The ivory hammer from the collection of the Bachmann Museum in Bremervörde looks delicate. Nevertheless, according to museum employee Frauke Siems, “the unique object tells of one of the most important themes of the central Elbe-Weser triangle: emigration in the 19th century.
The story goes like this: Exactly 120 years ago, the Bremervörde Association of Brooklyn celebrated its 25th anniversary. On this occasion, the Bremervörde Emigrants Association in New York gave it the ivory hammer that later found its way to the Bremervörde Museum. According to official figures, between 1830 and 1914, around 22,000 people emigrated from the Elbe-Weser triangle to the United States. For many emigrants, the first stop was the metropolis of New York. Some moved on from there and found a new home in rural areas such as Cole Camp in Benton County in Missouri. Others stayed in New York or another big city.
For most immigrants, the new beginning meant hard work and poor living conditions, but also the chance to build a life for themselves. Many women worked as maids in New York, and the men often found work in the grocery trade, which in Brooklyn, for example, was firmly in the hands of northern Germans.
Emigrants to America board the steamship “Mosel” of the North German Lloyd.
Photo: Bachmann Museum Bremervörde
Many Germans organized themselves in their new homeland in clubs, which also existed for emigrants from the Rotenburg or Bremervörde districts, from Zeven, Bremervörde, Lamstedt or Selsingen. Social gatherings, memories of the old homeland and the cultivation of the German language were important goals that the Bremervörde Brooklyn club, founded in 1879, also pursued. But the support of the club members was also important: sick and disabled members received a
weekly financial support, survivors received a death benefit. In addition, the Bremervörde Brooklyn Association also supported “those in need in Bremervörde”, the German Red Cross and the members of the Bremervörde Association of San Francisco who were affected by an earthquake in 1906.
The small ivory hammer was an anniversary gift. The “Brooklyns” received it in 1904 to mark the 25th anniversary of the club. Emigrants from the Bremervörde district, who had also founded a club in New York, presented the gift in a box lined with red velvet: “DEDICATED TO THE Bremervörde Club OF BKLYN 1879-1904 BY THE Bremervörde Club OF NEW YORK,” reads the engraving on the silver band that runs around the hammer head. “The size and shape are reminiscent of the wooden hammers that are still used in court in America today and at public auctions in Germany,” says Siems. The artifact, which is listed in the museum database as a “board hammer,” was probably intended to be used at the club’s board meetings. However, it is no longer possible to say whether it was ever used. The almost 20 centimetre long collector’s piece, decorated with grooves and bulges, shows no signs of wear.
The Bremervörde Brooklyn club was dissolved in 1962 after almost 100 years. Otto Betke sent the “board hammer” and other evidence of the club’s history to Bremervörde with the request “for a worthy place for the items in their museum in memory of their compatriots in America”.
Museum director Ellen Horstrup: “The hammer is a very important object for the museum.” It tells of the life of the emigrants in the new world, but also makes it clear that their connections to their former homeland in the central Elbe-Weser triangle continued – and in many cases still exist today. “I hope that we can show this unique object in the new permanent exhibition after the planned renovation,” said the museum director.
Info
The museum’s publication entitled “Off into the unknown” about emigration from the central Elbe-Weser triangle is available in the museum and in bookstores. Further information is available at www.bachmann-museum.de.
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