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O. H. Ammann's Return To New York, Othmar Ammann, Lilly Ammann, Rudolf Meyer

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Dear L.

Just returned from the snow-covered mountain heights of the St. Gotthard on a long ski ride. Am spending a few hours in this beautiful place, which, however, is at present quite desolate. The lake, the Pilatus look wonderful. If nothing intervenes I shall be home in 4 weeks. Shall go to Basel tonight and later to Kilchberg for a few days.

Othmar H. Ammann's Return To Switzerland, Othmar Ammann, Lilly Ammann

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Two beautiful and quiet days have already passed since we parted. The sea is so quiet and the sky so peacefully clear as to make one forget all dangers and sorrows. Besides, the pure air is so invigorating that I feel already much better and stronger than in New York, I am looking with confidence and pleasure to the future. I feel that my body and brain need a complete restoration and I will be the more vigorous and able to work afterwards. And how · about you? I still ·see the last looks from your dear eyes and the …

Letters From 1915 To The End Of The War, Othmar Ammann, Lilly Ammann

Swiss American Historical Society Review

My dear parents,

Tomorrow the last steamship that can bring you our Christmas greetings is leaving, so that means: hurry. Just a few words, but from the heart.

One is carried along here in the non-ending stream of business so much that one can hardly catch one's breath in order to appreciate the ideal side of life. However, with the approach of the holidays, spirits are lifted. With great excitement and wonderment, young and old await the festive days. What will Christmas bring, how will the New Year begin? This is what each one is asking himself and with thousands …

Othmar H. Ammann's Military Service, Lilly Ammann, Othmar Ammann, Gustav Lindenthal

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Finally I get to write you a few lines from duty. As Papa probably has already informed you, I went from Basel to Monthal, where I met Mama and Werner, as well as Rosa and Manja Labhart from Moscow. Werner was very happy. He is thin but looks strong and healthy. He did not want to answer my question of whether he would like to come back to America with me after the war. But I am decided about bringing him back with me. On the same evening I also visited Onkel Hermann and David in Zurich. I also met …

Kai Eduard Rasmussen: A Danish American Hero, Val Hempel

The Bridge

Over the years, ever since immigration to the United States began, hundreds and thousands of Danes have crossed the Atlantic to begin new lives, to work, to settle and to become Americans. The vast majority of them have helped strengthen and build their adopted land, enrich its culture and add durable strands to that multicolored fabric that is America. Many stepped lightly and left few tracks while others broke bold new trails. A few fashioned memorable evidences of their journeys. Names such as Peter Lassen, Jacob Riis, William S. Knudsen, Jean Hersholdt, Victor Borge and others are known to millions. …

Danes In Polk County, Wisconsin, A. Bobjerg

The Bridge

In the year 1863 Morten Christian Pedersen left Sindbjerg Parish north of Vejle (Denmark) for America. He was 28 years old and unmarried. In the following year he remained mainly in Neenah, Wisconsin, where a number of Danes lived. He had conceived the idea of finding a place where it would be possible for people of small means to found a Danish settlement. That dream would not leave him, nor would he let go of the dream; but he took a good look around before he chose a place.

Meta M. Hedemann: From 1878

The Bridge

I have often been asked, "Why did you and your husband leave Denmark and go so far away . .. adventuring?" We did not go adventuring. My husband was offered a position with a Mr. Unna, an old friend of his father's, who owned a sugar plantation on the island of Maui, one of the Sandwich Islands, as Hawaii was called at that time. Mr. Unna wanted to improve, rearrange, or maybe even build a new sugar factory. He had heard much about a very big, modem sugar mill on one of the islands of the West Indies, which had …

Transatlantic Connections: Nordic Migration To The New World After 1800, Hans Norman, Harald Runblom, George Nielsen, Reviewer

The Bridge

Transatlantic Encounters is actually two books in one. The first half of the study, written by Hans Norman, describes the conditions in Europe, while the second part, written by Harald Runblom, describes the immigrants in America. Instead of limiting the topic to Scandinavians (Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes), Norman and Runblom identify their subjects as Nordic, in order to include the Finns and Icelanders. Relying heavily on earlier research, and following the usual stages of migration history, the authors have produced a survey of the migration from these five countries to the United States.

Memories And Autobiography Of Jens Lind, Jens Lind

The Bridge

I don't know if I can write anything that will read any different from thousands of other immigrants that came to make their home in the U.S.A.

The reason I came was mostly because of economic conditions. Another was adventure and restlessness which many young people suffer from in our days, too.

I was born close to the east coast in Jutland, Denmark, September 30, 1892. We were eight in the family: our parents, three brothers and three sisters and, of course, poor as church mice, like thousands of others.

Marcus Lee Hansen Returns To His Roots, John Robert Christianson

The Bridge

Marcus Lee Hansen (1892-1938) was the founder of modern immigration history. He established new frameworks in time and space for the study of the peopling of North America.

A Transplanted Dane Looks Back On 80 Years, Ludvig Christian Mosbaek

The Bridge

Ludvig Christian Mosb~k (1855-193B) was one of the founding fathers of Askov , Minnesota . Coming to the Danish colony when it was called Partridge, he took active part in establishing its church , school , creamery , and first cooperative . But , above all, he was a skilled nurseryman. He created a market for wild ferns , brought in the stock of various trees hardy enough for the northern climate , raised perennials and evergreens from seeds , and introduced rutabagas to the American market. For some years he combined farming with a nursery business, but gradually gave …

Children Of Danish Roots, L.C. Laursen

The Bridge

Children of Danish Roots is a translation by Willard R. Garred of Stammens B0rn, an article that appeared originally in the 1931 issue of the "Ryslinge Julebog," a Christmas magazine of the Ryslinge Folk High School, Ryslinge, Denmark. The article was written by L. C. Laursen when he lived in the western Nebraska community at Mirage Flats near Hay Springs. After his arrival in the community he named it Ryslinge, a name generally accepted by the settlers and their friends.

Enok Mortensen And Askov, Hans Henningsen

The Bridge

The connection between Enok Mortensen and Askov Folk High School in Denmark came about accidentally, as it were, in the middle of the 1950s. The background was that rector Knud Hansen made some critical remarks, in an interview, about the United States and American foreign policy. This caused a great to-do in the press, so much so that the American ambassador decided to visit Askov Folk High School to judge for himself whether it were possible that Askov had "gone communist." Shortly thereafter Knud Hansen received an official invitation to spend three months in the United States. The visit, which …

Right Place, Right Time: The William S. Knudsen Story, Robert Vanderkloot

The Bridge

"You talk funny." The little boy stood awkwardly, the peak of his cap pointed sideways, looking up at the tall, thin young man seated on the top step of the main entrance to the eight-story apartment building which covered the entire block at 152nd Street and Eighth Avenue.

Danish-American Literature In Transition, Dorothy Burton Skardal

The Bridge

Danish-American literature was written by Danish immigrants in the United States mainly about and for members of their own group. Their lives were lived in constant psychological and cultural flux undergoing the pressures of assimilation; therefore their literature both grew out of and recorded multifaceted processes of transition. Today the literature Danish immigrants wrote is itself in transition: long unread or forgotten, it is now being rediscovered by Americans of Danish heritage. This brief introduction to the main Danish-American writers is meant to stimulate still more to reclaim their heritage preserved in Danish-language fiction and poetry.

Chapter I: Emigration And Immigration

The Bridge

The description of an immigrant group begins in the place of origin, where thousands of individuals chose to abandon their old homes and build new lives in America. In the mid-nineteenth century, this decision required agonizing deliberation by people who knew little about America. Few had traveled abroad. Few had American relatives to provide first-hand accounts of life in the New World.

Conclusion: Chicago And The Evolution Of The Danish Community

The Bridge

As contemporaries and historians noted, the development of the ethnic American depended upon a unique blend of two cultures. This study has illustrated that fact, beginning with the sources of immigration. We found that immigration resulted from a complex interplay of European and American factors, which influenced not only the immigrant and his community, but the old culture as well. For example, the existence of plentiful American farmland led to an immigration to American farms. As American produce then rose in volume, more was exported to Europe, contributing to an agricultural crisis in Denmark. That in turn generated a new …

Chapter Iii: Occupations Of Danish Immigrants

The Bridge

When the Danish immigrants arrived in America, their career plans were influenced by economic aspirations and occupational background. Nearly half of the immigrants had worked in agriculture, chiefly as landless laborers. They frequently planned to acquire land of their own. Most of the rest were urban laborers or artisans hoping to find higher wages and broader opportunities in America. The motivating force behind most emigration was dissatisfaction with the economic situation in Denmark. In looking for something new and better, emigrants indicated their willingness to accept the various occupations which America offered. After all, life had to be better in …

The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Udvandrerarkiv, Aalborg, Inger Bladt

The Bridge

On July 3, 1982, Det Danske Udvandrerarkiv in Aalborg will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary and look back on an existence marked by great difficulties. During critical times, in fact, its continued existence often seemed in doubt.

The Immigrant's Challenge To Dahs, Otto G. Hoiberg

The Bridge

During the half century preceding World War I, 300,000 Danish immigrants came to America, according to an estimate by Kristian Hvidt. Why did they come? Among many reasons, the Homestead Act of 1862 certainly stands out prominently. To the small-acreage farmers and the hired men in Danish agriculture, 160 acres of free, fertile land looked mighty inviting. Enthusiasm for migration was also generated by the glowing "Garden of Eden" advertising campaign conducted by America's railroads - a worthy prototype for today's Madison Avenue. Further, there were the so-called " America Letters" , received from relatives and friends already across the …

Principles And Polemics A Chapter In The History Of Grand View College, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

Early in 1894 the Danish Lutheran Church in America was divided by a schism . At that time the Synod lost a substantial number of pastors and congregations while some other congregations, and even families, were divided by the split in the Church. That traumatic event did have one beneficial side effect, however. The conventions for the Church became much more peaceable and, for the next few years, the Church was unified and could work with undivided attention to perform the tasks at hand.

Some Thoughts On Acculturation, Otto G. Hoiberg

The Bridge

Three years ago an important work entitled Flight to America - The Social Background of 300,000 Danish Emigrants was published by Kristian Hvidt(1), Head Librarian of the Danish Parliamentary Library in Copenhagen. Dr. Hvidt's painstaking demographic study of 58 handwritten volumes of data ralating to America-bound Danish emigrants between 1868 and 1914, together with computer analysis, revealed a wealth of interesting information relating to the age, sex, family status, occupation, motivation and other characteristics of the people concerned.

Pierre-Frederic Droz: The 'American': The Story Of An Itinerant Watchmaker, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Most immigrants, especially those who came to stay in a certain country for only a short while, belonged to the "inarticulate," that is to those whose experiences, joys and trials went largely unrecorded. A few of them, however, did leave rich and vivid accounts of their journeys and adventures. To them belongs Pierre-Frederic Droz, known to his countrymen as the "American" who remained for a good part of his life a man on the move.

History Of The Swiss American Historical Society, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

The decade of the 1930's was a difficult time for most Americans with the depression blighting untold families and individuals. The Swiss Americans, like other ethnic groups, had an additional cause for concern inasmuch as the decade was characterized by isolationism in foreign relations and a wave of nativism at home. The introduction of immigration quotas in the 1920's indicated that the United States prepared itself to put obstacles in the way of free access to the country. Due to the depression the quotas were not even used up by most European countries. The "distant magnet" had lost much of …