what was General Raastoff from Dresden doing in Peking in 1875?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 03 Jun 2003 07:06 PDT

"Raastoff" does not appear to be a German name, but rather a word in
Norwegian.  In any event, it does not seem to relate to a general from
Dresden.

"Searched the web for Raastoff"
Google
://www.google.com/search?q=Raastoff+&num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&filter=0

Do you know anything more about this general that might help us to
find information about him?

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Clarification of Question by canonbury-ga on 03 Jun 2003 08:25 PDT

Thank you for the comeback, I have an outer lettersheet sent to a:
'Mme la Generale de Raasroff
6 Reichstraam
Dresden
Saxony
Germany'
It originated from Peking on February 2nd 1875.
I was just trying to find out who the General was.

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Clarification of Question by canonbury-ga on 03 Jun 2003 08:26 PDT

Sorry, just to make sure:
Mme la Generale Raastoff

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 03 Jun 2003 10:31 PDT

The name is probably in old German script, which is sometimes
difficult to interpret (for instance, a "K" may look like an "R"). 
Could you post an image of the outer letter sheet, or at least of the
name in question?  If you do not have a site on which to post it, you
could try one of these free options:

http://www.villagephotos.com (limit 60,000 bytes per image)  
http://www.deviantart.com  
http://www.usa-ezweb.com/ezfree  
http://www.imagemagician.com (2 week free trial period)

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Clarification of Question by canonbury-ga on 06 Jun 2003 06:35 PDT

have added image to villagephotos.com with file name of 
rasstoffhongkong.jpg 
image
Hope ok, am stretching my computer ability to the limti! I look
forward to hearing from you.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 06 Jun 2003 07:53 PDT

For us to see this image, I think we need the user name and password. 
Hopefully it's not a user name and password combination that you use
elsewhere; if it is, you might want to alter it before posting it
here.

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Clarification of Question by canonbury-ga on 06 Jun 2003 08:53 PDT

username: mjtaylor
password for this picture: hongkong
Hopefully allright?

Hello canonbury-ga,

This is not old German script, but apparently a combination of English
and French language handwriting.  (If it were German, it would say
"Deutschland" instead of "Germany" and "Sachsen" instead of "Saxony".)

As it turns out, the name is not "Raastoff" but "Raasloff".  (Notice
that there is no stroke crossing the "l" in that name.  Incidentally,
the address appears to be "6 Reichstrasse"; "Strasse" is German for
"street".)

Waldemar Rudolph Raasløff (1815-1883) was a Danish officer, diplomat,
and war minister.

"Waldemar Rudolph Raasløff"
eremit.dk 
http://www.eremit.dk/person/raasl.html

In German, his last name was given as "von Raaslöff"; it appears that
in French, he was called "M de Raasloff".

"Bibliographie" [entry # 318]
Bibliographie allemande de l'Algérie (1830 - 1962) par Allain Carré
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Louvre/8502/b-dba-a.htm

"Copies of letters out and miscellanea" [entries for 31.3.1855 and
9.3.1855]
Manuscripts and Special Collections
The University of Nottingham Library
http://mss.library.nottingham.ac.uk/cats/buchanan_Bu34-52.html

In a document relating to his service as Danish Minister in
Washington, he is called "General Raasloff".

"The Purchase of the Virgin Islands", by Aïssatou Sy-Wonyu [page 5]
Cercles
http://www.cercles.com/n5/sy.pdf

He lived in Dresden, at least in December 1872, and so presumably also
in 1875.

"Godkin, Edwin Lawrence, 1831-1902. Papers: Guide." [entry # 894]
Online Archival Search Information System (OASIS)
Harvard University
http://oasis.harvard.edu/html/hou00085.html

But most significantly for your purposes, he is described as:

"W. R. Raasløff, (1815-83) a man of the world, general, former Danish
consul
general in New York, minister of War 1866-70 and as such on mr.
Tietgen’s
secret pay-roll, in 1874-75 Great Northern's special envoy to China."

"Bridge-building between Applied Science, Industry and Finance in
Danish
Modernisation 1866-96", by Ole Lange [page 8]
EBHA Conference 2001: Business and Knowledge
Handelshøyskolen BI
http://web.bi.no/forskning/ebha2001.nsf/0/a6cb7066ea59eda6c12567f30056ef4d/$FILE/A2%20-%20Lange.PDF

- justaskscott-ga


Search terms used on Google:

raasloff
raasløff
raaslöff

remarkable information supplied very promptly. Thank you very much.