Through Space and Time
Migration
The first part of the permanent exhibition follows the trails of emigrants from all over Europe across the ocean to the New World. They came from Oldenburg, Saxony, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, fleeing from hunger, war, persecution, or hopelessness. Key points of this moving journey are elaborately staged in the museum and can be discovered interactively: the farewell at the quay in Bremerhaven, the crossing on swaying ships, the immigration station Ellis Island, or some of the typical living environments of immigrants in 19th and 20th century New York. Each visitor receives an electronic passport for the tour, allowing them to follow a real life story. Not only does the museum bring the historical and societal backgrounds of immigration over a period of around 340 years into focus, but it also highlights individual biographies, giving voice to those who are often not heard.
Immigration
Emigrating also means immigrating to another country. This perspective and the question of how people find a new home is the focus of the second part of the permanent exhibition. The tour initially leads to the German Federal Republic after 1945. At central locations of social life, debates about immigration are made tangible from various perspectives. In the next room, the focus returns to the individual: through personal reports and objects, immigrants from the past 340 years share their experiences of building their new home in Germany. At the end of the tour, museum visitors arrive at the “Forum Migration.” Here they can reflect on what they have experienced or focus on their own family history and research emigrants in their ancestry.
An exhibition is created
During the construction of the new building and the expansion of its permanent exhibition, the team of the German Emigration Center collaborated with experts from crafts, art, culture, and science. Take a look behind the scenes of the creation of an extraordinary exhibition that opened on June 26, 2021.
Portraits tell stories
The façade of the 2021 extension building features portrait reliefs of people who have immigrated to Germany and settled in Bremerhaven. Here you can learn more about the stories of the depicted individuals. Their facade portraits represent the history and present of Bremerhaven – not only as an emigration port but also as an immigration city.
