“Fortean extraordinaire” or node in several Fortean nexuses?
Odo (Ode; Otto) Max Bernhard Stade was born 2 July 1892 in what was, at the time, Germany but now is part of France. My high school history teacher called these the ping-pong states, Alsace-Lorraine. It’s not fair to say that’s the last known fact about him we have—there’re plenty—but certainly his early life is difficult to document. And not from lack of material. There are both official documents and recollections. But there’s a slippage between them, an-off-set, like a misprinted newspaper, that makes it hard rehearse Stade’s precise history: for all the murkiness, there is a real history, a true succession of events.
There’s an online biography of him, Odo B. Stade, 1892-1976— A Life of Dedicated Service, which seems to have been written by his widow in the late 1980s. [Update, September 2015: The biography is not just by Maria, but also put together by Scott Rubel.] The exact provenance is unclear, and so some wariness is good. There are also newspaper accounts from the 1950s and remembrances. Even a few historical examinations. These sometimes accord with the documentary record, sometimes put meat on the biographical skeleton, sometimes, frankly, conflict. Let’s follow these lines, chary all the way. Where we end up—Fortean extraordinaire, nodes in various nexuses—Lord only knows.
Odo (Ode; Otto) Max Bernhard Stade was born 2 July 1892 in what was, at the time, Germany but now is part of France. My high school history teacher called these the ping-pong states, Alsace-Lorraine. It’s not fair to say that’s the last known fact about him we have—there’re plenty—but certainly his early life is difficult to document. And not from lack of material. There are both official documents and recollections. But there’s a slippage between them, an-off-set, like a misprinted newspaper, that makes it hard rehearse Stade’s precise history: for all the murkiness, there is a real history, a true succession of events.
There’s an online biography of him, Odo B. Stade, 1892-1976— A Life of Dedicated Service, which seems to have been written by his widow in the late 1980s. [Update, September 2015: The biography is not just by Maria, but also put together by Scott Rubel.] The exact provenance is unclear, and so some wariness is good. There are also newspaper accounts from the 1950s and remembrances. Even a few historical examinations. These sometimes accord with the documentary record, sometimes put meat on the biographical skeleton, sometimes, frankly, conflict. Let’s follow these lines, chary all the way. Where we end up—Fortean extraordinaire, nodes in various nexuses—Lord only knows.