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Family research / history & places / Chicago
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Otto Teuthorn arrives at Chicago at 1890
When one nice day in 1890 Ottto Teuthorn arrived at Chicago
he did not come to any American Middle West settlement but he entered
the second largest urban agglomeration of Germans outside Germany.
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In this year the developement of German population in the city had reached
its peak with more than 350.000 foreign born and 2nd generation
Germans [i] .
30% of the city´s inhabitants were German, felt German and lived their
lives the German way. Ten years later German population had even strongly
surpassed 400.000. But in the continuously growing city, the German element
had already decreased to o n l y 25%, due to stronger immigration from
eastern and southern Europe (Polonians, Italians).
Otto must have felt familiar with Chicago
being situated at the shore of a lake, for he found there almost
the same geographic pattern he knew from his home town Kiel. Not
only the near distance of water was familiar to him. In the same
way as Lake Michigan touches Chicago from the East so also the
“Förde” had done with Kiel.
Like there he was able to observe ship traffic at the shore of what
was soon to become his second home town. Surely, there was a decisive
difference. All things measured bigger, higher, wider. But he must
have felt at home with forms and atmosphere. So imagine I, … at
least.
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Peter Teuthorn, 12th May 2003
[i] In the same year (1890) Germans und
their descendants of New York and Brooklyn reached 500.000 or 18%.
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