L10 GI Notes

1Lesson 10 examines German immigration. The term German immigration is somewhat misleading. The words imply movement from the area of the modern state of Germany, which did not exist as such before 1871. Moreover, modern Germanys borders changed after both the First and Second World Wars. Nevertheless, the term is useful for describing the migration that occurred during the nineteenth century from the areas of Europe where the German language dominates and where Germany is now the main nation state. The picture on the slide shows five German immigrants in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1897. It is a reminder of the importance of German immigration to the growth of the Middle West and to the shaping of Wisconsins population in particular. It also highlights the centrality of the playing of instrumental music in German culture.

Thomas J. Archdeacon, 2011

2Before the French Revolution and the wars that followed, approximately 300 states comprised the territory of modern Germany. Some of them were quite small, but others were substantial. As Napoleon Bonaparte drove his armies east, he created sixteen consolidated German states. After Bonapartes final defeat in 1815, the Congress of Vienna sought to restore as much of the old order as possible. It nevertheless left Germany with only forty-two states and independent cities.

Over approximately the next half century, the large eastern state of Prussia succeeded in leading a drive for German unification. The map on the right side of the slide shows the extent of Prussian territory by 1862. It also shows the final major accessions of the following decade.

After a war with Denmark in 1864, Prussia gained control of the northern province of Schleswig. Victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 allowed Prussia to take control of Holstein, which is south of Schleswig, and to drive Austria from the German Confederation. The withdrawal of Austria brought her former allies, including Bavaria, which appears in brown on the map, and the states in the North German Confederation, which appears in pink, under Prussian influence.

Finally, in 1871, the proclamation of a unified German empire followed the Prussian


victory in the Franco-Prussian War. It also led to Germanys annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, which appears in light green on the map. Jurisdiction over Alsace-Lorraine, with its mixed French and German population, remained a matter of contention. France regained Alsace-Lorraine after World War I and has maintained control of it since then.

Thomas J. Archdeacon, 2011 2

3As the economic and political forces encouraging the integration of the German states developed, push forces similar to those already encountered elsewhere intensified. The area known as Rheinhessen, with its principal city at Mainz, lies along the Rhine River, east of Alsace-Lorraine. Its population grew by 25 percent in the quarter-century after the Napoleonic Wars. Rheinhessen was one of the most densely settled areas of Germany. In 1840, its population of 213,000 people was spread at the rate of 400 persons per mile. Rheinhessen would experience a substantial level of emigration. Approximately 2,000 people from an area half the size of Dane County, Wisconsin, would eventually settle in Washington and Sheboygan Counties, Wisconsin, and in Milwaukee.

Realteilung was the German equivalent of partible inheritance or equal division of land among heirs. It led to the excessive division of holdings in those areas of Germany where it was practiced. Affluent farmers took the opportunity to extend and consolidate their holdings by buying out their smaller neighbors. Among the latter, those willing to move to places where land was cheaper gained the capital necessary for a fresh start.

Prussias creation of a Zollverein, or customs union, in 1818 reduced tariff barriers in the northern German states. The southern and central states followed suit a decade later, and the two unions joined in 1834. Although the reductions in tariffs


helped merchants and consumers, local artisans lost protection against competition from outsiders.


4Ideas of political liberalization accompanied the movement to open the German economy. Political turmoil in Europe culminated in a series of demonstrations and even revolts across the continent in 1848. Uprisings occurred in France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and a series of German states, including Prussia. The map on the slide shows the locations of the most important revolts.

The 1848 reformers were divided in their goals. The middle classes were primarily seeking greater representation in government, with increased civil rights, including freedom of the press. Some liberals were hoping either to set up republics or at least to convince their monarchs to accept constitutional limits on their authority. In Italy and Germany, nationalists hoped to create unified states. Anti-clericals attacked the churches, and radicals hoped to establish socialist states. 1848 was the year in which Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto.

Reformers in Prussia managed to convince King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to grant a constitution. With Army support, the king later dissolved the new parliament, but he did maintain some liberal elements in the new constitution he issued. In the rest of Germany, a self-appointed parliament met in Frankfurt with the hope of instituting liberal reforms and creating a unified Germany. The members, however, were divided over a variety of issues, including whether or not Austria and the Slavic lands under its control should be part of the new state. In the end, the parliament


asked the king of Prussia to become the constitutional monarch of a Germany without Austria. He refused to accept a crown offered by a parliament, and the reform government dissolved.

The collapse of the reform movement in Germany led a number of the participants to flee. Perhaps 4,000 emigrated to the United States. Although not receptive to the ideas of socialists, America was a more welcoming environment for the aspirations of middle-class reformers. The Forty-eighters, as they became known, were not typical of the ordinary German immigrants motivated by the search for economic improvement. More liberal than ordinary German immigrants, mainstream Forty-eighters quickly aligned themselves with key reform movements in the United States, including abolition and public education. They therefore gained influence beyond the relatively small proportion of the German influx that they formed.


5As the graph on the slide illustrates, German migration from the middle of the 19th century until World War I showed important similarities in timing with Irish migration. The first peak of the German influx occurred a few years after the escape of Irish Famine victims, but it still occurred before the Civil War. Thereafter, German and Irish migration tended to rise and fall in unison, although Germany, with its much larger population, produced more emigrants. Moreover, by the end of the nineteenth century, the outflow from both nations tapered off.


Slide Six contains two maps. The one on the left side illustrates where German emigration was concentrated between 1848 and 1854. The one on the right shows Germanys modern boundaries as well as the principal rivers and cities within them. Taken together, they reveal that prime area of German emigration concentrated at the middle of the nineteenth century, as it had one hundred years earlier, in the southwestern part of the territory, along the Rhine River. Numbers were especially high in the region between Frankfurt and Karlsruhe. The territory corresponds with Rheinhessen, which was mentioned in Slide 3. The line labeled A on the map to the left roughly follows the modern eastern border of Germany, which separates it from Poland. Note that in the middle of the nineteenth century emigration was relatively light from the eastern region of modern Germany as well as from the area of modern Poland then under the control of Prussia. Emigration from those territories would increase substantially later in the century.

6Thomas J. Archdeacon, 2011

7Germans usually left their homeland through one of two ports. Some went through Bremerhaven, where the city of Bremen, which lies about 30 miles farther south on the Weser River, built port facilities after acquiring the community in 1827. Bremen was an important port in the cotton trade and had direct contacts with cities, most notably Baltimore, in the American South. Other Germans went through Hamburg, which lies about 57 miles east of Bremerhaven. From there, they exited through the mouth of the Elbe River and proceeded to Hull on the northeast coast of England. Crossing England, usually by rail, they were then able to embark for the United States from the major port of Liverpool on Englands west coast.


8Getting to America was only half the endeavor for immigrants. Determining where to go upon arrival was as important. Three factors worked to limit the choices available to the newcomers: the port of arrival, the timing of arrival, and the resources available upon arrival.

Immigrants could go immediately only so far as the resources available upon arrival took them. They were likely to stay in the environs of their port of arrival if they lacked the funds necessary for further travel and to purchase land. Once the arrivals accumulated enough money to move farther inland, they were likely to go to locations connected to the port of arrival by the principal lines of transportation. The ultimate goal of some immigrants was tied to the location at the time of the frontier, which was gradually moving westward. The most readily available lands were located there, and the new communities were eager to attract members able to contribute to their growth.


9Comparing the experiences of the Germans and the Irish demonstrates the impact of the factors just mentioned. By the middle of the nineteenth century, New York City had become the dominant port in the nation. Regardless of their point of origin in Europe, most immigrants arrived there.

Nevertheless, linkages between particular ports and specific immigrant groups existed, especially when emigrants traveled as a kind of cargo and ballast on the western leg of voyages of ships whose primary job was to haul raw resources from the United States to Europe. Baltimores connection with Bremen brought it far more German than Irish immigrants. In Boston, the situation was reversed. Boston had close connections with Liverpool, which was the closest port offering transatlantic passage for many Irish emigrants.

The graph on the slide illustrates the differences among the second-tier ports. To highlight the differences, the data for New York, which attracted both Irish and Germans in great numbers, have been omitted. The Irish were overrepresented at both Boston and Philadelphia, while the Germans dominated Baltimore and New Orleans.


10

Admitted to the Union in 1848, Wisconsin sent a representative to New York City to spread the word about opportunities in the state. The Wisconsin Emigration Commissioners report for 1853 stressed the differences in resources available to German and Irish newcomers. The commissioner found remarkable the amount of money that at least some Germans were able to bring with them. Their good fortune probably reflected the advantage enjoyed even by landowners whose resources were not great enough to enable them to prosper at home.

The German historian Helmut Schmahl confirms that overall picture with contemporary newspaper accounts of emigrants from Rheinhessen. The Cologne paper, Klner Zeitung, reported in 1847 that not even one of the departing families was poor. Most were worth between $1,600 and $2,000 in American money. One man with approximately $4,800 stated, You can call me a wealthy man, but I have nine children. After my death, each of them would not even inherit 1,500 Gulden ($600), and they would belong to the paupers in this country and could not aspire to earn as much as to live without sorrow. I therefore prefer to go to North America now with the funds I have at my disposition, buy a large homestead for my family at a nominal price and thus lay the foundation for a worry free future for my descendants.

The Irish, however, were in less favorable circumstances. Most did not own land or


even a tenancy that they could sell for a stake. As a result, the Irish took what work was available.

The effect was a different balance in the regional distribution of the Germans and the Irish. The graph on the slide shows the overrepresentation of the Germans in the so-called German Triangle of the Middle West, bounded by Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Note too the overrepresentation of the Irish in the factory cities of New England, where they could readily find unskilled work. In the nations growing metropolises, such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, the representation of the two groups was more evenly balanced.

The Wisconsin Emigration Commissioner astutely noted that the Irish took jobs on enterprises such as railroad construction. He might have mentioned canal building as well. Those activities would help carry some Irish westward along with their work. Communities where the Irish played an important role can often be found along the routes of America railroads, at points where various Irish workers decided they had had enough of life on the road.


11

During the pre-Civil War wave of German and Irish immigration, the frontier of settlement in the upper Middle West was still east of the Mississippi River. The Wisconsin Emigration Commissioner placed advertisements in newspapers in England, Ireland, and Germany. He advertised in ethnic community newspapers in the United States. He met personally with newcomers.

The roster of those with whom the commissioner spoke represented the composition of the immigrant influx of the United States, although it was somewhat weighted toward those who had the money to get to Wisconsin. Note his comparison of the numbers of Germans and Norwegians. By the time the latter arrived in large numbers after the Civil War, the Midwestern frontier had crossed the Mississippi River to Wisconsins neighbor, Minnesota, which would attract large numbers of Scandinavian arrivals.

The picture on the slide is from a German-language brochure for Wisconsin. It suggests the progress that immigrants can expect to make from a modest frontier homestead to more elegant quarters with a few years of hard work. Wisconsin produced brochures in other languages as well, including one in Welsh.

The most important kind of recruiting was that done unofficially and informally in the form of information sent home by earlier arrivals. Franz Neukirch left Guntersblum


near Oppenheim in Rheinhessen after a dispute with his employer. A forester, he purchased 80 acres of government land south of Milwaukee in the Town of Franklin. Describing the wholesome environment and rich natural resources of the area, he wrote, every poor day laborer who is not needed in Germany should come here, where most Germans have earned enough money to buy their land after a short period as laborers and thus have reached an independent and safe existence. When land near Neukirchs acres ran out, other people from Rheinhessen found attractive property north of Milwaukee in the town of Mequon and Germantown.


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The imprint made by the earliest immigrants has lasted on the face of Wisconsin. The maps on the slide are based on self-reports of ethnic background made by residents of Wisconsin during the 1990 federal census. They show where concentrations of Germans and Irish still exist. The darker the color, the greater the concentration of the group.

Take care, however, in interpreting the maps. The colors do not represent the actual numbers of Germans or Irish in each county. Greater numbers of Germans or of Irish do not necessarily reside in a county with dark shading than in one with lighter shading. The maps reflect, instead, the presence of the Germans or the Irish relative to other groups. In particular, the intensity of the color on each map represents, respectively, the ratio of the percentage of all German or all Irish residents of Wisconsin who live in a given county to the percentage of all Wisconsin residents who live in that county.

The concentration of Germans in real as well as relative numbers in Milwaukee and surrounding counties is a well-known feature of Wisconsin history. Notice also the concentration of Germans and the absence of Irish in the north central counties of the state. The relative concentration of Irish in the states southwestern counties reflects the migration of a group of unusually prosperous Irish immigrant farmers into that area. It is a warning that even basically true generalizations for example,


that most Irish immigrants were poor, unskilled, or both must recognize many exceptions.


L10 GI Notes

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