The Bremen Port: 150 Years Ago--Hawel Family Migration

The popular movie, The Sound of Music occurred during the time of the German Anschluss with Austria. In the movie, Captain Vonn Trapp is ordered to report to Bremerhaven to take command of a submarine in the naval forces of the Third Reich.  The Anschluss occurred in March 1938.  The Anschluss event is 80 years distant from present, and 70 years after the year when my great great grandparents  Anna and Josef Hawel and their children migrated from Bohemia to the United States.  Bremerhaven is a sister city to Bremen Germany.  The Hawel family, according to ship records, departed from Bremen Germany.  Perhaps it actually sailed from Bremerhaven, but the original meticulous German records of who boarded ships, and where they boarded and other related information was destroyed, possibly in the 1920's as they thought there were just too many records.  Knowing the German penchant for exactness, perhaps the decision maker on the records had hailed from a different country.  This is the second in a series of stories on the Hawel family migration.  The first blog post, from March 31, may be found here.

German Kingdoms in 1868

The City of Bremen is old, established in the 9th century on the Weser River, just inland from the mouth of the Weser at the Wadden Sea (which we would probably know by the overarching name North Sea).  However, it is thought that human settlement in the area dates from as long ago as the 1,100's B.C.  Bremen is an industrial and port city, but over time, land use alterations upstream of the Weser River caused the river navigation near Bremen to be reduced due to siltation.  Land was then purchased slightly north at the river mouth and the sister city of Bremerhaven was established.  The port opened in 1830, and transatlantic service began in 1847.  Bremen's population doubled between 1850 and 1880, from about 55,100 to 111,800 persons.  Today, Bremen is about 548,600 persons.

European Emigration to the US, 1861-1879 (PBS)

One of the main buildings in Bremen is the Rathskeller which is said to contain some fine wines and beers.  Whether the Hawel family stopped for a beer or wine at the famous Rathskeller is not known.  However, given their Czech background I would mostly likely say beer was a favored beverage.  Although, I do not know for sure.  I am sure if the now millennial-aged ancestors of Josef and Anna were to visit Bremen, they would certainly stop at the Rathskeller.  Unless of course a micro-brew location was available.  Or, a distillery.

Bremen, perhaps c 1892.  Maggie Blanck collection

It is said that 38% of the immigrant ships that arrived on either on the Atlantic or Gulf Coast seaboards of North America originated from Bremen or Bremerhaven. The sister cities became the major port for German migrants to the United States.  In addition, Bremen would house and feed the migrants, even the low class riff-raff who were seeking better opportunities abroad, which was different from other German port cities, such as Hamburg.

Google Map walk route Dolni Chrastany to Bremen

Just as in ancient times and today, port cities in the 18th century were important locations for settlement and then industrialization.  Bremen became the Cathedral city in 848 A.D. which would presage its ability to receive a market permit from the king in 888 A.D.  In the middle ages, the ability to have a market city was the powerful economic engine of trade.  It was the current version of a high tech company.  Trade would spur production, and production would spur income, which would spur people.  Combined as a religious and market center, with a port and increasing, albeit slow, industrial improvements in the 9th and 10th century allowed the beginnings of a more defined place.  Economist Edward Glaeser has said as bad off as some see the urban poor in the world, they are better off than the rural poor. This may or may not have held true in the middle ages.

Portion of article on K Hawel Popp 50th Wedding Anniversary
T Hovel, via Jo Hofmeister Popp

I have found little information on the specific journey the Josef Hawel family undertook from southern Bohemia to Germany to embark on their transatlantic journey to the United States.  An article on the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Katherine Hawel and (Emil) Henry Popp provides some basic information.  From this short article we know that she was born in Germany (actually Bohemia) and left with her parents when she was five years old. It goes on to say "the long trip across the ocean took seventeen weeks."  It would be a journey of over four months, or one quarter of the year.  Some sources say that it would not be unusual for a family to board a barge and head downstream on the Weser River until they reached Bremen.   Google maps will tell us that from Dolni Chrastany, Bohemia to Bremen, Germany is a distance of about 500 miles. And, that is using today's quickest walking route. This is a long way by cart and horse, and even longer by foot.  Either way it was a long journey.

Bremen Rathskeller
Looks like a place Rick Steves would visit

The lifestyle the Hawel family had in the small farming hamlet of Southern Bohemia was far from the lifestyle the Von Trapp's enjoyed (before they lost most of their money in a bank collapse in 1935).  Captain Von Trapp left Austria to avoid going to Bremerhaven; the Anna and Josef Hawel family, with eight children  aged 21 to months old, traveled hundreds of miles over several weeks to get to Bremen to journey to the United States.  Given that this is the last week of June, and the ship departed from Bremen on July 1, I like to think if the Josef and Anna, if they were like me, they would already be in Bremen getting tickets and other items necessary for the journey.  Or, taking time to visit the Rathskeller.  On the other hand, they may be like some others in the family who always tend to run late, and may have caught the ship just before it disembarked. It is from Bremen that the Hawel family would board ship for the United States, a journey, for good or bad, set the stages for their descendants in this nation. Watch for the next post on the Hawel family migration.

Exterior of Bremen Rathskeller

Unless otherwise noted, images from Google Images.