CFW and his brother, O. H.--both pastors--kidnapped their niece and nephew from the parsonage of their father.
CFW's attorneys, Marbach and Vehse, cooperated by hiding the children from the police, so they were guilty of obstruction of justice, a felony.
CFW's future mother-in-law hid the children from the police, another felony.
Fleeing an arrest is called willful resistance, which is also a crime. Walther left on the first ship out rather than the Amalia, because arrest warrants were already issued to grab him as soon as possible.
The Amalia sank on the trip to New Orleans, with all lives lost, a fact hailed as a miracle of God's providence by the Missouri historians, since Walther's life was spared.
Soon after arriving in America, Walther violated the seal of the confessional, using craft and deceit to organize a mob, rob, threaten, and kidnap Martin Stephan. Once again he used his future mother-in-law, Buenger, to help carry out his crimes in secret.
Let us reclaim the real Walther.
2 comments:
German history newspaper with article in English on Altenburgers moving to Altenberg, Missouri:
http://burgposterstein.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/moving-from-altenburg-to-altenburg/
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Wittenberg used to be a small steamer stop town on the Mississippi, but now all that traffic is gone and no barges stop there. Also, the 1993 floods wiped out all but one of the few remaining houses:
http://books.google.com/books?id=pJmq3KArMLUC&lpg=PA4&ots=VWKaahCoO0&dq=Seelitz%20wittenberg%20on%20mississippi&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q=Seelitz%20wittenberg%20on%20mississippi&f=false
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Wittenberg, MO, now considered a Ghost Town:
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/mo/wittenburg.html
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Wittenberg, floods - Memories of small town
http://www.semissourian.com/story/77553.html?response=no
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Tower Rock near Wittenberg:
http://www.tower-rock-winery.com/tower.htm
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http://maps.google.com/maps?q=altenburg,+mo&hl=en&ll=37.733797,--
Has more information on the settlements:
http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_perry.html
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Google Map of area:
89.695129&spn=1.579124,1.947327&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=50.157795,62.314453&t=h&z=9
Here's a document on German nationalism and Luther, by PBS in their Empires series. It is free to watch on Hulu.
Ironically, the Luther movie by Thrivent was an embarrassment since it made Luther out to be a quivering piece of jello, as though Lutherans were following a guy who was mentally unstable for life. A pastor I know showed Thrivent's Luther and C S Lewis' Witch and the Wardrobe to the church youth group, and neither movie was edifying to watch, and all were sources of embarrassment:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/44154/empires-reluctant-revolutionary
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