AEMI

100 AEMI JOURNAL 2015
ing judgment and so there would often
be disappointment when the picture of
the dream clashed with the «misgivings»
overseas.
The picture Washington crossing the
Delaware is an example of how early
this development began. The event it
depicts took place in the night of 25
December 1776. Our interest here is
in who painted the picture, where it
was painted, and who were the people
for whom it was first painted. The artist
was Emmanuel Leutze, a German who
in 1825 came over to America as a boy
with his parents. In 1841 he went back
to Düsseldorf to study art and painting,
and in 1849 he painted this picture. So
in fact it shows not the Delaware River
but the Rhine at Düsseldorf. He painted
this example of endurance as a stimulus
and encouragement for the German
revolutionists of 1848, whose failure became
obvious in those days. The success
of the painting in the USA came later
in 1851. 4
But this is only aside. Let us return to
North-Frisia again. Returning migrants
generally came back as American citizens;
as a free person, subject to no one.
Self-conscious and protected by their
citizenship papers and the American
consuls, these visitors always appeared
suspicious to the police and were often
a thorn in the flesh of the Prussian military
authorities, which could be very officious
in their dealing with young men.
As a consequence such visitors had to
be controlled and out of this originate
between 1867 and 1918 the records regarding
the supervision of emigrants,
who stayed in Schleswig-Holstein as
U.S. citizens. Now these documents are
in the State Archives in Schleswig and
they are an interesting and very informative
source (Pauseback, Aufbruch, 64-
74).
In the second half on the 19th century
the longing for freedom joined
with the hope for prosperity and together
they formed that mighty magnet
that pulled millions of men, women and
children into the New World. Like a little
piece of this big dream the returned
migrant symbolized all the longings and
wishes of the ones who stayed behind
and his example ‘magnetized’ many of
them who came in touch with him.
And so the suspicions of the authorities
were not altogether without foundation,
as we learn from the article in the Husumer
weekly newspaper:
The American – yes he once had been a
poor fellow too in Germany … but he
had been courageous enough and had
gone to America and now he is a prosperous
man. And the poor fellow here,
who hardly ever has a few cents to spare,
how will the prospect rejoice his heart,
when he thinks about all the dollars he
will own overseas, and imagines himself
wearing a grey hat and a blue coat with
red lining – like the American. 5
Efforts of the authorities to curb emigration
had little effect, because official
warnings or statements were generally
distrusted and rejected by the common
people. Their sources of information
were the many letters, which went from
hand to hand. Sometimes they were
published in the local newspapers too
and got additional publicity that way.
At the beginning of travel to America
and to West- or East India most of
them who left returned, if they had been