George Rodiek was one of the defendants in the

Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial The Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial commenced in the District Court in San Francisco on November 12, 1917, following the uncovering of the :Hindu–German Conspiracy (also known as the Indo German plot) for initiating a revolt in India. It was pa ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, 1918. A former Bremen

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

clerk, Rodiek migrated to Hawaii and took up a position with Hackfeld & Co in 1891. He became a naturalised United States citizen. In 1896 opened the Hilo branch of the company, and became a director in 1900. He had six children. In 1903 he built the

Walker Estate The H. Alexander Walker Residence or Walker Estate is a historic home located in the upper Nuuanu Valley of Honolulu, Hawaii. History The house was built in 1903 by George Rodiek of Hackfield and Company, a naturalised German immigrant. Orig ...

, in the upper Nuuanu Valley. Originally this was a two-story home with a series of gardens featuring ferns, rocks, and orchards generally regarded as the oldest formal

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desi ...

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

. He was active in the community and by 1916 he was president of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association. He was also a

Shriner Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic society established in 1870 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Shriners International describes itself ...

and helped organise the Army-Navy

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

. In 1917 he was made German Consul. Several German ships were seized by the Hawaiian authorities when their crews prepared to wreck engineering and navigation equipment, fearing a declaration of war. His attempts to have them released were backed up by the Secretary of State, but the Territorial Governor had not released them by the time war was declared. His secretary was involved in meeting the during the

Annie Larsen plot The Annie Larsen affair was a gun-running plot in the United States during World War I. The plot, involving India's Ghadar Party, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the German Foreign office, was a part of the larger so-called "Hindu–German Co ...

to send arms to revolutionaries opposing the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

in India as part of the

Indo-German Conspiracy German-Indian, Indian-German or Indo-German may refer to: *Indo-German languages, alternative name for the Indo-European languages *As an adjective, anything pertaining to Germany–India relations *Indians in Germany The community of Germans ...

. Rodiek was later arrested when travelling through

. He originally pleaded not guilty but changed his plea to guilty of a single Neutrality Act violation. He claimed the matter was simply a business transaction and that he had maintained his loyalty to his adopted country. But before the sentencing, a German naval officer's diary was seized, which placed the Honolulu consulate in an incriminating light. Rodiek was found guilty, and fined $10,000. He subsequently received a presidential pardon, but sold his house and moved to San Francisco.

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