“PIM" Goes Into Prince Bismarck’s Museum

Prince Bismarck’s Museum

The following is an extract from a letter from Mr. F. T. Goedicke-van Asten, an elderly gentleman of Dutch birth who resides in Haapai, Tonga.

The reference in the article is to a medal presented many years ago by Prince Bismarck to Mr. Goedicke-van Asten, in connection with an event in German New Guinea about 1884. The medal was given by Mr. Goedicke-van Asten to the Pacific Islands Monthly, and is on exhibition in the PIM offices.

SINCE I have been writing articles for PIM I receive by every mail letters starting something like this: “I read with great pleasure your article in the PIM.” And many go on: “I am a great stamp collector and I would be very thankful to you if you could send me a few Tonga stamps”!

By last mail I received an unusually interesting letter by airmail. Its post mark was Friedricksruh, Germany. Frie dricksruh is the estate which Emperor William II presented to Otto von Bismarck Schoenhausen, when he created him a Furst (prince).

The letter is from Count Otto von Bis marck-Schoenhausen, grandson of Prince Bismarck. Count Otto writes (translated): “I thank you for the very interesting magazine, Pacific Monthly Magazine, you sent me. I read every line of it. The article about your interview with the Prince, my grandfather, interested me also very much.

“During the last war, I shifted my family to Schoenhausen, the home of my ancestors; and there, in the Bismarck Museum, erected by my father, Count

Herbert, I found in a glass case, in which all the different Orders and Decorations of my grandfather are exhibited, a medal similar to the one mentioned in your article in the magazine. I have taken the liberty to send the magazine to the care taker of the Museum, with an instruction to place the magazine in the glass case, and have the medal placed on top of it.

“When Countess Irma, my wife, saw the 3d. stamp on the wrapper of the maga zine, which I presume represents Stone henge, she took charge of the stamp, as she is a great stamp collector. Countess Irma sends her love to you and under separate cover seven photos of Friedrick sruh and Schoenhausen.

“I will close my letter, wishing you the best for the future and adding the words my grandfather used when you said farewell to him at the Imperial Chancellery, ‘and may the blessing of our Lord rest upon you’.” (The Count may be pardoned for sup posing that the mysterious Trilithon, near Nukualofa, is a part of the more famous Druidic ruins at Stonehenge, in England.

There is a vague resemblance).