Karl Eeck

In the sixties (1860) another member from mother’s family entered our circle. It was Karl Eeck, the older son of mother’s brother Reinhold Eeck and his wife Clementine. He came from Wenden, where he had finished the district school and worked in some clerical capacity. Now he came to Riga and wanted to find the correct field for his further aspirations. He had already a prospect. The merchant Arnold, although Jewish, was a well-respected man, had a store in the Kalkstrasse that was doing very well, selling lace, ribbon, gloves, and other small items like yarn and needles. He started a branch in the suburbs and needed an independent manager. Karl Eeck with his pleasant appearance and good, trustworthy manners and a recommendation from our mother got the job. Mother’s recommendation was important because at that time young men as well as women were accompanied by an older person who had to speak for the young person.

Everything went well, because the women soon noticed the dashing young manager and salesman and they liked shopping by the handsome young Eeck, as even the teenagers called him, who went there to buy sewing needles. He was not to my taste, a blond with watery blue eyes, but tastes are different. In our girl school everyone was swooning over him, and when it became known that he was my cousin, they started noticing me and always wanted to hear about him, especially the sisters Sonja and Hanze Tiedemann. We saw him often at home, since on Sundays he was dinner guest at his Aunt’s, and he often stayed till late in the evening. Even at home he was always charming and was always in good temper and happy. He did not hold back on his talents, especially the acting talent. He would recite different poems by Schiller, for instance “Die Buergschaft”, “Der Taucher”, etc, even the complete “Glocke”. It was very interesting, especially because they were new to me.

Brother Christoph liked the cousin, whereas Bernhard did not. At that point, he was good friends with the sons of the Widow Stengel, who had lived for several years in our old house. From the occasional recitation, we moved to real theater plays. We would study small one acts. Several of our other friends were pulled in, like Hypolit Dmuchowski, Brunnert and others. But Karl Eeck was always the first hero and lover. Brother Christoph had fun in the roles of clever conspirators and everyone else joined in according to their talents, whether building the sets, prompter, or helping with costumes and make-up. Everyone gave his best. A young guy with scarcely a beard liked himself in naïve and sentimental woman’s roles. Our living room served as theater and there was no shortage of audience since everyone was invited free. The people came in great numbers and everyone had fun. We two sisters had to play music during the intermissions. We played four-hand music from “Der Freischutz” or waltzes by Strauss or Lanner.

Everything seemed to be working quite well. However, the problem was, that we who lived in the house, had only kitchen and garden to live in. In the summer this worked out all right. But finally mother had enough and when the end of fall came, she told the group that they could no longer use our place. However, the boys did not want to give up the acting. They had become surer of themselves. They rented a place in town and founded a theater club “Thalia”. Even women joined who played the female roles.

I don’t remember how long it lasted, one or two years. But then something happened. We read in the newspaper that one evening a young man was robbed in a dark alley near the St. Peter church. He was found gasping for air, halfway on the sidewalk with his tie untied and several other signs pointing to an attack and his wallet with several hundred rubels, which he had just picked up at the post office, was gone. The name was only listed with the first letters K. E. The next day, the newspaper wrote that the robbery was somewhat doubtful, it probably was only a simulated attack by the young man. When we asked a little more, we found out that it had been Karl Eeck, whether we wanted to believe it or not.

In the school there was, of course, a lot of gossip about this incident. Sonja Tiedemann said to me: “Well, can you imagine? To accuse him like that! It upset us terribly, especially my sister Emilie. To distract herself, she went yesterday to a ball with Karl Eeck.” “Well,” I said in my down to earth wisdom, “do you think that was the right thing? She should have stayed home and think about it, until his innocence has been shown.”

At home, mother had received a letter from the owner Arnold, who asked her to come down to his store, he would like to talk to her. There she was told, that Arnold also doubted the innocence of her nephew. “Please tell your nephew Eeck, he should give me the money, then I will keep everything quiet, otherwise I will take it to the police. I don’t want to ruin his career. It is probably only a youthful sin; the acting in the theater is probably at fault.” Mother came home with a very disgusted feeling.

The next day the nephew came to see us. He had not come very often in recent times since he had dealings with better families. He held his head very high and strutted back and forth like a peacock. And he screamed: “Well, if even my own relatives won’t stand by my side, when my own cousin speaks badly of me in school (Sonja Tiedemann had of course gossiped), well that is the end.” While mother was preaching ethical behavior: “Well Karl, even Arnold thinks that you did it, but he does not want your downfall. Give him back his money and he will keep quiet. Well did you do it?” But the nephew repeated at least ten times “No, Aunt I did not do it and that’s the end.”

We did not see him again and everything remained quiet, so that we thought the affair had been finished with Arnold, who also remained quiet. A couple of times we asked mother to go down to Arnold and ask him, but she said that it was too unpleasant to talk about a family disgrace. Therefore, she did not go. We heard that Karl Eeck was no longer working for Arnold, but that he was doing well. He was a good accountant and took care of the books of several stores, especially of Jews who were not as scrupulous as Arnold. Therefore people were still talking and the Thalia club came to an end without the first hero and lover.

Soon Karl Eeck became the declared groom of Emilie Tiedeman and they married in the year 1866. We did get an invitation for the church ceremony, but we did not go in part because we did not have the right clothes and also because we did not feel close to him. Only brother Christoph was one of the groomsmen. And Karl Eeck’s life became better and better. In the seventies he became manager of the stock exchange with all the perquisites that such a job has, a big apartment right there and others. Then he also got the position of a lecturer at the technical institute and had classes on accounting and mercantile science. And his students and the people at the exchange supposedly liked him. He seemed to do exceedingly well and one could see him and his wife driving in his own carriage pulled by two horses. It was the high point of the career.

However, then came the failure or setback. The newspaper reported that exchange manager Eeck had embezzled 80,000 ruble and had fled. There was a warrant out for his arrest, but it took quite awhile before he was apprehended in Holland and brought back to Riga. It is amazing how such heroes still make their mistakes, even if they have the best-laid plans. Karl Eeck wanted to go to America and was hiding in Holland. He wrote to his friend Jessen here in Riga and asked him to notify his wife, so that she and the children also could come to Holland, so that they would go to America together. Everyone among the friends and relatives of Karl Eeck who had been in contact with him, knew that the police would open all letters and read the contents. Jessen also knew this and did not want to hurt his business and also did not want to look like an accomplice, therefore he sent the letter to the police. Eeck’s wife always called this friend Jessen “Jessen the villain”.

But for the poor wife and the two children, Emmy and Colla, seven and five year old, a sad time started. They had to leave the nice apartment. Everything was being closed off and locked. But they found sympathetic people who stood by them. Mrs. Schaar, a former schoolmate, offered them a small apartment in her house which was accepted gratefully.

The investigation into the actions of Karl Eeck lasted several months. But then came the judgment, which was deportation to Siberia for the rest of his life. In the fall a number of convicted felons were sent off from Riga among them Karl Eeck. Now several people knew bad things about Karl and his previous life. For instance Uncle Gustav said “Well, well, I always thought this. He couldn’t leave off his old tricks. Even in the district school he was know as hat thief and wheeler-dealer.” Even brother Christoph who never said anything bad about other people opened his taciturn mouth and said “ He always was a ‘Cartouche’”. Only his mother and sister defended him: “He was no thief. He just took the money to invest it. It did not work here, so he wanted to go to America. From there he would have sent every cent back with compound interest.” What nonsense is covered by love.

Karl Eeck’s wife and the two children, who were too young to understand the guilt of their father, follow the transport soon afterwards. She did not want to stay here and work herself to feed her children, she probably was not used to working and knew that Karl would always be someone to lean on. Minister Lutkens visited her and also her mother. There he was supposed to have said that he strongly suspected that her daughter knew of the scheme. Mrs. Tiedemann was, of course, very indignant when she heard this.

Well, it went fine in Siberia, Tobolsk or Irkutsk were the place of exile. They were immediately let go only they could not leave the town. Karl Eeck immediately went back to being an accountant and found enough work and of course, at that point Siberia was the land of milk and honey and all groceries were extremely cheap. And socially they were not repudiated. After all, most of the people there probably had done something wrong. Soon, Mrs. Eeck reported in a letter to her relatives that she had opened a ball by dancing with the governor. Whether it was truth or fiction, who cared to ask?

However, she did have a great longing for Riga, and after a few years she managed to come back for a visit. But she did not find what she expected. Most of the better and richer houses remained closed to her. Her school friend Jessen, in particular, did not forget that she had called her husband “Jessen the villain” and let it be known that she did not wish to receive a visit from Emilie Eeck. That was a big disappointment. And nothing really went as she had thought. Therefore she wanted to go back to Siberia, and after several weeks she departed again. We did not see her again, and also the correspondence started to become less and less. Her son Kolla appeared one time. He was stoker on a locomotive or something like that. He visited his uncle, my brother Christoph. He seemed to be pretty boorish, dumb, and shy, could not report much about his parents and their life. After he received some money from uncle Christoph he departed again.

I asked myself often, even now, how did it come about that such a type of felon appeared in our honorable family? Nothing could be said against Karl’s quiet father and his grandfather the teacher. Mother sometimes hinted that she thought it came from his mother’s side, aunt Clementine. Aunt Clementine herself was an honorable woman, except for one flaw her love of her children was too big. This showed itself by her giving her children too large an allowance. We had proof of that with her son Rudolph who lived with us for free for several years to go to school. One time when mother was cleaning she found a little book of Rudolph’s where he kept detailed accounts of his expenses, like cakes and Piroggen and other sweets for 20 or 30 Kopeken, and also for theater tickets and the circus did he have plenty of money. Mother now understood why Rudolph often had little appetite for dinner and when she asked why he was not eating, he usually said: “Thank you, Aunt, but I am full.”

When Karl married, his brother Rudolph moved in with them, and after a while, he acted like a stranger and did not even greet us when we met on the street. He also had a career in commerce and rented a nice furnished apartment across from the theater. When his mother and sister came to visit, they stayed with us, and when they wanted to see Rudolph, he usually managed to disappear. Even when Aunt Clementine came shortly before her death, did she not get to see her favorite son. Our father voiced the judgment that Karl was a bad person, but that Rudolph was ten times worse because he disavowed his own mother.