Auswanderer Denkmal
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The memorial, cast in bronze, depicts an immigrant family with the father looking forward toward the new world and the mother looking back as she is leaving the old country. The statue stands by one of the city's main dikes, the Weserdeich, on the site of one of the original docks from which early emigrants departed.
It is an appropriate site as Bremerhaven was the largest port of emigration in Germany. Between 1830 and 1974, some 7.2 million Europeans traveled to Bremerhaven to board ships bound for the New World.
On August 8, 2005 20 years after the memorial was completed, a new museum re-create the history and routes of these emigrants. The 3,500 square meter German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven offering visitors one of the largest theme experiences in Germany. The museum, designed to replicate an ocean liner, include special exhibits, films and cultural events.
Appropriately, the cornerstone of the museum was laid on October 6, German-American Day 2004. At the ceremony, the American Consul, Robert K. Scott, noted: "By commemorating the millions of men and women who sailed to the New World, the German Emigration Center is making an invaluable contribution to the historic portrayal of my county."
The United German-American Committee was raising funds to erect Das Auswanderer-Denkmal, or the Emigrant Memorial, in Bremerhaven in 1985.
[edit] See also
- German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA
- Germans
- List of famous German Americans
- German in the United States
- German-American Day
- German-Americans in the Civil War
- German-American Friendship Garden
- Distinguished German-American of the Year
- Carl Schurz
