ainsworth, a Dracula like figure enters the secret tomb of Cyprian de Rougemont, an alleged Grand Master of the Rosy Cross. Rougemont in Neufchatel is the suggested source of the Rosamond name. The ancestors of Denis de Rougemont, a co-founder of the Eruopean Union and member of the Bilderberg conspiracy, opposed Frederick Wilhelm the third who claimed Neufchatel as a member of the Hohenzollern House of Orange. Above we see Bennett Rosamond the Grand Master of the Orange Lodge in Canada. The Bentons were Freemasons. I have shown that the Rougemonts were Knights Templar who owned the Shroud of Turin. The Rosemonts of Holland, were members of the Swan Brethren.
Jon Presco
Copyright
2011
Prussian Evangelical Templers in Carmel
Posted on April 28, 2016 by Royal Rosamond Press
Rosemary told her sons the Stuttmeisters were Teutonic Knights. Our mother may have confused them with the Templers, a movement that was banned by the Evangelical Church, that they were in good standing with. This is why their tomb is at the entrance of the Berlin cemetary that may have been created to accept the parishioners of this Lutheran Union. A schism would explain why there is no history to be found on this family. The Templers became associated with the Nazis and their records were stored in East Germany. The Templers lived in the Holy Land and were intent on rebuilding the Temple – while wearing the Swastika!
I suspect Rudolph was an envoy who set out in ships to bring the Templers back into the fold – that beheld Kaiser Wilhelm as a Prussian Messiah? The Stuttmeisters may have been court preachers for the royal Prussians, and thus they gave their children their names.
Wilhelm Hoffmann served as one of the royal Prussian court preachers at the Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin and was a co-founder and first president of the Jerusalem Association. Americans joined the Templers in the Holy Land.
Envoys of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia’s older Provinces successfully proselytised among the schismatics, gaining most of them.[6] Thus some colonies became places of partisans of two different Christian denominations and their respective congregations (Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Sarona).
How could the Stuttmeisters tell their children and grandchildren what they have been up to – around the world. They would talk to their playmates, who would tell their Christian parents, the Germans were Calvinists who believed in a coming Doomsday, and thus the Temple in Jerusalem had to be rebuilt. When my sixteen year old daughter came into my life in 2000, I told her such wild tales, her and her mother called me mad, and ditched me in order to be with Victoria. Dan Brown’s book came out two years later.
Empress Augustus Victoria looks like my kin. Here I am slipping a coin in the crack made by the earthquake of 1989.
Jon Presco
Hoffmann and Hardegg purchased land at the foot of Mount Carmel and established a colony there in 1868. At the time, Haifa had a population of 4,000. The Templers are credited today with promoting the development of the city. The colonists built an attractive main street that was much admired by the locals.
After the 1898 visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, one of the Kaiser’s traveling companions, Colonel Joseph Freiherr von Ellrichshausen, initiated the formation of a society for the advancement of the German settlements in Palestine, inStuttgart. It enabled the settlers to acquire land for new settlements by offering them low interest loans. A second wave of pioneer settlers founded Wilhelma (now Bnei Atarot) in 1902 near Lod, Valhalla (1903) near the original Jaffa colony, followed by Bethlehem of Galilee (1906) and Waldheim (now Alonei Abba) in 1907. At its height, the Templer community in Palestine numbered 2,200.[dubious – discuss]
http://www.israelidecorations.net/Foreign/Foreign_VisitKaiserWilhelm1898.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem_of_Galilee
http://www.hope-of-israel.org/zebholland.html
] In 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II made a trip to Jerusalem to personally dedicate the new church.[3] For the dedication of the church, the Kaiser entered the city on horse back through two specially made ceremonial arches, one a gift of the Ottoman Empire and one a gift from the local Jewish community.[4] The church was dedicated on Reformation Day, 1898. At the dedication, Wilhelm said:
From Jerusalem came the light in splendor from which the German nation became great and glorious; and what the Germanic peoples have become, they became under the banner of the cross, the emblem of self-sacrificing charity.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutheran_Church_of_the_Redeemer,_Jerusalem
A particular purpose of the travel to Palestine was the inauguration of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. Built on land given to King William I of Prussia (after 1870 Kaiser Wilhelm I) in 1869 by Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire, the church was constructed from 1892-1898. For the dedication of the church, the Kaiser Wilhelm II entered the city on horse back through to specially made ceremonial arches, one a gift of the Ottoman Empire and one a gift from the local Jewish community.The church was dedicated on 31 October, Reformation Day, 1898. At the dedication, Wilhelm said: “From Jerusalem came the light in splendor from which the German nation became great and glorious; and what the Germanic peoples have become, they became under the banner of the cross, the emblem of self-sacrificing charity.”
In 1898 the German emperor Wilhelm II (1859-1941) and his wife Augusta Viktoria made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem as multitudes gathered at Jaffa Gate to welcome the Prussian King and German monarch. The visitor left his mark on Jerusalem. He inaugurated the German Lutheran Church of the Redeemer and amongst other things donated a large sum of money for the construction of the Bikur Holim Hospital.
During the royal visit to Jerusalem, Wilhelm also laid the cornerstone for the later construction of Augusta Victoria (named after his wife), a complex on Mt. Scopus that would later become a church, hospice and hospital. Until the late 1920s Augusta Victoria also served as the residence of the British High Commissioner for Palestine until he moved to Armon HaNatziv.
The population fluctuated between 300-400 settlers between 1870 and 1914. Sixty of the colonists were American citizens and their leader, Jacob Schumacher served as the U.S. consular agent for Haifa and northern Palestine.[2] Due to their population increase and the on-going urbanisation of Haifa, the colonists searched to buy lands in order to found new settlements. These were to be exclusively monodenominational. Thus the Templers settled in Bethlehem of Galilee and the Evangelical Protestants founded the neighbouring Waldheim.[3]
Employing modern farming methods, the Templers introduced soil fertilization, better methods of crop rotation and new crops such as potatoes. They imported agricultural machinery and engaged in “mixed farming,” combining dairy farming and field crops.[4]
Registering the land was problematic due to back taxes and local boundary disputes, which sometimes turned violent.[5] The Templers thus abandoned farming in favor of industry and tourism. They built hotels, opened workshops and established an olive oil soap factory.[6]
Old Templer house in German Colony
The affluent German colony stood out in its poor surroundings. The only doctor in the city lived there, and one of the residents was a construction engineer. By the end of the Ottoman era the colony had 750 inhabitants, 150 houses and dozens of businesses.[6]The colony was the first model of urban planning in Palestine, with a main street running from north to south (today, Ben-Gurion Boulevard), leading down to the harbor. Smaller streets branched out from the main street. At the southern end of the colony were the Templer vineyards (where the Bahá’í World Centre stands today). The colony was built as a garden city with single-family homes surrounded by gardens and shade trees lining the main boulevard.[7]
In 1817 – under the auspices of King Frederick William III of Prussia – the community of the Supreme Parish Church, like most Prussian Calvinist and Lutheran congregations joined the common umbrella organization named Evangelical Church in Prussia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templers_(religious_believers)
Christoph Hoffmann and Georg David Hardegg (1812–1879) founded the Temple Society at Kirschenhardthof near Ludwigsburg in 1861. This religious society has its roots in the Pietist movement within the Lutheran Evangelical State Church in Württemberg. Called “Deutscher Tempel” by its founders, their aim was to promote spiritual cooperation to advance the rebuilding of the Temple in the Holy Land, Palestine, in the belief that this foundation will promote the second coming of Christ.
While the Lutheran state church in Württemberg condemned and fought the Templers as apostates, the Prussian Protestant position was somewhat milder. Their settlement in the Holy Land found a warm support through Wilhelm Hoffmann (1806–1873), who was no apostate from the official church, like his younger brother Christoph.[3] Wilhelm Hoffmann served as one of the royal Prussian court preachers at the Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin and was a co-founder and first president of the Jerusalem Association (German: Jerusalemsverein), a charitable organisation founded on 2 December 1852 to support Samuel Gobat‘s effort as bishop of the Anglo-Prussian Bishopric of Jerusalem.[4]
Christoph Hoffmann fell out with his fellow leader Hardegg, so that in June 1874 the Temple denomination underwent a schism with Hardegg and about a third of the Templers seceding from the Temple Society. The schismatics around Hardegg searched to join another Christian denomination. To this end they addressed theLutheran Church of Sweden (1874) and the Anglican Church Missionary Society (1879), but both refused to take care of the schismatics.[5] In 1878 Hardegg and most of the schismatics founded the Temple Association (Tempelverein), but after Hardegg’s death in the following year the cohesion of its adherents faded. Then envoys of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia’s older Provinces successfully proselytised among the schismatics, gaining most of them.[6] Thus some colonies became places of partisans of two different Christian denominations and their respective congregations (Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Sarona).
While in Germany the Templers were regarded sectarians, the Evangelical proselytes gained major financial and intellectual support from German Lutheran and unitedchurch bodies. This created an atmosphere of mistrust and envy among the colonists of different denominational affiliation.[7]
Bar Kochba Turnverein
Posted on July 19, 2020 by Royal Rosamond Press
It is becoming quite clear to millions of sane Americans, that neo-Confederates, Evangelicals, and right-wing Israeli Zionists, have created a alternative reality, a subversive cult in our Democracy. These three groups felt they were put out of power by Liberal Democrats and Bohemians. Why does the rebuilding of the temple in Israel, and the restoration of King David’s kingdom, have so much to do with the covert plans of whites who dwell in the red states. It has been suggested by the Speaker of the House that Trump will not vacate the White House if he loses the coming election. This suggests there exist a alternative reality most Americans are not aware of.
John Presco
Secular-Socialist Foundation of Zion
Posted on December 21, 2011by Royal Rosamond Press
It was radical socialist Jews, who belonged to sports clubs, that founded the state of Israel, and not Rabbis or a Messiah. The only person giving the title ‘Messiah’ was Harry Truman, a Democrat. The group that gets most of the credit is the Israelitische Turnverein, a group of Jewish gymnasts who were expelled from the Berlin Turnverien. My Stuttmeiser, Janke kinfolk were members of the Tunrverein, and were radical Forty-Eighters who are also give credit for the founding of Israel. These Forty-Eighters made up John Fremont’s and Jessie Benton’s bodyguard. The Freemasons are here. Other clubs that followed were named after “Bar Kochba” who was seen as a Messiah until he failed to drive the Romans out of Judea. His name was changed to “Simon bar Kozeba” (Hebrew: בר כוזיבא, “Son of lies” or “Son of deception”).Whne you add it all up, for some strange reason my kindred are right there at the center of the Zionist controversy that has overcome the Republican Party, all but destroying it. The Zionist Evangelicals – disguised as Patriots – have brought our Democracy to a halt. In order to keep the focus on them, budgets are not going to be passed. Millions will be hurt financially. These religious fanatics use our Federal Taxes like a secular tithe in order to spread their propaganda that backs the Hawks of Israel. The only thing that keeps them hidden in the wings, is they have failed to capture the White House. When they do, the Capitol building that houses the Senate and Congress, will be turned into the Evangelical Vatican. They do these things because they know their cosmology is not tenable, is based on delusions and lies. They are Decietful Parasites looking for a legitimate host. This is why I registered as a Republican two years ago.
Get out of the Republican Party founded by my kindred. Form you own party.
Jon the Nazarite
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakoah_Berlin
As early as the 19th century, Jewish sports clubs were founded in Eastern and Central Europe. The first club was the Israelite Gymnastic Association Constantinople (German: Israelitischer Turnverein Konstantinopel) founded in 1895 in Constantinople, Turkey by Jews of German and Austrian extraction who had been rejected from participating in other social sport clubs. Two years later, haGibor was formed in Philipople, Bulgaria and 1898 saw the founding of Bar Kochba Berlin along with Vivó és Athletikai Club in Budapest, Hungary.
Other clubs that followed were named after “Bar Kochba” or Hebrew names such as “Hakoah” or “Hagibor” that symbolized strength and heroism. One of the basic premises behind the founding of these clubs was Jewish Nationalism. The concept was that Jews were not only a religious entity, but also one based on a common historical and social background, having special cultural and psychological concepts that have been preserved to this day, resulting in a strong recognition of collective belonging.
In 1906, the first Jewish gymnastics club was formed in Palestine. Clubs later would spring up in other cities. By 1912, all of them joined the Maccabi Federation of Israel. That same year, the first relations were established between them and their European counterparts, when a decision was taken at the Maccabi Conference in Berlin to begin group trips to Palestine.
Simon bar Kokhba (Aramaic: שמעון בר כוכבא, also transliterated as Bar Kochba) was the Jewish leader of what is known as the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE, establishing an independent Jewish state of Israel which he ruled for three years as Nasi (“Ruler”). His state was conquered by the Romans in 135 following a two-year war.
Documents discovered in the modern era[1] give us his original name, Simon ben Kosiba, (Hebrew: שמעון בן כוסבא) he was given the surname Bar Kokhba, (Aramaic for “Son of a Star”, referring to the Star Prophecy of Numbers 24:17, “A star has shot off Jacob”) by his contemporary, the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva.
After the failure of the revolt, the rabbinical writers referred to bar Kokhba as “Simon bar Kozeba” (Hebrew: בר כוזיבא, “Son of lies” or “Son of deception”).
Despite the devastation wrought by the Romans during the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE), which left the population and countryside in ruins, a series of laws passed by Roman Emperors provided the incentive for the second rebellion. The last straw was a series of laws enacted by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, including an attempt to prevent Jews from living in Jerusalem; a new Roman city, Aelia Capitolina, was to be built in its place. The second Jewish rebellion took place 60 years after the first and re-established an independent state lasting three years. For many Jews of the time, this turn of events was heralded as the long hoped for Messianic Age. The excitement was short-lived, however; after a brief span of glory, the revolt was eventually crushed by the Roman legions.
A complete Roman legion with auxiliaries was annihilated. The new state knew only one year of peace. The Romans committed no fewer than twelve legions, amounting to one third to one half of the entire Roman army, to reconquer this now independent state. Being outnumbered and taking heavy casualties, the Romans refused to engage in an open battle and instead adopted a scorched earth policy which reduced and demoralized the Judean populace, slowly grinding away at the will of the Judeans to sustain the war.
The first all Jewish gymnastic club was formed in 1895 known as the
Israelitische Turnverein Konstantinopel (Israelite Gymnastic
Association Constantinople), it was formed by German and Austrian
Jews residing in Constantinople (Istanbul – Kushta) who were
unwelcome at the German gymnastic societies with their “Aryan –
only” membership proclivities.
Modeling themselves on the very German organization which had barred
them, they adopted the slogan of the vigorous, devout, cheerful and
free.
Another milestone in the formation of the Jewish sport movement
occurred at a meeting of the permanent committee of the Second
Zionist Congress held in Basel in 1898. Dr. Max Nordau made an
impassioned plea for a Muscular Judaism noting that “We Jews possess
an exceptional gift for physical activity. It may by that this will
appear paradoxical since we have been accustomed for generations to
view ourselves in the mirror which our enemies have held up to so,
and to discover any number of physical blemishes. It is true that
our muscles have been weakened and that our attitudes and postures
are not always satisfactory… but when Jews do engage in sport their
defects vanish, their postures improve, their muscles become strong
and their general health gets better”. Similarly, Herzl stressed
that the derisive term coined by the anti-Semites, Judenjungen (akin
to “Jewboy”), should be reversed in both form and content, and give
way to the meritorious appellation Junge Juden (Young Jew).
Following Herzl’s and Nordau’s call, many clubs were quickly
organized. This nascent movement received an immeasurable boost with
the appearance in 1900 of the first periodical dedicated entirely to
Jewish sport, Die Juedische Turanzeitung, which was the official
publication of the pre-eminent Jewish gymnastic club, Juedische
Turnverein Bar Kochba – Berlin.
Bolstered by the newspaper’s daring proclamation, the by now
numerous Jewish gymnastic clubs banded together in 1903 under the
umbrella organization of Die Juedische Turnerschaft (Jewish
Gymnastic Association) with headquarters in Berlin. The constitution
of Die Juedische Turnerschaft permitted membership to every Jewish
gymnastic club that accepted that “the aim of the society is to
foster gymnastics as a medium to build up physical fitness as part
of the Jewish National Idea.”
On the fourth of May [1856] the regular annual festival of the Turnverein Association of San Francisco took place, with all the usual accompaniments of music, dancing, gymnastics, oratory, eating and drinking. The festival, which was inaugurated by a procession of the Society to welcome their brother Turners from the interior, lasted three days, and everybody passed off in the most orderly and agreeable manner. The gymnastic performances were excellent, and formed a large portion of the ceremonies.
The celebration of the “May festival,” although in the United States it is conducted under the control of the Turnverein Association, is a national festival in which all the Germans partake, and which is celebrated throughout all Germany. The origin of the Turner Association, which has now become so large and so important a one among our German citizens, was a political one. Germany is divided into thirty-six different States, with as many Governments of a despotic nature, and many of them hostile to each other.
Young Germany, deeply imbued with the spirit of freedom, has been for a long time anxious to throw off these yokes, and unite under one liberal, consolidated Government; but the rulers, in order to prevent this, have forbidden all assemblies or associations for political purposes, under heavy penalties. In order to avoid this prohibition an enthusiastic republican named Jahn made the meeting and associations for gymnastic exercises the occasion for the spread of democratic doctrines, and the Turnverein (or gymnastic association,) soon spread and grew into importance wherever Germans are found. This association now exists in, and exercises a great influence over the whole German population.
There is no secrecy about the association, neither is there any direct connection between the different associations, although a Turner of any one city considers himself, to all intents and purposes, a member of the Turnverein of any other city.
In 1906, the first Jewish gymnastics club was formed in Palestine. Clubs later would spring up in other cities. By 1912, all of them joined the Maccabi Federation of Israel. That same year, the first relations were established between them and their European counterparts, when a decision was taken at the Maccabi Conference in Berlin to begin group trips to Palestine.
Simon bar Kokhba (Aramaic: שמעון בר כוכבא, also transliterated as Bar Kochba) was the Jewish leader of what is known as the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE, establishing an independent Jewish state of Israel which he ruled for three years as Nasi (“Ruler”). His state was conquered by the Romans in 135 following a two-year war.
Documents discovered in the modern era[1] give us his original name, Simon ben Kosiba, (Hebrew: שמעון בן כוסבא) he was given the surname Bar Kokhba, (Aramaic for “Son of a Star”, referring to the Star Prophecy of Numbers 24:17, “A star has shot off Jacob”) by his contemporary, the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva.
After the failure of the revolt, the rabbinical writers referred to bar Kokhba as “Simon bar Kozeba” (Hebrew: בר כוזיבא, “Son of lies” or “Son of deception”).
Despite the devastation wrought by the Romans during the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE), which left the population and countryside in ruins, a series of laws passed by Roman Emperors provided the incentive for the second rebellion. The last straw was a series of laws enacted by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, including an attempt to prevent Jews from living in Jerusalem; a new Roman city, Aelia Capitolina, was to be built in its place. The second Jewish rebellion took place 60 years after the first and re-established an independent state lasting three years. For many Jews of the time, this turn of events was heralded as the long hoped for Messianic Age. The excitement was short-lived, however; after a brief span of glory, the revolt was eventually crushed by the Roman legions.
A complete Roman legion with auxiliaries was annihilated. The new state knew only one year of peace. The Romans committed no fewer than twelve legions, amounting to one third to one half of the entire Roman army, to reconquer this now independent state. Being outnumbered and taking heavy casualties, the Romans refused to engage in an open battle and instead adopted a scorched earth policy which reduced and demoralized the Judean populace, slowly grinding away at the will of the Judeans to sustain the war.
The first all Jewish gymnastic club was formed in 1895 known as the
Israelitische Turnverein Konstantinopel (Israelite Gymnastic
Association Constantinople), it was formed by German and Austrian
Jews residing in Constantinople (Istanbul – Kushta) who were
unwelcome at the German gymnastic societies with their “Aryan –
only” membership proclivities.
Modeling themselves on the very German organization which had barred
them, they adopted the slogan of the vigorous, devout, cheerful and
free.
Another milestone in the formation of the Jewish sport movement
occurred at a meeting of the permanent committee of the Second
Zionist Congress held in Basel in 1898. Dr. Max Nordau made an
impassioned plea for a Muscular Judaism noting that “We Jews possess
an exceptional gift for physical activity. It may by that this will
appear paradoxical since we have been accustomed for generations to
view ourselves in the mirror which our enemies have held up to so,
and to discover any number of physical blemishes. It is true that
our muscles have been weakened and that our attitudes and postures
are not always satisfactory… but when Jews do engage in sport their
defects vanish, their postures improve, their muscles become strong
and their general health gets better”. Similarly, Herzl stressed
that the derisive term coined by the anti-Semites, Judenjungen (akin
to “Jewboy”), should be reversed in both form and content, and give
way to the meritorious appellation Junge Juden (Young Jew).
Following Herzl’s and Nordau’s call, many clubs were quickly
organized. This nascent movement received an immeasurable boost with
the appearance in 1900 of the first periodical dedicated entirely to
Jewish sport, Die Juedische Turanzeitung, which was the official
publication of the pre-eminent Jewish gymnastic club, Juedische
Turnverein Bar Kochba – Berlin.
Bolstered by the newspaper’s daring proclamation, the by now
numerous Jewish gymnastic clubs banded together in 1903 under the
umbrella organization of Die Juedische Turnerschaft (Jewish
Gymnastic Association) with headquarters in Berlin. The constitution
of Die Juedische Turnerschaft permitted membership to every Jewish
gymnastic club that accepted that “the aim of the society is to
foster gymnastics as a medium to build up physical fitness as part
of the Jewish National Idea.”
On the fourth of May [1856] the regular annual festival of the Turnverein Association of San Francisco took place, with all the usual accompaniments of music, dancing, gymnastics, oratory, eating and drinking. The festival, which was inaugurated by a procession of the Society to welcome their brother Turners from the interior, lasted three days, and everybody passed off in the most orderly and agreeable manner. The gymnastic performances were excellent, and formed a large portion of the ceremonies.
The celebration of the “May festival,” although in the United States it is conducted under the control of the Turnverein Association, is a national festival in which all the Germans partake, and which is celebrated throughout all Germany. The origin of the Turner Association, which has now become so large and so important a one among our German citizens, was a political one. Germany is divided into thirty-six different States, with as many Governments of a despotic nature, and many of them hostile to each other.
Young Germany, deeply imbued with the spirit of freedom, has been for a long time anxious to throw off these yokes, and unite under one liberal, consolidated Government; but the rulers, in order to prevent this, have forbidden all assemblies or associations for political purposes, under heavy penalties. In order to avoid this prohibition an enthusiastic republican named Jahn made the meeting and associations for gymnastic exercises the occasion for the spread of democratic doctrines, and the Turnverein (or gymnastic association,) soon spread and grew into importance wherever Germans are found. This association now exists in, and exercises a great influence over the whole German population.
There is no secrecy about the association, neither is there any direct connection between the different associations, although a Turner of any one city considers himself, to all intents and purposes, a member of the Turnverein of any other city.
Although a proposal to form a “Gymnastic Army” (Turnerschar) to supplement the National Guard was never realized, gymnasts manned barricades and participated in crucial fighting during the revolutions. Early in the revolutionary period, the eighty-odd members of the Kiel Turnverein took arms against Denmark in the conflict over Schleswig-Holstein. Although soon defeated, their actions won praise from moderates in the organization who contrasted their “unpolitical” dedication to the cause of the nation with the more radical social and political programs of gymnasts in other regions. Exemplifying this latter trend were the gymnasts in the mob that murdered Prince Felix Lichnowsky and General Hans von Auerswald in Frankfurt in September 1848, during a popular protest against the armistice with Denmark, and those who fought, often in the club uniform, to defend the city of Dresden against Prussian forces in May 1849. Turnverein clubs also participated in the veneration of Robert Blum, who had been killed by counter-revolutionary forces in Vienna, by holding services in his honor, marching in memorial parades, and helping to raise money for his family.
The Turnverein as an organization was most closely associated with the uprisings in Baden, the center of the radical sentiment in southwest Germany. Gymnasts had been among the defenders of the city of Freiburg in early disturbances in the province in April 1848. In the late spring and early summer of 1849, violence erupted again and brought about some of the most prolonged fighting of the revolutionary period. After agitation for a democratic nation-state had forced the Grand Duke to flee, other German states, led by Prussia, sent in troops to crush the movement. The gymnastic organization of the Rhineland province of Hanau organized a march to Baden to defend the province. Although this force gathered around 600 men along the way, it was poorly armed and led and easily outmatched by the regular armies it encountered. About 240 survivors of this effort managed to cross into neighboring Switzerland, where they received a hero’s welcome from Swiss gymnasts and students.
The aftermath of the 1848 revolutions devastated the German gymnastic movement. Clubs were disbanded, property confiscated and leaders lost to jail or exile. The various attempts to form a union of gymnastic clubs likewise fell victim to the Reaction. In these circumstances, the Turnverein turned away from politics to concentrate on its gymnastic program. It was only with the revival of the drivefor German unification in the late 1860s, that the gymnastic movement rediscovered its purpose and was able to regain he momentum of the revolutionary era.
