US president-elect Donald Trump's grandfather was issued with a decree forcing him to leave Bavaria in 1905 for failing to complete his military service, a German historian has revealed.
Historian Roland Paul discovered the decree, dated back to February 1905, which ordered Friedrich Trump to leave the southern German state of Bavaria, as punishment for failing to do compulsory military service and for not giving proper notice of his departure to the US in 1885.
Mr Paul told German publication Bild, “Friedrich Trump emigrated from Germany to the USA in 1885".
"However, he failed to de-register from his homeland and had not carried out his military service, which is why the authorities rejected his attempt at repatriation,” he said.
The decree stated “American citizen and pensioner Friedrich Trump” should leave the area “at the very latest on 1 May ... or else expect to be deported”.
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Friedrich Trump was born in 1869 in the German town of Kallstadt, and he emigrated to the US 16 years later.
He made a fortune through various construction projects, before returning to visit his homeland in 1901, where he married Elisabeth Christ.
But his attempts to permanently settle back in Germany were blocked, and he even wrote a letter to Prince Regent Luitpold, asking to overturn the 1905 decree.
The appeal was rejected and the Trumps left Germany for New York on July 1, 1905.
