Preface

Chapter 1
EUROPE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century was still  living under the effects of the French Revolution, the wars of Napoleon and the rise of liberalism. The unification of Germany and the Risorgimento in Italy had caused grave problems for the Church, and the power and the prestige of the papacy had suffered from these political events. Agnosticism was the popular position of intellectuals and belief in Christian revelation was under attack.

In Central Europe the great expanse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was ruled as it had been for centuries by the imperial Habsburg family. In what was one of the longest reigns in history, Franz Joseph exercised his divine right as emperor from his seat in Vienna, extending his power over the peoples of a vast number of political divisions in what today would be Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania and Italy. He was archduke of Austria, king of Hungary, king of Bohemia, count of Tirol, duke of Milan, duke of Styria, Carinthia and Slovenia, and over all  else, the Holy Roman Emperor. It was the German language and Habsburg family that held this largest nation in Europe together until the First World War destroyed it.

The people who inhabited these beautiful and fertile lands of Central Europe, the lands of the Donaumonarchie, so-called since nearly all of its vast expanse was watered by that great river, were of Teutonic, Slavic, Magyar and Romance stock. The German-speaking people in the empire lived in Upper and Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, and Tirol. The Slavic peoples were found in the dukedom of Krain, the kingdom of Bohemia, Mähren, Dalmatia, Galicia and Bukowina. The Italians lived in the south Tirol and Romanians in Romania. It was a federation of peoples and languages, a real league of nations. Within dominantly Slavic regions there were German enclaves, especially in the areas occupied by the Donauschwaben, who lived in Banat which today straddles Hungary, Yugoslavia and Romania; the Sudetenland Deutsch , who dwelt in the lands close to Bohemia; and the Burgenlanders, whose lands on the eastern shore of Europe's greatest lake, the Neusiedler See, were sometimes in Hungary and sometimes a part of Austria as they are today. The mixture found within the entire monarchy was 25% German, 17% Hungarian, 13% Bohemian, 11% Serbo-Croatian, 9% Polish, 8% Ruthenian, 7% Romanian, 4% Slovakian, 3% Slovenian, 2% Italian, and 1% others. From this federation of peoples a great number of emigrants found their way to Saint Paul and to Saint Agnes Parish, especially those who came from the Böhmerwald, the Burgenland and the Donauschwaben from Banat. It was their Catholic faith and the German language that they had in common.

The German peoples north of the Danube had long lived in separate political divisions each subject to its local ruler, some ecclesiastical and some princely. In 1871 the north Germans federated and set up the German Empire with the Hohenzollern family as the reigning dynasty ruling from Berlin. Because the seat of power was in Berlin, the whole country was often called Prussia, and many Catholic immigrants from the Rhineland called themselves Prussians. Some sections of the new empire were inhabited by Catholic people, but the power was in the hands of a Protestant group under the domination of Count Otto von Bismarck who directed the Kulturkampf against the Church, a policy that led to a great emigration of Catholics to the United States. They came from Bavaria, the Palatinate, the Rhineland, Schwabia, Luxemburg and the Black Forest. To escape military service and the economic problems of the times, they sought a new world. The nineteenth century was a time of revolution and war, and neither the Habsburg monarchy nor the new German empire were spared.

In the Austrian empire, many ethnic groups agitated for independence based on a nationalism, a result achieved only in the treaties that closed the First World War which spelled the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While the northern Germans had to suffer persecution for their faith, those in the south enjoyed the protection of the Catholic rule of the Habsburgs and life in an almost totally Catholic land. Both, however, were victims of the poverty that was found among the rural and peasant classes of nearly all European countries.

The north Germans suffered under the militaristic policies of the new empire as directed by Bismarck. There was a war with Austria (the Seven Weeks' War) in 1866 and another conflict with France (the Franco-Prussian War) in 1870. These resulted in a universal military conscription and a greater burden of taxation. Many people could not find work. Most of the population was made up of small landholders, farm laborers, small businessmen, day laborers domestic help. The new government began a program of industrialization which pushed aside the small shops and forced more and more into factory work. Emigration was the means of escaping the new slavery of a militaristic regime. In addition, Bismarck attacked the Church, beginning with the Falk Laws of May, 1873, which curtailed the jurisdiction of the Holy See in Germany, suppressed religious orders and attacked the bishops' authority in matters of education and ecclesiastical appointments. Opposition was organized in the Catholic sections of the country, but the atmosphere was not kind toward those who practiced the Roman  Catholic faith.

Life in  the Austro-Hungarian empire in the nineteenth century was largely rural with a few cities that had some modest industry. Many worked as farm hands or domestic servants for very little wages.  The opportunity to earn more and live a better life prompted many to set out for America, reports of which had come from those  who had gone earlier. There was no religious persecution under  the Habsburgs, and the militarism of Bismarck was not to be found in the south German lands. But the poverty of all but a few who held the land or were nobility began the movement that swelled to enormous proportions by the turn of the century. They left the Alpine villages of Tirol, the fertile farm communities of the Danube  valley, the larger and smaller cities, all seeking a new life in new world. Many priests and religious came with them, some fleeing persecution, others inspired by a missionary zeal to establish the faith in a new land.

It was to escape the political, religious and economic woes and the taxes that afflicted their lives in Austria-Hungary and in northern Germany that the great migration of the nineteenth century brought millions of German-speaking people to the United States, especially  after the conclusion of the Civil War. Beginning in the 1860's, the flood grew until the First World War interrupted it for awhile, and then it continued somewhat lessened during the 1920's. This chart shows the volume of immigrants. (Coleman J. Barry, The Catholic Church and  German Americans, p. 6.)

Life in the rural areas of nineteenth century Europe was calm and peaceful but without the conveniences and amusements that the twentieth century has come to expect. There was no electricity, radio or television. There were no automobiles and very little travel beyond one's own village. A pride in work and an orderly life was usual. The Church regulated the lives of the people with its feast days and seasons. The center of the village was the parish church, usually a dominating structure with the cemetery near at hand. The church bells marked the hours of the day and announced the joys and sorrows of the community. Christmas, Easter, Kirmes (the parish festival), All Souls' Day and Corpus Christi  with its procession through the fields were special occasions. Most towns had a music band and many places had their shooting clubs. Music played a significant part in life, and the parish choir was important. Flags and banners in beautiful needle work were treasured and used only for the great processions. Weddings and funerals, harvest festivals and school events made up the activity of the villages. Life was peaceful and lived under the hope of eternity promised  by the Catholic faith that had been the possession of these peoples for a thousand years.

Father Coleman Barry, O.S.B., in his work, The Catholic Church and the German Americans, (p. 8-9) describes the outlook of these people that they brought with them from the world that they left:
 

The Catholic Church was very concerned about the condition of the emigrants, and German Catholics, in particular, undertook to help them in their departure from home, on the long journey, and in the new land to find a settlement that would preserve their faith and allow them to move into the new kind of life that would be demanded of them. This was carried out chiefly by the St. Raphael Society (Der Raphaelsverein zum Schutze katholischer deutscher Auswanderer), with Peter Paul Cahensly as the man who did the most to organize and maintain agents in all major ports of Europe and America. They saw to the spiritual and temporal welfare of the emigrants as they left and as they arrived. In this country they assisted them with the English language, saw that they passed through the immigration formalities, provided them with lodging and got them on the trains for their ultimate destinations where friends and relatives or at least those who spoke their language awaited them. There were agents also in the major railroad transfer points to see that they were able to find the transportation for the last leg of the long journey. Many who finally got to Saint Paul spent some long hours in Chicago before getting the train for Minnesota. The Raphaelsverein took up the legal fights of those who suffered abuse on board ship and who could not defend themselves even in courts because of differences between German and American law, and the ever present problem of language. Leaving their own lands and not yet having become citizens of the new land, they were almost men without a country. But Cahensly and his society defended and protected them even in the face of great opposition, abuse and misunderstanding for his charitable work. Father Barry (p. 33-34) describes some of the problems that confronted the St. Raphael Society in its work for the emigrants:
 

The arrival at Ellis Island in New York's harbor must have been a soul-stirring experience for the travelers who had spent so many long days and nights on the sea, tired and sick, anxious and yet fearful of what was to come. The sight of the Statue of Liberty and the bustling activity of the great port introduced the immigrant from rural Europe to the new world of America. Many are the tales handed down about those first experiences, and most families have such stories from those who came. One that always amuses but still exemplifies the bewilderment of the traveler in a foreign land relates how the sight of all the fruits and vegetables on sale in Castle Garden attracted the attention of someone who had seen little fresh produce during the long sea voyage. Particularly appealing were the beautifully red apples, much redder and much bigger than any that had ever grown in the Tirol; for a nickel one was purchased with great anticipation of the sweet taste; and how great was the disappointment when the first bite filled the mouth with an acid taste and hundreds of seeds. The apple was a tomato! The moral learned was that in this new world one must never be mislead by appearances; the external beauty may well hide an inner corruption.

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