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.
July 2018
Travel sewing kit ‘Hapag-Lloyd Tours’ from around 1989
Historical Context
The travel sewing kit in a cardboard cover is a promotional gift from the travel provider Hapag-Lloyd Tours.
Short Biography
In 1897, Ignaz Schmid disappears for two years. Upon his return, it turns out that he has emigrated – and returned to Germany. Ignaz Schmid is the grandfather of our donor Anneliese Banholzer. 55 years after her grandfather, she also emigrates. From Hamburg, she boards the ‘Italia’ to New York. Her later husband Heinz Banholzer also emigrates to America: he takes the ‘Gripsholm’ from Bremerhaven to New York. Both leave Germany on April 26, 1952, and arrive in New York on May 7. There, the ‘Gripsholm’ is processed just before the ‘Italia.’ Anneliese and her husband meet for the first time at a shooting festival in New Jersey. Like her grandfather, Anneliese Banholzer returns to Germany with her husband and son. They continue to make trips back to the USA.
Significance of the Object
Everyone surely knows travel sewing kits like this one – and they have saved many from unpleasant experiences on the road. On ‘Needle-Threading Day,’ celebrated on July 25, we bring this underestimated object into the spotlight.
Little is known about the origin of ‘Thread-the-Needle Day,’ as it is called in its American home. However, it is noteworthy that ‘to thread a needle’ does not just mean ‘to put a needle through the thread.’ The phrase is also used as a metaphor for finding a middle ground between different positions – certainly a practice that emigrants and immigrants alike have had to practice throughout all times.
Anneliese Banholzer receives this sewing kit from the travel operator Hapag-Lloyd Tours when she participates in a maiden flight from Hanover to New York in October 1989. It contains various thread colors, some needles, safety pins, and buttons – and for inexperienced “threaders,” it also includes a band-aid.
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