Antonius Holtmann

Emigration to America in the Context of an (Unsuccessful) Revolution: 1848/49.  

Scenario of a Misjudged Interconnection

Common Notions

The '48ers', i.e. those Germans who left their homeland because of the 1848 revolution, have a good reputation in the USA. At first glance the chart published by Juergen Eichhoff in 1989 shows that many of these 48ers reached the USA.[1]. The bar chart was linked with historical events e.g. "1830: Revolutionary Unrest in Germany" and "1848: Revolutions Fail in Germany and in Austria-Hungary". Causes and effects become clearly evident: Unrest boosts emigration rates (up to 30,000 in 1840). After the failure of the revolution the figure rises to 215,000 in 1854 but drops sharply to 27,500 after the Civil War has broken out in the USA. Given these obvious interrelations between emigration rates and political unrest, the fact that economic hardships induced most emigrants to leave their home country fades into the background. Many Germans decided to make a new start in the USA after crop failures in the years 1814-1817, in the mid-30s, mid-40s and early 50s and because of structural changes in Germany: In the Northwest, for instance, linen produced at the weaving loom at home was no longer in demand because particularly in Britain machines were used for the treatment of cotton and in rural areas the community-owned estates were distributed among land-owners so that the landless who had used these plots before were deprived of their source of income. A third major structural change boosting emigration rates was overpopulation, the first sign of which was a birth surplus (probably resulting from the hopes placed in improved trade relations) in the middle of the 18th century.
The number and continuance of German farms were secured by the law of succession and the existing prohibition to divide property. Since fewer children died at young age an increasing number of descendents of farmers who were not entitled to inherit, had to make a living without land (Schlumbohm: “Downward Mobility”) so that the number of landless households rose[2]. In The Netherlands were many Germans had worked as seasonal workers, fewer jobs were available. As a result of the large number of workers available, wages dropped[3]. Because of this development people looked for alternatives. The income differential of 1:6 – 1:10 between Germany and America and the prospect of earning the money needed to pay for 1 hectare of land ( 1 hectare = 2.471 acres, 1 acre = $ 1,25) in three days, induced Germans to turn their back on Europe for good and "to find a better life" in America. Emigration started in 1832 and reached the following levels (according to Juergen Eichhoff):

1843:14.441
1844:20.731
1845:34.355
1846:57.561
1847: 74.281
1848:58.465
1849:60.235
1850:78.896
1851:72.482
1852:145.918
1853:141.946
1854:215.009
1855:71.028


 


More precise statements on the motives for emigration would require further investigations at the local level in which the reasons given by those who emigrated are analysed. The interrelations established between the 1846 and 1847 levels and the crop failures in the years 1845 and 1846 appear to be plausible. However, it would be too easy to relate the 1850 rise in emigration rates to revolutionaries[4] who fled and sought exile in America and to those Germans who sympathized with them and were disappointed when the revolution failed. Neither can the sharp rise in emigration rates in the period 1852-1854 solely be attributed to wide-spread frustration and lack of prospects in the German population. Crop failures and economic stagnation as potential sources of this general frustration and lack of prospects must not be disregarded. It can be assumed that the unfavorable economic situation raised many doubts among the population about Germany's future and when the revolution failed, many considered emigration the only way out.

Revolutionaries from "finstern Winkel Deutschlands" [Germany's shady corner]
Bernhard Wechsler: "Die Auswanderer" (1846)[5] [The Emigrants]

"I have identified the rise in education as the root cause of emigration. ... The things to which people submitted uncomplainingly before, are now considered a heavy burden one needs to get rid of. The level of dissatisfaction with inequality, rightlessness, with real or presumed discrimination, with the disregard of claims etc. rises in proportion to the rise in people's susceptibility to rights and equality, to truth and human dignity, in proportion to the extent to which these terms become common knowledge, which they will inevitably become because of the rise in education, and therefore it is not necessary that the level of unpleasantness, of imperfection per se, rises – but it is important that it is identified as such, that the notion that it should not be this way remains alive in people's minds...

Bernhard Wechsler, rabbi of the district of Oldenburg, made this statement at a meeting of the "Verein für Volksbildung zu Oldenburg" on December 20, 1846. According to Wechsler unlike America, the "shady corner of Germany" had not yet 'emancipated' itself from the "restrictions imposed by its citizens", particularly not from the Jewish ones who could "buy the right to become a night watchman, village advocate or watchman in charge of fields by changing his denomination". However, "extensive knowledge and skills, an idea of terms and notions, a certain self-consciousness" [had] entered even the lower sections of society. "Thank god" the educational drive [could] not be slowed down or stopped". Hence one "has to see to it that .....the striking discrepancy between intellectual and material life is removed to avoid that the evil spirit of dissatisfaction becomes more lively". America was considered an alternative even by the "head of a family with a meagre income". This country had found the "magic word", assuring people that they "obtain full rights, can experience freedom and movement that have not been put into a strait jacket, resist the temptation to establish a social order at the expense of the individual and his natural claims or to try to reach dizzy heights of artificial power which can only be maintained at great cost". And this "magic word" could also be used in Germany and it could deprive the yell 'America!' which "even [reached] the most remote corners of the fatherland" of its current effect: "America is in all those places where hands are not put idly in one´s lap and where crestfallenness and dejection are befogging and paralyzing the minds".

Bernhard Wechsler admired the "wise and patriotic statesmen" of North America who had "been present at his birth and [had] found this magic word". It was not his intention to "prevent" emigration, but neither did he want to "promote" it. About one year ahead of the events in March 1848 he demanded revolutionary action in Germany that put an end to conditions which "boosted" emigration and spread the "yelling". He referred to the Republic as a potential solution also for Germany: In America "the spirit of association is given a free hand; political life is completely public, the citizen´s participation in lawmaking and in running the country is not restricted; the law is ruling openly; openness and the public and maturity is everywhere, freedom of speech, no persecution because of political views, minimal interference of the state in community affairs, no interference in the freedom of the press or in social or political associations".

Bernhard Wechsler classified the emigrants into "1) emigrants who are poor; 2) who fear to become poor; 3) who miss the opportunity to use their physical strength and their means adequately; 4) who imitate and follow the example set by others; 5) who are guided by political or 6) religious motives; 7) who are adventurers and finally 8) who have come into conflict with the law and civil order, who want to escape for different motives." Bernhard Wechsler ranked those with "deliberate political motives" 5th.. However, he also stressed what many others had not been aware of: individuals believed to have made the decision to emigrate on their own accord and did not realize that they opted for emigration because of social and economic conditions in Germany: the aftermath of the revolutions (1789/1830/1848), stagnating political and economic conditions and the fact that pre-revolution authorities had resumed power after 1849

Reactionary Views from "Germany's Shady Corner": To the Emigrants (1833)

On 15 October 1833 a poet put the popular tone of those conservatives who expressed their doubts about emigration in the period preceding the events in March into verse (The German original is in the German version of this article.)[6]:

" To the Emigrants:

(1)          How one praises to you, Germans so very much
a paradise beyond the ocean?
What drives you, whose future is unknown
to leave your mother country?

(2)          The sluggish citizen may go!
The diligent one can also have his reward here;
Here, there is neither lack of land
nor overpopulation.

...

(10)      His own stove in his fatherland
will always be dear to the German.
And what he achieves in his own country
maintains the Germans´ inner strength.

(11)     And by an indissoluble bond
which ties him to sovereign and fatherland
he withstands all storms
thus showing traditional German loyalty.

(12)      And does not give up loyalty and duty
and stands by his fatherland
Because he, in these bad times
patiently awaits a better future.

(13)      He trusts in his sovereign
and works diligently for him.
And earning his daily bread and butter
he prays 'God bless our good sovereign!'

(14)      This is what a real German
will firmly believe to be good and true forever;
Anyone who does not join them
may go out to the New World!"

All those who emigrated all the same, obviously did not believe in the promises given in stanzas 3-9: that sufficient land was available in one´s home country for those who were diligent, that Germarny could be turned into the Garden of Eden so that quite a few poor were

"...refilled with new love of life trough the help of rich brothers".

Industrial work by which many land seekers had been turned into urban citizens had not yet been considered an option by the 'real German'.

A Popular Sounding Board: "A 49-Verse Poem" (1834)[7]

This appeal to the public was contrasted by an appeal by the public originating from the Osnabrück region: "A 49-verse poem".

In an announcement made by the Landdrostei Osnabrück on 1 July 1833 it was stated that a text signed by "Franz Lahmeyer" and printed on 25 January 1833 in Baltimore had been "sent from Bremen to the local region". The "defamatory piece of writing" should be checked to determine if "it might cause excitement". Franz Lahmeyer, a "former licensed tooth-extractor" and journeyman turner with a bad reputation who had also once been an actor" and was widely considered an "eccentric person", had emigrated in August 1832. He came from Ostercappeln (15 km to the northeast of Osnabrück). As early as on 18 March 1833 the police officer Wiege from Bohmte informed the commander of the Royal Dragoons in Osnabrück that a "printed work which [was] mainly suitable for incitement", was circulating in the population, nobody claimed to be the owner, however he had succeeded in obtaining one copy of it. It was "an encouragement to leave the fatherland because the spirit of the time [was] particularly susceptible to such ideas". 5 days later another informant reported that it was a "49-verse poem pointing out the major advantages of America over the German Constitution". On 2 April the Landdrostei informed the Interior Ministry that "many inhabitants [were] said to be talking about emigration and [were] making the necessary arrangements": the poem was "eagerly read by the dissipated class". The Interior Ministry in Hanover refrained from taking "measures", however recommended to the " land dragoons" to "take those copies of it that [turned] up now and then which [would] also give them the opportunity to inform the owners of the verses about the poem´s unworthiness and bad tendency" (the German original is in the German version of this article.):

(1) Hail to Columbus, be praised,
     be greatly honored for ever,
     You showed us a way which can free us
     from severe bondage, if we dare
     to renounce our home country.

(2) Get rid of the slave chains,
      that oppress you and your children
      and choose the flower beds
      that embellish our soils.
      Yes, he gives us cheerfulness
      after our severe bondage.

(48) I will not tempt you, brothers
       to revolt, by no means!
       If you can bear the costs
       come to me, don´t hesitate.
       The land of Hesse also learnt
       that you lose if you revolt.

(49) Therefore avoid anyone who
       believes in loose manners,
       so that you will not deprive yourself
       of your liberty by following this example.
       With this I conclude my poem,
       Come here and don´t hesitate!"

The 49 stanzas circulated under the title: "Meaningful Ideas at Times of Good Mood about my Home Land Europe compared to the United States dedicated to my European Friends in the Kingdom of Hanover", written by Franz Lahmeyer, M.D. (= Medicinae Doctor), Baltimore printed at the author´s expense on 25 January  1833".

In this poem scenarios were given in black and white; America, the paradise, was contrasted with the "slave chains" and "clutches of robbers" of the Old World:

"Here the mayor himself dances next to the female broom-maker".

The "praised land over here" offered a better alternative, better than "rebellion" which "the land of Hesse" [had] just gone through (1830/31). The author obviously succeeded in stirring the feelings of most of those who wanted to leave "grief and famine" behind and who consoled their children by talking about "this land of America": it was not their business to change politics. They escaped the "tyrants" and the "rebellion".

In March 1875 Heinrich Arminius Rattermann, an insurance agent and writer, who had emigrated from Winkum to Cincinnati, published a slightly amended version of the "Song from America in the "Monthly Journal of Recollections of the Life of German Pioneers in the United States" ("The German Pioneer") and along with this he told a story which stole the show of the police records in the Federal Archive of Osnabrück[8]. Franz Josef Stallo, a book printer in Damme, in the south of the Oldenburg region, had "set farmers against tax payments and he had attracted the "disgrace of the local government in Oldenburg by the publication and circulation of rabble-rousing writings and songs etc". He had been placed "under permanent police surveillance" and he had strained the tense relationship to the local police" even further by "acting as agent for emigrants". He had obtained this song from someone living in America in Spring 1831 and it had "appealed to the robust Westphalian farmers"; He had "sold several hundred copies of it”. Stallo had "been put into prison; his book print shop had been confiscated and anyone who was identified as owner of a copy of the poem was threantened by a prison term": "more than two hundred individuals".

After 40 years Heinrich Rattermann had turned delusive recollections of his home country into a legend which he had put in writing abroad; in the process he had given the measures that had been taken in the south of the district of Oldenburg an inappropriate political meaning. Emigrants who sought help from agents did not have republican-democratic but economic motives for doing so. In April  (!) 1831 Franz Josef Stallo was allowed to emigrate[9] and as early as in 1832 he founded a settler´s association in Cincinnati. It was called "Stallotown" and was located in the north of Dayton/Ohio. Some years later it was renamed 'Minster'. And according to Heinrich Rattermann it was in Minster where Stallo had been "riding up and down the rugged plank road at full gallop" on a white horse shouting out "I cannot, I must not yet die! ...What would become of my poor fellows!" but he died of cholera which had swamped the marshy area in 1833: "He threw himself onto his bed and after a few minutes breathed his last in a fit of convulsions.".

The first report by the Osnabrück police on the "Song from America" was written on 20 March 1833; on 31 March 1833 the file was closed without the 'rider on the white horse' being mentioned.

German-American Reactions: Cincinnati and New York, Missouri and Wisconsin,  1848-1853

At a mass meeting of German North Americans living in and near Cincinnati held on 4 April 1848, the 25-year-old lawyer Johann Bernhard Stallo[10], a nephew of the bookprinter and white-horse rider, who had emigrated to America at the age of 16 in 1839 and had been ambassador to the United States in Rome in the period 1885-1889, called on those present to "participate ... in the battle for freedom of the Germans". These resolutions were published in the 'Sunday Paper' of the city of Vechta (district of Oldenburg) on 21 May 1848.

The article stated that "the lightning ... of Paris" had also "struck Germany". A "bloody and long-lasting fight [lay] ahead because "rescue and help" could no longer be provided "in the so-called legal way": For this reason no dazzling phrases and graceful congratulations" were sent there, but money from the "revolution´s cashbox" that was to be created and that should be filled with money collected by clubs, in concerts and theaters and for four weeks on every Sunday ... at the church doors". And a "black-red-golden-colored" revolution flag " should be produced by "all high-minded women and virgins of German origin in Cincinnati and its environs" for the "fighters for the German state... where the first blow for a big German Free State [was] struck". 

The flag of liberty probably remained in Cincinnati – just like liberty itself.

On 6 January 1850 some ironic questions were answered in the Sunday Paper:

On what do Germans agree? -  That they disagree.
Where are all Germans free? -  In America.

On 9 June 1848 an "address of the citizens of New York" reached the members of Parliament in the St. Paul´s Church[11]. "If it had not mattered most to act quickly, the stream of lively sympathies for the beloved old homeland surfacing in all places could have been conducted into one bed". But under these circumstances only a "small gift" of money (3500 thalers) could be made, "not only under the Star-Spangled Banner of our big united republic, but at the same time also under the banner of the united Germany that had risen like phoenix from the fire and probably also from the ashes of quite a number of ardent and burning wishes..., which had always been the freely displayed symbol of unity for the Germans, the sole symbol which can make us strong on this side and on the other side of the ocean". This "small gift" was intended for "the poor survivors of the martyrs of Germany´s young liberty". The member of Parliament Brunck requested three cheers for "the German brothers in America...! Three cheers for them! (The assembly joined in these cheers..)"

However, some of "the German brothers" responded quite differently: As early as on 4 May 1848 it was stated in a "private correspondence" from Elberfeld, published in "The Lutheran", the religious paper of the old-Lutheran "Missouri-Synode"[12], "that crowds [got] ready for emigration".The situation was "feverish and foreboding danger". The workers who had been fired were "ready for new atrocities". The people began to "realize that the revolution [was] the biggest scourge to them". (22 August 1848). Christians had only left the word of God "which strictly disapproves of any revolution".  (12 September 1848) The German nation [had] sold their most precious goods for a mess of potage thus slavishly imitating the French foe". In St. Paul´s Church one had "neither honored God nor invoked his blessing". "In the pursuit of progress one [had] abolished the death penalty". "Boys without beards, high school students and university students, instead of being subject to the eldest as admonished by Peter, [behaved] like the Masters and Saviors of Germarny". (19 September 1848).  As a matter of fact revolution was "prohibited by the word of God: Anyone [was] a subject of the authorities, which have power over him; Röm 13.1" (17 October 1848) It was an "intoxication from the cup of dizziness of fleshly freedom, which Satan [had] filled to the brim for the children of disbelief to make them his slaves by deluding them into believing that they [would] be free". (6 February 1849). "The seed of injustice [had] been spread even by the moderate among the men celebrated by the nation, like H. V. Gagern, Dahlmann, Uhland etc" (30 October 1849).  It had been "a strange piece of folly originating from France", a "political St. Vitus dance", the "March fever", which had seized many people: "The longer and tousled beard and hair... the more intense [it is]". And "the color red" aroused "a great desire" among them; this is "why they often [had] red flags carried before them". (25 October 1853) "Revolutionary preachers" now were on their way to the United States: Help us God; how we poor Germans are stricken by Germany´s rubbish heap". (23 November 1853)

On 30 April 1850 the "Oldenburgische Volksfreund", by referring to the "Kölnische Zeitung", quoted from the "Wisconsin Banner" ("the major political organ of Wisconsin state"): After the cholera now "another pest .... [threatened] ...to hit the country.  The vanguard of the German democrats [had] marched in" and "judging by the claws, the lions are loose rascals", No-one of these "red-nosed long-bearded democrats [sought] regular settlement – they [were] too lazy for this", these "bankrupt merchants, lawyers without offices, dismissed public officers, craftsmen without clients, boozy workers and many others. They put their long beards into the forests, their shining noses into the praries, their rags and tatters into the half cultivated fields and our star-spangled banner is to flutter like a shimmering spirit over all this. Indeed, if we did not know that there is an old world we would derive its existence from these democrats, the mushrooms of a rotten tree trunk"..

 Many of these “mushrooms” of “Germany’s rubbish heap” fought in the Civil War for the North. See at this Website: “1848ers”.[13]

St. Paul´s Church:  "New Germany" in the USA? (1848/1849)

The members of Parliament who met in St. Paul´s Church and who were admired but at the same time despised by the German-Americans, discussed the possibility of granting emigration as a constitutional right and of introducing a law of emigration. There was wide agreement on this point, however to no avail.

On 20 July 1848 this constitutional right[14]. was discussed. The liberal MP Johann Ludwig Tellkamp from Breslau linked national–anthropological premises to national-economic interests. "All Germanic tribes like to migrate" and the Englishmen and Americans that are kin to us [had] migrated the most..., after they [had] been granted the most open institutions": "The more unrestricted the conditions..., the freer the movement". Emigration provided Germany with wealthy returnees, "rich in goods and experiences". Out there "a new Germany could have been established by all means under protection and guidance". In the USA "the number of Germans [amounted] to more than 4 million, a sufficient number to be decisive in an election in which the two major parties are equally strong" and to support "trade regulations which would be equally beneficial to North America and Germany".

Friedrich Schulz from Weilburg ("Leftists in Tails") denounced the way in which the German states treated emigrants: "Many thousands [had] gone to wreck and ruin in misery and disgrace on the shores of foreign seas and in the streets of foreign cities. The story of these horrors [would] always disgrace the German people." He demanded that emigrants be protected and cared for until they reached the settlement areas "where they can live together, where the German language and spirit has been maintained. They must be protected in this sacred place". Emigration was a better way of relieving the poor and avoiding overpopulation than workhouses in villages and towns. With half the sum one could have "set up flourishing states" and "completed the wonderful task of mankind, of transforming the deserts of the earth into a garden of God". It was "the task of any fit and industrious people to give rise to new individuals, who blossom freshly, while the people itself may be fading away".

The left-wing liberal August Hermann Ziegert from Preussisch-Minden and the right-wing priest Remigius Vogel from Dillingen did not plead less pathetically: Emigration was "a matter of the state". These ideas contained "a wealth of humanity and love, a wealth of healthy politics; ...and if (the emigrants) lived on the shores of Missouri or on their quiet farms in the primeval forests, they will bless Parliament for this decision". The city priest of Dillingen referred to "Providence" which had "provided the German people with large material and intellectual goods and virtues". To make this come true the state had to pursue an emigration policy without levying charges and without the loss of citizenship on emigration, "so that also in this respect we can assume an important and respected position among the peoples of the world".

The liberal Friedrich Ludwig von Rönne from Berlin disapproved of such an interest-oriented policy and of the expansion plans. So far emigration had been "a necessary evil". What mattered now was to "remove the causes of emigration", which meant "to make one's home so dear that the idea to leave it does not even enter the (people´s) head". "It shouldn't be that innumerable of the best workers, talents and skills and not unimportant funds" were lost. To facilitate their return, their settlement and transportation ought to be clearly regulated by law and it could not be accepted that "the emigrant in most German states, I think even in all of them, [is] eo ipso expelled from the German nation the moment he receives the emigration consent"[15]. Von Rönne stressed what had already been demanded by the leftist Bruno Hildebrandt from Marburg: "Every German has the right to emigrate and even abroad he continues to be a German citizen. However, no German citizen can retain the citizenship of another country at the same time".

On 7 December 1848 after the second reading of the constitutional rights the following was decided by the majority: "Art. I, § 6: The freedom to emigrate is not restricted by the state. Charges may not be levied. The emigration procedure is protected and supported by the Reich"[16]

On 16 March 1849 the "German Constitutient National Assembly" passed the "emigration regulations" in Art. 1, § 6: "concerning the Law of State Protection and Support for German Emigrants"[17]. Franz Josef von Buß, a specialist in international and church law, an ultra-right-wing member of Parliament, deplored that this was nothing more than a "transportation law". He considered "the emigration issue and its practical implementation a matter of public care for the poor". Many were too poor to be able to emigrate. The churches, particularly the "catholic one that is established in all parts of the world", state and private institutions should – also by means of collections – create a "fund" to "help our suffering brothers emigrate", The money should suffice to find work and buy land. "The best way to bring peace to our fatherland [was] to provide shelter to those who are lead to disturb public peace and order by poverty, who [would] yield much fruit for the nation".

This was the humane variant of the "removals" and "transportations" by which communities and states got rid of poor people and (frequently out of poverty) those who had come into conflict with the law.[18]

The members of Parliament were not unaware of the misery of those who had been removed[19] from Groß-Zimmern.

The bill was discussed, formulated and substantiated in the "economic committee". It was also important to "supply the blossoming German settlements in the North-American free states with new workers to boost and expand the already important German elements". "Another yet incalculable move" would follow "to fraternize the states united on both sides even further". The United States were "a transatlantic federal state akin to us" in which German immigrants should continue to be Germans until their intended naturalization: "A mother shall not and must not let her sons leave as long as these do not break with her by themselves".

Just like in the debate on constitutional rights, this debate was also very pathetic and Friedrich Schulz from Weilburg, a "leftist in tails", was the one to have the last word in it:  Germany had to "compete with North America in free institutions; we have to ... learn from our settlements, because colonies develop more quickly than the motherland; we have to plant the North-American spirit of enterprise and fresh courage in our regions". The "right way" had been taken if communities "take their poor into the new world at the community's expense". The "Germanic peoples" seemed to "be predestined to take possession of the globe". These peoples migrated from the east to the west: "For milleniums mankind has longed for the sunset". This became obvious in the "gardens of the Hesperides?", in the "gold mines of Peru" and the "mighty primeval forests of the United States", where a people of kings grew up. "The instinct of the German people has also .... found the right regions here, and more especially, in the west of North America". There, land should be bought and colonized in a body. "The Germans ... might become Americans without.... forgetting all about the German language, customs and literature. Near the big ocean a powerful, wonderful new Germany can blossom which even intensifies the natural friendly bonds between the United States and our country".

As early as in March 1849 these words faded away like hollow pathos when the revolution failed.

Nothing has come of the "wonderful new Germany. In 1854 the 48ers fought in Louisville (Kentucky) against slavery and (German) Catholics, particularly Jesuits [20], and in Oldenburg (Indiana) Catholics from the southern Oldenburg district in Germany were said to have been willing to declare the community a "free state" and to pull out of the Civil War (1862), however, without having succeeded in winning their priest over for this.[21].


Anmerkungen:


[1]   Juergen Eichhoff: Immigration from Germany (1820-1888). Madison/Wisconsin: German House Research 1989

[2]   Antonius Holtmann (ed.): Ferner thue ich euch zu wissen. Briefe des Johann Heinrich zur Oeveste aus Amerika (1834-1876). Bremen: Temmen 1996. the book is out of print but is accessible at this DAUSA Website (www.nausa.uni-oldenburg.de/zuroev/000html); The Same (ed.): A Lost American Dream. Civil War Letters of Immigrant Theodor Heinrich Brandes in Historical Contexts. Nashville,IN: NCSA LITERATUR 2005; Walter D. Kamphoefner: the Westfalians : From Germany to Missouri. Princeton,NJ: Princeton University Press 1987 (1. impression); 2. impression: The Same: Westfalen in der Neuen Welt. Eine Sozialgeschichte der Auswanderung im 19. Jahrhundert. Göttingen: Vandenhoek 2006; Hans Ulrich Wehler: Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte. Vol. 2: Von der Reformära bis zur industriellen und politischen "Deutschen Doppelrevolution" 1815-1845/49. München: Beck 1987.  -  Above all Jürgen Schlumbohm: Lebensläufe, Familien, Höfe. Die Bauern und Heuerleute des Osnabrückischen Kirchspiels Belm in proto-industrieller Zeit, 1650-1860. Göttingen: Vandenhoek 1994 (particularly p. 55). Also see Antonius Holtmann: Basic Reliable Information About Early Emigration from the Osnabrück Area (Landdrostei) in the Kingdom of Hannover to the United States During the 19th Century. In. The Palatine Immigrant 34 (2008) 1, 20-28, also now accessible at this DAUSA Website (www.nausa.uni-oldenburg.de/buchfe.htm).

[3] Franz Bölsker-Schlicht: Die Hollandgängerei im Osnabrücker Land und im Emsland. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Arbeiterwanderung vom 17. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert. Sögel: Emsländische Landschaft 1987

[4]   Ulrich Klemke: "Eine Anzahl überflüssiger Menschen." Die Exilierung politischer Straftäter nach Übersee. Vormärz und Revolution 1848/49. Frankfurt: Peter Lang 1994

[5]    Bernhard Wechsler: Die Auswanderer. Ein Vortrag, gehalten im Verein für Volksbildung zu Oldenburg am 20. Dezember 1846, nebst einem Vorworte. Oldenburg: Stalling 1847 - The complete text is accessible at this DAUSA Website (www.nausa.uni-oldenburg.de/fundfe.htm).

[6]   The complete text is accessible at this DAUSA Website (www.nausa.uni-oldenburg.de/fundfe.htm).

[7] Staatsarchiv Osnabrück: Rep 335, 4242, 155-177. – See the synoptical coordination of the Stallo version (1831) and the Lahmeyer version (1833) at this DAUSA Website. The discussion about Stallo and Lahmeyer at this DAUSA Website: Antonius Holtmann: Franz Joseph Stallos “Lied aus Amerika” (1831) und “Sinnreiche Einfälle” des Franz Lahmeyer (1833): Trügerische „Erinnerungen aus dem deutschen Pionier-Leben in den Vereinigten Staaten“ (www.nausa.uni-oldenburg.de/pionier/framestallo.html). Eine zugespitzte Bilanz). Also see note 8.

[8] Heinrich Arminius Rattermann: Zwei Agitatoren der Auswanderung. II.: Franz Josef Stallo. In: Der Deutsche Pionier 7(1875)1, 2-6. (www.nausa.uni-oldenburg.de/pionier/frame.html: Übersicht der Jahrgänge: Jahrgang 7) – Heinz von der Wall (ed.): Außer dem Vaterlande ist auch eine schöne Welt. Zu Leben und Werk des deutsch-amerikanischen Historikers und Autors Heinrich Arminius Rattermann 1832-1923. Ankum: Kreisheimatbund Bersenbrück 1989

[9] With 5 children, ages 3 – 9, Franz Josef Stallo reached New York on 22 June 1831 on board  the sailing ship „Juno“ (National Archives Microfilm Publications, Washington D.C., M 237, roll 14). On 1 May 1832 the „Oldenburgische(n) Blätter“ reported about a letter „den der ausgewanderte Buchbinder Stallo aus Damme im Januar d.J. aus Cincinnati geschrieben“ habe. [which the emigrated bookbinder Stallo from Damme had written in Cincinnati in the same year] See the article mentioned in note 7.

[10] Armin Tenner: Cincinnati sonst und jetzt. Cincinnati: Mecklenborg und Rosenthal 1878, 443f.; Max Burgheim: Cincinnati in Wort und Bild. Cincinnati: Burgheim 1888, 589f.

[11] Franz Wigard (ed.): Reden für die deutsche Nation 1848/1849. Stenographischer Bericht über die Verhandlungen der Deutschen Constituirenden Nationalversammlung zu Frankfurt am Main. Vol 1. Frankfurt: Sauerländer 1848, 163 (now: München: Moos & Partner 1988)

[12] Carl S. Meyer: Moving Frontiers. Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Saint Louis/MO: Concordia Publishing House 1986. – The quotations were collated by Harro Eichhorn and are accessible at this DAUSA Website (1848ers: Emigrants, America and An Unsuccessful Revolution in Germany: 1848/49 (www.nausa.uni-oldenburg.de/auffe.htm).

[13] Wolfgang Helbich/Walter D. Kamphoefner (ed.): Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home (Civil War America). Chapell Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press 2006

[14] Franz Wigard (ed.): loc.cit., vol. 2, 1055-1062. – Also see: Herbert Reiter: Amerikabilder der Revolution von 1848. In: Peter Mesenhöller (ed.): Mundus Novus. Amerika und die Entdeckung des Bekannten. Das Bild der Neuen Welt im Spiegel der Druckmedien vom 16. bis zum frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Essen: Klartext 1992, 76-91; Werner Boldt: Die Anfänge des deutschen Parteiwesens. Fraktionen, politische Vereine und Parteien in der Revolution 1848. Paderborn: Schöningh 1971; Wilfried Fiedler (ed.): Die erste deutsche Nationalversammlung 1848/49. Handschriftliche Selbstzeugnisse ihrer Mitglieder. Königstein: Athenäum 1980; Michael Kuckhoff: Die Auswanderungsdiskussion während der Revolution von 1848/49. In: Günter Moltmann (ed.): Deutsche Amerikaauswanderung im 19. Jahrhundert. Sozialgeschichtliche Beiträge. Stuttgart: Metzler 1976, 101-145; Jörg-Detlef Kühne: Die Reichsverfassung der Paulskirche. Vorbild und Verwirklichung im späteren deutschen Rechtsleben. Neuwied: Luchterhand 1998; Wolfgang J. Mommsen: 1848. Die ungewollte Revolution. Frankfurt: Fischer 1998; Wilhelm Ribhegge: Das Parlament als Nation. Die Frankfurter Nationalversammlung. 1848/49. Düsseldorf: Droste 1998; Heinrich Scholler (ed.): Die Grundrechts-Diskussion in der Paulskirche. Eine Dokumentation. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1973

[15] In Prussia, for instance, this strategy was pursued decidedly to get rid of impoverished returnees, whereas in the kingdom of Hanover emigration was tolerated benevolently and emigrants could keep their citizenship despite the opposition of the communities, which had to take care of the impoverished returnees: cf. Antonius Holtmann (ed.): Ferner thue ich euch zu wissen ..., 19f.

[16] Franz Wigard (ed.): loc. Cit., vol. 5, 3897; vol. 6, 4302

[17] Franz Wigard (ed.): loc. cit., vol. 8, 5709-9730

[18] Richard J. Evans: Tales from the German Underworld: Crime and Punishment in Nineteenth Century. New Haven:/London: Yale University Press 1998; Günter Moltmann: Die Transportation von Sträflingen im Rahmen der deutschen Amerika-Auswanderung des 19. Jahrhunderts. In: the same (ed.): Deutsche Amerikaauswanderung im 19. Jahrhundert. Sozialgeschichtliche Beiträge. Stuttgart: Metzler 1976, 147-196; Horst Rößler: Hollandgänger, Sträflinge und Migranten. Bremen und Bremerhaven als Wanderungsraum 1750-1914. Bremen: Edition Temmen 2000.  -  See at this DAUSA Website Antonius Holtmann: “Den müssen wir nach Amerika schicken”. Die Auswanderungs- und Übersiedlungspolitik im Königreich Hannover 1832-1866. (www.nausa.uni-oldenburg.de/buchf.htm: „Deportationen“: Abschiebung als Chancen?).

[19] Manfred Göbel: Auf nach Amerika! Von den Sorgen und Hoffnungen in Groß-Zimmern vor 150 Jahren, von der Auswanderung als Lösung sozialer Probleme und den Problemen, die dadurch entstanden. Groß-Zimmern: Odenwaldklub 1996; Agnes Bretting: Soziale Probleme deutscher Einwanderer in New York City 1800-1860. Wiesbaden: Steiner 1981

[20] Don Heinrich Tolzmann (ed.): The German American Forty-Eighters 1848-1998. Indianapolis/Indiana: NCSA-Literatur 1998, 96-105

[21] Robert Wilken: A Historical Sketch of the Holy Family Church and Parish, Oldenburg/Indiana. Oldenburg/Indiana: Holy Family Parish 1937, 49. – As for the catholic-democratic environment in Indiana and Cincinnati during the civil War cf.. Antonius Holtmann (ed.): (A Lost American Dream, pp 40-48).

 [This outline has been published first in connection with  the exhibition „Beautiful New World   -   Rhinelander Conquer America“ in: Rheinisches Freilicht- und Landesmuseum für Volkskunde (Hg.): Schöne Neue Welt. Rheinländer erobern Amerika. Band II. Wiehl: Martina Galunder Verlag 2001, 329-338. (See: http://www.migration.lvr.de)]



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