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 2025
Letter, 1906
In this letter, Theodor Meynberg from the ‘St. Raphael Association for the Protection of Catholic German Emigrants’ reassures the worried father of 15-year-old Christoph Diehl, who emigrates alone in 1906.
Short Biography
Christoph Diehl was born in 1891 in Sonnenberg, now a district of the Hesse state capital Wiesbaden, as the son of a gardener. Later, the family moves to Nieder-Mörlen. As a teenager, Christoph works as a ball boy at the golf course in Bad Nauheim, where he meets the American industrialist Thomas Hayward in 1906. The entrepreneur shows great interest in Christoph’s hobby, wood carving. He evaluates Christoph’s sketches and designs and sees great potential in the fifteen-year-old. The industrialist decides to support Christoph’s development. He offers to bring the young artist to Baltimore, give him work there, and finance his attendance at the Maryland Institute, a school for art and design. Christoph is thrilled, and later that same year, he embarks on his journey to the USA from the Hamburg harbor. However, in America, his promising artist career abruptly ends in 1908: Christoph unexpectedly falls ill with typhus and passes away after three weeks of illness.
Historical Context
At the behest of the merchant Peter Paul Cahensly from Limburg, the “St. Raphael Association for the Protection of Catholic German Emigrants” was established in 1871 at the General Assembly of German Catholics in Mainz. Branches are founded in all major European departure ports, and later also in North and South American arrival locations. The association builds a network of trusted individuals to advise and support emigrants in the port cities; it engages in political lobbying and advocates for improved travel conditions with authorities and shipping companies; it sends pastors on board the ships to ensure pastoral care and establishes contacts overseas so that emigrants are also supported upon their arrival at the destination ports. When the number of Eastern European emigrants begins to rise in the 1880s, the St. Raphael Association expands its activities to include passing Catholic travelers.
Significance of the object
The St. Raphael’s Society deploys trusted men in the port cities who take care of arriving emigrants: first in Hamburg in 1872, in Bremen in 1873, and by 1877 also in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Liverpool, and London. The trusted men have important responsibilities; they, for example, pick up emigrants from the train, arrange reliable accommodations for them, take them to Catholic services, advise and accompany them during shopping or currency exchange, and if necessary, help them find ship passages. Furthermore, they are also important contacts for the families left behind. For instance, Theodor Meynberg, the trusted man in Hamburg, informs Christoph Diehl’s family by postcard that he has arrived on the “America” in New York on October 20. A week later, the trusted man responds to a letter from Christoph’s father, and can reassure him about his son’s stay in Hamburg, the crossing, and funding: Christoph has found paid work in the emigrant halls, which consisted of only minor assistance tasks, but exempted him from board fees, allowing him to save money. Even during the crossing, the son “did not have to pay a penny extra” and has enough money for New York. Meynberg has also informed the Raphael Society in New York in writing about Christoph’s arrival on the America and requested for him to be picked up.
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