european museums in the 21st century: setting the framework (vol. 2) — 343
The German Emigration Center
ææ simone eick
Simone Eick is the Managing Director of the German Emigration Center at Bremerhaven, where she previously has operated as Scientific Director and Deputy Director. From 2003 to 2005, she has participated to the scientific conception of the museum at Studio Andreas Heller in Hamburg. Her studies in History and Philosophy at the University of Hannover were concluded by a dissertation on “American emigration in the 19th century.”
Many changes have happened since the AEMI Conference which took place in Bremerhaven in 2009. While the first wing of the museum, opened in 2005, is about emigration from Germany and Eastern Europe via Bremerhaven from 1830 to 1972, in April 2012 we opened a new wing dedicated to immigration in Germany. We are now, therefore, a museum about migration from 1683 until today (we chose the year 1683 because it was the year a first large group of German people settled in North America). The two buildings are connected by a bridge, which of course is very important to highlight its symbolical meaning. We have not changed the “emigration” part, but now we provide a closer look at the integration of German Americans in the Unites States and on immigration to Germany in the last 300 years. The German Emigration Center is located in Bremerhaven, somehow “at the end of the world” for many Germans. We are located at the New Harbour from where many people departed. The total number of people
previous page, img. 4.12 — The chest of drawers in the “Gallery of the Seven Million,” German Emigration Center, Bremerhaven, Germany. Photo by Anna Chiara Cimoli.