Eh? What’s one to do with the other? Ever gone shopping in a department store with a significant other? Nuff said.
Nah, you know what they have to do with each other…or at least you will. 16 October saw James II of Scotland born in 1430; Noah Webster (of the dictionary) born in 1758; Hirobumi Ito (Japan’s first prime minister under the Meiji Constitution) born in 1841; and David Ben-Gurion (Israel’s first prime minister) born in 1886. And on this day in 1773 the Philadelphia Resolutions were published; the battle of Leipzig in 1813; US Grant assuming command of the Union’s western armies in 1863; the Russian Baltic fleet departing St. Petersburg for their meeting with destiny in 1904; and the election of John Paul II as the first non-Italian pontiff in four centuries in 1976. It’s also National Clean Off Your Virtual Desktop Day (First Monday after Labor Day), Boss’s Day and National Liqueur Day. But today we talk about executions, real and imagined.
The famous “let them eat cake” quotation actually came from one of her maids
Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna, Archduchess of Austria, was born in Vienna on 2 November 1755, the fifteenth of sixteen children of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I of the Holy Roman Empire. As Marie Antoinette, she was the last Queen Consort of France before the Bourbon Restoration. Marie used her considerable influence at court to try to reform not only the courts but the financial system of France, best described as pre-medieval. The famous “let them eat cake” quotation actually came from one of her maids, but had nothing to do with the starving French. While the French Revolution devolved into chaos, and nobles were being sent to the guillotine in large numbers, Louis XVI was executed on 21 January 1793. Locked in a tower, Marie was eventually condemned for treason against the Revolution (she did try to throttle it at birth) and executed 16 October 1793.
The trials were not a slam-dunk, as five of the indicted were either acquitted or never charged, and seven were given prison sentences.
While as often criticized as victor’s justice, the Nuremberg trials that began in November 1945 were held largely at the behest of the UK, US and USSR to punish the main perpetrators of WWII. The trials were not, as some have put it, a slam-dunk, as five of the indicted were either acquitted or never charged, and seven were given prison sentences. The biggest targets of the intended trials, Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels, had all beat the hangman, killing themselves either before or shortly after capture. Martin Bormann was tried and condemned to death in absentia, but unknown to the court he was already dead (his remains were found in 1972, and dated to May 1945). But the other eleven were condemned to die, and despite protests about “victor’s justice,” they went to the gallows on 16 October, 1947.
- Joachim von Ribbentrop, foreign minister;
- Wilhelm Keitel, head of the German Armed Forces (OKW);
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the RSHA;
- Alfred Rosenberg, Minister of the Eastern Territories and leading Nazi race theorist;
- Hans Frank, gauleiter of Poland;
- Wilhelm Frick, Minister of the Interior who co-authored the Niremberg Laws;
- Fritz Sauckel, plenipotentiary of the Nazi slave labor program;
- Alfred Jodl, Chief of OKW operations–signed the order for the summary execution of Soviet commissars and Allied commandos;
- Julius Streicher, publisher of Der Sturmer, anti-semitic tabloid published throughout the war calling for the liquidation of Jews as early as 1933;
- Arthur Seyss-Inquart, instrumental in the Anschluss of Austria and Governor-General of the Netherlands.
The “star” of the tribunal, Hermann Goering, beat the hangman by killing himself with poison the day before. All eleven were cremated in Munich and their ashes spread over the Isar River, leaving no shrines for latter-day Nazis to worship. Of all of them, only Jodl was subsequently been “rehabilitated,” only to be reversed later. Apparently no one objected to seeing the rest swing, “victor’s justice” or not.
By the 1920s every major city in America had one or more successful department stores
The department store as most of us knew it in its heyday originated in the late 18th century in Britain. As social mobility and leisure time for urban women increased during the Industrial Revolution, and the spending power of wages multiplied exponentially during the first Retail Revolution of the early 19th century (when cash registers kept track of sales and made returns possible), so too did the appeal of having stores sell multiple lines of dry goods, and where husbands, boyfriends and sons were compelled by circumstances to hold purses for wives, girlfriends and mothers for hours on end. By the 1920s every major city in America had one or more successful department stores; some had more than one store. Soon the discount stores like FW Woolworth and SS Kresge crowded the retail space, and by mid-20th century there was nothing that couldn’t be had in some department store somewhere.
Older, established businesses like Hudson’s of Detroit featured above, have been killed by various factors, including foreign competition and the Discount Brothers Mart (Wal, K, and Targ), but more by pilferage. At this writing a second Retail Revolution is threatening to replace them all with online shopping, with no purses involved. Anyone with any information whatsoever is asked to come up with some explanation as to why today is Department Store Day is asked to let someone else know.
A few of you know that this blog now appears on a budding web site, JDBCOM.COM, or if you didn’t you know now. Unlike the rest of the platforms I’ve tried to build web sites on over the years, this one at WordPress is well within my skill set, patience and price range. If the appearance of the site changes significantly between now and the end of the year, sorry, price of progress. For the rest of you, check in once in awhile to see what’s going on. There will soon be new books, old books and other items for sale there.
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