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The chairwoman of the historical association followed in the footsteps of the Babenhausers who once emigrated. Their lives in their new home looked very different.
While Xaver Hamp was killed in the civil war, Claus Hoermann advanced to become a renowned architect and artist: what the two men have in common is that they are from Babenhausen and who once emigrated to America to start a new life there. The chairwoman of the historical association, Barbara Kreuzpointner, followed her footsteps.
The initial spark for the research was a family photo album that Maria Hörmann-Hipp had made available to the association. Between 1850 and 1930, around five million Germans set out for the so-called New World. According to Kreuzpointner, there were eleven Babenhausers between 1846 and 1854, all between 20 and 40 years old.
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Carl Hörmann and his wife Christiana became a celebrated artist couple in America.
Photo: Historischer Verein / Repro: Fritz Settele
In her search for clues, the chairman came across Xaver Hamp. As the youngest of ten children, he had no chance to take over his father’s farm in Babenhausen, which was located in today’s Frauenstrasse and was popularly known as “Bäschdes Uri”. Hamp became a carpenter. But the living conditions for him and his wife Barbara were not all that well, especially since the family grew more and more over the years. The first two children were born in Babenhausen, another three in Wisconsin today USA.
Why did families take the hardships of the journey back then? Primarily out of an emergency and in the hope of a happy new beginning. So the Hamps got on a sailing cargo ship in Bremen in 1854, which was supposed to bring them to America. Adults had to shell out 80 to 100 Rhenish guilders as transfer fees. For children the price was lower. In addition to sparse luggage, the passengers also had to bring bedding, mattresses, dishes and food.
Two men from Babenhausen, two fates
However, many emigrants never even reached the American coast, but died on the stormy seas during the several weeks’ journey. Up to four adults had to share a cabin with a width and length of 1.75 meters. No wonder that epidemics such as typhus wiped out many emigrants in view of the confinement. The Hamps survived the crossing and settled on the outskirts of Milwaukee. Since several compatriots had settled there, there were six German newspapers and several breweries in the new home. Districts were called, for example, German Town and New Berlin.
In 1861 the Civil War broke out to solve the slave question by force. Xaver Hamp volunteered in the Army of the Northern States, which opposed slavery. He was never to see his family again: he died in Louisiana in 1865, a few months before the end of the war. For a long time the widow and her children struggled to survive. Her situation improved somewhat when she remarried, who was born in Bavaria. She died in Milwaukee in 1906 at the age of 81.
The fate of Carl Hoermann, who was born in 1885 as the son of a carpentry dynasty on the Babenhauser Ruchtiberg, was completely different. Not even of legal age, he left home. Probably in order to be able to afford the crossing to America, he worked in a Hamburg shipyard. In 1904 he went ashore in America and traveled on to Chicago, where he worked as a factory worker. According to Kreuzpointner, he began studying architecture through evening courses and, at the age of 23, opened his own architecture office.
As an architect in the USA, Hoermann was inspired by the alpine architecture
In addition, he set up a gallery in which his wife Christiana Ackermann, who was born in Chicago, exhibited pictures. He was married to her since 1907. Carl also devoted himself more and more to painting. In 1920 he set up a studio and gallery on Lake Michigan. Over the years Hoermann became a renowned landscape painter, his wife devoted herself more to still lifes. The couple made many trips, for example to North Africa, Mexico and Europe. It also visited Babenhausen regularly and stayed in contact with family and friends for a lifetime.
A lively correspondence took place. In 1930 he wrote that he “wants to build a new house again – for the 11th time – for himself and Christiana”. The building with studio and exhibition hall was to be “built in the old German style, but Americanized inside, directly on the water of Lake Michigan.” Chalets that were often inspired by the Alps. Hoermann died in 1955 at the age of 70 in Saugatack, Michigan. He rests in the Riverside Cemetery next to his wife, who only passed away in 1986 at the age of 99. The couple left behind many paintings and Carvings.
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