Edward Thonen

Edward Thonen (26 May 1827 – 3 December 1854) was a German emigrant to Australia, and one of the miners involved in the Eureka Rebellion in Ballarat, Victoria. He was captain of one of the miners' divisions. When soldiers stormed the Stockade on 3 December 1854 in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, Thonen was one of the first to be killed.

Prior to his emigration to Australia in 1853, Thonen had gained notoriety in England as a jewellery thief. although no one, at the time, appears to have made the connection between the diamond robbery and the events at Eureka. That connection was only made in 2022, thanks to a collaboration of researchers on the genealogy website WikiTree, whose results were later published by the Ballarat and District Genealogical Society.

Biography Early life Thonen was born Eduard Thönen, in the Rommelspütt district of Elberfeld, Rhineland, Prussia (now part of Wuppertal, Germany). He was the seventh of eight children of Adolph Friedrich Thönen, a merchant, and Christina Elisabetha Braches. He was baptised on 20 July 1827 in the Lutheran church in Elberfeld. Edward attended the grammar school in Elberfeld. He then served in the Prussian military for about a year.

Elberfeld's citizens joined in late on the democrats' cause during the revolution. Until early 1849, the mainly protestant Elberfeld had been a royalist stronghold, in contrast to the predominately Catholic provincial capital of Düsseldorf. Opinion shifted rapidly though, and on 29 April 1849, a delegation of 500 to 800 residents of Elberfeld made the trip to Düsseldorf to demand that the Prussian government accept the Frankfurt Constitution. The historian Gregory Blake states in his 2013 thesis that Edward may have been among them, Shortly after arrival, he was robbed and lost all his possessions. In January 1851 his hotel keeper recommended him to the diamond merchants Jacques Schwabacher and Louis Birnstingl, praising his ability to speak numerous European languages (including French, German, Dutch, and Spanish Desperate and short of money, he seized the occasion and stole the jewellery. Thonen must have thought that he had weeks until the robbery would be discovered, but on 28 April Schwabacher decided to show the diamonds to a friend. Upon finding that the seal had already been tampered with and that the jewels were missing, Schwabacher called the police. Around 25 April, he took the train to Peterborough, from where he continued on to Liverpool. On 2 May, he sold some more of the jewellery in Liverpool, acquiring another £25 and a gold watch. In the afternoon of 5 May, Thonen boarded a steamer, but his plans were thwarted when the vessel was struck and forced to return to port. Thonen then took the Sardinia to New York, leaving Liverpool on the morning of 7 May.

The trial commenced on 10 May. The prosecutors were sympathetic, and Thonen was recommended to mercy. The judge expressed his pity, saying: "You appear to be a young man of extraordinary talent and ability, and I very much regret seeing you in your present unhappy position. It is a pity your abilities were not directed in a proper channel." The court found that Thonen had acted without premeditation. He was given a one-year prison sentence.

Emigration to Australia Following his release from prison, Thonen returned to Prussia. German newspapers at the time were full of enthusiastic reports of gold strikes in Victoria and New South Wales, and of the rising number of Britons who returned from trips to Australia with large sums of money. In May 1852, Edward's mother died; his father and brother moved from Elberfeld to Offenbach am Main in early 1853. It is unclear if he considered to join them, but in April 1853, Edward Thonen, then 26 years old, requested permission to emigrate to Australia. The permission was granted on 28 May 1853, and Edward arrived in Australia later that year.

The Eureka Rebellion

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"Thin, but robust, of vigorous health, used no razor. His eyes spoke determination and independence of character. [...] There was no mate on the gold-fields to match Thonen at chess-playing. He would turn his head, allow his opponent the move, and then he would give such a glance on the chess board, that the right piece would jump to the right place, as it were of its own accord." salign=right — Raffaello Carboni — 1855

Death Edward Thonen was killed on 3 December 1854, during the battle of the Eureka Stockade. His cause of death is given as "gunshot wound" in the death certificate. Eyewitness accounts suggest that Edward Thonen was the first person to die at the stockade.

Thonen was buried at the Ballaarat Old Cemetery. His body was later exhumed and buried with other victims of the uprising. He is listed on the monument that was erected in Ballarat in 1856. Edward Thonen in particular was the inspiration for a song, German Teddy, probably dating to the 1880s. A manuscript of the song, dated 15 July 1889, was given to New Zealand composer Alfred Hill by Lieselotte Schreiner from Germany, a friend of his, possibly from Alfred's time at the Leipzig Conservatory. The manuscript is in the Alfred Hill collection of the State Library of New South Wales,

That song, in turn, inspired the 1984 symphony German Teddy by Kay Dreyfus's husband George Dreyfus, an Australian composer of Jewish descent who, like Edward Thonen, was born in Elberfeld.

Claims of Jewish descent Prior to the discovery of Edward Thonen's birth certificate in 2021, which showed that he and his family were Christians, Thonen was thought to be of Jewish descent. later reprinted in the Journal of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, Edward was labelled as Jewish, and this was then propagated, expedited possibly by the large number of articles published for the 100th anniversary of the event. Other people of Jewish descent were also involved in the Eureka Stockade, but Edward Thonen allegedly was the only one among those killed. Over the decades, numerous sources have picked up on Edward's story in the wider context of Jewish history in Australia.