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Traces in American History
It was in May 1750 that a young man, Gottlieb
Mittelberger, left his hometown of Eberdingen, near Vaihingen on his way
to Heilbronn where he was to pick up an organ for later shipment to Pennsylvania.
After a long and time-consuming trip down the River Rhine where he had
to pass no less than 36 toll stations and then deal with delays in Holland,
he finally arrived at Providence, Pennsylvania on October 10th of that
same year. He described his journey in a travel-journal entitled "Reise
nach Pennsylvanien im Jahre 1750 und Rückreise nach Deutschland im
Jahr 1754". An English edition had already been published by 1889. The
original publication, which exists in two copies in the municipal libraries
of Heidelberg and Stuttgart, contains a letter of attest, which certified
that
"the bearer, Mr. Mittleberger, music
master... has behaved honestly, diligently and faithfully in his Office
of Schoolmaster and Organist ...( that ) all his employees were entirely
satisfied (but that he) has resolved to return ... to his native land,
which is the Dukedom of Wuerttemberg in high Germany".
This particular document reveals just how closely
administrative offices in both countries were supposed to work with each
other. One of the more prominent German-American partnership societies,
the "Canstatter Verein" (named after the village of Canstatt, near Stuttgart)
is still active today. Many of the so-called "Fourty-Eighters", those German
revolutionaries who unsuccessfully fought for the formation of a German
Republic in 1848 originally came from Baden. Men such as Friedrich Hecker,
Franz Siegel, August Willich or Gustav Struve acted, like many of their
countrymen, in seeking fraternal bonds with those in the same predicament.
Their founding of a society known as the "Latin Farmers" was typical of
the movement that guided many Germans in America during this time period.
The small village of Waldorf, near Heidelberg
set the scene for one of the most unbelievable success stories ever recorded;
the Baden emigrant, John Jacob Astor and his rise to becoming the richest
man in the world. Astor hailed from Waldorf. The placename eventually became
a synonym for Astor's Waldorf-Astoria financial empire. His story also
is related to music instruments: History tells that upon arrival in the
United States, Astor's possessions included nothing more than seven flutes.
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Friedrich Hecker, revolutionary,
latin farmer, Colonel in US Civil War.
Born September 28., 1811 in
Eichtersheim, Baden, died March 24, 1881, in Summerfield, Illinois.
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