Museum of Human Beings Around the World
Prince Paul von Wuerttemberg
Dear Mr. Sargent,
My name is Elzbieta Goslawska. I come from Poland, I am a teacher and I live in a small town Pokoj (Germ. Carlsruhe). A few months ago I got your novel “Museum of Human Beings” from my friend from the USA. This book has never been translated into Polish. This book is very interesting for me because I am keen on the local history.
The explorer Prince Paul von Wuerttemberg was born in Pokoj (now it is in Poland) and he spent here his childhood. His mother Luise von Stolberg-Gedern is buried on the local evangelic cemetery. His elder brother Eugen, who was the owner of Pokoj (Carlsruhe), (was the general in the Russian army) and his two wives and children are buried in the Evangelic Church in Pokoj.
At the end of his life Prince Paul started to build a villa which was called “Paulsberg”. It wasn’t finished before Paul’s death and he didn’t live in it. This house was destroyed in 1945 at the end of the WW2.
I’m very interested if you have any evidence that Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was in Pokoju (Carlsruhe) with Prince Paul. During the period 1824-1829 Paul’s mother – Princess Luise lived here (she died in 1834). I think Paul visited his mother, brother and the whole family. His father had died in 1822 and a few months after his death Prince Paul resigned from the army and set off his journeys. If Paul travelled all over Europe from one palace to another with the young Indian as his servant or slave I guess they probably stayed in Pokoj.
If it is true, it will be interesting information for our local community that in the 19th century an Indian man was here. I read your novel and I found out about the shocking and immoral behavior of Prince Paul.
Is it true or only your imagination or hypothesis based on his memories?
One year ago the German man Kilian Klann, the author of the book entitled “Die Sammlung indianischer Ethnographica aus Nordamerika des Herzog Friedrich Paul Wilhelm von Wuerttemberg” visited me because he looks for Prince Paul’s diaries. They were probably burnt in Stuttgart during the war but he hopes that there is something in our local library in the church. He has “idea fix” that Paul von Wurttenberg was such a great German geographer and explorer as Humbold but nobody knows him and the world forgot about Paul.
I have read your book “Museum of Human Beings” with great pleasure and excitement. I hope one day somebody will translate it into Polish and Polish readers will be able to get to know this history connected with Germany in the past and now with the Polish town.
Yours sincerely
Elzbieta Goslawska