The German George Kleinwächter followed in the footsteps of his older brother, F. Kleinwächter, and joined the Imperial Maritime Customs Service (IMCS) in December 1879.(1) In 1880, George Kleinwächter was serving with the IMCS in Taiwanfu.(2) During or before 1883, Kleinwächter journeyed from Formosa's South Cape (where he spent time at a Kualut village) to Takow, exploring the topography and geology along the way.(3)

After serving in Formosa, Kleinwächter was transferred to Canton (Guangzhou), serving in rank 4th assistant B. In October, 1883, he collapsed due to melancholia, and Robert Hart sent him on leave to London the next spring. Hart described G. Kleinwächter as hardworking and intelligent, but unstable and in need of more leave time.(4)

While in London, Kleinwächter heard that his older brother had obtained an interview with Otto von Bismarck (a relative of the Kleinwächters). George conceived the notion that Bismarck and his brother were conspiring to settle China's indemnity debt to France. He made this notion public and lobbied Lord Granville George Leveson-Gower (then head of British Foreign Office) and William Henry Waddington (French ambassador to England) to deal with the matter. George Kleinwächter even traveled to France and started rumors in the Paris press. He was eventually "waylaid and put under restraint."(5)

Publications:

Kleinwächter, George. "Researches into the geology of Formosa." Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society n.s. 18 (1883): 37-53.

Kleinwächter, George. "The origin of the Arabic numerals." The China Review, or Notes and Queries on the Far East 11 (May 1883): 379-381.

Kleinwächter, George. "More on the origin of the Arabic numerals, and the introduction of the Sino-Arabic numerals into Europe." The China Review, or Notes and Queries on the Far East 12 (July 1883): 25-30.

Kleinwächter, George. "The history of Formosa under the Chinese government." The China Review, or Notes and Queries on the Far East 12 (January 1884): 345-352.

Notes:

1. The I. G. in Peking: letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs 1868-1907, John King Fairbank, Katherine Frost Bruner, and Elizabeth MacLeod Matheson, eds. (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1975), Vol 1, p. 239. F. Kleinwächter was acting commissioner of customs for Jiujiang as early as April 1866, and perhaps before that date.

2. Harold Otness, One thousand Westerners in Taiwan, to 1945: A biographical and bibliographical dictionary ([Nankang]: Institute of Taiwan history, preparatory office, Academia Sinica, 1999), pp. 91-92.

3. George Kleinwächter, "Researches into the geology of Formosa," Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 18 (1883) 37-53. The original sketch map of southern Formosa that was printed with this article is available in the Maps component of this digital library; see the pull-down menu linked to the Formosa map on the Maps index page. Kleinwächter's travel route is shown in red.

4. Fairbank, Bruner, and Matheson, 1975, p. 441, 470.

5. Stanley Wright, Hart and the Chinese customs (Belfast: Wm. Mullan & Son, 1950), p. 514; Fairbank, Bruner, and Matheson, 1975, p. 476.