Klaus Dehne. Deutsche Einwanderer im lÖ¤ndlichen SÖ¼d-Indiana (USA): Eine historisch-geographische Analyse. Passau: Selbstverlag des Faches Geographie der UniversitÖ¤t Passau, 2003. 108 pp. EUR 19.90, paper, ISBN 978-3-9807866-1-4.

Reviewed by Timothy G. Anderson

Published on H-GAGCS (June, 2004)

Students of German immigration to North local, regional, and global drivers responsible for America, who have followed research in the feld the mass migrations of the nineteenth century. over the past twenty years, will fnd much that is Dehne's study departs from this model of familiar in this slim volume. With respect to analysis by focusing almost entirely on the nature methodology, design, context, and data sources, of immigrant communities on the American side, the work has a good deal in common with many with only cursory attention paid to conditions in other such studies. But in terms of the distinctive the European sending region. As such, Dehne is nature of the communities under scrutiny here not so much concerned with why the migration and the questions author Klaus Dehne asks about occurred as with the settlement, growth, and de‐ them, the research constitutes an intriguing de‐ velopment of the immigrant study communities parture from the mean that, in the end, makes a in the United States. But what truly distinguishes signifcant contribution to our understanding of this work, from the plethora of studies of Mid‐ the nature of German immigrant communities in western immigrant communities that have been the United States. written over the years, is the nature of the study Some of the most signifcant advancements in itself: a longitudinal, comparative analysis of two immigration history over the past two decades civil townships in neighboring counties in south‐ have stemmed from studies that focused on the ern Indiana, both settled in the mid-nineteenth trans-Atlantic nature of nineteenth-century immi‐ century by groups of German immigrants but gration from northwest Europe. In order to more with distinctive regional origins in Germany. The fully understand the total immigrant experience author's research questions center on agricultural from start to fnish, dozens of such studies under‐ and socio-economic diversity and diference in taken in the 1980s and 1990s tended to focus as these immigrant populations and communities much attention on pre-migration conditions in lo‐ over time and space. Employing the traditional ar‐ cal immigrant sending regions in Europe as on re‐ ray of primary sources such as manuscript census ceiving locales in North America. The result was schedules, county histories, funeral and tax richer analyses of immigrant chains set within the records, and plat books, the study seeks to ac‐ framework of contemporary social theory that count for these observed diferences. overcame earlier, overly romantic explanations Dehne begins with a quite thorough and com‐ for emigration and clarifed, in better detail, the plete review of the secondary literature related to German immigration to rural North America and H-Net Reviews places his own study within this literary context. contrasted in terms of ethnic identity, accultura‐ From this review of the relevant literature, eight tion, and economic development over time. Em‐ hypotheses related to German immigration and ploying primary data in the form of manuscript assimilation in North America are presented. In census schedules, land and tax records, and coun‐ essence, Dehne's work here is an attempt to test ty histories and atlases, statistics regarding land these hypotheses in the communities studied in ownership patterns, demographic and social southern Indiana. The second chapter identifes structure and population and age characteristics and describes in some detail the two communities are presented for each community and are com‐ studied, each settled in the 1840s. The frst, Wid‐ pared with each other, as well as to their Ameri‐ ner Township in Knox County, represents a clear can neighbors. Many of the results of this analysis case of chain migration that resulted in a rather are not surprising and dovetail well with the fnd‐ homogeneous immigrant community: seventy- ings of other such studies of rural German immi‐ one percent of the immigrants hailed from the grant communities. For example, by 1880 the rate small principality of Lippe-Detmold in northwest of farm ownership among German farmers was Germany and nearly three-quarters were Protes‐ around ffteen percent higher than their Ameri‐ tant (Lippe-Detmold had been Protestant since the can counterparts, but the size of German-owned Reformation). The second, Ferdinand Township in farms was slightly smaller. Using manuscript agri‐ Dubois County, represents a textbook example of cultural census data, Dehne confrms the pattern a planned Catholic immigrant settlement venture, of economic acculturation of German immigrant initiated by an early Catholic priest, which result‐ farmers that has been reported in many other ed in a community that was heterogeneous in similar studies: during the early, formative years terms of regional origins in Germany but that was of initial settlement, agricultural diferences be‐ at the same time very homogeneous in terms of tween German and American farmers in terms of religious confession. Almost all of the immigrants types of crops and livestock raised and in terms of were Catholic but hailed from a variety of loca‐ acreage devoted to each were rather signifcant. tions in Germany, especially Bavaria, Hannover, Within ten years, however, Germans appear to Westphalia, and Alsace. A signifcant number of have adapted to the American Midwestern agri‐ early settlers were also recruited from other Ger‐ cultural system, a system that is extensive and man immigrant communities within the United market-driven in nature and less diverse than the States. These distinctions, and the comparison system practiced in nineteenth-century Germany. and contrast of the settlement and development To readers of this forum, such fndings are of the communities over time, are by far the most hardly surprising. Much more intriguing, howev‐ intriguing and distinctive aspects of Dehne's er, is the comparison of the two German study study. Chapter 3 situates the immigration to communities. Here, Dehne convincingly shows southern Indiana within the context of German that observed diferences in land ownership, pat‐ immigration to rural America in general. This is terns of land alienation, rates of agricultural as‐ accomplished through a discussion of timing, similation, and socio-cultural phenomena can be numbers, and areas of settlement, as well as pop‐ accounted for by the diferences in regional ori‐ ulation development and land alienation patterns, gins of the early immigrants, as well as by that compares southern Indiana to the national whether or not Germans constituted a numerical model. majority in their communities. In Ferdinand The most important and signifcant fndings Township, German farmers far outnumbered of Dehne's research are presented in chapters 4 American farmers, while in Widner Township, and 5, in which the two study communities are German farmers constituted a numerical minori‐

2 H-Net Reviews ty. Dehne argues that German farmers in Ferdi‐ ceptualized. In this regard, the book is not so nand Township were "secluded" and "cut of" much historical geography (despite the large from outside American infuences and thus did number of maps depicting such things as land not adapt to American cultural and economic ownership patterns) as it is social history. Never‐ norms as quickly or as pervasively as the Ger‐ theless, the work is a signifcant contribution be‐ mans in Widner Township who, as a result of cause it tackles a subject that has rarely been ad‐ more frequent interactions with their American dressed in German immigrant community studies neighbors, adopted American ways more quickly. in its comparison and contrast of two communi‐ So too, as Dehne describes in chapters 6 and 7, ties that were established at the same time and these diferences are played out in the extent of place but by groups with diferent regional ori‐ German ethnicity and the traces of that identity in gins in Germany and dissimilar settlement pro‐ the cultural landscape. In the close-knit immi‐ cesses (chain migration versus a planned settle‐ grant Catholic community of Ferdinand Town‐ ment venture). As Dehne demonstrates, this made ship, the use of German as a frst language persist‐ all the diference when it came to issues such as ed far longer, well after World War II, than in religious heritage, acculturation rates, adoption of Widner Township. Likewise, the ethnic cultural American agricultural techniques, and cultural landscape imprint, manifested most vividly in landscape imprint. For these reasons, the book is church architecture, cemeteries and the use of a welcome addition to the literature on the sub‐ German place names, is more pervasive and com‐ ject. plete in Ferdinand Township. One might make the argument, however, that this is explained more by the fact that the Ferdinand Township is over‐ whelmingly Catholic and that Catholic religious landscapes, with an emphasis on symbolism, or‐ nate structure, and decoration, are often more "pronounced" than Protestant ones with less per‐ vasive, outward signs of religious symbolism. In the end, Dehne's study represents a wel‐ come addition to the large literature relating to the nature of German immigrant communities in the United States in the nineteenth century. It is well written and concise, the questions are well researched and presented clearly, and the maps, tables, and fgures are all of very good quality and are informative to the reader. For the most part, the results of the study confrm much of what has been written before, in countless numbers of im‐ migrant community studies that focus on assimi‐ lation and acculturation processes. In this regard, much of what is contained in the book is not new or theoretically signifcant. Indeed, the study is largely descriptive and noticeably lacking in theo‐ retical underpinning, with nary a hint of social theory within which the research might be con‐

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Citation: Timothy G. Anderson. Review of Dehne, Klaus. Deutsche Einwanderer im lÖ¤ndlichen SÖ¼d- Indiana (USA): Eine historisch-geographische Analyse. H-GAGCS, H-Net Reviews. June, 2004.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9540

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