The dream of the New World

Television broadcast
German title	The dream of the New World
Country of production	Germany
year	2017
Production ; company	LOOKSfilm
length	4 × 52 minutes
genre	Documentary series
Director	Kai Christiansen
idea	Ulrike Dotzer , NDR / ARTE
script	Kai Christiansen
production	Gunnar Dedio
music	Steffen Keinke, Eike Hosenfeld and Moritz Denis
camera	Dirk Heuer
First broadcast	3rd / 10th June 2017 on ARTE
occupation
	Fabian Busch : Carl Schurz ; Francis Fulton-Smith : Richard Roberts; Franziska Weisz : Irmgard Ballin; Anna Schudt : Hertha Nathorff ;

The Dream of the New World is a four-part documentary series by Kai Christiansen (script and direction) about the century of emigration , which was broadcast for the first time on June 3rd and 10th, 2017 on the European cultural channel ARTE .

action

Between 1840 and 1939, around 55 million people left their homes in Europe and set out for America . The Dream of the New World illuminates the greatest migration movement in history based on the fate of emigrants who left their motives and experiences for posterity in letters, diaries and reports. The protagonists of the series include u. a. Captains and inventors who made the Atlantic crossing possible, as well as the shipowners, for whom the business with emigrants became a gold mine, an investigative journalist who traveled incognito and denounced the situation, and an interpreter who worked on Ellis Island - the collection point for Immigrants to New York - the stories of hundreds of people.

Production information

The dream of the New World was born from an idea by Ulrike Dotzer ( NDR / ARTE editorial team ) and was produced by Gunnar Dedio (LOOKSfilm ). The series is a co-production by NDR and LOOKSfilm in collaboration with ARTE. It was funded by Nordmedia and Hessen Invest Film . The DVD was released by polyband Medien as part of the ARTE Edition.

Episodes

The departure

Part 1 describes the reasons for the massive emigration and explains the attraction of the New World.

Protagonists

Carl Schurz ( Fabian Busch ), Margarethe Schurz ( Isabelle Barth ), Ann McNabb (Laura Wilkinson), Gustaf Fair ( Jonas Müller-Liljeström ), Dorothea Luise Ludwig ( Marlene Tanczik )

content

At the beginning of the 19th century, millions of Europeans lived in poverty. Jews and members of free church communities are religiously persecuted. The free development of the individual is hindered. Carl Schurz had to flee Germany with his wife Margarethe because he was politically persecuted as a supporter of the revolution of 1848 . In the USA he made a career as a politician and made it to general and interior minister (1877-1881). In 1856 his wife founded the first German-speaking kindergarten in the United States of America . The Irish Ann Mac Nabb works as a cook and nanny at the same time, so hard that she can bring her whole family, parents and siblings to the USA. The Swedish emigrant Gustaf Fair rises to a wealthy farmer after four years of hardship as a laborer. Dorothea Louise Ludwig is brought from Germany to the USA by girl traffickers, where she is rented out to innkeepers on a daily basis as a companion, known as the so-called Hurdy Gurdy Girl . However, it can hold its own in this world.

The records

Part 2 is dedicated to the technical developments that made the mass exodus possible.

Protagonists

Jules Verne (Steve Karier), Paul Verne (Alex Tondowski), Josef Ressel (Michél Keller), Richard Roberts ( Francis Fulton-Smith ), Victoire Lacasse ( Samia Chancrin )

content

In the middle of the 19th century, emigration to America became a mass phenomenon. Conventional sailing ships , which have a low loading capacity and are at sea for weeks, cannot cope with the number of passengers. The use of steam engines on board is one of many innovations of the time. As just as important, the proven propeller as an alternative to the cumbersome paddle wheels of the first steamships. Ever faster and larger ships are being built. The episode focuses on personalities such as the Austrian-Bohemian forest official and inventor Josef Ressel , who brought the ship's propeller to technical maturity. It tells the story of Irish captain Richard Roberts, who set the first speed record with the steamship " Sirius " : It took him 18 days and four hours to travel between Europe and America. More and more, bigger and faster ships are crossing the Atlantic. The journey by ship is dangerous and for many an existential risk. The French emigrant Victoire Lacasse was the only woman to survive a shipwreck off New York in 1898. The dream of technical progress that Jules Verne describes in his novels is increasingly becoming a reality.

The profit

Part 3 shows how, in the second half of the 19th century, the focus shifted towards a competition between ports and shipping companies for passenger numbers.

Protagonists

Irmgard Ballin ( Franziska Weisz ), Bernhard Huldermann (Thomas Ziesch), Lord Inverclyde (Michael S. Ruscheinsky), Eliza P. Heaton (Nicola Seaton Clark), Julius Kaliski ( Nico Holonics )

content

Mass emigration is becoming a business in which British and German companies in particular compete. The big shipping companies become carriers of national pride. Ship christenings and maiden voyages are identity-creating spectacles in which the power of the nation is displayed. A "war of the ports" was established between the major European ports. Albert Ballin , General Director of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), reforms and professionalises the business with ship passages and makes the shipping company the largest shipping line in the world. Ballin's competitor is the British shipowner Lord Inverclyde. With him he competes for ships, goods and passengers. The changes around the business with passenger ships have their downsides, mainly for the destitute passengers. The American Eliza Putnam Heaton experienced as undercover passengers, what it means in the steerage to travel to America. The German journalist Julius Kaliski , who denounces the inhumane conditions, has similar experiences .

The limits

Part 4 describes the last exodus in the 1920s and 1930s, which came to an end with the outbreak of World War II.

Protagonists

Fiorello LaGuardia ( Nicolo Pasetti ), Gustav Schröder ( Axel Gottschick ), Marjorie Arnison (Katharina Sporrer), Hertha Nathorff ( Anna Schudt )

content

In 1907 more than 1.2 million people immigrate to the United States. The peak has been reached and the country is turning around: In 1921, Congress decides to limit the number of immigrants to 70,000 per year. The global economic crisis increased the will to set boundaries. Just as hundreds of thousands want to escape the National Socialist dictatorship, the USA locks the entrance gates. Fiorello LaGuardia , three-time mayor of New York City (1934–1945), worked as a translator on Ellis Island at the beginning of the century. He fights against the introduction of quotas that are supposed to limit immigration. Gustav Schröder , captain of the St. Louis , saved the lives of more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany who were refused admission to the USA in 1939 through tough negotiations. Against stiff resistance and at great sacrifice, the Jewish pediatrician Hertha Nathorff managed to find a modest livelihood in the New World.

criticism

In its criticism, the German press agency dpa praised the topicality of the four-part series: “Migration is a constant media topic in times when more and more immigrants and asylum seekers live in Germany and other European countries. The Franco-German cultural broadcaster Arte directs attention to another epoch in which people made their way further west out of fear of political oppression or economic misery: between 1840 and 1939, 55 million Europeans emigrated to America - mainly to the United States . In his documentary The Dream of the New World , Kai Christiansen tells about the political and economic background and the experiences of the men and women who left their homeland at the time . With the help of diaries and letters from the emigrants as well as photos, film recordings, expert opinions and scenes from the game, the director paints a multifaceted picture of the emigration back then. "

The media service teleschau also pointed to parallels to today: “Even the old Goethe knew, long before the emigration boom began in the 19th century: 'America, you are better off' and by that probably meant the dream of political freedom and justice. A little later, around the middle of the century, the revolutions and famine raged in Europe. 55 million Europeans emigrated - a record to date. Comparisons with the current wave of migrants and refugees are certainly lagging behind. And yet there are amazing similarities in terms of exclusion, difficult integration and cohesion. "

The Berliner Morgenpost praised the series as a “well-composed educational cinema” that also shows failure: “The strength of the documentary series is that it not only retells success stories, but also makes the failure of the dreamers an issue. Instructive and moving. "

The Sächsische Zeitung added: “What the documentation does not hide, however, are the still pressing aspects of racism and exclusion. These did not only affect the Indians living in North America and the blacks who had long been kept as slaves . Exclusion began when the white Protestants at the top of the hierarchy had reservations about Catholics . And there was even a dispute about Italians as to whether they should be considered 'white' at all. "

Under the heading “Nothing like away”, the Frankfurter Rundschau praised the director's narrative approach: “After all, Christiansen, in addition to expert comments, places a clear focus on personal accounts of real, exemplary individual fates, which are compiled from diaries and other sources. In fact, he was able to win a cast that was downright sensational for the docudrama format for these game scenes, with real character actors and cinema stars like Franziska Weisz and Fabian Busch. "