Monday, August 5, 2013

To Hamburg by Train (Germany Part 2)

(Start Reading at Part 1)

The day after our bicycle ride to Freiburg, we rose early to get the train to Hamburg.  It was an ICE train-- went very fast, windows were filthy, seats uncomfortable-- lots for me to be grumpy about.  To top it off, the strap on my bag broke just as we exited the Hamburg subway and I had to schlump along like a hobo to the hotel.  All was remedied by a good dinner at the Rotbuche (Red Beech) restaurant near the hotel.  After dinner John, Ingrid and Bill went back to the city while I reconnected with our friends Rick and Liz and had a glass of wine to further soothe away the trials of the train.

We were not due to meet Steve the bicycle man until 6:00 in the evening so sightseeing was in order and our day was fun, full and informative.  We climbed another church tower-- always a kick for me even though I have to drag myself panting and groaning up many flights of stairs-- in this case getting a few more stars in my crown because there was an elevator that I did not take!

Hamburg is the second largest port in Europe (after Rotterdam) and the tenth largest worldwide.  Scores of container ships like the one pictured come up the Elbe to Hamburg to be unloaded.    All six of us decided to take a river trip to see the ships and docks at close hand.  The river tour was great and took us into one of the side channels as well as up and down the main part of the river.



Not many years ago cargo shipping needed hundreds of dock workers to load and unload ships.  Now a single computer operator can do the same work in a fraction of the time.

The river area was crowded with tourists and "living" statues were doing a brisk business.


More impressive, however, was this group of three.  We had seen them dressing and making up earlier in the day but missed the actual set up.  All three figures are suspended motionless-- the woman on the left (not clearly seen in the photo) is sitting on air as is the man in the front.


This is the most impressive example of such artistry that I have ever seen.  I am sorry that I didn't get a better picture.


John and I finished out the day with a trip to the BallinStadt Auswanderwelt-- the emigrants museum. The museum is located inside five buildings built to house persons while they were waiting for clearance to leave Germany.  John's entire ancestry is German and most of his immigrant ancestors sailed from Hamburg. They were:

Sophie Mirow, a 42 year old widow, sailed on the Allemania arriving in New York in October 1872.  With her were sons Friederich, Edward (John's great grandfather), Carl and daughter Louise.

Herman Henkel and his wife Pauline with John's grandmother Anna and two other children sailed on the Cimbria and arrived in New York on 24 August 1881.  Anna, the eldest, was three years, Carl was two and baby Max was three months.

Julius Langhans and his wife Christina traveled on the Moravia, arriving in New York on 6 May 1884.  With them were Julius' four children by his first and deceased wife, John's grandfather Herman, age three and Ernest, one year.

The exception is the couple Philippina and Carl Graf who sailed from Le Havre on the ship Rochambeau, arriving in New York in May of 1859.  They were the earliest of John's German ancestors to come to the U.S.  They were young and as yet had no children.

It turns out, however, that the facility housing the museum was built between 1898 and 1901, years after John's ancestors passed through Hamburg so was not directly relevant to  the experience they had in Hamburg.

 The surprise for us was that the museum featured the famous ship Imperator, the "ship of dreams".  It was the Imperator on which my father, Marshall K. Smith, emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1920. This ship was an ocean liner built for the Hamburg American Line.  She was built in 1912 and was 24 feet longer than the Titanic. She was launched in 1912, just five weeks after the Titanic disaster.   In 1913 she was the largest passenger liner in the world but was soon surpassed by the 44 foot longer ship Leviathan.  


On her maiden voyage Imperator carried 859 in first class, 647 in second class, 648 in third class, 1495 in steerage and 1332 crew for a total of 4986.  Service was interrupted in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I.  The Germans decided that the ship was too valuable to risk in wartime, so was laid up in Hamburg for the next four years.  In 1918 after the armistice, the ship was taken over by the U.S. military.  In three voyages Imperator returned over 25,000 soldiers, nurses and civilians from France to the U.S. In 1919 the ship was handed over to the British Cunard Line and in 1921 was renamed Berengaria. 

When telling the little he remembered about his voyage to America, my father always said that he sailed on the renowned Berengaria, the pride of the Cunard fleet.  When I found the passenger list for their arrival in August of 1920, however, the vessel was called Imperator.  I was puzzled about this briefly but with a little research learned that it was the same ship.  British pride in Cunard apparently trumped the fact that in 1920 the ship was operating under the German name.  It is interesting to note that while the museum exhibit focused majorly on the Imperator, the history of the ship after 1918 was not mentioned.  I am guessing that Robert and Mary Smith, my grandparents, traveled second or third class.  Some of the pages of the pasenger list were labeled "Steerage Passengers Only" and the page on which they were listed did not have that notation.

Our day ended with the arrival of our bicycles and another dinner at the Rotburche.


The bicycles and Steve the bicycle man outside Kochs Hotel, Hamburg.

Continue to Part 3

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