Early in the twentieth century, drawing upon the hundreds of letters written to his father by students who had emigrated to northeastern Iowa from Mecklenburg, in northeastern Germany, Johannes Gillhoff created the composite character of Juernjakob Swehn: the archetype of the upright, honest mensch who personified the German immigrant, on his way to a better life through ambition and hard work. Gillhoff's farmer-hero, planting and harvesting his Iowa acres, joking with his neighbors during the snowy winters, building a church with his own hands, proved so popular with the German public that a million copies of Jürnjakob Swehn der Amerikafahrer are in print. Now for the first time this wise and endearing book is available in English.
“First, let's talk about pigs,”Juernjakob Swehn writes from his farm in Iowa. “In America, pigs have a curly tail and talk in Low German so I can understand them.” Swehn builds a log house and makes a success of farming, marries a woman who's “a whole different nation that has its confidence from the inside,” raises a family, and becomes an elder in the Lutheran church. He recognizes his good fortune but acknowledges that memories of his village grow stronger every year, that “being homesick is the best thing that home can do for you …no power on earth holds on to you like your homeland.” It is this sense of home, both in Iowa and in Mecklenburg, that makes Juernjakob Swehn appeal to today's readers as much as he appealed to readers in 1916.

Letters of a German American Farmer: Juernjakob Swehn Travels to America (Bur Oak Book)

Literature & Fiction

Gillhoff, Johannes

United States

University Of Iowa Press

Early in the 20th century, drawing upon the hundreds of letters written to his father by students who had emigrated to north-eastern Iowa from Mecklenburg, in north-eastern Germany, Johannes Gillhoff created the composite character of Juernjakob Swehn: the archetype of the upright, honest mensch who personified the German immigrant, on his way to a better life through ambition and hard work. Gillhoff's farmer-hero, planting and harvesting his Iowa acres, joking with his neighbours during the snowy winters, building a church with his own hands, proved so popular with the German public that a million copies of this book are in print. Now for the first time this book is available in English. "First, let's talk about pigs", Juernjakob Swehn writes from his farm in Iowa. "In America, pigs have a curly tail and talk in Low German so I can understand them." Swehn builds a log house and makes a success of farming, marries a woman who's "a whole different nation that has its confidence from the inside", raises a family, and becomes an elder in the Lutheran Church. He recognises his good fortune but acknowledges that memories of his village grow stronger every year, that "being homesick is the best thing that home can do for you...no power on earth holds on to you like your homeland". It is the sense of home, both in Iowa and in Mecklenburg, that makes Juernjakob Swehn appeal to today's readers as much as he appealed to readers in 1916.

Letters Of German American Farmer: Juernjakob Swehn Travels To America (Bur Oak Book)

Das Mecklenburgische Volksrätsel

History

BiblioLife

Jürnjakob Swehn der Amerikafahrer. Großdruck.

Humor & Satire

DTV Deutscher Taschenbuch

Jürnjakob Swehn ist der Sohn eines mecklenburgischen Tagelöhners, der im Jahr 1868 in die "Neue Welt" auswandert um dort sein Glück und Wohlstand zu finden. Mit dem Ziel ein eigenes Stück Land zu besitzen, beginnt er als Arbeiter auf einer Farm und pachtet später ein kleines Anwesen. Dank harter Arbeit, Glück und Geschick wird sein Traum von Wohlstand und Ansehen Wirklichkeit. Dem Buch von Johannes Gillhoff liegt eine reale Person zugrunde. Carl Wiedow schrieb regelmäßig Briefe an seinen Lehrer, Gillhoffs Vater und beschreibt darin unter anderem die Überfahrt nach Amerika, die harte Arbeit auf der Farm, seine Heirat und vieles mehr. Die Briefe sind meist sehr humorvoll geschrieben, was das vorliegende Werk zu einer sehr unterhaltsamen Lektüre macht, das bis heute nichts von seinem Reiz verloren hat. Das vorliegende Buch ist ein qualitativ hochwertiger Nachdruck der längst vergriffenen Originalausgabe von 1920.

Juernjakob Swehn der Amerikafahrer (German Edition)

Literary

Vero Verlag GmbH & Company KG

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