Travel in Pursuit of Hopes and Rights

Some conventional theories make the mistake in supposing historical change is caused by basic social, economical, or political circumstances. These forces can’t act alone and are always part of an interconnected context of life perception. To understand why great historical change occurs, one must dive into the interrelationship between materialism and the circumstances of the time. In understanding why and how a change occurs, one must start to understand the historical importance in giving meaning to past and future decisions.
         People immigrate in hope for a new life with bright opportunities. The German population was no different. On July 22, 1773, Catherine II, also called Catherine the Great, published a manifesto that welcomed people from western European countries into Russia on the Eastern front. A colonization of people along the Eastern border would create a barrier against the people from Asia establishing a protective border for Russia (Aberle 15). The manifesto included free practice of religion, freedom from taxes within a period of ten to thirty years, and an important freedom from mandated civil or military service. The German population was currently under hardship following the Napoleonic wars and struggled with overcrowding, so the freedoms and rights established through the 1773 manifesto were highly desired (Aberle 16). Also, land and farming tools were given with very little loan interest. In turn, thousands of German people immigrated into Russia during this time to capitalize on the enormous opportunity. Western European immigrants brought a strong knowledge of agriculture to Russia and thus improved many areas such as viniculture, wheat growing, sheep raising, and the production of silk and wool (Rath 2). Their success in the improvement of Russian agriculture led future leaders such as Alexander I to encourage further German immigration to areas of Russia around the Black Sea. Over several generations, this area of Russia became concentrated with German immigrants.
        Peaceful allowance of immigration into Russia only lasted so long. Because Catherine the Great established so many rights at the onset of colonization, the German people in Russia had more freedom than the Russians. The freedoms predictably were slowly taken away. Starting at the reign of Alexander II, the Russian government was hostile toward German colonists, and the government ignored acts of discrimination by the people. Realizing the leniency of judges, Russians would thieve from German settlements (Aberle 63) and believed German people were of second-class citizen. In an account from a German-Russian from Worms, Odessa, “Land, horses, and machines have been taken. We have no right to vote; we are called kulaks.” (Philipps, 131). After a period of tolerated injustice, problems escalated. Tsar Nicholas II regarded the German people as downright hostility and planned for their destruction (Rath 27). Colonists were forced to leave, their land that took generations to prosper was destroyed, and successful towns were made to suffer economically. The very freedoms that brought the Germans into Russia were taken. In response, many German-Russians decided to immigrate to the United States in hopes of freedom once again.
        Michael Semmler is my great-great-great grandfather. Living in the Bessarabian village of Arzis, Michael Semmler left his life behind to pursue better opportunities in America. Michael left his family and took what little money he had to board the ship called the Gellert in 1877 from Hamburg. He was only twenty-one. This journey across the Atlantic took over thirty days, and the conditions didn’t make time go faster. Ships often housed over three hundred immigrants which required the forty foot Gellert to be packed with bunkrooms. Michael Semmler arrived in New York on May 23^rd, 1877. Overall ship travel was miserable, but few died from the trip. However, the process of approving immigrant status and health resulted in masses of people staying within a small central location. Due to the congestion, many people died from sickness. The immigration process took Michael Semmler until September 1877 to officially sign and have his declaration of intention for the United States approved. When I ponder how Michael Semmler and all other immigrants to America entered this daunting task, I can’t imagine how frightened people must have been.     
         I find the decision to leave your whole life behind in hopes of something better extremely courageous. Imagine leaving your family knowing that you will never see them again, knowing that your decision to leave can’t be taken back, and deciding to enter a purely culturally and linguistically diverse country. Further, you would only be one person amongst a swarm of immigrants who you didn’t know. The risk was great, but the opportunities were immense. Michael Semmler would have been frightened at the situation. Being one man among the masses of people, Michael had to feel somewhat unnoticed and lost. However, hope and faith toward having a fresh start with freedoms and rights previously denied from his family in Russia would have created motivation. In the years following his travel to America, Michael Semmler traveled to the Midwest in search for a new home consistent with his knowledge in agriculture.
          Earlier German-Russians had traveled the Midwest of the United States in search for suitable land for their agricultural expertise. In 1853 scouts were sent to look for land that would suit a group of people (Rath 68). Scouts explored areas around the current states: Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and finally the Dakotas. The scouts found what they were looking for in the Territory of Dakota; land was plentiful with a steppe similar to the one in Russia (Rath 68). “Scouts told the people that they had even seen green wheat and the farmers at Yankton had told them that they had sown the seed at the end of February. It was almost like Russia.” (Rath 68). Once this was reported, many more German-Russians were told to move to the Dakotas. More or less, the German-Russians immigrated to the Dakotas very similar to Russia several generations prior. Many small towns were established determinant on who immigrants knew and what group of people had the same religion.
           In the spring of 1882, many Germans from Russia secured homesteads in the town now known as Delmont. Michael Semmler along with the family of his future wife were among the group (Rath 406). Michael Semmler had several years since his declaration of intention to accumulate a little money. “The harvests in 1882 and 1883 were fair but from 1884 till 1890 scanty. The prices were very low. One load of corn taken to Scotland at a distance of thirty miles…sold at nine cents a bushel; wheat at thirty-five cents.” (Rath 406). The little money that Michael was able to save would have been exhausted within the first couple winter hardships. Many of the situations where life posed challenges seemed unsurpassable at times. “But where danger is greatest, God’s help is nearest.” (Rath 62). The German-Russians relied on their faith in God whenever life was tough and somehow got through.
        The stories of my ancestors and the German-Russian population in general seem so courageous that I have a hard time relating my life circumstances to theirs. However, each generation looks back on previous generations in motivation to work harder than previously believed possible; I find this to be completely axiomatic. Michael Semmler would have looked back at his ancestors that immigrated to Russia in motivation to work towards settling South Dakota. In turn, I can look at Michael Semmler as motivation towards my life goals. I aspire to pursue law school on the east coast of the United States. I obtained my current goals through what I have learned and heard just like how Michael Semmler discovered South Dakota. I similarly will enter a part of the country I know very little about and undoubtedly will make mistakes throughout my life as well as come across situations like a symbolic “harsh winter.” Knowing how my ancestors fought through such difficult situations will make anything I come across bearable. I recognize how Michael Semmler and others settled America to lay a foundation of what later became my life. I aspire to parallel this effort and determination in my life in hopes that someone in a future generation can look back at my life and find motivation through my story. Michael Semmler was twenty-one when he stepped foot onto the S/S Gellert with clothing on his back, belongings in a suitcase, and a ticket of hope. As someone who just turned twenty-one myself, I will start my adult life by entering law school. I will instead step foot onto an airplane, but I will be feeling similar thoughts as did Michael Semmler entering New York.
 

 Works Cited

Aberle, George P. From the Steppes to the Prairies. Bismarck, North Dakota: Tumbleweed Press, 1981

 National Records. Vol. 004903B Page 19. Michael Semmler, Douglas Co. September 26, 1877.

 Philipps, John. The Germans by the Black Sea Between the Bug and Dnjestr Rivers. Fargo, North Dakota: Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, 2000. 

Rath, George. The Black Sea Germans in the Dakotas. Freeman, South Dakota: Pine Hill Press, 1977.