Facade portrait: Francesco Antonio Sangiorgi

Francesco Antonio Sangiorgi

*1957 in Valledolmo, Sicily, Italy

Immigration to Bremerhaven: 1979

Francesco Antonio Sangiorgi fondly remembers his childhood on his parents’ farm in Sicily. However, when he turns 15, he and his family face the question of what his future path should be. The region offers few perspectives for young people. His mother wants him to become a priest, but Francesco realizes early on that this is not a career worth pursuing for him. Instead, he goes to Tuscany, where his aunt and uncle run a restaurant in the town of Marina di Cecina. The contrast to Southern Italy is so strong that Francesco Sangiorgi says today:

“It was like America for me at that time!”

“It was like America for me at that time!”

Unlike Sicily, young men and women can meet and converse in public – in his hometown, that would have been unthinkable.

Francesco Antonio Sangiorgi, 2019

At first, Francesco helps out at the restaurant, then he completes an apprenticeship as a hotel specialist. During his one-year military service in touristy Rome, he develops a desire to see the world. He looks for a job abroad, initially in England, but since he knows no one there, he chooses the Federal Republic, where family friends arrange accommodation for him. He arrives in Hagen in Westphalia by train in 1978 – at that time a city with a large Italian diaspora, between 17,000 and 20,000, as Francesco Sangiorgi recalls.

After 14 months, during which he works various jobs there, it becomes too much for him.

“I live in Germany, but I live like in Italy,” he thinks and moves to Bremerhaven, where his cousin lives.

In the port city, the Italian community counts just 150 people.

This is where Francesco Sangiorgi begins to learn German intensively. Here, he wants to fulfill his dream of opening his own restaurant. In 1983, he buys a suitable property. On August 15, 1984, it finally happens: The restaurant ‘Italia’ opens. Later, another branch is added. Due to the numerous US troops, the gastronomy in Bremerhaven is booming. The GIs leave good tips, and sometimes Italian Americans stop by, but communication with them in Italian is difficult due to the many regional dialects.

He also met his future wife, who hails from L’Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo, in Northern Germany – she was there on vacation. The couple has three children by now. Additionally, he has family history connected to Bremerhaven – his grandfather was already in the city in 1899 before emigrating to the USA. However, he returned to Italy in 1908.

Francesco Sangiorgi is particularly proud of his theatrical experience: The renowned director Johannes Felsenstein (1944 – 2017), who was then the head of music theater in Bremerhaven and one of his regular guests, let him cook on stage in 1990 – a novelty in German theater. In a total of eight sold-out performances, Francesco Sangiorgi plays an innkeeper in Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s ‘Il Campiello’ and prepares real dishes that the actors consume on stage. The audience and the performers were thrilled, but the orchestra complained – because the smell of the feast distracted the musicians.