Points of Passage: Jewish Transmigrants from Eastern Europe in Germany, Britain, Scandinavia and other Countries 1860–1929

/ Termine

Points of Passage: Jewish Transmigrants from Eastern Europe in Germany, Britain, Scandinavia and other Countries 1860–1929

Veranstalter
Institut für die Geschichte der Deutschen Juden, Hamburg
Veranstaltungsort
Warburg Haus und Hamburg Auswanderer Museum/Ballin Stadt
Ort
Hamburg
Land
Deutschland
Vom - Bis
13.09.2008 - 15.09.2008
Deadline
09.09.2008
Website
Von
Tobias Brinkmann

Points of Passage: Jewish Transmigrants from Eastern Europe in Germany, Britain, Scandinavia and other Countries 1860–1929

International Conference, Hamburg, 13–15 September 2008

Hosted by Institute for the History of Jews in Germany, University of Hamburg and organized in conjunction with:

- Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien (IMIS), Universität Osnabrück
- Historisk Institutt, Universitetet i Bergen
- Parkes Institute, University of Southampton

The conference is funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Cologne.

Participants need to registrater in advance; please contact Dagmar Wienrich, igdj[at]public.uni-hamburg.de no later than 9 September 2008.

Between 1870 and 1914 several million Eastern Europeans – Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, ethnic Germans, Hungarians and others – migrated West, overwhelmingly to the United States, and to a lesser degree to Western, Northern and Central Europe as well as other destinations such as Argentina, Palestine, and South Africa. While much is known about their immigration experience, notably in the United States, the paths of mass migration across "green borders", through European railway stations and ports have been little studied. The dimension of the transmigration was impressive. It is estimated that several million migrants crossed Germany from East to West between 1880 and 1914; the numbers for Britain and Scandinavia were also high. The First World War interrupted the transatlantic migration almost completely. In its aftermath migration across Europe and beyond was severely restricted.

This conference will focus on Jewish transmigrants – without ignoring others. Most of the two million Jews who left Eastern Europe for the West before the First World War crossed through Germany; probably around a million through Britain. In the West, Jews from the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian Empires, and Romania were perceived as the most prominent group, not only numerically but also in terms of "visibility". Negative images of Jews were at the forefront of the perception of and public debates about the mass migration of "strangers" from the "East" in Britain, Imperial Germany and the United States. The Jewish mass migration was also distinctive as it concerned and involved established Jewish communities in the countries of transmigration and destination.

Programm

Programm

13 September, 5.30 pm, Hamburg Emigration Museum

Welcome and Introduction – Stefanie Schüler-Springorum

Causes – 6 pm-8 pm,
Chair: Tobias Brinkmann

Eric Lohr, Population Policy and Emigration Policy in Imperial Russia

Gur Alroey, Leaving the Shtetl: Reevaluating the Causes of the Mass Jewish Migration from Eastern Europe, 1875-1924

Reception

14 September, Warburg House

Infrastructure I - Across the Continent– 9 am – 11.00 am
Chair: Joachim Schloer

Ruth Leiserowitz, Jews in the Prussian-Lithuanian Borderlands

Nicole Kvale, Emigrant Trains: Jewish Migration through Prussia, 1880-1914

Barbara Lüthi, “[G]erms of anarchy, crime, disease and degeneracy”: The Medicalization of European Borders and Its Effects on Jewish Migration after 1900

Carl Henrik Carlsson, Jewish Transmigrants from Eastern Europe in Sweden 1860-1914

Infrastructure II - Across the Sea – 11.30 am-1.30 pm
Chair: Rita Bredefeldt

Ursula Wöst, The Hamburg Auswandererhallen: Origins and Development

Nick Evans, The stepping-stone to America: the Transmigrant Corridor across Northern Britain, 1881-1924

Tony Kushner, The Boys and Girls not from Brazil: From Russia to Rio and Back Again via Southampton, Antwerp and Hamburg, 1879-1880

Per Kristian Sebak, Scandinavian Steamship Lines and Jewish Transmigration, 1904-1918

Politics – 3.00 pm - 4.00 pm
Chair: Stefanie Schüler-Springorum

Andreas Fahrmeir, "Paper Walls and their Gaps: Continuity and Change in the Passport System"

Jochen Oltmer, Jewish Transmigrants and Statelessness after 1918

Jewish Institutions 4.30 pm – 6.30 pm
Chair: Christhard Hoffmann

Tobias Brinkmann, A Proto-NGO? The German-Jewish Hilfsverein and the Jewish Mass Migration from Eastern Europe

Anne-Christin Saß, Emigdirect – A Jewish Migration Organization as Mediator between East and West

Verena Dohrn, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency in Berlin and Jewish Migration (1923-33)

Klaus Weber, Tide of Migration: The Jews' Temporary Shelter in London, 1885-1930s

15 September, Warburg House

Metalevel 9 am – 11 am
Chair: Jochen Oltmer

Christhard Hoffmann, The Jewish Transmigration and its Public Perceptions

Nelly Elias, Identity Seeking and Cultural Preservation Among Recent Jewish Immigrants in Germany

Leo Lucassen, Migration – Then and Now

Concluding Discussion 11.30 am -12.30 pm

Participants:
Gur Alroey (University of Haifa)
Rita Bredefeldt (University of Stockholm)
Tobias Brinkmann (University of Southampton)
Carl-Henrik Carlsson (University of Uppsala)
Verena Dohrn (University of Göttingen)
Nelly Elias (Ben Gurion University, Beersheva)
Nick Evans (University of Hull)
Andreas Fahrmeir (Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main)
Christhard Hoffmann (University of Bergen)
Tony Kushner (University of Southampton)
Nicole Kvale (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Ruth Leiserowitz (Free University Berlin)
Eric Lohr (American University, Washington, DC)
Leo Lucassen (University of Leiden)
Barbara Lüthi (University of Basel)
Jochen Oltmer (University of Osnabrück)
Ann-Kristin Saß (Free University Berlin)
Joachim Schloer (University of Southampton)
Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (Institute for the History of Jews in Germany, University of Hamburg)
Per Kristian Sebak (University of Bergen)
Klaus Weber (Rothschild Archive, London)
Ursula Wöst (Emigration Museum Hamburg)

Kontakt

Dagmar Wienrich
Institut für die Geschichte der Deutschen Juden

igdj[at]public.uni-hamburg.de