Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln
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Ignatius Timothy Trebitsch-Lincoln | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Darlington | |
In office January 1910 – November 1910 | |
Preceded by | Herbert Pease |
Succeeded by | Herbert Pease |
Personal details | |
Born | 4 April 1879 con artist |
Ignatius Timothy Trebitsch-Lincoln (
Early clerical career
Ignácz Trebitsch (Hungarian: Trebitsch Ignác(z)) was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in the town of Paks in Hungary in 1879, subsequently moving with his family to Budapest. His father, Náthán Trebitsch (Hungarian: Trebitsch Náthán), was from Moravia.
After leaving school he enrolled in the Royal Hungarian Academy of Dramatic Art,[1] but was frequently in trouble with the police over acts of petty theft. In 1897 he fled abroad, ending up in London, where he took up with some Christian missionaries and converted from Judaism. He was baptised on Christmas Day 1899, and set off to study at a Lutheran seminary in Breklum in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, destined for the ministry. Restless, he was sent to Canada to carry out missionary work among the Jews of Montreal, first on behalf of the Presbyterians, and then the Anglicans. He returned to England in 1903 after a quarrel over the size of his stipend.
He became Tribich Lincoln (or I. T. T. Lincoln) by
Member of Parliament
Trebitsch-Lincoln made the acquaintance of the
International confidence man
In the years leading up to the outbreak of the
Returning to England, he narrowly escaped arrest, leaving for the United States in 1915, where he made contact with the German military attaché, Franz von Papen. Papen was instructed by Berlin to have nothing to do with him, whereupon Trebitsch sold his story to the New York World Magazine, which published under the banner headline Revelation of I. T. T. Lincoln, Former Member of Parliament Who Became a Spy. His book Revelations of an International Spy was published by Robert M. McBride in New York in 1916.[4]
The British government, anxious to avoid any embarrassment, employed the
Germany and Austria
A penniless refugee, Trebitsch-Lincoln worked his way bit by bit into the extreme right-wing and militarist fringe in
With the fall of Kapp, Trebitsch fled south from Munich to Vienna to Budapest, intriguing all along the way, linking up with a whole variety of fringe political factions, such as a loose alliance of monarchists and reactionaries from all over Europe known as the White International. Entrusted with the organization's archives, he promptly sold the information to the secret services of various governments. Tried and acquitted on a charge of high treason in Austria, he was deported yet again. His name was also used by other impostors; following the assassination of the Italian MP Giacomo Matteotti in 1924, the police arrested a certain Otto Thierschadl alias Chirzel, who gave as his name Tribisch Lincoln.[7]
Conversion to Buddhism
He ended up in China, where he took up employment under
In 1937, he transferred his loyalties yet again, this time to the
Heinrich Himmler was enthusiastic, as was Rudolf Hess, but it all came to nothing after the latter flew to Scotland in May 1941. After this, Adolf Hitler put an end to all such pseudo-mystical schemes. Even so, Trebitsch may have continued his work for the German and Japanese security services in Shanghai until his death in 1943. [citation needed]
Death
In response to a letter protesting the Holocaust which Trebitsch-Lincoln had written to Hitler [citation needed], the Nazi High command requested that the Japanese occupation government in Shanghai poison Trebitsch-Lincoln in 1943. [citation needed] The response to this request is not known; however, Trebitsch-Lincoln did die of stomach trouble in Shanghai in 1943, aged 64.
See also
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51599. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ "No. 28256". The London Gazette. 1 June 1909. p. 4176.
- ^ "No. 28338". The London Gazette. 11 February 1910. p. 1029.
- ^ I. T. T. Lincoln (1916). Revelations of an International Spy. New York: Robert M. McBride & Company.
- ^ "No. 31065". The London Gazette. 13 December 1918. p. 14705.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- ^ Paul Chautard, DRAMES DE L'ESPIONNAGE. Les héros mystérieux, Paris-soir (Paris), 26 mars 1934, p. 3.
- ^ Orlov-Astrebski, Ivan (7 April 1945). "Buddha Threatens the Japanese". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 9. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-300-04076-8.
- "On the Trail of Trebitsch Lincoln, triple agent". New York Times. 8 May 1988. Retrieved 10 August 2008.
- New York Times. Retrieved 10 August 2008. by John Gross, 17 May 1988
- Ju-Zan 巨赞, "Yang heshang Zhao-Kong," 洋和尚照空 in Wenshi ziliao xuanji 文史资料选辑, No. 79, ed. Quanguo Zhengxie wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui 全国政协文史资料研究委员会, 1982, pp. 165–177.
- The Self-made Villain: A biography of I.T.Trebitsch Lincoln, By David Lampe & Laszlo Szenasi, Hardcover: 215 pages, Publisher: Cassell (1961), Language: English, ASIN: B0000CL8HL
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln
- Newspaper clippings about Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- ^ "טריביטש-לינקולן : פרשת חיים סוערים / יוסף נדבה | נדבה, יוסף, 1915-1988 | | הספרייה הלאומית". www.nli.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 29 March 2024.