Introduction

Migration, in the words of W. M. Spellman, has been "a constant of the human experience at least since the appearance of Homo sapiens some 50–70,000 years ago" (1). In relation to German(ic) culture, the phenomenon dates back to the Germanic tribes that moved across Europe from the second to the fifth century, expanding their influence and settling in new territories. This search for new land was, until 1500, the main reason for all major migrations (Spellmann 2). Since then, so-called push-and-pull factors have become more diversified to include economic, social, and political reasons, but, as Douglas S. Massey and his collaborators explain, migration has almost always been motivated by some material gain (1). For modern migration since the sixteenth century, Massey and his colleagues have determined four different periods of migration in all of which Europeans played a significant role. The first era, called the mercantile period, stretched from 1500 to roughly 1800 and was characterized by the conquests and colonization of the different parts of the world, in particular North and South America (Massey et al. 1). The second and industrial period, lasting until the early twentieth century, was determined by the search for "new opportunities outside of a continent [Europe] experiencing both inordinate demographic growth and the hardships of an urban, manufacturing lifestyle" (Spellman 6; cf. Massey et al. 1). Third, the period of limited migration (Massey et al. 2) – that is, the time of relocation during the two world wars – was determined mainly by the so-called "forced" or "intellectual migration" (Ash and Söllner 1). Apart from this coerced form of migration, movement from Europe to other countries of the world largely stopped after 1925 because of the more restrictive immigration laws and the onset of the world economic crisis in 1929 (Massey et al. 2). Finally, the fourth era of immigration, labelled post-industrial migration, emerged after 1945, in particular during the 1960s, and must be considered a global phenomenon with Europeans accounting for only a small fraction of international migrants (Massey et al. 2).

In the context of international migration, two factors are in play: the causes for migration as well as the consequences of such migration – that is, issues concerning "migrant adaptation, integration, and assimilation" (Massey et al. vii). In the German context, beginning with the eighteenth century, citizens of the respective states emigrated to colonies and later countries in the New World "in search of a better life" (Massey et al. 4), as well as to areas in Central and Eastern Europe, in particular Russia, in quest of a new home (Wolff 6). Causes for their departure were varied and ranged from seeking religious freedom, escaping military service, and fleeing political oppression to searching for new employment opportunities after the industrialization in Europe left many people without work. Throughout the nineteenth century, an increase in population and the resulting lack of cheap land combined with high taxation enhanced the attractiveness of migrating to the New World, in particular to the United States, as well as to Central and Eastern Europe and Oceania.

While most emigrants until the revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries left their native lands on economic and religious grounds, the politically tumultuous times of the 1800s further contributed to the desire to emigrate and resulted in an exodus of Europeans to countries abroad. In the German context, the revolution of 1848, which sought to replace the existing monarchies with a republican form of government and ended in even less freedom for the German population at large, constituted a political event that, in its aftermath, forced many, free-thinking individuals to leave their homeland. Of the countries chosen for immigration, the United States attracted the majority of the European immigrants (roughly 60% of all immigrants between 1800 and 1925), while others sought new opportunities in the countries of South America, in particular Argentina, as well as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to a lesser extent (Spellman 6; cf. Massey et al. 1–2). The second marked event and grounds for migration for political reasons was the rise of the...