Volume 18 No 3 • Fall 2009
The America Line: A Route for Immigrants from Germany’s Eastern Areas to Bremerhaven or Hamburg
Cora Lee Kluge
The routes of the America Line railroad.
hen I was in Germany tential migrants. Likewise, the dif- Germany recently, I heard for ficult journeys undertaken by early the first time about immigrants who ventured into the Wthe so-called America Line, a rail- interior of the United States—long road line whose construction and and arduous overland trips, river INSIDE development were inextricably expeditions, or cruises through connected to the story of emigra- the Great Lakes—became much • Salinger in the News tion from German lands to the easier, cheaper, and more attractive • Dialect Shift in Freistadt, WI New World. • Language Matters for WI when the Erie Canal was opened in The development of transporta- • Online Resources, Part I 1825. Similarly, Chicago’s dramatic tion methods and routes has al- • Study Tour: Students from growth, from a population of just ways been one of the major factors Germany and Poland under 30,000 in 1850 to just under influencing human migration. • American Passage: History of 110,000 in 1860 and nearly 300,000 We know that when transatlantic Ellis Island, Book Review in 1870, was undoubtedly in large sailing ships were replaced with • Friends Profile: part a result of the coming of the Gary Gisselman steamships, the ocean voyage be- railroad to that city, beginning in • American History: 150 Years came less perilous and began to Ago appeal to greater numbers of po- Continued on page 4 DIRECTOR’S CORNER
Greetings, Friends and Readers!
t has been a beautiful end-of-the- summer season and beginning of the fall at the University of IWisconsin. We enjoyed many weeks of perfect weather—a cool July, fol- lowed by much warmer temperatures The MKI exhibit at German Fest, Milwaukee. in August, and then an unbelievably sunny month of September. Even the Matters for Wisconsin” began with American literature. In the spring local wine growers announced that trips to Rhinelander, Wausau, and my annual general-studies course this was an excellent year. So now we Mineral Point—and a trip to Keno- entitled “The German Immigration know: undoubtedly this is the climate sha/Racine to follow. We also took Experience” (German 271) will be that persuaded our immigrant fore- part in German Fest in Milwaukee offered; and Mark Louden will teach fathers to plant crops, build houses, with Mark Louden’s exhibit “What’s “The German Language in America” and settle in the area. In a German Name?” Our thanks to (German 352/960), which is open Nevertheless, the staff members of the Museum of Wisconsin Art, which to both undergraduates and gradu- the MKI are far from feeling settled. shared our German Fest space and ate students. We are also exploring In August both the Sound Lab and let us use its exhibit walls, and to our the possibility of a second online the Center for the Study of Upper Friends who helped with organizing course, building on last spring’s “The Midwest Cultures, our sister institute, and hosting our table: Peter Arved- German-American Experience”— moved out of the Keystone House sen, Rudi Boeckeler, Sandy Cast- more about that to follow. and into temporary quarters on the erline, Ed Langer, Tom Lidtke, and We are always delighted to see third floor of the University Club Frank and Neill Luebke. you. Drop by the Keystone House, (on Library Mall, in the central part The academic year is well under- or come to one of our public events, of campus). Now, we look forward way, and MKI staff members are which are always announced on our to reuniting in the summer of 2011 offering courses in German-Amer- Web site. Meanwhile: all the best on the fourth floor of the University ican studies. This fall my capstone for the rest of the fall season—work Club. For the time being, of course, seminar for undergraduate German hard, have fun, and stay in touch! MKI enjoys the advantage of more majors has an enrollment of 20 —Cora Lee space in our little house, but there is students who are studying German- the more compelling disadvantage of having our staff split between two The Newsletter of the Friends of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies is locations two miles apart. Things are published quarterly at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Submissions are invited and especially difficult for Kevin Kurdylo, should be sent to: our librarian/archivist, who must spend time in both places. Kevin Kurdylo Friends of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies The summer months should be 901 University Bay Drive, Madison, WI 53705 a relatively quiet period, and yet Phone: (608) 262-7546 things seemed busy. Jennifer Schultz, Fax: (608) 265-4640 a graduate student in the UW–Mil- [email protected]
waukee translation program, did an mki.wisc.edu internship with the MKI. In addition, maxkade.blogspot.com our new project entitled “Language
2 News Note: Interest in J. D. Salinger from the German Perspective
Cora Lee Kluge
n January 1, 2009, the very tration camp Dachau. In the sum- hausen, in the “Villa Schmidt” in the reclusive J. D. Salinger— mer of 1945 he was hospitalized in a Wiesenstraße, and that—according well known throughout military hospital in Nuremberg for to classmates in Nuremberg, where OAmerica since the 1951 publication “battle fatigue,” and thereafter he was Welter finished her Abitur—she was of his best-selling novel The Catcher assigned to a Counter Intelligence far from being a Nazi, unwilling even in the Rye—celebrated his ninetieth Corps group to work with denazifica- to join the Bund Deutscher Mädel birthday; and when he was in the tion efforts. (the girls’ division of the Hitler news again this summer, it was be- Both Margaret A. Salinger’s biogra- Youth). It seems certain that she was cause of his efforts to protect his pri- phy and another biography published an eye doctor, and Salinger may have vacy. In June he brought a copyright by Paul Alexander in 1999 report that met her during his hospitalization in infringement suit against Swedish in October of 1945, Salinger married the summer of 1945. The marriage author Fredrik Colting, asking that a young woman named Sylvia Welter lasted only about eight months; and the publication of Colting’s work 60 and lived with her a few months in Welter returned from New York to Years Later: Coming Through the Rye Weißenburg before they moved to Switzerland, later remarried, and (written under the pseudonym J. D. America. According to the former, moved for a second time to the California), an unabashed sequel to Welter was a Nazi whom Salinger United States. According to reports, The Catcher in the Rye, be banned. met at a hearing. Now German she died in this country in 2008. The decision of a federal district reporters have been checking into Those of us who grew up in the judge in New York City in favor of the facts. On September 5 the Süd- culture and with the prose of J. D. Salinger has been appealed by Colt- deutsche Zeitung reported that the Salinger will follow with interest the ing, and we have not heard the final bride was French, and that the couple information coming from both the word. But meanwhile, the work has was married in Pappenheim with German-language and the English- appeared in the United Kingdom, so two “special agents” as witnesses. The language press. There is a lot still to transatlantic readers will have some Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, dig- be revealed. access. ging deeper, revealed on September In the last few weeks, the German 22 that their home in Germany was press has also brought stories about not in Weißenburg, but in Gunzen- J. D. Salinger, but they have had nothing to do with his lawsuit against Fredrik Colting. Instead, the focus Board of Directors, Friends of the Max Kade Institute has been on investigating Salinger’s Peter Arvedson Treasurer, Elm Grove experiences at the end of World War Hans Werner Bernet Monroe Sandra Casterline Oconomowoc II. Margaret A. Salinger’s biography Gary Gisselman Secretary, Wausau of her famous father under the title Elizabeth Greene Madison Dream Catcher, published in the year Charles James Vice President, Madison 2000, confirms that he took part in James Kleinschmidt Fitchburg Cora Lee Kluge ex officio, Madison some of the toughest battles of the Tom Lidtke West Bend war, including the D-Day landing Fran Luebke Brookfield on Utah Beach and the Battle of the Peter Monkmeyer Assistant to the Treasurer, Madison Antje Petty ex officio, Madison Bulge; and he was also a member of Karyl Rommelfanger President, Manitowoc the group that liberated the concen-
3 Uelzen railroad station, designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
Continued from page 1 in the years 1863 to 1877; and the to the northwest, was chosen. From 1850. third wave came from northeastern Stendal one section of this railroad We know something about how Germany in the years 1877 to 1890. line became the heavily traveled America’s nineteenth-century im- Were the existence of this railway route west to Hanover. The other— migrants crossed the Atlantic and route and its final completion in the the one popularly known still today reached their final destinations in year 1873, which connected eastern as America Line—was to proceed to the United States. But we may be less areas with the large and efficient the northwest, to Salzwedel and then familiar with the routes they used transatlantic steamship companies, a Uelzen, with connections continu- when they set out from their homes direct result—or even a cause—of the ing from Uelzen to Hamburg or to in the Old World for the European increase in numbers of immigrants Bremerhaven. The construction of seaports from which they departed. from this part of Europe? the section from Stendal to Salzwedel The America Line (Amerikalinie), a The history of the America Line proceeded quickly, with a first trial railway that connected Berlin with begins in the year 1867, when the run in September of 1869, while the the North Sea ports of Hamburg Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railroad continuation from Salzwedel to Uel- (ca. 150 miles to the northwest) or Company was given the concession zen progressed more slowly and was Bremerhaven (ca. 200 miles to the for building a stretch of railroad not opened until the spring of 1873. west), was a crucial link for indi- going west from Berlin, with a bi- We have at least one report of an viduals from East and West Prussia, furcation point to be somewhere in emigrant group traveling on the Silesia, Pomerania, Galicia, and Rus- the Altmark, a region in the north- route of the America Line. From the sia. It is common knowledge that ern part of today’s federal state of diaries of the German-American the first big wave of migration from Saxony-Anhalt. The original plan had painter Friedrich Wilhelm Heine we German lands to America came been to locate the junction in Tanger- learn that he and another painter from southwestern Germany in the münde, which lies at the confluence named Bernhard Schneider left their years 1845 to 1863; the second wave of the Tanger and Elbe Rivers; but homes in Dresden in April of 1885, came from northwestern Germany instead Stendal, some 10 kilometers with Milwaukee as their destination.
4 of the twentieth century. In the last gap in the America Line was finally days of April 1945, General Walther closed, and celebrations were held Wenck, retreating from Berlin, was along the border between the federal attempting to help both soldiers and states of Saxony-Anhalt and Lower civilian refugees (by some estimates Saxony on December 18, 1999. as many as 250,000 individuals) to Just this month (September 2009), flee from the Russians and reach ter- the town of Uelzen, which lies at an ritory occupied by the Americans important intersection in the traf- by crossing the Elbe near Tanger- fic patterns of northern Germany, münde. The area was under heavy has been in the news: the German attack, and the railroad bridge across Alliance for Railroads (Allianz pro the Elbe in Hämerten (just north of Schiene) awarded Uelzen’s railroad Tangermünde, not far from Stendal) station the distinction of Railroad was destroyed, thus disrupting the Station of the Year 2009 as the most America Line. Adequate repairs on customer-friendly in the small-town Decorative pillars at the Uelzen station. the Hämerten bridge were not com- category. The station itself is an at- They proceeded by train through pleted until October of 1947, and by tractive and unforgettable example of Leipzig and Magdeburg to Uelzen, that time, due to growing tensions the work of Friedensreich Hundert- where they were joined by two other between the West and the Soviet wasser, who designed it as part of the painters, Hermann von Michalowski Union, all commerce between the Hanover World Exposition 2000. But and Franz Rohrbeck, who arrived by Soviet zone and the other zones of the greatest significance of Uelzen for train from Berlin. From Uelzen they occupied Germany was deteriorat- America’s German immigrants and all continued to Bremen, buying tick- ing. Although limited one-track train for others from eastern European ets at the North German Lloyd office connections between Berlin and Ha- areas, was undoubtedly its strategic there, and then on to Bremerhaven. nover were maintained throughout position on the America Line. (For more about F. W. Heine, please the years of the closely guarded in- see the Winter 2008 issue of this ner-German boundary, traffic on the Newsletter.) America Line on the stretch between For many decades, traffic was -ex Salzwedel (in the GDR) and Nien- tremely heavy on the America Line. bergen (in the FRG) was completely In 1891 a new emigrant railroad interrupted. Only after reunification station (Auswandererbahnhof) was in 1990 and because of government- opened in Berlin-Ruhleben to deal funded programs aimed at recon- with the large numbers of passengers structing the transportation infra- who were either beginning their trips structure between the long-divided or transferring there, by some esti- parts of Germany, was this stretch of mates as many as 100,000 per year. railroad rebuilt and modernized. The As late as 1938, 64 trains traveled cost was nearly 1.5 million marks for along this stretch every day. the 113-kilometer section between The fate of the America Line in Stendal and Uelzen. Following the Uelzen as a transportation hub. more recent times is bound up with completion of the final section—that the military and political history between Salzwedel and Uelzen—the
5 RESEARCH
Research Notes: Dialect Shift in Freistadt, Wisconsin
Mark L. Louden
ack in the fall of 2003, the MKI received a National Leadership Grant of $234,000 Bfrom the Institute of Museum and Library Services (part of the U.S. Department of the Interior) for the American Languages project. One of the main purposes of this grant was to digitize and make accessible sound recordings from three repositories at the UW–Madison: the MKI’s North American German Dialect Archive, the Dictionary of American Regional English, and the Mills Music Library. The grant period ran three and one-half years, during which time we were able to digitize over 2,000 hours’ worth of recordings, most of which were interviews with speakers Harold and his sister Dolores at school in Freistadt. of German-American and regional English dialects. While these record- of German in Wisconsin that were High German” in some of the record- ings will offer research opportunities made in the summer of 1968 by ings. Even though these interviews to scholars for many years to come, Jürgen Eichhoff, professor emeritus are easily comprehensible to speakers their content is also of interest to of German and the founding director of standard European German, the individuals and organizations whom of the MKI. Already at the time when High German of Wisconsin and stan- we regularly aim to reach through Professor Eichhoff was conducting dard European German are not the our work in the community. The his fieldwork, German had receded same. So earlier this year I decided American Languages project thus as a heritage language among the to find out more about the history of accomplishes the goal of linking descendants of nineteenth- and early Wisconsin High German. research and public outreach that is twentieth-century immigrants, so One of the communities in which at the core of the missions of both the most of his interviewees were in their Eichhoff interviewed speakers of MKI and our sibling organization, 60s, 70s, and 80s. As a dialectologist, both Low German and Wisconsin the Center for the Study of Upper Eichhoff was especially interested in High German is Freistadt, which Midwestern Cultures. In what follows the range of Low German dialects is located in Ozaukee County just I would like to share an example of spoken in Wisconsin, but several of west of Mequon and Thiensville and the kind of work we have undertaken his interviews were conducted in east of Germantown. Freistadt was since the grant ended in 2007. High (standard) German. Being a founded in 1839 by 30 Old Lutheran Among the many German- dialectologist myself, I shared Eich- families from Pomerania and has American recordings we digitized hoff’s curiosity about the various the distinction of being Wisconsin’s with IMLS funds is a collection of dialects he documented, but I also nearly 60 interviews with speakers became interested in the “Wisconsin Continued on page 12
6 Language Matters for Wisconsin: A Community-Based Initiative
Antje Petty
arlier this year, the Max Kade Other than English Spoken at Home Institute and the Center for in Wisconsin in 2000, by County the Study of Upper Mid- Ewestern Cultures received a Baldwin Livengood Mark by Map Wisconsin Idea Grant from the UW– Rhinelander Madison for “Language Matters for Wisconsin,” a three-year project to engage Wisconsin communities in a Wausau discussion of language issues, and to share research-based information on a number of critical language ques- tions. The project, led by Tom Purnell
(Linguistics), Eric Raimy (English), Number of Speakers and Joseph Salmons (Director, 196- 999 CSUMC), focuses on four communi- 1,000- 4,999 ties that together capture the richness 5,000- 9,999 and complexity of language use in Mineral Point our state: Rhinelander, Wausau, Min- 10,000- 19,999 Kenosha eral Point, and Kenosha/Racine. 20,000+ Our goal is to address underlying 100 Ü Miles historic, ethnic, social, and cultural Statewide Total: 368,712 Data for this map came from the 2000 US Census, Table QT-P16, bases for and aspects of dialect and “Language Spoken at Home,” which reports sample data. language acquisition, use, and loss. We will compare language and his- toric immigration (from Germanic, oping exciting programs and materi- If you live near Rhinelander, Wausau, Slavic, and Scandinavian lands, as als. Mark Livengood (Geography) Mineral Point, or Kenosha/Racine, well as the migration of Yankees and has produced some spectacular maps stay tuned for a public event on lan- African Americans) with language that depict the intersection of im- guage in your area later this fall. issues connected to contemporary migration and linguistic trends in the We are excited about this project immigration (those of the Spanish state and at the local level. Over the and the interest and enthusiasm it and the Hmong). In addition, we next two years we will create a Web has generated throughout the state. will look at language and ethnicity site with which our partner commu- In particular, we are thrilled about (African Americans, whites, Hispan- nities can explore their languages and the level of involvement within the ics), language and education (the dialects historically and today, using four communities. The best ideas and influence of changing dialects on census data, speech samples, and a suggestions have come from our local learning how to read), and language host of other resources. We will also partners, and they are the ones who preservation and revitalization efforts publish a small book for general au- will shape the project’s outcome and (Native American languages). diences on Wisconsin language issues success in discussing language mat- We have already begun to meet and will work with local representa- ters in Wisconsin. with collaborating organizations in tives to develop exhibits and host dis- the four communities and are devel- cussion forums in the communities.
7 RESOURCES
Online Bibliographical Resources for German-American Studies: Part I
Sonja Mekel
he Internet offers growing found at
8 tions such as the letters of Ferdinand
9 German and Polish Students Study Immigration and Ethnicity in the Upper Midwest
Antje Petty Photos Immigration courtesy Leipzig/Krakow & Ethnicity Study Tour
American Studies group on its Midwestern tour.
rom September 23 to 26, a immigrants: Hustisford in Dodge group of sixteen students County. Members of the Hustisford from the American Studies Historical Society graciously showed FInstitutes of the University of Leipzig, us their town, the historical museum Germany, and of the Jagiellonian (Founder John Hustis’s old house), University, Kraków, Poland visited and the Lutheran church. Evidence Wisconsin. Led by Professor Hartmut of Hustisford’s German-American Keil, the group was on a two-week history was everywhere: in names, study tour of the Upper Midwest to stories, signs, buildings, and the learn about immigration and internal personal inscription in an old family migration past and present, and Bible that Keil translated. Read more about issues of ethnicity in rural and about the Immigration & Ethnic- urban America. They focused on ity Study Tour on the group’s blog Chicago, south central Wisconsin, < http://immigrationethnicity2009. and the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. wordpress.com/>. At UW–Madison, the group at- tended a workshop on Language and Immigration and the following day visited one of Wisconsin’s many small rural communities that were settled in the 1850s primarily by German Professor Keil and Mark Livengood check an old Hustisford map.
10 BOOKS
American Passage: The History of Ellis Island by Vincent J. Cannato, Harper Collins, 2009
Antje Petty “as a biography, not of a person, but with Anglo-Saxon New England of a place, of one small island in background) feared most was a na- New York Harbor that crystallized tion overrun by poor, uneducated, the nation’s complex and contradic- and sick immigrants who didn’t tory ideas about how to welcome speak English, brought different people to the New World.” The book religions and cultures, and undercut covers the island’s history from the the American Labor market. Many nineteenth century, when it was still Americans were especially prejudiced called “Giblet Island” and was used against the increasing numbers of for pirate hangings, to its modern- Russian Jews (considered filthy and day function as the nation’s most diseased) and Italians (thought to be iconic immigration museum. The criminal and violent). While during main focus, however, is on the years the 1880s only 956,000 of the nation’s of mass immigration: from 1892, 4.8 million immigrants came from when Ellis Island was the nation’s Eastern and Southern Europe, in premier inspection station, used to the 1890s immigrants from Russia, regulate the stream of new arrivals, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and other until 1924, when immigration was countries in Southern and Eastern restricted by a new immigration Europe outnumbered immigrants quota system that rendered the in- from the North and West by 1.9 mil- here is no other place as spection of individuals superfluous. lion to 1.6 million. Cannato describes closely identified with Amer- Ellis Island was the result of the the ensuing national debate in great ica’s history of immigration first attempt in American history to detail. With many examples and Tas Ellis Island. At the turn of the systematically separate “desirable” personal stories he describes why the twentieth century, Ellis Island was immigrants from “undesirable” ones. nation in the end decided to restrict the “golden door,” the “isle of tears,” It was also opened when the federal immigration by excluding individu- or simply “the gate” for 12 million— government took over the regula- als with certain undesirable traits, mostly European—immigrants. For tion of immigration, as immigration rather than excluding an entire eth- many Americans, including German previously had been handled on the nic group or geographic region. An Americans, stories of ancestors “who state level. Thus “Castle Garden,” the exception was the Chinese Exclusion came through Ellis Island” are part of point of entry for 8 million immi- Act of 1882, which barred Chinese the family lore and are often closely grants between 1855 and 1890, was and other Asians from entering the intertwined with their sense of being administered by the state of New United States simply because of their members of a nation of immigrants. York, and only beginning in 1892 race. This is true even for those whose did the federal government try to The job of looking at every indi- ancestors actually arrived before Ellis implement federal immigration laws vidual newcomer and separating the Island was opened. in Ellis Island. good from the bad fell to the inspec- In American Passage, Vincent J. But who was considered “desir- tors at Ellis Island. In 1892 they were Cannato—who teaches history at able,” and who was not? What the University of Massachusetts in old-stock Americans (often those Continued on page 14 Boston—tells the story of Ellis Island
11 Continued from page 6 that his U.S.-born grandfather audio materials, the MKI relocated spoke no English that Harold was the Sound Laboratory that houses oldest German settlement. Thanks aware of. Then something interest- them to the recently renovated mainly to a zoning restriction that ing happened within the commu- University Club building, which is prohibits home lots of under five nity. Those born around 1900 who located on the central campus. This acres, Freistadt has so far been able attended Trinity Lutheran School, move, along with the relocation of to withstand encroachment by de- which was bilingual at the time CSUMC to the same building, is the velopers and to maintain an active (German in the mornings, English first step toward eventually mov- connection to its Pomeranian and in the afternoons), grew up speak- ing the entire MKI to the University Old Lutheran heritage. This heritage ing Pomeranian; but as adults they Club, a process which is projected is promoted today by three strong began to prefer speaking High to be completed by the summer of local organizations: the Historical German, including with their chil- 2011. Until then, we will continue to Society of Trinity Lutheran Church dren. Through the story of Harold bring to life the stories contained in in Freistadt, the Pommerscher Ver- S. (born in 1929) this shift can be recordings from communities such ein Freistadt, and the Pommersche seen. With his parents he spoke as Freistadt and will preserve them Tanzdeel. High German, but with his grand- for future generations. Five residents of the Freistadt parents and other, older members area were interviewed by Eichhoff of the community, he used Pomera- in 1968, two in Pomeranian, two nian. Thus Freistadt experienced in High German, and one in both what is known as “dialect shift.” dialects. The youngest speaker, The period of Low German–High Harold S., was 39 at the time of his German–English trilingualism in interview. Today, Harold is 80 years Freistadt, and likely in many other old and still living and farming in similar communities in rural Wis- Freistadt. Last winter, I did presen- consin, was short-lived, and there tations on the Eichhoff recordings were very few children born there for both the Verein and the Histori- after 1940 who grew up speaking cal Society, which featured audio any form of German, preferring clips and English translations on English instead. The transition to PowerPoint slides. Most people English in Freistadt had really noth- at the presentations knew all the ing to do with the anti-German sen- speakers well, and it was a special timent so often invoked in discus- privilege to meet Harold, who is still sions of the loss of German in the a fluent speaker of both Wisconsin United States. Rather, community High German and Pomeranian, as members point mainly to the switch well as a wellspring of knowledge to English in church in the mid- about the history of Freistadt. 1940s, which they attribute in large For about two generations after part to the intermarriage of local the original immigrants settled men with non-German-speaking in Freistadt, Pomeranian was the women from other communities. main language of daily life, though The recordings from Freistadt everyone was also familiar with the and elsewhere across the state, aside High German used in church and from their linguistic value, are rich the parochial school attached to it. sources of local history. In order to English played only a secondary improve the accessibility of these role: Harold recalled, for example,
12 FRIENDS PROFILE
Gary Gisselman
Antje Petty
hen Gary Gisselman man nor Swedish was spoken in his the Wausau community, serving a joined the Board of Di- family, but Gary credits his upbring- number of organizations in various rectors this year, he was ing with instilling in him a sense of capacities: the Marathon County Walready familiar to many Friends. As place in history and eventually an Board of Supervisors, the Wausau the librarian of the Marathon County interest in researching local as well as City Council, the North Central Historical Society, Gary had been one migration history. He is especially in- Health Care Board of Directors, and of the organizers of the popular “Ger- terested in the history of Pomerania Zion Lutheran Church. He is also an man-American History in Marathon and its emigrants and has traveled active member of the Wisconsin His- County” tour that accompanied the to Europe to do research and trace torical Society and the Pommerscher Friends’ annual meeting in Wausau the roots of his family. His current Verein of Central Wisconsin, where in 2008. As it turns out, the history research focuses on what became of he serves on the History Committee. of Gary’s own family parallels that of Pomerania as a cultural region after We are excited that with Gary Marathon County. World War II, and the people who Gisselman, the Board of Direc- One set of Gary’s grandparents had to leave Pomerania after the tors of the Friends of the Max Kade came from Pomerania in the late War to resettle in other parts of the Institute once again has a member nineteenth century; his other grand- world—especially those who wound from North-Central Wisconsin who parents emigrated from Sweden. up in former East Germany. will represent that region’s unique Thus Gary grew up in Marathon In addition to his work for the German-American history and County surrounded by both German Marathon County Historical So- experience. and Swedish heritage. Neither Ger- ciety, Gary has been engaged in
13 Continued from page 11 been excluded were not identified. American immigration policy took American Passages is most power- another unprecedented turn. In asked to enforce laws that prohibited ful when it tells the stories of the his “Proclamation of a State of War the entry of criminals, prostitutes, people of Ellis Island: the immi- and Regulation of Governing Alien convicts (except those who had been grants, inspectors, interpreters, doc- Enemies,” President Woodrow incarcerated for political reasons), tors, commissioners, etc. Especially Wilson created a whole new type of lunatics, persons in danger of becom- dramatic are the accounts of people individual: the alien enemy. An “alien ing a public charge, alien contract who were slated for deportation for enemy” was any male over the age of workers (except domestic servants, any of a number of reasons. Never- fourteen who was born in Germany, skilled workers, and artists), and theless, in the end barely two percent resided in the United States, and was persons who had engaged in acts of were not allowed to enter the United not a naturalized U.S. citizen. This moral turpitude or polygamy. Inspec- States. The relatively low rejection person was banned from possessing tors were as also supposed to sift out rate was a major source of contention weapons, operating a plane, or living people with communicable diseases that surrounded Ellis Island through- within half a mile of a military base. and the “feeble minded.” Over the out its existence, especially for those He also could not “write, print or years, anarchists, epileptics, and pro- Americans who had hoped to reduce publish any attack or threat against fessional beggars were added to the the number of immigrants in general the Government or Congress of the list, and after 1916 new immigrants by means of the selection process. United States,” and was not allowed had to prove they were literate by Only with the beginning of World to give aid to the German war ef- reading a Bible passage in their native War I did the number of immigrants fort. As soon as the proclamation language. Trying to sift the wheat decline. But a new dilemma faced was made, the first suspects were from the chaff turned out to be more administrators on Ellis Island after rounded up and taken to Ellis Island. difficult in practice than on paper. 1914: those immigrants who were de- Many came from the largely German Inspectors only had a few moments nied entry could not be sent back to community of Hoboken, New Jersey, to look at each immigrant, and un- war-torn Europe, and had to remain or were crew members on German less there were very obvious signs or on the island indefinitely. ships stranded in New York. Alto- other readily available information, After the United States entered gether some 1,500 German “alien en- many individuals who might have World War I on April 6, 1917, emies” were detained on Ellis Island. Most were moved after a few months
. to a camp in North Carolina, but Ellis Island had over night changed its role from an immigrant inspec-
American Passage American tion station to a military detention facility. Later in the war, it was used as an American military camp and convalescence center for wounded war veterans. After the end of the war, immigra- tion from war-ravaged Europe picked Photo and caption from Cannato’s Cannato’s from caption and Photo up again dramatically. Afraid that as many as 25 million Europeans might flood the United States, and more xenophobic than ever, Americans de- cided that the old system of regulat- The Mittlestadt family arrived at Ellis Island in 1905. They were headed for North Dakota. ing immigration by processing indi- “Seven soldiers lost to the Kaiser,” read the photo caption in the New York Times. viduals had outlived its usefulness. In
14 MEMBERSHIP/RENEWAL
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the early 1920s, a set of immigration reopened as an immigration museum allowed to join the American family quota laws were passed, culminat- run by the National Parks Service, as are the same ones in 2009 that were ing in the Immigration Act of 1924, Cannato explains in the last chapter, heard over a hundred years ago. And which not only drastically limited entitled “The New Plymouth Rock.” thanks to the many personal stories the number of immigrants allowed The National Parks Service asserts (even though some digress a bit too in every year (to 165,000), but also that the Museum is about “the peo- far), Ellis Island comes to life as an set quotas based on the percentage of pling of America” and “is a symbol of important place for the American each nationality recorded in the 1890 four hundred years of immigration.” people, rather than merely a gate. census—a blatant effort to reduce However, it also conjures the image immigration from Southern and of a “good old time” when all new Eastern Europe, which had mostly Americans had to pass a rigorous occurred after that date. Germans screening (or so says our historical were the greatest beneficiaries of memory) and thus earn their place in this law (with a quota of over 51,000 America. people). The numbers allowed for American Passage is informative Northwest Europe and Scandinavia and thought-provoking but also a made up 86 percent of the total. pleasant read. It becomes clear that After again being used both as a the immigration debate of the Ellis detention center for enemy aliens Island era mirrors the immigration and as a military base in World War debate that still occupies America II, Ellis Island was closed and aban- today: one cannot avoid conclud- doned in 1954. Thirty-six years later ing that worries about “newcomers” and after major renovations, it was and arguments about who should be
15 Friends of the Max Kade Institute Non-Profit Organization for German-American Studies US Postage University of Wisconsin PAID Madison, WI 901 University Bay Drive Permit No. 2704 Madison, WI 53705
In the German-American News 150 Years Ago
he following is a translation hibition of renting slaves from other the countless shipments of sold slaves by Cora Lee Kluge from an states is to be removed and the price which Missouri envoys have taken “Events of the Day” section of free labor depressed, can only be further south since last summer. Such Tof the Illustrirte Abend-Schule: Eine regarded as an expression of exaspera- a gradual freeing of the state from Zeitschrift für Belehrung und Unter- tion and an impotent attempt to block slavery is moving surely toward its haltung (St. Louis, Mo., February 15, the natural course of events that is goal; the thefts of abolitionists as well 1859). It reveals that Missouri and rushing Missouri toward a condition as the activities of hoodlums along Kansas have become pressure points of being slave-free. In addition to its the borders [the violence of Bleeding in the growing tensions that will soon geographical position, the properties of Kansas was already in full swing] can erupt into the Civil War, and helps il- its soil, and its culture, comes the fact indeed interrupt or delay its course lustrate the attitude of some St. Louis that conditions in Kansas place the and bring about animosity, but not Germans toward slavery. property of slaveholders in northwest- destroy it or cut it off. . . . Another decision [made by the ern parts of the state in great danger. Missouri Legislature in Jefferson And the fact that this last circum- City], according to which the pro- stance is of great influence is proven by