A piece of German history in the land of the free
One rather rainy Sunday (October 10, 2016) our group left the hotel early because we booked a tour at the Tenement Museum. After a half-an-hour walk along the skyscrapers of New York we reached our destination on Orchard Street. We had some time to pass because our teachers always made sure to leave the hotel quite on time. When our tour through “Kleindeutschland” (”little Germany”) finally started the rain started with us. But luckily we were dressed warmly and rain resistantly due to our experience with the German weather.
“Kleindeutschland” was located on the Lower East Side in Manhattan and mostly Germans used to live there. In 1840 approximately 24000 Germans lived in “Kleindeutschland”. The number of Germans who found a home in this area at the beginning of the 20th century was estimated to be 50000. But some of these homes were temporary as many families moved away to settle down and work in another part of the U.S. There was a lot of coming and going in “Kleindeutschland” due to the fact thatimmigrants first landed in New York. Our very friendly guide pointed out that German immigrants were known for their education and their crafting abilities. About 50 percent of the bakeries and carpenters had a German background to or were connected to Germany in some other way. The German community founded schools, kindergardens, churches and most importantly pubs in their neighborhood.
After all these exciting stories about our fellow countrymen we were eager to know what had happened to our “little Germany”. The catastrophe happened on June 15, 1904 when a steamship (the “General Slocum”) caught on fire during a celebration of the German church community. 1021 of the 1300 passengers died on that day. Among the victims were mostly women and children as they celebrated the end of the school term on a workday, so most fathers had to work. The security precautions (life vests and boats) were in a bad condition and made a safe escape almost impossible. This accident was made into a movie and depicts the catastrophe with impressive images. Most of the passengers belonged to the upper-class. After the incident schools were missing students as well as numerous shops had to close down. Almost every family lost a beloved one and was forced to move away.
After we finished our first tour we went back to the museum. There we had the opportunity to watch a movie about the immigrants and their families or to buy some souvenirs in the museum shop. Then our second tour started. Therefore we entered an old building that was used by over one hundred immigrants at the same. Our guide told us the amazing stories of two families that lived in that house in different times. It was astonishing to hear that families needed to share the rooms with other families because there simply was not enough space for everyone. There was no electricity in the tenement buildings back in the days, which made the house and especially the hallways appear tiny and almost pitch black. To illustrate this situation our guide switched off the lights. This particular house had eight toilets in an outhouse for over a hundred residents. If someone had to use the bathroom, they had to go outside even in darkness and cold. We got a pretty good impression of the lives of the immigrants due to the authentic furniture and the intact interior and exterior of the house altogether.
Janice Westphal, Amanda Backhaus, Julia Burmester