Rhineland emigrants in the USA

Trailer YouTube | History books tell us about emperors and kings, princes and archbishops, but not about people like you and me. Here at the Rhine Dragon, I write about the history of our region from the view of families who lived through these historical events.

Little is known about those people who in the early modern age left their beloved homeland because they were suffering hunger and hardships, or persecution for their beliefs. This story is about two families from the Rhineland, the Tombachs and the Bergmanns, who left their home to build up a new life for themselves in America. Nonetheless, they always keep in touch with their German relatives. We will accompany them through German and American History, from the time of Louis XIV of France until the Great War and the Allied Rhineland occupation. The historical events set the stage for the people and tells the story of a family that is at home on both sides of the Atlantic.

An important historical figure in this story is Carl Schurz. As a young student at Bonn University, he fought with Professpr Gottfried Kinkel and the Bonn Democrats for the 1848/49 Revolution. However, the old forces regained power, and King Frederick William IV. Prussia joined them. When a delegation of the National Assembly in Francfort offered him the crown, he turned them down. Now Schurz joined the insurrection in Baden. A Prussian army under Prince William crushed the rebellion. Schurz narrowly escaped the Prussian troops and fled, first to Paris, then to London. A few years later, he emigrated to the United States with his wife Margarethe and became an important statesman there.

"Before I left the house I went for a moment to my study. From the window I had a free outlook on the Rhine and the lovely Seven Mountains. How often, gazing upon this charming picture, had I dreamed of a quiet and beautiful life! Now I could in the darkness distinguish only the outline of my beloved hills against the horizon. Here was my room quiet as ever. How often had I peopled it with my imaginings! Here were my books and manuscripts, all testifying of hopes, plans, and endeavors, which now perhaps had to be left behind forever. An instinctive feeling told me that all this was now over.”

Carl Schurz, Reminiscences, Volume 1

While doing research for the English version, I found an interview with Barack Obama in Harper's magazine, and in it the following passage (shortened). "[..] it is time to remember that the Republicans did far better in the past [..] once they elevated the nation's political dialogue, gave us hope and preached a new form of patriotism which sought to include rather than divide, which valued education and chastised ignorance, which extolled the liberties of our constitutional order and cursed tyrants and slaveholders. [..] Among those Republicans [..] I remember Carl Schurz."

I was deeply touched by the words "to include rather than divide". Today, a sense of togetherness within a society, within Europe and the international community of states is conjured in every time more urging words, but at the same time more and more deep rifts appear. Now my story got longer - I wanted to write about people who lived openness, tolerance and compassion. Let us give our best attention to the courageous and upright people, because its them who give us hope and courage - not the often destructive headlines.

Found here: Schurz: The True Americanism, Harper's Magazine: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/11/hbc-90003773 retrieved on November 8, 2011