Goodbye Bayern/Emigration after 1848

Aus ZUM-Unterrichten
German emigrants on their ship "Samuel Hop" on the way to the USA via Rotterdam and Le Havre, April 1849[1]
German emigrants board their ship



Preparations

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Emigration took place via French, Dutch ports or ports on the North Sea coast, Bremen and Hamburg. In order to emigrate at all, those wishing to emigrate had to get, for example, for the Netherlands:

  • a permit for emigration (from the Kingdom of Bavaria),
  • a declaration of the emigrants' data to finance the stay in the Netherlands and the passage
  • a notarized confirmed declaration of the Dutch shipowner with data about the ship with which the emigrants will be transported


Auswanderer in den Jahren 1845/46 bis 1856/57 nach Amerika(nach Beiträgen zur Statistik des Königreichs Bayern (1854 S.223 und 1859 S241) zit. bei Thomas Raithel

Then there were the costs. The travelers had to pay 50 fl (GuldenW-Logo.gif(English)) alone for the first port in the New World, and the crossing cost 40 - 60 fl (without food). The Königlich Bayerische Intelligenzblatt für Mittelfranken warns of difficulties with the shipping companies or their captains in 1846[2]. In 1862, the Stahelsche Buchhandlung published a handbook for emigrants on the subject of emigration. "Die Lehre von der Aus- und Einwanderung im Königreiche Bayern"[3]


In the Kingdom of Bavaria, for the years up to 1870, every person willing to emigrate is published in the Königlich Bayerisches Intelligenzblatt für Mittelfranken (Bavarica Collection) in order to give creditors the opportunity to collect their claims beforehand.[4]

Some emigrants to America from the Frankenhöhe shall be mentioned here:

Jahr Gemeinde Name Stand Mitauswandernde Familienmitglieder
1837 Leutershausen Johann Georg Heindel Taglöhner 3
1837 Mittelramstadt Konrad Prechtel Taglöhner 4
1837 Weissenkirchberg Georg Michael Unger Schuhmacher 1
1837 Leutershausen Moritz Heß Metzgermeister 2
1837 Sachsbach/Herrieden Eva Maria Krug 1
1837 Reichenau/Herrieden Simon Eberlein Hausbesitzer 2
1837 Winkel/Herrieden Anna Barbara Reiter led. Hirtentochter
1837 Kaudorf/Herrieden Georg Michael Knörr
1837 Lettenmühle/Reichenau Helena Berbara Rohringer
1837 Zumberg/Feuchtwangen Maria Marg. Kunder Bauernwitwe 3
1837 Wildenholz/Feuchtwangen Joh. Georg Illig Drechslermeister 1
1837 Dentlein/Feuchtwangen Marg. Glasbrenner ledige Taglöhnerin 1
1837 Aichenzell/Feuchtwangen Wilh. Grüb lediger Dienstknecht
1837 Kleinohrenbronn/Feuchtwangen Mich. Georg Windsheimer Gutsbesitzer 6
1837 Feuchtwangen Maria Barb. Baier ledigen Standes
1837 Erlmühle Joh. Georg Kunder Taglöhner 2
1837 Feuchtw. Peter Eichner Witwer u. Drechslermeister 2
1837 Sommerau/Feuchtw. Carl Zur Bäckermeister u. Brandweinbr. 6
1837 Erlmühle Joh. Gg. Windsheimer Leinwandhdlr.
1837 Feuchtwangen Eva Marg. Brunner ledigen Standes
1837 Kaudorf/Herrieden Mar. Barb. Mack ledige Gütlerstochter 1
1839 Rothenburg Johann Adam Schuh ehem. Besitzer der Limbachsmühle 2
1840 Leutershausen Georg Simon Reutelshöfer Braumeister 6
1840 Leutershausen Georf Adam Stumpf Schneidermeister 3
1840 Leutershausen Gg. Barhelmäs Gehring Taglöhner 5
1840 Leutershausen Eva Barbara Hornung Dienstmagd
1840 Oberdachstetten Johann Leonhard Mosmeyer Schreinermeister 6
1840 Unterbreitenau Joh. Leonh. Ilgenfritz lediger Bauernsohn
1846 Sachsen (Leutershausen) Maria Barbara Sperr Schuhmacherswitwe 2
1846 Leutershausen Maria Marg. Mainzinger ledige Hafnerstochter
1846 Lauterbach Joh. Jakob Schwarz Dienstknecht
1846 Lauterbach Jakob Schwarz Dienstknecht
1847 Leutershausen Joh. Christ. Mainzinger Hafnermeister 6
1847 Leutershausen Joh. Leonh. Wägmann Bäckermeister 3
1847 Jochsberg Joh. Mich. Fluhrer Schmiedmeister 3
1847 Klonsbach Joh. Georg Thürauf Wirth 6
1847 Klonsbach Joh. Bernhard Billenstein Bauer 3
1847 Cadolzhofen Georg Marr Carl Köbler 4
1847 Gastenfelden Friedrich Stibor Schreinermeister 2
1847 Frommetsfelden Johann Georg Krug Taglöhner 1
1847 Wassertrüdingen Moses Levi Hecht Landkramhändler 3
1847 Leutershausen Georg Peter Friedlein vormaliger Wirth 3
1847 Oberdachstetten Anna Maria Weiß ledig 3
1847 Steinach/Rothenburg Anna Margaretha Baumgärtner ledige Chirurgentochter
1847 Bettenfeld Magdalena Barbara Kurz Tochter des Bauern Joh. Leonhard Kurz
1847 Lehrberg Joseph Oettinger Seifensieder 3
1847 Schillingsfürst Willibald Hämmerlein Maurergeselle 1
Für Auswanderer nach Amerika

Durch Unterzeichneten von der Regierung angestellten und beeidigten Schiffsexpedienten werden Auswanderer nach Amerika zu dem billigen Preise von 80 fl einschließlich vollständiger Bekoestigung befoerdert. H. August Heineken in Bremen

Herr Kaufmann C. Pullich in Nördlingen wird die Güte haben, auf gefällige Anfragen nähere Auskunft zu ertheilen.

The emigrants belonged to very different social classes. From some data, as for example the single with child or the servants one may deduce a reason for emigration.

In the 1830s - 1840s, shipping companies and agents from North America, who were accredited in Bavaria, advertised for emigrants. On the right, only one example from the "Wochenblatt der Stadt Nördlingen" of 1848.


Death and Failure

Not all emigrants reached their destination. Thus, for the community of Geslau, Castlegarden in the USA noted under the date of arrival at the emigrant file:[5]

Date of Arrival Last Name, First Name Age Place of last residence Profession Port of Departure Ship Destination
11. Aug. 1845 Gesch, Magdalena 46 Geslau Farmer Bremen Cumberland Died on Board
11. Aug. 1845 Gesch, Simon 55 Geslau Farmer Bremen Cumberlamd Died on Board

The Journey

Steerage

The Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz. Taken in 1907 on the Kaiser Wilhelm II The middle-class passengers on the upper deck are looking down, literally and metaphorically, on steerage passengers below.

Steerage is a term for the lowest category of passenger accommodation in a ship. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century considerable numbers of persons travelled from their homeland to seek a new life elsewhere, in many cases North America and Australia. Many of those people were destitute in their homeland and had the minimum of resources to pay for transportation.

A commentator described conditions in steerage aboard the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1906:

900 steerage passengers [are] crowded into the hold of ... the Kaiser Wilhelm II, of the North German Lloyd line[. They] are positively packed like cattle, making a walk on deck when the weather is good, absolutely impossible, while to breathe clean air below in rough weather, when the hatches are down is an equal impossibility. The stenches become unbearable... [and the] division between the sexes is not carefully looked after, and the young women who are quartered among the married passengers have neither the privacy to which they are entitled nor are they much more protected than if they were living promiscuously.

The food, which is miserable, is dealt out of huge kettles into the dinner pails provided by the steamship company.
Steiner, Edward A. (1906). "The Fellowship of the Steerage"[6]




Sources

Die vorliegende Seite wurde von Bernhard Heim, Rothenburg 2004 verfasst und in der ZUM-Classic veröffentlicht. 2022 wurde sie mit seiner Genehmigung ins ZUM-Unterrichten-Wiki übernommen und überarbeitet.

  1. Wikimedia Commons (Zeichnung von Leo von Elliot aus: Leipziger Illustrirte Zeitung, 10. November 1849, S.292).- Passengers on deck playing cards and music
  2. Königlich Bayerisches Intelligenzblatt für Mittelfranken (Bavarikon.de)
  3. "Die Lehre von der Aus- und Einwanderung im Königreiche Bayern" (bavarikon.de)
  4. Ansbacher Morgenblatt 1847 (books.google.de)
  5. castlegarden.org Search Passenger Lists
  6. Steiner, Edward A. (1906). "The Fellowship of the Steerage". On the Trail of The Immigrant. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. pp. 35–38. OCLC 1111830971. OL 7055344M.