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.
March 2019
Postcard from around 1930
Historical Context
In the late afternoon of March 16, 1941, the watch officer on the ‘Bremen’, one of the most popular emigrant ships of Norddeutscher Lloyd, raised the alarm: a fire had broken out in the ship’s hunting room. Although the crew immediately attempted to extinguish the flames, they spread and affected other rooms. When the Wesermünde fire brigade arrived, the ship was already burning fiercely across several decks. 25 crew members, whose escape route from the ship was cut off by the flames, were barely rescued via a ladder from the aft of the ship. For two long days, the fire brigade fought against the flames – finally, they were extinguished. The upper decks were completely burned out, and the steamer was grounded. The once-proud passenger ship of Norddeutscher Lloyd was destroyed. Since arson was obviously the cause of the disaster, the Secret State Police initiated an investigation. During the interrogation of the crew, the 17-year-old cabin boy Gustav Schmidt confessed to having started the fire. According to his statement, however, he did not set the fire for political reasons as suspected by the Gestapo, but to take revenge for a slap from a superior. He claimed he did not intend to destroy the ship; he just wanted to see the sailors ‘run for it’ once. Despite multiple interrogations, the boy remained steadfast in his testimony. Gustav Schmidt was subsequently sentenced to death. To this day, however, doubts remain as to whether he was truly the sole perpetrator of the fire. The wreck of the ‘Bremen’ was finally purchased by the Navy, which had it raised and relocated to the Kaiser Port in Bremerhaven. From 1942 onwards, all usable materials were salvaged, and the rest of the ship was eventually scrapped.
Short biography of “Bremen”
The turbine ship “Bremen” was launched on August 16, 1928, by AG Weser, Bremen, and was handed over to Norddeutscher Lloyd in July of the following year. It was already the fourth ship of the shipping company to bear the name “Bremen.” The great success of Norddeutscher Lloyd was due to the emigrant business – by its 50th anniversary in 1907, it had risen to become the leading passenger shipping company in the world. The maiden voyage of the new “Bremen” took place on July 16, 1929, from Bremerhaven to New York, during which it set a new record with an average speed of 27.83 knots: with a travel time of 4 days, 17 hours, and 42 minutes from Cherbourg to New York, the “Bremen” captured the Blue Riband. After 22 years, a German ship received the award for the fastest Atlantic crossing once again. The elegantly designed steamer was among the top international ships of its time and, at 51,656 BRT, was the largest ship built in Bremen up to that point. The “Bremen” could transport up to 2,278 passengers at full capacity. A sensational innovation on the ship was a catapult system for launching an aircraft for mail delivery. Approximately one day before the fast steamer’s arrival in New York – or on the return journey in Cherbourg – the aircraft was launched. This reduced the postal delivery time between Europe and the USA by up to 24 hours. With the start of World War II, the “Bremen” had to suspend its passenger service and was initially laid up. From the summer of 1940, the 286-meter long and 31-meter wide ship then served as a housing ship for the Navy in Bremerhaven until it was destroyed in a fire in March 1941.
Significance of the object
The postcard of the ‘Bremen’ is a typical commercial product of its time, yet it holds significant value as a piece of migration history. Ships were, until the rise of competition from air travel in the mid-20th century, the only means of transportation for millions of emigrants to overseas destinations. For shipping companies, postcards served as popular marketing tools. Through impressive images of their passenger ships, they advertised them and sought to attract potential travelers. The emigrants, on the other hand, sent postcards with messages to family members or friends left behind; for them, these were one of the means of communication that maintained the connection to their homeland. The postcards were also often kept as a personal reminder of the crossing.
Do you also …
… have a story of emigration or immigration from your family to share and would like to pass it on to the Deutsches Auswandererhaus along with the relevant objects and documents for its collection? Please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau at the phone number 0471 / 90 22 0 – 0 or by email at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de
Archive: Previous Objects of the Month
Show all objectsDo 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