Talk:Julius H. Kroehl

message: I just noticed that Julius Kroehl is being linked to the Lithuania project.  However, I question the academic relevance.  First, Kroehl was likely descended from the Scotch "peddler" John Crail who settled in Konigsburg (now Kaliningrad).  The family, like many others of Scotch origin blended in with East Prussian society, adopting the German language and customs, politically identifying themselves with the Prussian Kingdom.  However, the family were likely members of the Reformed Church, not Lutheran.  Kroehl himself left Memel (now Klaipeda) when he was approximately seven years old, living in Berlin until the early 1840s.  Most likely, Prussian culture formed his identity, along with some Calvinistic viewpoints on morality and civil liberty.  But this is my opinion on shifting through the context of his times.  However, nothing seems to survive that would link him to Lithuania except the accident of history that moved Memel to Lithuania's control.  In addition, Memel was involved in extensive trade with England, and the family primarily being merchants, most likely kept contacts with English institutions, requiring some profiency in English for business purposes.
Second, when he settled in America, he interacted with both the nativist community and the emigre community, especially the Germans who settled in what is now called Kleindeutschland, and the 48er community in general.  He participated in the Turner movement and the Freemasons, was likely a Republican and opposed slavery, but also supported the capitilism that was emerging in the latter half of the 19th century America.  Unlike most other emigres, he had assimilated as much as possible with American society, being involved in civil works and the Civil War.  His writings are in good English, but more like the Queen's English (based on some spellings) - his fluency in the English language probably traced back to childhood, given the Kroehl family showing up in both Prussian and English records in the decades prior to his birth.  Personally, I imagine that he spoke with a slight English accent rather than German.  I have met many non-English Europeans who speak English very fluently, but with the English accent, not American.
Third, Klaipaida does not resemble the old city of Memel - war, geopolitics, and a host of longstanding issues unfortunately have destroyed much of that community.  It's like trying to link Troy I with Troy X - they just happen to be collocated but separated by more than just centuries.  Linking Kroehl with Lithuania makes as much sense as linking Immanuel Kant (another descendent of the Scotch peddlers) with Russia because the former Konigsburg is part of the Russian Republic.
I cannot control what the Wikipedia community ultimately decides.  If linking this article to Lithuania will help get his story out, then I will abide.  However, I want a fair shake as to identify with which national community would be more appropriate.maclilus (talk) 21:17, 22 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lithuania Project  

message: Currently the article says Kroehl was called "captain" and speculates "This may indicate that he had held an officer's commission in the Prussian Army prior to his emigration,..."
Kroehl arrived in the US in 1844, aged 23. A 23 year old young man is never ever promoted to the rank of a captain in peacetime, never. 87.188.213.110 (talk) 04:55, 15 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Captain 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Julius H. Kroehl. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070630175155/http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa/ to http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 07:40, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified