German Emigration Center evokes search for new lives

"They come in droves… Few of their children in the Country learn English … unless the stream of their importation could be turned from this to other colonies, they will soon so out number us … all that seems to be necessary is, to distribute them more equally, mix them."

The above quote sounds like a rant about refugees and asylum seekers by far-right, xenophobic political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD).

But the people who allegedly refuse to integrate in this instance are German emigrants to the US. And the person making the harsh judgment on them in the mid-18th century is none other than Benjamin Franklin. 

One of the founding fathers of the United States, Franklin co-drafted in 1776 the Declaration of Independence, which stated that "all men are created equal" and are endowed "with certain unalienable rights."

But Franklin did not take kindly to German immigrants, and also resented them for not buying the English-language newspaper he published.

By then it was too late. Six millions of Germans would emigrate to the New World searching for equality and a better life over the next century. Many Eastern Europeans took the same path. They are among countless stories of immigration to and emigration from Germany that are told up close in the German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven, in the state of Bremen.  

Emigrating to an uncertain future

When the house opened its doors in the port city of Bremerhaven in 2005, its creators were primarily concerned with emigrants because at this historic site some 7.2 million people boarded ships between 1830 and 1974. Each carried with them the hope of a better life overseas, especially in the US.

A crossing from Bremerhaven to New York lasted about six weeks, explained museum director Simone Blaschka.

"The population in Germany almost doubled in the 19th century, so you can imagine what was going on in the labor market," Blaschka said. "In the countryside the soil was good, but the land was far too small to feed their families. People saw no future for themselves and their children and decided to emigrate."

The passage on a sailing ship cost about the annual salary of a craftsman. To afford it, families had to sell all their belongings. A big step into an uncertain future in a foreign country — and yet people took the risk.

On the trail of the emigrants

At the German Emigration Center, visitors can follow in the footsteps of these early economic migrants thanks to faithful reconstructions.

One can stand among the wayfarers as they wait with their belongings on the quay and hear the roar of the waves and the shouts of the dockworkers; or climb the wooden planks in the creaking steerage of an emigrant ship and eventually end up at the immigration station on Ellis Island in New York —  where arrivals from Europe were subjected to rigorous questioning before being allowed to set foot on American soil.

At Ellis Island, officials screened who was allowed into the US — and who was to be sent back

Private memorabilia, films, audio stations, photos and letters from emigrants bring family stories to life.

But the Migration Museum is not only about emigrants from Germany and Eastern Europe who were leaving the Old Continent, but about more than 300 years of immigration history to Germany itself.

Welcome to Germany?

The second part of the exhibition, named "Welcome to Germany," begins with the arrival of French Huguenots in the 17th century after they were persecuted in their homeland because of their Protestant faith.

The story continues to the so-called guest workers from Turkey, Greece, Spain and Italy who were first recruited to help rebuild postwar Germany in the 1960s. One encounters stories of ethnic German repatriates from Russian, Yugoslav civil war refugees, of Chileans fleeing dictatorship, of Vietnamese in the GDR.

The fate of countless refugees who have arrived from Syria, Afghanistan and many African countries in recent years has been a burning political issue since Angela Merkel pledged that Germany would offer temporary residency to refugees in 2015.

The so-called migrant crisis has exposed old social and political divisions around the issue of migration and has led to the rise of the far-right AfD party and an escalation of anti-immigrant rhetoric.

"For a long, long time, Germany did not see itself as a country of immigration," noted Simone Blaschka. "But immigration is part of our national history."

The Emigration Center tells this story through its "treasure trove" of personal objects and memorabilia that tells stories of displaced peoples.

These include the employment contract of a woman from the former Yugoslavia who wanted to be called by her name and not as a number, as that awakened in her painful memories of the Nazi era when people were tattooed with numbers.

Then there's a Syrian boy's day care ID card, one of the few objects retained from a war-torn homeland.  

New perspectives on migration

Recently, the Emigration Center added another floor to its exhibition space and opened at the end of June 2021 with new highlights. The facade is emblazoned with portraits of 33 immigrants.

And inside, they've developed so-called digital thinking spaces. "We clearly have an educational mission," said Simone Blaschka. The goal is for visitors to rethink the subject of migration.

"How do we want to live together and how do we want to shape this country together?" asks Blaschka. "How many people in my circle of acquaintances or friends have a migration history themselves?"

"We want to show how diverse and elastic the term migration is," she added.

A database at the center facilitates the search for family roots, allowing "visitors to discover that there were probably also immigrants, refugees or displaced persons among their own ancestors," points out Blaschka.

One may find that they are the descendants of German emigrants — once dubbed "yokels" by Benjamin Franklin — who headed to the New World in search of a better life. Like the migrants who face persecution in Germany today, many struggled but ultimately found a way to integrate.

This article was translated from German.