Albert Sonnichsen (May 5, 1878 – August 16, 1931) was an American journalist, author and adventurer.

Albert Sonnichsen
BornMay 5, 1878
DiedAugust 16, 1931
Occupation(s)American journalist, author

Biography

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Albert's father, Nicholas Sonnichsen, had fought with the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and, like his son later, was captured and held as a POW. As young boy Albert ran from home and traveled around the world. In 1898 he went to the Philippines as an American soldier during the Spanish–American War. He was captured and held in captivity for more than ten months. In 1905 he traveled to the Balkans. During 1906, he arrived in the Ottoman Empire. Sonnichsen joined the IMRO Macedonian revolutionaries at their struggle against the Greeks and the Turks.[1]

Sonnichsen married Natalie de Bogory (1887–1939), who is primarily known for her work in translating from the Russian language into the English language, and subsequently distributing and participating in having published the first or second American edition in the United States of the document known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. They had one child Eric in 1909, but were divorced in 1919.[2][3]

Later Sonnichsen was organizer of the Cooperative movement in the USA. In 1920 he settled in Connecticut and managed his own farm. He died in 1931, aged 53.[4]

References

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  1. ^ In 1909, Albert Sonnichsen, considered an expert on the Bulgarians, served as agent for Bulgarians on the U.S. Immigration Commission. He wrote a book on the revolutionary struggle in Macedonia entitled Confessions of a Macedonia Bandit. In his opinion there were forty thousand immigrants from Bulgaria and Macedonia, one fourth of whom were working on the railroad lines in Montana, the Dakotas, Iowa, and Minnesota in 1909. Sonnchsen told Emily Balch: "I hope you are not making any racial distinction between Bulgarians and Macedonians... The distinction between the Bulgarians from Bulgaria and those from Macedonia is purely political. For more see: George J. Prpic, ohn Carroll University. South Slavic Immigration in America, 1978, p. 218 Twayne Publishers. A division of G. K. Hall & Co., Boston. ISBN 0805784136.
  2. ^ Who's Who. 1919.
  3. ^ Spence, Richard (June 1, 2012). "The Tsar's other lieutenant: the antisemitic activities of Boris L'vovich Brasol, 1910-1960 Part I: Beilis, the protocols, and Henry Ford". Journal for the Study of Antisemitism: 204.
  4. ^ The New York Public Library, Albert Sonnichsen papers, 1874-1944.

Bibliography

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