Andreas Dietsch

Anton Andreas Dietsch , also Andres Dietsch, (born October 13, 1807 in Mulhouse ; † 1845 in Neu-Helvetia, Missouri ) was a brush-maker , writer , early socialist and emigrant.

origin

Dietsch was born in Mulhouse as the son of legal agent André Dietsch. According to his own testimony, he attended the two “lowest schools” in his hometown and learned the craft of a brush-maker. On April 13, 1835, he received a settlement permit from the Aarau City Council as a journeyman to the brush maker Gabriel Hagnauer in Aarau. On May 13, 1836, he married his daughter Susanne. Two girls were born, the woman died giving birth to the third child.

Journalistic activity

Its first publication was in 1841 Der Aarauer Bachfischet presented humorously by A. Dietsch , the oldest complete text on the Aarauer Bachfischet .

From February 12, 1841 to November 18, 1842, more than 50 drawn contributions followed, some in poetry in the politically critical weekly " Das Posthörnchen ", which was published by Samuel Landolt in Aarau since 1838. The macabre humoresque in four episodes The teeth , a grotesque example from the author's moral code, shows that happiness cannot be bought. Not even the sacrifice of a healthy tooth that brings decay and death to the hero because he acted against nature and conscience.

In 1842 he published his socio-political utopia The Millennial Reich and Equality and Unity, the Path to Freedom and Eternal Peace, in eight sequels . In his function as secretary of the Aarau trade and business people, he publishes the appeal regarding the craftsmen's petition to the Aarau government.

In 1843, the founding of Neu-Helvetia, a reliable guide for those keen to emigrate who are looking for their fortune in America and want to justify it, was published by Andreas Dietsch in the Irmel publishing house in Langenthal.

The first German theorist and agitator of “communism” Wilhelm Weitling worked for a while at the Irmel publishing house in Langenthal, where he edited the Swiss People's Messenger until the Bern government expelled him. While in the course of the year 1843 in the Aargau forest of leaves for and against "communism" from Langenthal without even hearing the voice of Andreas Dietsch, he was quietly working on the realization of his "millennial kingdom".

In 1844 the Separatum The Thousand Year Reich was published along with the plan and statutes for the establishment of New Helvetia in the state of Missouri in North America .

His ideas were less political than practical, in that he wanted to restore the decaying artisan class with the help of a communal settlement system in conjunction with agriculture. "A mixture of idealism, objectivity and benevolent despotism"

Influenced by the writings of Fourier , Cabet , Considèrant and his acquaintance Wilhelm Weitling , Andreas Dietsch envisaged an egalitarian, community-based, idealistic commune “without greed and envy”.

Andreas Dietsch's circle of friends included the liberal-minded manufacturer Gustav Siegfried (Zofingen) and the two doctors Rudolf Sutermeister (Zofingen) and Johannes Glur (Langenthal). The two in turn knew each other from their time together at the Aarau Cantonal School and, as do-gooders, also dealt with early socialist ideas. Johannes Glur published Der Führer nach Amerika with instructions for emigrants in Langenthal in 1844 .

The success of the plan to found the New Helvetia colony came as a surprise even to Andreas Dietsch. According to his testimony, it was raining from inquiries and registrations, so that he had to write day and night to satisfy the spirits he was calling. At a general assembly on March 24, 1844 in Aarau in the hall of the Rössli inn, the statutes of the “Neu-Helvetia” emigration association, drafted by Andreas Dietsch, were adopted by over 100 people who wanted to emigrate. A six-member committee, including the three Aargau residents Rudolf Rütschi von Lenzburg, Joh. Ulrich Rey von Moeriken and Rudolf Blattner von Rombach, were elected.

In contrast to the greats of socio-economic dialectics, the trained brush maker in Aarau achieved what others were denied; a society determined to take action.

Andreas Dietsch and his companions could not have known that four years later (1848) Switzerland would overcome its political crisis with the new constitution and pave the way for a modern welfare state .

Emigration to the USA

Andreas Dietsch left Aarau on Sunday, June 2, 1844 with a first group of 43 people. The shipment took place on June 25, 1844 in Le Havre on the ship Albany with destination New York. They arrived in New York on August 6, 1844, and the group reached St. Louis on August 31, 1844.

The statutes had regulated the organizational details, but the possibility of discrepancies between the members had not been taken into account. Now the single people showed little inclination to share their income with large families, and the most capable workers noticed that they could quickly make a better living on their own than through laborious joint clearing work.

Quarrel, illness and exhaustion led to the partial dissolution of the group, so that in the end only seven adults and eleven children reached the settlement area for New Helvetia / New Aarau in Osage County Missouri USA, which has since been purchased. The position of New Helvetia, which consisted of 360 acres, was approximately 5 miles northwest of Westphalia . The settlement of New Aarau was approximately one kilometer from the Osage River , Township 43 North, Range 10 Section 19/20.

The onset of winter, exhaustion, illness and lack of money took their toll. The first deaths weakened the group in the temporary communal log house in Neu Aarau until the end of 1844. The last letter and the completion of the detailed travel reports and diaries of Andreas Dietsch date from December 15, 1844. Andreas Dietsch probably died shortly after the last letter was handed in in the nearest settlement Westphalia at the end of January 1845 at the age of 37.

“Where we have lacked it is not bad will, but ignorance is to blame; we now have to say that we didn't understand any better, because everyone relied too much on the other "

- Andreas Dietsch from the last letter from January 1845

In the period from autumn 1844 to May 1845, 82 people in subsequent groups of the same emigration society founded by Andreas Dietsch left Switzerland. However, these emigrants certainly did not find Andreas Dietsch alive, provided that they even reached New Helvetia.

The publication of these summarized reports and diaries by Andreas Dietsch was carried out by Rudolf Blattner in Aarau around mid-1845.

Surviving colonists moved with members of a crowd that later arrived from Switzerland towards northern Iowa and founded the Communia colony there in 1847 under the leadership of Heinrich Koch in Northwest Corner Section 18, Volga Township, Clayton County. In 1846 Heinrich Koch recruited a German-speaking company of the Missouri Volunteers with 250 men for the Mexican War among the German and Swiss immigrants in St. Louis. Some of these “volunteers” were former members of Andreas Dietsch's New Helvetia / New Aarau project. The Iowa land rights acquired in exchange for military service formed the basis for the establishment of the Communia colony .

The theoretical foundations were also here the visions of Andreas Dietsch and the core group of colonists were former "New Helvetians" around Dietsch's closest companion, Josef Venus. This second utopian colony was headed by Heinrich Koch from 1847-1849 and by Josef Venus from 1849 to 1851. In 1851, Andreas Dietsch's former acquaintance from his time in Switzerland, the German radical reformer Wilhelm Weitling, appeared in the colony and invested the funds from his “German Workers' League New York / German Workingmen's League”. At the end of 1851, the now socialist colony of Communia in Iowa joined the covenant - and three years later tore it into financial ruin. Weitling failed as administrator and from 1854 Communia dissolved into hatred and discord. Communia was liquidated by a court decision in 1864.

epilogue

In 1947 the then landowner William Vogel found the graves of 3 adults and several children on his land on the Osage River. An apple tree and a few vines as well as rusty scissors were the last legacies of the “Thousand Year Reich” planned by Andreas Dietsch. The unpopulated area of ​​Neu Helvetia is now part of the Berhorst Farm, 599 Berhorst Trail, Westphalia MO 65085. The water source of Neu Helvetia was reactivated in 2011 and a plaque at the source commemorates Andreas Dietsch.

literature

• Karin Marti-Weissenbach: Dietsch, Andreas. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Nold Halder : The great emigration of Andreas Dietsch and his company. Limmat, Zurich 1978, ISBN 3-85791-0178 .
• Nold Halder: Andreas Dietsch and his utopian colony in New Helvetia Missouri. A contribution to the history of Swiss emigration and early communism in Switzerland, Aarauer Neujahrsblätter 1960/1961 ISBN 3-85791-017-8 .
• Rudolf Blattner: Diary and travel notes of the emigration society for the establishment of New Helvetia. 1845 self-published.
• Sharon Gulick: New Helvetia Community. Osage County Historical Society Missouri USA. Newsletter June 1990, University of Missouri USA.
• Mary Lou Schulte: New Helvetia. The dream that died. Osage County Historical Society USA. Newsletter January 2010, University of Missouri USA
• Missouri's Utopian Communities, Missouri Historical Review, Vol. 66 # 1 October 1971.
• Linda Schelbitzki: Contended among strangers. 1942/1996 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois ISBN 0-252-021-82-7 .
• George Schulz-Behrend, Texas University USA: Andreas Dietsch and Helvetia, Missouri. Swiss American Historical Society - The Swiss Record Vol. 2 March 1950.
• Jürg Schneider: Socialism and Utopia. Andreas Dietsch (1807-1845). in: Bruno Abegg, Barbara Lüthi (eds.): Small Number - Big Impact: Swiss emigration to the USA. Zurich 2006, pp. 53–58.
• Biographical encyclopedia of the canton Aargau 1803-1957 Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1958
• Emil Anliker: Johannes Glur emigration booklet from 1844. Oberaargau yearbook vol. 19 1976
• Herrmann Schlütter: The beginnings of the German labor movement in America. Dietz Successor Publishing House, New York 1907.

Further documents and research material can be found in the Aargau Cantonal Library and in the Aargau State Archives in Aarau.

Web links

• Literature by and about Andreas Dietsch in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Quote from Georg Schulz-Behrend, Texas University 1950.