Mass Emigration to the New World

The 19th century was marked by mass emigration as oppressive living and working conditions in Europe led many people to seek their fortune on other continents. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and especially the United States were very attractive countries for emigrants.

In total, more than 5.5 million Germans left their homeland during the "long" 19th century (between 1820 and 1912).

German emigration to the US did not just take place from 1800 onward, however. By the time of the American Revolution in 1776, a third of Pennsylvania's population spoke German. As a result, a German version of the Declaration of Independence appeared just 2 days after the English document.

The US promised a way out for the poor and the politically persecuted. The first large mass emigration occurred between 1815 and 1848. Around 600,000 Germans emigrated during this period, 90 percent of them to the US.

Rising population numbers and the beginnings of industrialization led to pauperism—the impoverishment of large parts of the population—causing hunger and homelessness.

In addition, the failure of the bourgeois revolution of 1848 led many who had fought for democracy and national unification to emigrate to the US.

Most emigrants were small farmers or craftsmen with families. This passenger ticket, for example, was issued to a carpenter and his family. The need for emigrants' skills was so great that many communities were even prepared to subsidize the costs of the crossing.

Between 1880 and 1914, over 2 million eastern and southeastern European Jews emigrated overseas. Many of them came from the formerly Polish region of Galicia.

In the late 19th century, bitter poverty and pogroms—mass acts of religious persecution—led to the emigration of Jewish citizens from the Russian Empire as well, especially following the Odessa pogrom of 1871. The murder of Russian Tsar Alexander II (1818–81) gave rise to discriminatory laws and more violent pogrom waves against the Jewish population.

The emigration train station Ruhleben in Berlin became a center for those coming from the East. Here, registration, health checks, and—following a cholera epidemic in Hamburg in 1892 allegedly brought in by Russian emigrants—disinfection took place.

The Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden (Relief Organization of German Jews) was founded in 1901 in Berlin as a religiously neutral entity. It mainly supported Eastern European Jewish emigrants to begin with, particularly from Russia and Galicia, and guided them on their trip through the German Reich. In addition to its headquarters in Berlin, the organization ran branches in Hamburg and Bremen.

After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, the relief organization looked after Jews who were expelled from Germany and forced to emigrate. This document is from 1938.

Emigrants were accommodated on the often crowded steerage decks of cruise ships making the journey across the Atlantic. In rooms that were typically at very deep levels of the ship, they barely had more than a square yard to themselves for sleeping, eating, and relaxing. Poor hygiene and medical resources made the 40- to 80-day crossing a torment.

The journey time was shortened to around 2 weeks with the increased use of modern steamships in the 1890s.

Once emigrants arrived at their destinations, letters were their only connection to the Old World. Writing to those back home, they reported on their experiences and on everyday life in foreign countries. The letters often included stories of their successes, which spurred on relatives and friends in their homelands to emigrate.