History

Born in the working class neighborhood of Wedding in Berlin as the ninth son of Hinnerk Eschenbach, a merchant sailor in the Prussian Handelsmarine (who sold more than his fair share of goods that "slipped into his pocket" on the side) and Minna Eschenbach, who took in sewing to to help keep them all fed and clothed. By the time he was born, his oldest brother (also named Hinnerk) was already grown with a wife and a job in the Handelsmarine alongside their father. His mother was sick enough of having sons that she hadn't picked a boy's name, hoping God might give her a daughter to match the name she chose, but it didn't quite work out that way. After a couple of days, she settled on naming him Eduard (Ede for short) after one of her sister's sons who had died a year earlier.

Ede couldn't exactly call his earlier years happy, but he couldn't complain either. He spent most of his time playing in the streets with his brothers and neighbors, always had at least a meal a day (and snagged a bit here and there from street vendors in between), and went to school, even though he wasn't much good at it and went on to his first apprenticeship still not able to write or read more than his name. More often than not, he came home from school with less skin on his backside than he'd gone there with, but his teacher's switch had nothing on his mother's wooden spoon, so he didn't mind. His father was a mean, old bastard by anyone's standards, to his wife, his sons, neighbors, even his own mother, Ede's Oma, who lived with them too, and had a lead fist which just about anyone around him felt at least once, but he was at sea most of the time, so it could've been worse.

By the time he left Volksschule at twelve, all five of his brothers had been born, Ulla, the daughter his mother always wanted, had been born, then died a day later, and his father had been let go from the Preußische Handelsmarine after a quick spiral into senility, which luckily had made him a hell of a lot less mean, even if they missed the money he used to make. Ede figured it was a fair enough trade and, set out to find a paid apprenticeship in whatever place would take him soonest to help out with money.

It wasn't so easy as a twelve year old, fresh out of Volksschule who'd been stuck in the same year so many times he didn't get past year four to find anywhere that paid much of anything, which was the start of his habit of stretching the truth. All of a sudden, he was fourteen, maybe even sixteen. He had at least a little experience in anything he tried: Blacksmithing, coal delivery, print-setting (that one only lasted an hour), cobbling, chimney sweeping (he did two whole months of that), and yes, even butchering (for a couple weeks), he cycled through apprenticeships until he ended up as a rat catcher, which he was pretty good at.

It didn't pay so well, though, which was a problem with his father just getting dottier and dottier, shuffling about, then not even walking, and more of his brothers getting families of their own (even two families in his third brother, Rudi's case) and not helping out with money. His mother had to give him marching orders once he hit fifteen. How much he brought in couldn't make up for what he ate anymore, so he had to strike out on his own. He couldn't blame her, really. It made sense and he was old enough, but that didn't make sleeping on park benches in April in Berlin any drier or nicer. He could have tried to get a room if he'd nicked all his food, but he was a schemer even then and decided he could hold out. He nicked his food anyway and saved what he earned. For what, he wasn't sure yet, but for something.

He hadn't planned on going to London straightaway, or even leaving Berlin, but a brief stint staying with Gustav when he was on shore leave changed his mind. The spring rain had stuck him with a fever and a cough, which stopped him from working for a few days, but convinced Gustav to sneak him into his room above a pub. He hadn't had much better to do but lay about, drifting in and out of fever dreams, and listen while Gustav told him stories from all his travels. By the time he'd recovered enough to go off on his own again, he'd made him mind up to follow Gustav to the docks and join the Handelsmarine too. They wouldn't have him, though, because of a limp he'd gotten from his father throwing him down the stairs once when he was about eight. He didn't let it stop him, though. He just changed his plans a bit.

He'd gone to his mother's house that day, said his goodbyes, and set out along the Spree in the direction of the Donau. For the better part of a year, he walked to Hamburg, along the coast to the Danish border, down into the Netherlands, through Belgium, and along the French beaches to Calais. Along the way, he slept in sheds, barns and fields, did odd jobs, helped with harvests, worked on docks, pulled in fishing nets, scaled fish, nabbed eggs fruits and pies from farms and street vendors, and eventually caught a ride to over the channel on a fishing boat.
That Spring and Summer were grand and exciting. The Fall was still good, plenty of trees to snag an apple from and a warm barn was good enough for shelter, but, by the time he'd snaked his way over to London and Winter had hit, he'd been more than ready to settle down until the Spring thaw. London really hadn't been where he'd planned to go. He thought he might make it all the way to Siam (wherever that was). His brother, Rudi, always said that was where his second family was and he figured he'd might as well meet them, being their uncle and all, but, things ended up a little differently. One night, in Stepney, when he was as hungry as a bear and half-frozen, he came across a butcher's shop with the back door cracked open. He'd snuck in, ready to kill two flies with one clap, get something to eat, get some shelter from the snow, then sneak out in the morning with nobody the wiser. Only, he'd slept a bit too long and found himself waking up the next morning to the sound of Mister Cogg, the old widower who ran the place, chopping away at a side of mutton. He'd jolted to his feet, ready to be scared off or chopped up, but, instead, the old man had just waved him over, said "Good Morning, Lad", then something else he couldn't understand, and held out an apron to him. After that, he was a butcher's assistant. It turned out Mr. Cogg was a widower, looking for help anyway since his son had died. He was getting on a bit to keep butchering and his other son lived him Ipswitch with his own butcher shop, a wife and kids.

Ede wasn't really sure if Mister Cogg ever really believed he was a trained butcher, but that was the story he gave and he never second-guessed it. He told himself he would move on soon anyway. He'd leave once it got warm, then once it stopped raining, then once the leaves started to fall, then in the Spring. Mister Cogg was pretty good to him, though, and he needed the help. Besides that, he liked butchering. There was even an old widow next door who spoke German and helped him write letters to his brothers and mother. Every time he planned to leave, he thought better of it. By the time, two years later, that Mister Cogg offered to sell him the shop for what would have been a song if he hadn't been poor, he couldn't say no.

He had the old widow help him write his brothers to ask for some help paying for it and offering that they could come join him. A couple of his brothers helped him with money, Gustav took him up on moving there to run the shop, he changed the name to match the story he told about being Bavarian, and the rest was history (with a few changes along the way as to what meat they carried to save on costs). After his father died, their little brother, Julius, (fourteen at the time) joined them to help with the reading and writing and get him out of their mother's hair, and now they all live together and run the shop