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The Forty-Eighters were Europeans who participated in or supported the revolutions of 1848 that swept Europe. In Germany, the Forty-Eighters favored unification of the country, a more democratic government, and guarantees of human rights.1 Disappointed at the failure of the revolution to bring about the reform of the system of government in Germany or the Austro-Hungarian Empire and sometimes on the government's wanted list because of their involvement in the revolution, they gave up their old lives to try again abroad. Many emigrated to the United States, Canada, and Australia after the revolutions failed. They included Germans, Czechs, Hungarians, and others. Many were respected, wealthy, and well-educated; as such, they were not typical migrants. A large number went on to be very successful in their new countries.
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Forty-Eighters in the USA
In the United States, many Forty-Eighters opposed nativism and slavery, in keeping with the liberal ideals that had led them to flee Germany. Several thousand enlisted in the Union Army, where they became prominent in the Civil War.
Many Forty-Eighters settled in the Texas Hill Country in the vicinity of Fredericksburg, and voted heavily against Texas's secession. In the Bellville area of Austin County, another destination for Forty-Eighters, the German precincts voted decisively against the secession ordinance. 2
More than 30,000 Forty-Eighters settled in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. There they helped define the distinct German culture of the neighborhood, but in some cases also brought a rebellious nature with them from Germany. During violent protests in 1853 and 1854, Forty-Eighters were responsible for the murders of two law enforcement officers. [1]
After the Civil War, Forty-Eighters supported improved labor laws and working conditions. They also advanced the country's cultural and intellectual development in such fields as education, the arts, medicine, journalism, and business.
Famous German Forty-Eighters in the US
- Architects, Engineers: Adolf Cluss
- Artists: Friedrich Girsch; Wilhelm Heine; Louis Prang; Adelbert John Volck
- Generals in the American Civil War: Louis Blenker; Alexander Schimmelpfennig; Franz Sigel; August Willich
- Journalists, writers, publishers: Mathilde Franziska Anneke; Carl Adolph Douai, Carl Daenzer; Bernard Domschke; Christian Esselen; Karl Peter Heinzen; Rudolf Lexow; Reinhold Solger
- Musicians: Herman Trost, band leader in Sherman's army who later settled in Lexington, Kentucky, where he conducted the first band at the University of Kentucky. Friend of John Philip Sousa.
- Poets: Konrad Krez; Edmund Märklin; Rudolf Puchner
- Political activists: Lorenz Brentano (later a member of the Congress); Friedrich Hecker; Carl Schurz (later US Secretary of the Interior); Gustav von Struve; Wilhelm Weitling; Joseph Weydemeyer
- Other: Margaret Schurz, founder of the first kindergarten in the U.S.; Al Sieber, known as "Chief of the Scouts" in Arizona, who fought at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville with Hecker, Schurz, and Sigel, and then in the Battle of Gettysburg; Joseph Spiegel, founder of the Spiegel Catalog; Hugo Wesendonck, founder of the Germania Life Insurance Company (now Guardian Life); Pauline Wunderlich (fought at the Dresden barricades)
Famous Czech Forty-Eighters in the US
- Prokup Hudek, one of the "Slavonic Artillerymen" of the 24th Illinois Infantry Regiment, and one of the co-founders of the Workingmen's Party of Illinois3
- František Korbel, winegrower in Sonoma County, California
- Vojta Náprstek, Czech language publisher in Milwaukee
Famous Hungarian Forty-Eighters in the US
Forty-Eighters in Australia
In 1848, the first non-British ship carrying immigrants to arrive in Victoria was from Germany; the Goddefroy, on February 13. Many of those on board were political refugees. Some Germans also travelled to Australia via London.
- In April 1849 the Beulah was the first ship to bring assisted German vinedresser families to NSW. 4
- The second ship, the Parland5 left London on 13 March 1849, and arrived in Sydney on 5 July 18496
- The barque Kinnear was actually the first to carry German vinedressers to NSW in 1838. 6 vinedressers and their families (altogether 12 adults and 17 children) were recruited from the Rheingau region in Hessen by Major Edward Macarthur for his brother William's property at Camden. These first German vinedressers to arrive in NSW on April 23, 1838, were Friedrich Sickold, Johann Justus, Johann Stein, Caspar Flick, Georg Gerhard and Johann Wenz.
Many Germans became vintners or worked in the wine industry; others founded Lutheran churches. By 1860, for example, about 70 German families lived in Germantown, Victoria. (When World War I broke out, the town was renamed Grovedale.) In Adelaide, a German Club was founded in 1854 which played a major role in society.
Famous Australian Forty-Eighters
- Carl Linger, the conductor and composer who wrote "Song of Australia"
- Dr Richard Schomburgk, later director of the Adelaide Botanical Gardens
- Hermann Büring, in the wine industry
- Friedrich Krichauff, Chairman of the Agricultural Bureau
See also
References
- ^ "Forty-Eighters," Handbook of Texas Online.http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/FF/pnf1.html
- ^ Charles Christopher Jackson: Austin County from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
- ^ Anarchy and Anarchist: A history of the red terror and the social revolution in America and Europe by Michael J Schaack, 1889
- ^ recruited by Wilhelm Kirchner, who published Australien und seine Vortheile fur Auswanderer in Frankfurt in 1848
- ^ http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/2299/parland1849.html:departure date given as May
- ^ The Board's List, reel 2459, GRK; fiche 851, Germans on Bounty Ships, GRK.
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