Desperately Seeking Gustave

I must go down to the sea again,

To the lonely sea and the sky.

("Sea Fever" by John Masefield)

Bremerhaven is on the north coast and major shipping port. Haven means "harbor" and is pronounced "haffen"....sort of.....and that concludes my German lesson for today.

But it also is THE major port for German emigration in the past and that is why we came.

Bremerhaven liegt an der Nordsee und ist einer der größten deutschen Überseehäfen. Außerdem war er in früheren Zeiten DER Hafen für Auswanderer schlechthin in Deutschland, dies ist auch der Grund für unseren Besuch.

Every American student has a German ancestor in the not too distant past. Every German student has a relative who left the country. This was a fine day. We learned a lot.

Jeder der Amerikaner hat einen deutschen Vorfahren in seiner Vergangenheit der in die USA ausgewandert ist, genau wie fast jeder und jede Deutsche mindestens einen Auswanderer in der Familie hat.

Here's two things that we learned. If you want to take the train to Bremerhaven ....you gotta get to the station early (though, I assure you, German trains run ALL THE TIME, EVERYWHERE.....but we had a long day and had to get going early.)

The second thing we learned....the train stations have lovely coffee/bakery/eatery restaurants. (Think: upscale Tim Hortons at the very least) In the photo above, James and Lisa select their train-ride breakfast to go. (So civilized!)

Heute haben wir vor allem zwei Dinge gelernt.
1. Man muss ziemlich früh aufstehen, wenn man mit dem Zug nach Bremerhaven fahren will. (Bekanntlich kann man in Deutschland immer und überall hin mit dem Zug fahren. Wir hatten allerdings viel vor.)
2. An deutschen Bahnhöfen gibt es wirklich schöne Bäckereien und Cafes, hier kann man zum Beispiel toll frühstücken. So wie Lisa und James.

Find your seat. Eat. (Keep your feet off the seat in front of you.) Talk to your friends, wander the aisles and watch the German countryside fly by at about 150 mph.

There is a fine German Emigration Museum in Bremerhaven which allows one to wander through the exhibits from the start of your leaving Germany ... until you entered Ellis Island or Philadelphia or other American ports....(or Argentina or Australia or Canada)

In Bremerhaven gibt es ein wirklich schönes Auswanderermuseum. Hier kann man die Geschichte der Auswanderer verfolgen, vom verlassen des Bremerhavens bis hin zur Einwanderung auf Ellis Island in New York (oder in einem anderen amerikanischen Hafen, Kanada, Argentinien oder Australien.)

Our boat is at the pier....and you can see costumed mannequins waiting to board ...along with some of our students checking out the exhibits. (Very lifelike .....and it felt like Leo Decaprio should come running up the gangplank of the Titanic.)

Unser Schiff hat angelegt und es warten auch schon einige Passagiere am Dock. (Das gesamte Museum ist so realistisch gestaltet, dass man schon fast meinen könnte, Leonardo Di Caprio liefe jeden Moment die Gangway hinauf.)

The exhibits of life below decks....and first and second class rooms....were excellent. There were different eras of travel....sailing vessels, steam ships and the classic ocean liners (like the Titanic, where, if MY ancestors had emigrated on that ship, they would definitely have been locked in steerage.)

The beneath-decks exhibit above was designed with the floor angled, so as to simulate the unevenness of a ships riding the waves. It did throw you a bit.

Natürlich gibt es auch Ausstellungen, die das Leben unter Deck zeigen, allerdings nur derer in der 2. und 3. Klasse.

Außerdem wurden die verschiedenen Zeitalter der Überfahrt dargestellt, von Segelschiffen über Dampfschiffe bis hin zu den großen Überseeschiffen wie der Titanic.

Der gesamte Fußboden in diesem Abschnitt ist dem eines Schiffes nachempfunden, dementsprechend schief ist er auch.

Here's my bathroom during the voyage of say 1880.....gotta want to leave the farm pretty badly to endure this in third class.

In diesem Bild kann man das Badezimmer der 3. Klasse auf einer Überfahrt um 1880 erkennen. Man musste schon ein ziemlich großes Bedürfnis, danach die Farm verlassen zu können, haben.

My steamer trunk is piled in the baggage room. Everything I can take with me to the New World is in it!

The anxiousness of waiting at Ellis Island for the physical, the emigration questions, making certain all papers were in order............

But, if all things were in order.....then from Ellis Island to Grand Central Station to all parts West.....or a life in America as a New Yorker.

Sobald man die Einbürgerung in die USA auf Ellis Island erfolgreich hinter sich gebracht hatte, ging es für die meisten zur Grand Central Station in New York und von dort in die zahlreichen Städte im Westen. Oder man blieb in New York.

There were many ports of call for Emigrants to the US....but I am sure they all endured a long passage and various heartaches and ... high hopes.

Anyway....the voyages, depending on the different eras, could take from 8-10 weeks, or with steam ships just a couple weeks. In the 20th century it was but 12-16 days or less.

The middle 1800's sailing vessels were NOT romantic, nor were the say, late 1800's steam ships. Cramped quarters. Bad and moldy food. Lack of air. Lack of excercise. Boredom. Sea sickness. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the known.

My Great Grandpa Gustave must have had little to live for in Germany in the 1800's...and thus endured the trip....probably from Bremerhaven to Philadelphia.

I thought a lot about that a few hours later as the high-speed German train carried me the opposite direction across the German countryside that my Great Grandfather traversed some 140 years ago.

The difference was that I rode in comfort...(and with plenty of Hanuta.)

An afternoon in Bremerhaven meant walking the city, shopping, observing the port, eating fish and chips, sampling the liquid heritage and of course....for me....looking at churches.

Here is today's history lesson: Bremerhaven is on the muddy lands of the north coast ... Very little building-stone....thus, bricks were the main method of construction.

Loved this design on the church above.

Der Nachmittag stand allen zur freien Verfügung.