The reproductions provided by Landesarchiv Speyer show a letter by the grandfather of President-elect Donald Trump found in a German archive. (Landesarchiv Speyer via AP)A letter publicized this week by the German tabloid Bild reveals how President-elect Donald Trump's grandfather Friedrich Trump begged local authorities in southern Germany to revoke an expulsion order for avoiding military service as a teenager. His plea, it seems, proved unsuccessful, and he had to settle for a life across the Atlantic. According to a bulletin by the Associated Press, the letter was penned in 1905 and was addressed to Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, a monarch who presided over a realm within the united German Empire. Friedrich Trump reached the United States in 1885 when he was 16, after leaving his home town of Kallstadt, in what is now the southwestern German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Source: Washington Post November 21, 2016 17:27 UTC