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 2020
Ice cream sundae from the 1920s for the „European Day of Artisan Gelato“
Historical Context
In the 19th century, the production of ice cream becomes a craft. A milk-based liquid is churned in tin containers, which are cooled from the outside by frozen water and salt, and then scraped off the container walls. Specialty ice cream is brought to the northern regions of Europe by seasonal workers from two valleys in the northern Italian Dolomites, the Zoldo and Cadore valleys. The ‘gelatieri’ initially offer their product via the rapidly popular ‘carretti,’ or pushcarts. However, when in 1894 the long-established confectioners of Vienna insist that their competitors must provide a fixed business address for their license, the first Italian ice cream parlors emerge. Their spread to Germany occurs after World War I, primarily with ice cream makers from the Zoldotal opening ice cream shops. Since the 1950s, ice cream parlors have become an indispensable part of the urban landscape in Germany. According to the ‘Union of Italian Ice Cream Manufacturers’ (UNITEIS e. V.), there are currently about 9,000 artisan ice cafes in Germany, with about a third of them producing their own ice cream. The ice cafe market is expected to provide 26,000 jobs.
Short Biography of Emilio Toscani
Emilio Toscani was born on August 24, 1895, as the youngest of three children in the Moravian town of Brünn. His parents came from the Cadore Valley, where they moved to Austria-Hungary as ice manufacturers and sellers. After Emilio’s birth, the family returned to the Cadore Valley. The sons did not stay there long; like their parents, they moved north as ice makers. Emilio’s brother Albano started it. He ended up in Bremen, where Emilio followed him in 1912. After World War I, Albano resumed the ice business and opened an “ice cream parlor and alcoholic tavern” in Bremen in 1920. His brother followed him again. However, when he married Clara Eickhoff in 1926, the couple became independent and opened, soon as parents of three children, a restaurant and ice café called “Strandhalle” in Langen near Bremerhaven, right by a popular gravel pit lake. For more than 40 years, until Emilio’s death in 1967, the Toscani family’s establishment was a point of attraction in Langen and beyond – when the “gelati” can no longer be delivered by hand cart, one simply has to go to the ice cream parlor themselves…
Meaning of the object
The ice cream bowl comes from the Toscani family’s restaurant. The donor is the niece of Bruno Toscani, one of Emilio’s three children. As a family heirloom from the establishment that closed in 1967, the ice cream bowl serves as a reminder of how Emilio and his family became established in Langen. Moreover, the rather heavy silver ice cream bowl, intended for consuming ice cream while seated at a table, can also vividly illustrate the history of Italian ice cream from mobile street vending to the stationary shop.
Do you also have …
… to tell a story of migration from your family and would like to contribute it along with the related objects and documents to the Deutsches Auswandererhaus for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau at the phone number 0471 / 90 22 0 – 0 or via 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