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.
October 2023
Poem and Caricature (Excerpt from Magazine), 1880
| Material | Newspaper graphic (paper, printing ink) |
| Loan provider | Initiative Group Deutsches Auswandererhaus e.V. |
| Published in | Über Land und Meer. Allgemeine Illustrirte Zeitung Vol. 46, 23rd Year (October 1880-1881), No. 44, p. 877 |
Historical Context
The magazine „Über Land und Meer“ was an illustrated periodical published weekly in Stuttgart between 1858 and 1923, primarily for entertainment. In its first issue, the editorial team outlined its program, aiming to connect its readers to all parts of the world via pictorial telegrams in response to new telegraph technology: “What the inventive, intrepid genius of our century thinks and creates shall become common property for readers who want to stay current with us.” According to the title of the newspaper, “the reader should wander and sail with us, and what he sees with us, we want to embrace with the golden frame of words.” The editorial team passionately justified the need for a new ‘picture sheet’:
© Initiative Group Deutsches Auswandererhaus e.V.
© Initiative Group Deutsches Auswandererhaus e.V.
© Initiative Group Deutsches Auswandererhaus e.V.
“Since traveling has transformed into flights across vast distances, since the globe is girdled with iron railways, since the seas are plowed by countless giant steamers, since the greatest invention of the century allows us to project thoughts ahead even to the boldest travelers, since they connect lands across foaming waves of the sea with gigantic cables, much like giant nerves linking the separated limbs of the colossus to communicate any idea to all parts of the mighty earth’s body at the same time, since the endless expanses of deserts, the palm forests of India, the ice regions of the North, the primeval forests of America present no distance to us anymore, literature has experienced a turning point like never before and perhaps will never again.”
In the mid-1880s, the magazine had a circulation of 130,000 copies and featured contributors such as Theodor Fontane, Karl May, and Wilhelm Raabe, who are still well-known writers today.
Significance of the Object
The “original drawing” by the Munich graphic artist Carl Stauber (1815-1902) completely encircles a poem by the Munich-based writer Franz Trautmann (1813-1887). Titled “The Emigrants,” it quotes the already clichéd migration motif of seeking the “delightful, happy, beautiful life.” However, as the imagery makes clear, those described are not the people who emigrated during the 1880s, the time of the largest emigration from the German Empire, drawn toward the industrialized cities of the U.S. Instead, it is their exact opposite: Here, the inhabitants of the fallen forests, mountains, and shafts – the dwarfs, trolls, giants – flee from industrialization with its factories, railways, and steamers. What drove human emigrants from their birthplaces in Germany to their chosen destinations overseas transforms these beings from the German fairy tale and mythological world into emigrants into an oblivion. Perhaps a mere inconsequential critique of technology, the caricature acquires a unique wit given its publication context: While the magazine asserted itself as technologically savvy and “in tune with the times,” the caricature points to a consequence of that: Those who aim to “connect pictorial telegrams with all parts of the world” cannot simultaneously draw their symbolic imagery (exclusively) from a national reservoir. Migration thus proves to be reflexively subversive even in contexts where it is merely quoted in a caricatured intent.
Short Biography of the Loan Provider
After engaged citizens of Bremerhaven came together in 1985 to advocate for the establishment of a museum on emigration history at an authentic location, entrepreneurs and politicians from Bremerhaven founded the “Initiative Group Experience World Emigration” in 1998 to give this purpose increased political emphasis. When the Deutsches Auswandererhaus opened in 2005, the now renamed “Initiative Group Deutsches Auswandererhaus e.V.” entrusted the museum with the extensive and significant graphic collection that had been compiled over twenty years. This collection is now a long-term loan in the museum’s holdings.
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