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Davenport
It took ninety years, but Davenporters set things right recently.
A 24,000-pound
monument honoring a select group of German immigrants known as the Forty-eighters"
was erected near the banks of the Mississippi. The story behind this massive
monument begins almost 160 years ago in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
On March 24, 1848,
a group of German patriots from Schleswig-Holstein began fighting a war with
Denmark to gain liberty, democracy, and national unity. Unsuccessful in
their struggle, many of these Schleswig-Holsteiners emigrated to the United
States where they hoped to find the freedom they had fought for in vain in
their homeland.
These Forty-eighters
are considered by many to be America's most remarkable and unique group of
immigrants. They provided a cultural and intellectual transfusion which
affected not only their fellow countrymen but which also had a pronounced
effect on the political and social history of America during one of its most
critical periods. Remarkably, a great many of the Forty-eighters hailing
from Schleswig-Holstein emigrated to a single area of the Midwest, choosing
Scott County, Iowa, as their adopted home.
In 1872, more than
two decades after emigrating to Davenport and its surrounding communities,
these vanquished freedom fighters organized a veterans' society known as Der
Davenporter Verein der Kampfgenossen der Schleswig-Holsteinischen
Freiheitskriege von 1848, 1849 und 1850 (The Davenport Society of Veterans
of the Schleswig-Holstein Wars of Independence of 1848, 1849 and 1850). The
first officers of this organization included some of the best, brightest,
and most successful of the Forty-eighters who had decided to make Davenport
their adopted home.
The first
president was Jürgen Peter Ankerson, who for many years had operated a
grocery and provisions store across the street from the present site of the
German American Heritage Center. Julius Langheim, a Justice of the Peace in
Hickory Grove, served as vice president, while Emil Geisler, for many years
a driving force behind Davenport's Free German School (Freie Deutsche Schule),
served as the Schriftführer, or recording secretary. Ernst Claussen, who
would subsequently serve as Davenport's mayor for a record seven consecutive
terms, was the group's first recording secretary, and Hans Heinrich
Andresen, who would become president of the German Savings Bank, was the
organization's treasurer. Very appropriately, one of the first acts of the
newly formed veterans group was to name as their first honorary member Hans
Reimer Claussen, perhaps Davenport's most well-known German immigrant and a
Schleswig-Holstein patriot who had diligently worked for the cause of
freedom.
But what does all
this have to do with the recent erection of a 24,000-pound monument?
On March 24, 1898,
a massive stone monument commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the
beginning of the Forty-eighters' fight for freedom in their homeland, was
dedicated in Washington Square Park in Davenport, the site of the present YM/YWCA
building. Twelve hundred people attended the dedication ceremony and
observed the planting of three oak trees. Two of these were donated by Otto
von Bismarck, the former chancellor of the German Empire. The third tree was
a twin oak, for many years the symbol of the inseparability of the former
duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
Bleik Peters, the
longtime Kampfgenossen president, dedicated the stone, and Emil Geisler made
a moving speech commemorating the struggle of the Forty-eighters in their
native homeland and their accomplishments in their adopted home of Iowa.
Ironically,
Geisler closed his speech with the following words: May Germania and
Columbia like a pair of sisters, distinguished among the civilized nations
of the world, always be united in their efforts for the welfare of their
children and the distribution of the blessings of the civilization among all
nations. And may the United States of America, now our blessed home, ever
enjoy the blessings of peace and prosperity; and may it forever be the land
of the free and the home of the brave, and its glorious banner forever
wave!"
In less than two
decades, however, the United States and Germany would be anything but
united.
World War I
brought about a wave of anti-German hysteria that swept across the nation,
and Scott County was not exempted from the vitriol and mean-spiritedness
that was directed towards all things German. In an act symbolic of the
times, the stone monument honoring Scott County's Forty-eighters was painted
yellow (a popular way of scornfully identifying and defacing something
having German ties) and tipped over. At some point, the stone disappeared
from Washington Square never to be seen again.
The story would
end at this point - and it would not be a very happing or fitting ending -
were it not for the efforts of several German-American organizations in
Davenport: the American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society (ASHHS) and the
Schützenpark Gilde. These organizations took it upon themselves to redress
the wrong that had occurred ninety years ago by rededicating a new stone
with an identical inscription to the one appearing on the 1898 stone.
Although many individuals were involved in this joint effort, special kudos
have to go to Kory Darnall, president of the Schützenpark Gilde.
On March 30, 2008,
the new stone was dedicated on almost the very spot where the old stone had
sat. A beautiful ceremony was held with speeches by Davenport Mayor Bill
Gluba and ASHHS president Jack Schinckel. Fittingly, the keynote address was
given by Dr. Joachim Reppmann, one of the world's foremost authorities on
the Forty-eighters and an individual who has devoted much of his life to
bringing the remarkable accomplishments of this immigrant group to light.
The ceremony was well attended, and television crews from several local
stations were there to document the event. The day's festivities also made
news in Germany, as a full-page article chronicling the rededication
ceremony ran in newspaper with circulation all throughout the German state
of Schleswig-Holstein.
It appears that
the Forty-eighter monument is the spark that will ignite a number of
projects honoring Scott County's Forty-eighters. Dr. Reppmann is staging a
conference in Denison, Iowa, in September of 2009, that will focus on a
variety of German-American topics, one of which will be the Forty-eighters.
In addition, there are our plans afoot to secure funding to shoot a
documentary film on several of Iowa's German journalists including Theodor
Gülich, a Forty-eighter who founded Davenport's most well known
German-language newspaper, Der Demokrat.
Further
information, unknown historical photos, pictures of the ceremony, texts,
etc. - please go to Downloads: www.moin-moin.us
Scott Christiansen,
Iowa
City, IA/
Yogi
Reppmann, Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein
Note: Jürgen Peter
Ankerson, Scott's great-great grandfather, was the first president of the
Schleswig-Holstein Kampfgenossen Verein von 1848-49-50. |
