Otto Wichers von Gogh (1856-1906): Anarchist, Playwright, Actor who died in 1906 Earthquake

Amalia Wicher and damaged Empire Theater

Strangers' Plot

Otto Wichers von Gogh was a German-born playwright, journalist, and theatrical performer active in Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

He was born in Hamburg, Germany, in the mid-19th century and was the son of an actor. He received a university education at Halle-on-the-Saale and initially pursued a career in the theater as both a performer and writer. During the 1870s, he became associated with social democratic and anarchist circles in Germany. His writings, which criticized political and religious institutions, drew the attention of authorities. Among his early works were Gottes Evangelium (“The Gospel of God”), Proletarisches Manifest (“Proletarian Manifesto”), and Rettet die Kinder (“Save the Children”).

In 1879, Wichers von Gogh was expelled from Germany for his political writings. He relocated to Zürich, Switzerland, where he worked as a journalist, newspaper editor, and correspondent. He remained active in literary and political circles during this period. While living in Zürich, he also published The Misery of the German Play-actor, a critique of working conditions in the theatrical profession.

1899 Chicago Tribune profile

Wichers was later expelled from Switzerland following his involvement in a public meeting that was associated with civil unrest among Italian residents. After leaving Switzerland, he lived for periods in Paris and London before relocating to the United States.

By the 1890s, he was in New York City, where he participated in anarchist meetings and was identified in contemporary accounts as a speaker critical of monarchy and militarism. He continued to write and contribute to German-language publications during this period.

In the early 20th century, Wichers moved to California. There, he returned to theatrical performance, appearing as part of a family act known as “The Three Wichers,” which included his daughters, Frida and Molly. The group performed musical and dramatic sketches and appeared in vaudeville-style entertainment programs, including engagements associated with the Empire Theatre.

Wichers was also identified in later records as a sketch artist connected to the Empire Theatre.

He died in Oakland, California, in the 1906 Earthquake, when a building housing residents associated with the Empire Theatre collapsed. Contemporary newspaper reports list him among those killed in the incident. His daughter Amalia (aka Edith) was also killed. His daughter Frida survived, was taken in by an Oakland family, and eventually returned to her home in New Jersey.

No confirmed photographs or portraits of Otto Wichers von Gogh are known to have survived. His life is primarily documented through newspaper accounts, theatrical notices, and references in political and literary records of the period.

Read about the others killed at the Empire Theater HERE.  

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Sources: Chicago Tribune (Jan. 23, 1899); contemporary newspaper accounts of New York anarchist meetings; California newspaper coverage of “The Three Wichers”; Oakland death listings from Empire Theatre collapse (1906); An Annotated Gazetteer of Nettlau’s Utopians (Cambridge); Mountain View Cemetery records