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.
February 2026
Kettle, around 1961
| Size | Approx. 21.5 x 22 x 24.3 cm |
| Material | Metal, plastic |
| Donation | Gerda Brandt |
“Then life began anew”: A kettle reminds Gerda Brandt of the night in February 1962 when she survived the storm surge in Hamburg.
Historical Context
On the night of February 17, 1962, a severe storm surge hits the North Sea coast. In Hamburg, the dikes break, and the Elbe floods about one-sixth of the city: One of the worst flood disasters in the city’s history. Over 20,000 people must leave their homes, 315 die just in Hamburg.
Short Biography
Gerda Brandt is born in 1930 in Hamburg. She grows up in Veddel, a working-class neighborhood. In 1943, the family loses their apartment due to an air raid and moves to their allotment garden on the Elbe island of Wilhelmsburg. Like many other families, they convert their summer house into a winter-proof temporary home because housing is scarce in bombed Hamburg. After the end of World War II, she meets her future husband in the garden colony. The couple marries in 1947. The following year, their son Fred is born. The young family occupies an extension of her parents-in-law’s temporary home. Using stones from the wreckage in Veddel, they build another room. In June 1961, daughter Bärbel is born, who is to grow up in the little house with a garden before the family looks for a new apartment. They settle in and order a new bedroom according to specifications.
But in the midst of their renovation, the flood comes in 1962. In the garden area of Wilhelmsburg, which is located in a key between two dikes, the water rises. People are caught off guard in their sleep by the disaster. The Brandt family is awakened around 2 a.m. by Gerda’s parents, where the flood arrives earlier. Then it is: “Come on, everyone dress up, out onto the roof!” The group of eight people tries to weather the cold storm with the baby carriage. They witness Gerda’s aunt drowning in the neighbor’s house, thinking she wasn’t home, unable to help her. “And we actually thought our lives were over,” recalls Gerda Brandt. But the water remains still, and when it gets light, they are taken to the dike by boat. After initial accommodation at a friend’s place, the victims are to be “registered” at the Hamburg Michel. For Gerda Brandt, the process evokes memories of the bomb nights in World War II. She refuses to register, fearing she might end up in a “refugee camp.” Soon, the family begins to rebuild their lives, moving into a fourth-floor apartment in Altona. A ground-floor apartment was out of the question after the flooding experience.
As a witness, Gerda Brandt recounts her experiences in a television film in 2005 and reflects on them for herself.
© Collection Deutsches Auswandererhaus, donation Gerda Brandt
© Collection Deutsches Auswandererhaus, donation Gerda Brandt
© Collection Deutsches Auswandererhaus, donation Gerda Brandt
Significance of the Object
The kettle connects the time before and after the flood. It undergoes numerous changes in meaning: Gerda Brandt buys it for her new household in March or April 1961, shortly before her daughter’s birth. She sees the shiny silver kettle and “falls in love” with its unusual design. It costs 50 marks: Almost a week’s salary. Just a year later, the kettle is among the items floating disorderly in the flooded house in muddy water. The Brandts manage to salvage some things for their new life, such as the newly acquired appliances, which the manufacturers repair free of charge. Gerda uses the kettle in her new allotment garden since 1969 until she donates it to the Deutsches Auswandererhaus as a memento after forty years.
Storm surges have always influenced life on the North Sea coast. The dikes have not always protected people. Due to human-caused climate change and the resulting rise in sea levels, water levels will rise higher in the future. People worldwide need to find strategies: Are there sufficient resources to build even higher dikes? When does migration to a safer environment become possible? Many migrate in the face of environmental disasters nearby, just like the Brandts, who find a new place to live within Hamburg.
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