DIE BALLINSTADT FÜR AMERIKANER FOTO: BEATE ZOELLNER FOTO: BEATE

Ellis Island and BallinStadt: linking past and present

In times when speed dominates our lives, more and more people are rediscovering their families as the centre of calm in a hectic world. Where do I come from? Where am I going? Questions that have interested mankind for centuries.

G enealogy has never been as po- Albert Ballin, Director General of pular as it is today. Hordes of amateur HAPAG, built the shelters which were genealogists populate the archives assi- taken into service in 1901. They make up duously searching for every possible a small town with hotels, restaurants, a piece of information about their long- hospital and churches, in addition to lost relatives – people who, in days long the pavilions for living and sleeping. past, set out in search of a new future, in After crossing the Atlantic, the emi- a new place, in a new country. grants must pass through the Ellis Is- Emigration and immigration centres, land immigration station where they such as Ellis Island or BallinStadt in the have to answer countless questions be- Port of , have recognized this fore they can start out on their new life desire and are helping people in their in America. More than twelve million search. Ellis Island leads the way here. people entered the country through Since 1990, the museum has offered its Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. visitors professional assistance in their Little at the southern tip of search for European ancestors. Manhattan was the first stop for many Its European counterpart, the Ballin- of the German immigrants in their new Stadt Emigrants World, opened on his- country. The new enclave grew up full torical soil in Germany in July 2007. of hope in the 1830s. The first emigra- Three of the thirty buildings are faithful tion wave brought thousands of Ger- reconstructions of the original. Thou- man immigrants with capital and skills sands of people came to the dormitories to New York. They set up business as tai- every week and waited here for weeks lors, carpenters, shoemakers or bakers. until their ship set sail. The new Ballin- Before long, New York was the most Stadt focuses on the stories of five German town in America with such million emigrants – their hopes, their typically German rituals as the „Schuet- dreams, their wishes. zenfest“ or „Schuetzen-Bund-Parade“.

46 Schümanns Hamburger · Die BallinStadt Schümanns Hamburger · Die BallinStadt 47 DIE BALLINSTADT FÜR AMERIKANER FOTO: BEATE ZOELLNER FOTO: BEATE

The parents of Henry J. Heinz and licized their German names. It is only Henry E. Steinway were among the very now that they are rediscovering their first immigrants from Germany. Both roots and setting out in search of their families seized their chance and made ancestors on both sides of the Atlantic. their dreams come true. The Hamburg passenger lists from After nearly a hundred years of turbu- 1850 to 1934 are a particular highlight lent history, however, Little Germany of the BallinStadt exhibition. The State came to an abrupt end in 1904: the Archives in Hamburg first began to digi- community declined following the di- tize the passenger lists several years ago; saster of the „General Slocum“, a side- since the beginning of this year, they wheel steamship which was devoured can be accessed in the Internet at by fire on 15 June 1904, killing more www.ancestry.de. As in their American than 1,300 passengers from the German counterpart, trained staff at the Ballin- neighbourhood. Stadt exhibition help people to trace More and more Americans of German their ancestry and link the past with the The BallinStadt souvenir-shop origin took shelter in anonymity follo- present. Corinna Meiß  wing the two World Wars; many ang-

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