Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
December 2023
Christmas card, 1991/92
Historical Context
The first Christmas postcard was commissioned in 1843 in England by Henry Cole from the illustrator John Callcott Horsley. The civil servant Cole is especially known as the initiator of the first World Exhibition (Expo). In the USA, the first Christmas card was designed in 1874. In Germany, the tradition of sending Christmas cards only emerged after World War I, although before that, German printers produced many postcards for export.
Significance of the Object
The card was sent in 1991 or 1992 to Dyonis Ackermann (1902-1993), a relative of the donor. The man from Württemberg worked for a long time as a barber at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
Short Biography
Ignaz Schmid disappears for two years in 1897. Upon his return, it turns out he has emigrated – and returned to Germany. Ignaz Schmid is the grandfather of our donor Anneliese Banholzer (1928-2017).
55 years after her grandfather, she also emigrates. She travels from Hamburg on the ‘Italia’ to New York. Her later husband Heinz Banholzer is also drawn to America: he takes the ‘Gripsholm’ from Bremerhaven to New York. Both depart Germany on April 26, 1952, and arrive in New York on May 7.
There, the ‘Gripsholm’ is processed directly in front of the ‘Italia’, but Anneliese and her husband only meet at a shooting festival in New Jersey.
Like her grandfather, Anneliese Banholzer returns to Germany with her husband and son. Further travels take them back to the USA repeatedly.
Do You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de