German Project

1 Max Siegling 16.05.2011 Professor Kasinitz Germans in New York City: From the Revolutions of 1848 to World War I The experience of German immigrants in New York City in the 1800s was one of fruitful struggle, from the coalescing of a German American community after the revolutions of 1848 brought many Germans into New York, to the height of German American culture pre-World War I, with its abundance of theater troupes, opera companies, cultural societies, and journals. It was at this very height, when German Americans had moved upward socially and economically in American society, that anti-German sentiment in WWI led to the complete assimilation of an ethnic group which had earlier maintained a high ethnic presence. This high ethnic presence was enabled by the creation of a German American culture – not fully German anymore, but neither completely American – with cultural products – art, music, journals – that depicted the German American experience in New York. This German American experience was marked by a longing for the homeland, regional disunity and mixing, class conflict, and an integration into and ascent in American society. These cultural products were split between a “high” and “low” culture (in terms of upper and lower classes); where the high culture sought to promote German art of the homeland, particularly Wagner, the low culture, often through humor – only sometimes sardonic – sought to express the experience of Germans in New York with new art, art made by and for Germans in New York. There was always a German presence in New York, but it was only after the failed revolutions of 1848 in Europe that the German community really began to coalesce in New York, into a neighborhood known as Klein Deutschland (Little Germany – now the East 2 Village and parts of the Lower East Side). The character of this particular group of immigrants, the ‘48ers, came to dominate the German American community, how that community was divided, and how German American culture was expressed. Prior to their immigration, much of German culture in New York was dispersed or sporadically expressed. The immigrants who came before the ‘48ers were generally peasants, small proprietors, spinners and handloom weavers, skilled shoemakers and furniture makers, and a few merchants and manufacturers, according to Edwin Burrows, author of Gotham: A History of New York to 1898 (Burrows 735). What the revolutions of 1848 brought to New York were craft workers, small shopkeepers and intellectuals, most importantly “all of whom had backed a program of radical social and economic change: universal suffrage, socialized workshops, a minimum wage, a ten-hour day” (Burrows 736). The ‘48ers came to America with a particular vision, purpose and solidarity; they were republicans (as opposed to monarchists) through and through, expected to find in the United States a society akin to their vision, and had the cohesion and education in order to advocate that vision when it didn’t match. A group of radicals departing Baden for New York said: “Since Capital so commands Labor in the Fatherland... [we will go] where the reverse relationship prevails” (Burrows 736). Once the ‘48ers saw the reality of industrialization in the United States, they took action. It was through the establishment of an immigrant neighborhood, Klein Deutschland, and the creation of institutions necessary for that community, that a recognizably German American culture and the art that expressed it were created. The ‘48ers were an integral part in the formation of this community, through journals and the stage. They came with a history of political advocacy, and immediately as they settled in New York, they began publishing journals. Between 1850 and 1852 alone, twenty-eight appeared, including the New Yorker 3 Staats-Zeitung, both the most famous German American paper published and the most representative of the ‘48ers. The Staats-Zeitung was founded by Oswald Ottendorfer, who had fought on the barricades of Vienna in 1848, and exhibited the republican liberal sentiment characteristic of the ‘48ers for part of its publication (Burrows 739). The influence of these papers on the German American community and how important they became to the culture of German Americans is shown by the sheer number of papers published and their circulation: by 1860, the Staats-Zeitung had the largest circulation of any German paper in the world (Burrows 739) and eventually it became the third largest daily in the city ("New Yorker Staats-Zeitung"). The papers made use of their large circulation in order to promote a sense of German community, as John Koegel, author of Music in German Immigrant Theater: New York City, writes: “The very active German-language press – one of the principal institutional voices of the German American community – regularly reviewed and supported their [amateur dramatic societies] activities to encourage ethnic solidarity and cultural literacy” (Koegel 4). The German-language press was an integral part of German American art, by enabling it and spreading it through the German American community. The first amateur dramatics societies began performing German plays in New York in the late 1830s, but by the 1850s, after the immigration of the ‘48ers, the German American theater had assumed a professional character – helped by the German-language press, and by extension, the ‘48ers (Koegel 4). Indeed, many of the leading actors on Klein Deutschland’s stage were ‘48ers who were forced out of Germany by the revolution (Koegel 19). The German American theater was also helped by establishments that catered to German Americans; the confluence of the active press and fora in which to experiment and perform brought professionalism to the German American theater, and made it the most important expression of the German American experience. As Koegel writes: “In the period between 4 1840 and 1854, German performances [of German-language musical plays] were given somewhat sporadically, mostly by peripatetic amateur and semi-professional troupes and actors, who appeared in beer gardens and social halls, theater, and outdoor summer gardens throughout lower Manhattan” (Koegel 20). One of the first establishments that catered to German Americans through theater and performance was Valentin Mager’s Conzert-Halle at 101-105 Elizabeth Street. It contained “a saloon, restaurant, performance space with a large stage, meeting rooms, and probably an outdoor garden” (Koegel 27). In Mager’s Conzert- Halle one can see, on a miniaturized scale, the general forms that the expression of German American culture took: through societies (meeting rooms, outdoor garden), lower class drinking and camaraderie (saloon), and theater and opera (performance space). Mager’s Conzert-Halle “regularly featured theatrical performances as well as a convivial atmosphere where the consumption of beer, wine, and food was encouraged” (Koegel 27). As German American theater grew more professional and widely known, Adolf Philipp (1864-1936), playwright and composer, became its dominant voice. By looking at his works of musical theater, the breadth of the German American experience is seen, as well as the form that expression took: the longing for the homeland, feelings of class inequality and struggle, regional pride and regionalism, and a sense of possibility, of upward mobility made possible in the United States. When Philipp opened his own theater in the 1890s, the Germania, he intended it to be a Volkstheater (folk or people’s theater), and also originally intended to perform mainly works by European authors (Koegel 202). However, the fantastic success of his Der Corner Grocer aus der Avenue A (1893) led his own works to dominate the stage. The German Americans wanted to see their own experience depicted and expressed, and Philipp became their voice. 5 Adolf Philipp was able to express the feeling of Sehnsucht, a kind of longing for the homeland, that many German immigrants to the United States felt. In fact, an entire form of German American art developed around the concept of Sehnsucht: Heimatkunst (homeland art). Heimat (homeland) has a particular historical meaning, beyond that of the English word homeland; the idea of Heimat pits country against city, and was an advocation of provincial or rural life – a “fixed, familiar, rooted identity against cosmopolitanism” (Koegel 238). It provided a sense of identity for German immigrants to the United States, and helped promote unity among the disparate, regionalized German immigrants. Philipp represented Heimat with his musical theater numerous times, and poignantly in his Heimathlied (homeland song) from Der Corner Grocer aus der Avenue A: “Hein Snut: Heimathlied” Wenn wir auch von der Heimath fern, Even though we’re far from the homeland gedenken ihrer wir doch gern, We remember it with fondness, wo uns’re Kindheit ist entfloh’n Where we spent our youth, wenn es auch oft recht lange schon. Even if it was long ago. Wir denken traulich und allein Cozy and alone, we wonder wie mag’s wohl in der Heimath sein, How it is in the homeland, und schauen oft auf’s Meer hinaus And look often out to the sea und denken sinnend an das Vaterhaus. And think pensively of the family home. Wenn die Woge rauscht uns’re Füsse küsst, When the waves lap up and kiss our feet, wenn das Schiff unsern Blicken entschwunden ist, When the ship sails out of sight, das zurück dann fährt nach dem theuern Strand. Headed back to those beloved shores. Dann wünschen wir wären im Heimathland. Then we wish we were in the homeland. Doch das Schicksal treibt uns fort und fort. But fate drives us ever farther away. Heut’ sind wir hier und morgen fort. Today we are here, and tomorrow away. Doch trotz aller Klagen, Sorgen, und Müh,’ But in spite of all the complaints, sorrows, and toil, meine Heimath vergesse ich nie. I’ll never forget my homeland.

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