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 2023
Coffee pot 0.3 l from a ship of the Arosa-Line, around 1955
Historical Context
On July 1, Canada celebrates its national holiday, Canada Day. The streets are decorated with red and white flags, fireworks illuminate the night sky, and Canadians around the world celebrate the founding of the country. With the enactment of the British North America Act (now known as the Constitution Act) in 1867, the country receives its own constitution but remains under the rule of the British Crown as a member of the Commonwealth. From 1879 to 1982, the holiday was known as Dominion Day, and since 1983 it has been celebrated as Canada Day. Canada has always been characterized by its society shaped by migration and its positive attitude towards immigration.
According to a census from 2021, there are 8.3 million migrants in Canada, making up about 23% of the total population. The Canadian migration history of European origin begins in the 17th century, when French colonists established the first settlements on the East Coast. In the 18th century, the formerly French colonies in Canada come under British rule.
In the province of Nova Scotia, the oldest Canadian city founded by German-speaking settlers, Lunenburg, is located. Towards the end of the 19th century, many Russian-German Mennonites and Hutterites flee religious persecution from Tsarist Russia, primarily to the province of Ontario. At that time, migrants of German origin make up only 4% of all immigration. During World War I and II, German migration to Canada decreases drastically. Canada is part of the Allied forces in World War II and initially restricts entry opportunities for Germans.
In the 1950s to 1970s, over half of all migrants came from Europe, including many Germans who saw no future for themselves in war-torn Germany. Since the turn of the millennium, there has been a steady influx from Asia and the Middle East. China and India have now replaced Great Britain as the most common countries of birth for non-Canadian residents.
Canada is now regarded as a prime example of a multi-ethnic and progressive society and is particularly popular among skilled professionals as a destination. However, Canada’s migration history is also not free from discrimination and racism. Especially in the first half of the 20th century, immigration policies pursued aimed to maintain the European character of the country (white skin, Christian religious affiliation, English or at least French language) (“Keep Canada White”).
The indigenous population of Canada inhabited the land long before the first colonists from Europe settled there in the 17th century. For many years, the First Nations, as these population groups are called, suffered from aggressive assimilation (to the societal norms of European colonists) through so-called residential schools and confinement to reserves.
Brief biography
Oskar Strate (*January 6, 1920 in Bremen, †1970) completed his training at Norddeutscher Lloyd in the 1930s, returning after two years of war captivity. In the 1950s, he switched to the smaller shipping company Arosa Line, where he worked as a manager. He met his wife Margarete in 1951 in Düsseldorf, where she worked as an accountant in a travel agency of Norddeutscher Lloyd. The Arosa Line transports passengers between Europe and Canada, which is why Oskar Strate lived in Montreal from 1953 to 1957, while his son Dietmar stayed with his grandmother in Germany during this time. In 1957, the Strate family traveled first class on the Arosa Sun for a multi-week vacation to America. Onboard, the Strate family was treated exceptionally well, which greatly impressed ten-year-old Dietmar. Oskar Strate switched to the shipping company Home Line at the beginning of the 1960s and worked there for another two years.
In 2019, Dietmar Strate presented a donation to the Deutsches Auswandererhaus, which includes, among private photographs of the crossing to Canada, also onboard china from the Arosa Line. The displayed coffee pot has already traveled many nautical miles between Bremerhaven and Canada.
Significance of the object
As beautiful as this small silver coffee pot, manufactured by Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik WMF, may be with its Art Deco elements, the engraving Arosa Line is what makes it significant for this article. It is an explicit reference to the rather unknown and short-lived shipping company where Oskar Strate worked for several years. Founded by the Swiss financier Niccolo Rizzi, the Arosa Line existed from 1952 to 1958. Rizzi named the fleet after the Swiss holiday resort Arosa.
The company also operated under the name Compaña Internacional Transportadora and managed a total of four ships: the Arosa Kulm (1919), Arosa Star (1930), Arosa Sky (1944), and Arosa Sun (1930). All four ships were acquired from other shipping companies and were registered under foreign flags, meaning they did not sail under the Swiss flag but under the flags of Panama or Liberia, which provided financial advantages. The ships regularly sailed on transatlantic routes between Quebec and Bremerhaven, and occasionally called at ports in Montreal, Southampton, New York, Le Havre, or Hamburg. The Arosa Line specialized in transporting migrants, students, and anyone for whom crossing the Atlantic with major shipping companies would have been too expensive. Many people who wanted to start a new life in Canada in the 1950s reached the country aboard one of the ships of the Arosa Line.
After 1957, the number of passengers declined continuously, and the company expanded its routes to include trips to the Caribbean, which, however, did not prevent the decline of the shipping line. Rizzi found himself forced to sell the Arosa Sky, and eventually, the Arosa Line officially went bankrupt in 1959. The Arosa Star was seized and sank in 1970 off the coast of California under a new name, the Arosa Kulm was scrapped in Bruges, and the Arosa Sun, on which Oskar Strate also traveled with his family to America, later served as floating accommodation for workers in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, it’s unknown whether the coffee pots were still in use there.
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