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From the German "Mayflower" and
the Krefeld Emigrants to Carl Schurz
Krefeld, a small town situated along the
west bank of the lower Rhine River set the scene for the genesis of German
emigration to America. On the 7th of July, 1683 thirteen families, thirty-three
individuals altogether, left to start a new life in a new world. The emigrants
were mostly Pietists and Mennonites from areas along the German-Dutch border,
who were seeking refuge from religious persecution. On October 6th their
ship, the "Concorde", reached Philadelphia. Because of the pioneer character
of this event, this voyage would later be termed the sail of the "German
Mayflower". A young legal scholar by the name of Franz Daniel Pastorius
is credited for having organized this costly venture on behalf of the so-called
"Frankfurter Compagnie". Pastorius first happened upon the Krefeld Pietist
congregation during his recruitment circuit in Germany. He was able to
personally greet the settlers upon their arrival at the site of Germantown,
the first German settlement on the North American continent. In commemoration
of this event, October 6th has been designated as German-American
Day in the United States.
The emigration of another German, Christoph
Saur to Lancaster County Pennsylvania in 1724 may also be said to be a
landmark date in early German emigration to America. In 1743, this emigrant
from the village of Laasphe, near Schwarzenau, is credited with having
printed the first German-language bible in America. The Wittgenstein district
is said to be the place where the Church of the Schwarzenau Brethren originated.
Today, many religious groups in America are able to trace their heritage
back to the 17th century German Anabaptists and Pietist from this area.
Among the names of emigrants from North Rhine-Westphalia
that have retained prominence in American History is, of course,
Carl Schurz. He was born in the tenant-house quarters of Gracht Castle
in Liblar, near Bonn. In 1849, Schurz fought in the May uprising in Baden.
He later escaped to Switzerland and, via Rostock and England, sailed to
America in 1852. He was the first German-born immigrant, who succeeded
in rising to attain a career as a national politician, first, as a political
advisor to Abraham Lincoln, later, as a Missouri State Senator and, finally,
from 1877 to 1881, as the Secretary of the Interior.
The open air museum in the town of Kommern
recently presented an exhibit on emigration from North Rhine-Westphalia
to America.
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Carl Schurz, born in 1829 in Liblar near Cologne,
died 1906 in New York. Revolutionary, Journalist, General in US Civil War,
Secretary of Interior
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