German Immigration 1830-1850




by Ewald Albers of Zeven, Germany (translation by Hella Albers)








Only 8.5 ounces of drinking water a day



When immigrants were nothing but ship’s freight



More than six million people left Germany during the last 200 years. Most of 

them went to the United States to begin their new life. Many immigrants 

mastered their fates by initiative, economy and industry. With justifiable pride 

they very frequently reported about their success to friends and relatives left 

behind. Those who had less success did not write as often, sometimes never. 

Sometimes they did not give their first sign of life until after years as those 

who were unlucky did not want to describe their bad situation; it would not 

have matched the image of the land of opportunity.



After their arrival in the US, the immigrants would rather write about how the 

passage had been. This often contained bad messages and one would think that 

this should have prevented many people of even considering emigration. 

Especially the period between 1830 to 1850 saw news that can only be 

described as horror news. During the era, a passage on a sailing ship took 45 to 

60 days, depending on the weather. The freight boats transported coffee, rice, 

tobacco, cotton and other goods from America to Europe. On their way back, 

they "exported" people. The cargo compartments were broken down to 

steerages by means of wooden boards in order to have capacity for as much 

"freight" as possible.



A traveller described the quarters as follows: "The ship had 28 beds, each four 

ells (about 7 feet) wide and three ells (about 5 ½ feet) long. Five people were 

to sleep in each bed. However, only four could sleep there at a time. So I 

almost always slept on a crate. As soon as the ship was at sea, I tied myself to 

the crate with ropes so I could not be thrown off." The immigrants very often 

complained about the bad treatment by the crew, feeling treated as cattle.



Bad food was complained about very often. "The provisions were bad, the way 

they were fixed even worse. The bread had presumably made several journeys. 

It was not until the last eight days when the old bread had been eaten that 

we got better bread. The pork was completely spoilt even though better pork 

was in store for we got good pork during the last week. The water used for 

cooking was comparable to manure regarding dirtiness, color and smell and 

must have been bad already when it was taken aboard for the drinking water 

stayed good, but everyone got only a quarter" (less than 8.5 fluid ounces). Even 

though the Bremen Senate tried to achieve improvements the stated defects 

remained for a long time.



We probably could have read similar sentences by the passengers of the brig 

Carl Ferdinand had their letters been kept in their old homeland. This sailing 

ship arrived in the port of Baltimore on August 4, 1837, coming from 

Bremerhaven. Several of the passengers reached Cole Camp in Missouri by 

land. Of the 110 steerage passengers whose names are given (the entries about 

the other passengers could not be deciphered), 78 came from the 

Zeven/Bremervörde area: The Claus Müller family of six (6) and his parents- 

in-law Blancken as well as Elisabeth Peper came from Glinstedt, Johann 

Ficken from Langenhausen, Johann Brockmann and Hinrich Brauer from 

Friedrichsdorf, Christoph Meier, Hinrich Meier, Johann Meier and Jacob 

Harms from Ostereistedt, Johann Jagels and a Mr. Viebrock (a carpenter) from 

Selsingen, Christian Meier from Apensen, Hinrich Stürmann from Elsdorf, 

Friedrich Steffens from Frankenbostel, Hinrich Dittmer from Sottrum.



The Carl Köhncke family (5) as well as Jacob Bögel and August Wechselberg 

came from Zeven, Johann Dierck Otten from Brüttendorf, Johann Christian 

Balster and Wilhelm Niclaus Hoops from Oldendorf, Johann Dohrmann from 

Brümmerhof, Tibke Blohm from Bülstedt, Gerhard Gerken from Westertimke, 

Hinrich Harms from Hanstedt, the Hinrich Holsten (4) and Peter Knoop 

families (4) from Breddorf, the Claus Otten (6) and Johann Gerken families (3) 

as well as Peter Haase from Hepstedt, the Cord Gerken family (6) and Gesine 

Böschen from Tarmstedt, two Bremer families (5) from Seebergen, the Hinrich 

Göhrs family (5) as well as Metta Pape and Johann Gottlieb Backhaus from 

Grasdorf, the Johann Schröder family (6) from Dannenberg and Johann Kücks 

from Adolphsdorf.



The journey of the Gerken family of Tarmstedt presumably ended tragically: 

The cabinet maker Cord Gerken, who had been born in Ostertimke, and his 

wife Metta Rodenburg Gerken as well as five children left but only the father 

and the children arrived in Baltimore. The mother most probably is included in 

the 1 % of the passengers who died at sea. The age and occupation of the 

passengers has been recorded. Most men are farmers but we also find 

shoemakers, tailors, glaziers, cabinet makers, carpenters, smiths, millers, 

harnessmakers, brewers and weavers. Single girls are recorded as "servants". 

The ships agents in the bigger places in the Bremervörde/Zeven area probably 

bought passages for groups when they knew of enough people willing to 

emigrate. It is for this reason that the passenger lists of the ships very often 

show a local focus.



The ship party usually ended in the port of arrival. From then on, everyone was 

on their own again. There are no files about where the immigrants went to. 

However, during the last years we begin to learn more about them as we hear 

of their descendants. These pieces of information show that the steerage 

passengers ended up across the whole United States in smaller and bigger 

groups. Several families went to different places before settling down for good 

on the vast continent. The passenger lists to the North American ports are 

currently being printed. This way, people who are interested can find out 

more as reading the old handwriting is no longer an obstacle. However, there 

are not only the errors in hearing and spelling mistakes from the original lists 

but also mistakes have been made while copying the lists.



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