Starvation, religious and political freedom, land scarcity. There were many reasons why Germans emigrated to the United States of America – the “land of opportunity”. From 1816 to 1914, 5.5 million people left Germany for North America, according to the website of the Federal Agency for Civic Education. In the period from the First World War to the present day, there should not have been two million emigrants.
Among the emigrants in the 19th century were also people from the Upper Palatinate. Some of them achieved careers in their new home. We introduce three of them:
Bonifaz Wimmer from Upper Palatinate founded the St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. His statue is there in front of the abbey church.
Bild: Seth Harbaugh
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Archabbot Bonifaz Wimmer from Thalmassing
Sebastian Wimmer was born on January 14, 1809 in Thalmassing (Regensburg district). He went to school in Regensburg and began studying theology, as stated in an essay by Father Roman Aigner. In 1832 Wimmer entered the Benedictine monastery in Metten and took the religious name Boniface. In 1838 Wimmer met Peter Heinrich Lemke, a German priest who worked as a pastor in America. This told Wimmer about his experiences. “After dinner one of the professors, Father Bonifaz Wimmer, took me aside and told me that he had long felt the urge to go to America as a missionary,” the essay continues. But Wimmer’s abbot initially rejected his request. In an essay he outlined his motivation: According to Wimmer, the Benedictine order will be successful in founding new monasteries thanks to its adaptability. King Ludwig I also read the letter and got Wimmer to travel to America. With four theology students and 15 lay brothers he set out from Munich on July 25, 1846 for the New World. The group arrived in New York on September 15th.
The new life in America started out sobering. Lemke did not come to greet the Germans. “German pastors who had been serving in America for a long time … declared the Wimmers company to be impossible,” writes Father Aigner. But Wimmer didn’t want to give up right away. He was commissioned by the bishop to look after the parish of St. Vincent in Latrobe, 60 kilometers southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A German congregation was founded there. From 1851 St. Vincent from Upper Palatinate was allowed to develop into a Benedictine abbey – again with the support of King Ludwig I. Wimmer was appointed abbot. But that’s not all. He asked Pope Pius IX to be allowed to found more monasteries in other dioceses. Wimmer was successful: the Pope sent the corresponding document to America.
“The work of the monks was enormous,” writes Aigner. Wimmer and his colleagues had to build the building for the convent and agriculture. The abbot was the only pastor for an area as large as the diocese of Passau, explains Aigner. Later a brewery also belonged to the monastery, there was “St. Vincent beer”.
According to Aigner, Wimmer wanted to found several monasteries from the start. He received money from friends in Bavaria, including the king. He founded Collegeville, Minnesota, Atchison, Kansas, and Newark, New Jersey, as well as 152 parishes and many schools. Wimmer created the American-Cassinese Benedictine Congregation, was its president and also archabbot.
The man from Upper Palatinate worked in North America for 41 years as a pastor for German-speaking Catholics and emigrants from Bohemia, evangelized Protestants, and campaigned for education for blacks and Indians in Georgia and Minnesota. He died in Latrobe on December 8, 1887.
The builders of St. Vincent Abbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The abbey was founded by Bonifaz Wimmer from Upper Palatinate, and the church was completed in 1905.
Image: Latrobe Archabbey
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Unknown donor from Messnerskreith
In Meßnerskreith (Schwandorf district) there is a boys’ association that has been calling itself “Philadelphia” since 1896: as a thank you for the generous donation of one of its members who emigrated to North America in the 19th century, the association is said to have named itself after his new home town.
The boys’ association was founded in Rappenbügl in 1879, just like Meßnerskreith is today a district of Maxhütte-Haidhof. The young men initially called themselves “Burschengesellschaft Deutsche Eiche”, as Alexander Wagner writes in the chronicle for the 130th anniversary. The members were very poor – they could not afford a club flag.
Then the men received mail from the States. In addition to a donation, a man who grew up in Meßnerskreith is said to have sent a green flag embroidered with an anchor. “Also from the ranks of the boys’ society ‘Deutsche Eiche’, some enterprising boys embarked on a journey to the land of unlimited possibilities. The hardworking and adaptable Germans were welcome and highly valued workers in the USA,” says the chronicle.
Who exactly the noble donor was can no longer be traced today: “Unfortunately, we lost all of the Jubelverein’s written documents as a result of the turbulent and fateful years leading up to the re-establishment in 1949,” writes the chronicler. The association had thought for several years that it was Johann Voit. This later turned out to be wrong. An indication: “The flag actually existed once,” explains Wagner when asked.
An unknown donor helps the Messnerskreithern out of trouble? “That is quite possible, you tell it that way,” says Florian Schwemin. However, there are no documents to prove the story, the deputy district caretaker points out. Schwemin explains whether the association named itself “Philadelphia” after the American city in which the donor might have lived, or to emphasize brotherhood, for which the Greek word stands.
The death picture of Cardinal Aloysius Muench.
Repro: Liane Preininger
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Cardinal Aloysius Muench and his Kemnath roots
Another clergyman who has made a career in the United States is Aloysius Muench. Strictly speaking, he is not a native of the Upper Palatinate: Muench was born in the United States. But his mother Therese came from Kemnath (Tirschenreuth district). Liane Preininger knows that she is still known today as Pinzer-Bäck-Resl. The latter represents the Resl on the historical city tour in Kemnath and has dealt extensively with the history of the Muench family.
Pinzer-Bäck-Resl was born in 1868 as the youngest of seven children. Her mother died when she was only 38 years old. The family was poor and saw no perspective in the village. The father decided to emigrate to America with his children – Resl was eight years old at the time, according to an article by Hans Kraus in the “Kemnather Heimat-Zeitung” from 1959.
The family arrived in Milwaukee and started a new life. Years later Resl met Joseph Muench, an emigrant from St. Katharina in the Bohemian Forest. The two married in 1888 and Alois was born on February 18, 1889. The family, who continued to live in Milwaukee, had a total of six children. “Her pride was the eldest son Alois, who was very talented,” writes Kraus. Alois attended a seminary and was ordained a priest in 1913.
Liane Preininger (right) in the role of Pinzer-Bäck-Resl.
Image: jzk
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“The mother often told the children about her home in distant Germany, the little town near Rauhen Kulm. Her children inherited her love for Germanness and homeland,” says Kraus, whose article appeared in 1959. When there was an aid campaign by Catholic Americans for Germany after the First World War, Alois Muench is said to have been one of the “most energetic organizers”. In 1935 he became Bishop of Fargo, North Dakota.
According to the stories, Alois came to Kemnath after the First World War, says Preininger. “He was looking for his roots in Kemnath,” she knows. In 1939 he was here with his mother. In 1950 he visited the place again and celebrated the 500th anniversary of the parish church and the Kemnath Catholic Day.
In 1951 Alois Muench became apostolic nuncio for Germany, and in 1959 cardinal in Rome. The clergyman stood up for the Germans among the Allies, trying above all to alleviate their hunger. “My mission is charity”, Muench is said to have said. He acted for the US government as a liaison between military authorities and the Catholic Church, he was head of the military chaplaincy in the US zone of occupation.
The guests of honor of the Kemnather Katholikentag 1950 with Bishop Aloysius Muench (seated in front: third from right).
Repro: bjp
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As a thank you for his commitment, he received the Grand Cross for the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic. He was also valued in Kemnath: “The residents are proud of their new honorary citizen,” wrote the mayor in 1951, according to Preininger.
The traces of the man who died on February 15, 1962 and is buried in the Heilig-Kreuz cemetery in Fargo can still be found in Kemnath today: There is a Kardinal-Muench-Strasse in the town. His mother is not forgotten either: a plaque at the Pinzer-Bäck-Haus reminds us of her – and Preininger when she slips into the role of Resl.
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