Writing from Cologne
On February 20, 1849, August wrote a long letter from Cologne addressed to his brother. In the reviewed reading, he describes working as a journeyman, keeping in touch with family and trying to improve his circumstances before returning home.
He discusses a possible reunion later in the year and traveling together. These plans show the connections that mattered to him, though the letter alone cannot tell us whether those journeys took place.
Money and clothing were practical concerns. So were enjoyment and companionship: he describes Cologne’s carnival and includes songs for his brother, promising to teach him the melodies when they meet.
The 1849 letter has been compared across eight photographs and three library scans. Its current translation incorporates the historical-translation comparison; uncertain names and damaged passages remain marked.
Thinking about America
America was already a possibility in August’s mind in early 1849. He discusses reports of gold and the difficulties of reaching the goldfields, while expressing an inclination to travel to America himself.
He had not made a settled decision. Political events in Germany and elsewhere in Europe were part of what he was waiting to see. The letter records a possibility, not evidence that he emigrated.
Work and political conviction
August says the workshop received the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. His letter follows events in Hungary, Italy and France and expresses support for a democratic republic.
In his January 13, 1850 letter from Brühl, August refused to report for service in the Prussian Landwehr. He described an arrest warrant, moving between places and working without his legal papers.
He believed that trying to retrieve his papers from the police in Cologne could lead to imprisonment. His own account is central to understanding this part of his life.
The letters that changed a family story
A later family account said August had been captured and executed by firing squad in 1849. Letters from him dated January 1850 and September 1852 contradict that account.
They do not yet tell us the whole of his later life. They do establish that the story of his death in 1849 cannot stand as told. His fate after the surviving correspondence remains a question for further research.
His brothers and sister
The family identifies August’s siblings as David, Christel (Christina), Ernst and Friedrich. The letter’s reference to a brother in Nordhausen has not yet been securely connected with a name.
Still getting to know August
His birth and death dates, exact trade and later whereabouts have not yet been established in the research presented here. We also want to identify the relatives and acquaintances he mentions and follow the places where he lived and worked.
The songs give us a glimpse of what he shared with his brother. Some are identifiable existing works, so they should not be credited to August as original compositions.
Letters and research behind this page
- Sibling relationships supplied by the family, September 2026.
- UW Archives, family’s “Letter 1” folder: Cologne, February 20, 1849. Photographs, close-ups and library scans reviewed; translation provisional. Full archival citation still to be added.
- January 13, 1850, Brühl: letter summarized in David’s existing biography.
- September 29, 1852: correspondence described in David’s existing biography.
See the letter pages for the original images, revised readings and historical translations.