Week 4:
#52Ancestors
Brief answer: Dinner on Christmas the last year the full Amandus Künnmann family was together.
On Christmas in 1921, the Künnmann family probably gathered for dinner. They were baptized Lutherans and so perhaps went to services together and gathered later for dinner. I wish I had been there to learn about our family before three of the male children left Germany for America.
Who would have been there? Perhaps: Amandus and Ernestine (parents) and seven children (Charles (27) and his wife Berta, Emma (one day short of 26), Wilhelm (24), Ferdinand (23) and his
wife Ella, Ernst (21), Carl (19) and Otto (18).
Did the family know at this time, that Ferdinand and his wife Ella would be emigrating to the USA in October? Or that two brothers (Carl and Wilhelm) would follow them later?
Why did they leave?
According to an article on Wikipedia:
“Peace with the United States was
signed in Berlin on August 25, and was ratified by the German Reichstag on September 30
and by the American Senate on October 19.
“The year 1921, like every year
between World War I and Adolf Hitler's rise to power, was
for Germany one of gloom, redeemed only by a few bright spots.
Political life had not yet recovered from the shock caused by the overthrow of
a form of government deeply rooted in the history of the people. The newly
empowered Reichstag was prey to wild party strife, which made the
formation of a stable government difficult. The political troubles in addition
to the continuing economic strife caused by the Treaty of Versailles's
economic provisions (especially war reparations) caused a fatigue in the
German psyche. However, in spite of assaults, both from within and from
without, the Weimar Republic survived despite its many troubles.
“Almost all of the most important
events in Germany in 1921 were connected with questions arising out of the
provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, disarmament, reparations, trials
of war criminals, and the plebiscite in Upper Silesia -
questions that, from their harassing nature, kept both government and people in
constant suspense and agitation.”
So, how did these conditions effect the family? Did these relate to Ferdinand, Wilhelm and Carl emigrating from Germany to America? What did they hope to find? Ferdinand and Ella would the first to leave in the new year. What were their plans? Did they know anyone in the USA?
And finally, Carl would have known Ferdinand's wife Ella. Would he have know her brother Johannes (John) Georges Koster? He would turn out to be Carl's father-in-law in seven years. How about John's wife Minna who would be his mother-in-law?
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