From the Daily Alta California of Aug. 15, 1853. Friedrich Wilhelm Wedekind fled Germany after the revolutions of 1848 and found his way to San Francisco. Having made a small fortune speculating in real estate during the Gold Rush era, he set up a successful gynecological practice and lived in comfort on Simmons Street, now called Sixth Street. “The ground of Dr. Wedekind is a very beautiful and even romantic place,” the Alta California reports. Alas, this can no longer be said of Sixth Street near Harrison, although a certain nocturnal romance attaches to The EndUp.
Dr. Wedekind ended up marrying one of his patients, the singer Emilie Kammerer, who had been appearing regularly with the Bianchi troupe, pioneers of Italian opera in San Francisco. Above is a review of an 1859 performance of Lucrezia Borgia. Their second son, Benjamin Franklin Wedekind, author of Spring Awakening and the Lulu plays, was conceived in San Francisco but born in Hanover. Arguably, a fleck of Gold Rush San Francisco remained embedded in him.
Images from the California Digital Newspaper Collection.