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 2023
Double page in notebook, 1926/27
Historical Context
Around the time of his emigration from Saxony to Chicago in late 1926, 19-year-old Alfred Ernst Pönisch created a notebook titled ‘Memories and Remembrances.’ It contains 18 pages described or designed by him: alongside a collection of photographs (with some images later partially removed), it also includes two extensive poems. One is an elegiac lament for his own youth, while the other is a satire on American society.
The elegy, as a strict lyrical form in German, had long since become obsolete around 1900. Before its reinvention by Rilke and Brecht, its gesture of mournfully and/or nostalgically lamenting a past could still be imitated unironically. In contrast, satirical verse likely enjoyed great popularity at all times, especially among Latin-learning high school students.
Short Biography
Alfred Ernst Pönisch was born on March 7, 1907, as the seventh child in Hainichen/Saxony and graduated from high school there in 1924. He subsequently studied chemistry at the Technical College of Chemnitz until 1926. Later that same year, he followed his older brother Martin to Chicago in the USA – unlike in Germany, he hoped to find a good job there as a chemical engineer. In fact, he quickly found work at a soap factory and earned good money. He became acquainted with the ‘American Way of Life’ in his apartment, which he shared with two other immigrants from Ireland and Italy – he remained a lover of Italian lifestyle throughout his life.
On his first “home leave” in 1930, he sought out his former “dance partner” Gertrud, with whom he married later that year. Their plans to go to the USA together were shattered by the effects of the Great Depression: One day before their scheduled departure from Bremerhaven on October 10, 1930, the USA issued a strict entry ban for all who did not possess or had not applied for American citizenship. This affected Gertrud. Thus, it happened that Alfred returned to Chicago without his bride – and in 1931 left the USA forever.
He found employment in Waldheim/Saxony at the soap company A.H.A. Bergmann. After the war and being a prisoner of war, he was able to return to the company, now known as “VEB Rosodontwerke Waldheim.” Due to political pressure, he left the now-renamed “Florena-Werke” in 1957/58. He passed away on November 30, 1981, in Waldheim/Saxony.
Significance of the object
Elegy and satire side by side in the notebook – surely not coincidentally the former written in Latin and the latter in German script – convey the impression of a young man who, in a situation of great uncertainty, shortly after the “migration,” relied on the classical education and stereotypes imparted to him during his school years. Thus, the 19-year-old wrote in the elegy titled “Reflection” about himself, connecting motifs of age poetry with those of classic exile literature:
Time of unclouded joy is blown away
all the songs and all the wine have faded,
I must now feel life’s harsh fist
in a foreign land, not in the homeland.
With melancholy, longing heart
I think back to that time enough,
nothing remains for me in the foreign land from that,
but a sweet, shining memory.
In the document that served as the basis for UNESCO’s proclamation of March 21 as World Poetry Day, it is aptly described what psychological function poetry can serve: Poetry is “a social need that especially encourages young people to return to their roots (to return to their roots), and a means that allows them to engage with their self at a time when the outside world irresistibly distracts them from themselves.” In this sense, migration could certainly mean a “good time for poetry” – at least in terms of the need to produce verses.
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