Zwischen Verlust und Aneignung von „Heimat”: Transatlantische Reflexionen deutscher Revolutionsflüchtlinge nach 1848/49

Abstract

After the defeat of the Revolutions of 1848/49, about 3,000–4,000 emigres from German-speaking countries fled to the United States. Their loss of Heimat was initially connected to their changed legal and administrative status. Yet, after arriving in the United States these refugees had to cope with the consequences of their loss of Heimat on a daily level. Building on current research in the field of transatlantic migration history, this article follows three steps: First, it analyzes the role of spatial comparisons between America and Europe as part of the group’s strategy to adapt their lives to different localities. Second, it addresses the (often marginalized) perspective of female refugees and how they discussed the loss of their homeland. Finally, it rethinks the legal-political paradigm of amnesty as the sole incentive for the return migration of revolutionary emigres. In doing so, this article shows that the revolutionary emigres’ reflections about Heimat were as much influenced by their global entanglements as by their local rootedness.