Today Regina's husband drove us north to Bremerhaven. This port on the North Sea was the starting point for many immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island at the end of their journey and my Grandfather was one of those immigrants in 1922. There is an excellent museum here called Das Auswanderer Haus which means the Emmigration House. Similar to Ellis Island you can (and I did) look up your ancestors to see which ship they sailed on and who they traveled with, but it is also more of an "experience."
As you walk through the museum there are two key elements. First, you carry a small card with you that assigns you a real emmigrant. Throughout the museum you can use this card to activate interactive stations and learn more about this person's personal history from their decision to emmigrate until their ultimate fate. I was assigned "Martha Hüner" and I learned that she came to America the year after my Grandfather and at the end of her life she returned to Bremen again and died in Germany.
The other key element is that as you walk through the museum you are actually walking through a replica of the emmigration experience from standing on the pier waiting with crowds of other immigrants and stacks of luggage, to boarding the ship via a gangway, to walking the halls of the ship and visiting the sleeping and eating rooms. The floors sway slightly as if you were at sea and through all the portholes you see moving ocean and nothing else. As you progress through the ship you see and learn how the living conditions improved over the years and the travel time went from 12 days down to 5. When I paid my entry fee, they were aware that my first language was English and my card activated everything in English which is good for those who want to visit, but don't speak German.
After our museum visit, we walked along the waterfront to get to a new shopping Mall called Mediteraneo. Inside it is made to look like you are wandering the shopping streets of Italy. It was pretty, but the shops were not that enticing. They were all very expensive. However, today was a special day in Germany - St. Nikolaustag. This is the day that St. Nikolaus brings gifts and fills stockings for Children. The Weihnachtsmann (equivilent of our Santa Claus) comes on December 24th. This day is also a bit like our Halloween. Children visit shops in the afternoon with a bag and sometimes wearing a costume. At the shop, they must recite a poem or give some sort of small performance and they are rewarded with free candy. I witnessed St. Nikolaus wandering the Mall and talking to children in Bremerhaven and later that day back in Vegesack's Hafen Hööv Mall I saw the children collecting their rewards.
Today Regina's husband drove us north to Bremerhaven. This port on the North Sea was the starting point for many immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island at the end of their journey and my Grandfather was one of those immigrants in 1922. There is an excellent museum here called Das Auswanderer Haus which means the Emmigration House. Similar to Ellis Island you can (and I did) look up your ancestors to see which ship they sailed on and who they traveled with, but it is also more of an "experience." 
As you walk through the museum there are two key elements. First, you carry a small card with you that assigns you a real emmigrant. Throughout the museum you can use this card to activate interactive stations and learn more about this person's personal history from their decision to emmigrate until their ultimate fate. I was assigned "Martha Hüner" and I learned that she came to America the year after my Grandfather and at the end of her life she returned to Bremen again and died in Germany.
The other key element is that as you walk through the museum you are actually walking through a replica of the emmigration experience from standing on the pier waiting with crowds of other immigrants and stacks of luggage, to boarding the ship via a gangway, to walking the halls of the ship and visiting the sleeping and eating rooms. The floors sway slightly as if you were at sea and through all the portholes you see moving ocean and nothing else. As you progress through the ship you see and learn how the living conditions improved over the years and the travel time went from 12 days down to 5. When I paid my entry fee, they were aware that my first language was English and my card activated everything in English which is good for those who want to visit, but don't speak German.
After our museum visit, we walked along the waterfront to get to a new shopping Mall called Mediteraneo. Inside it is made to look like you are wandering the shopping streets of Italy. It was pretty, but the shops were not that enticing. They were all very expensive. However, today was a special day in Germany - St. Nikolaustag. This is the day that St. Nikolaus brings gifts and fills stockings for Children. The Weihnachtsmann (equivilent of our Santa Claus) comes on December 24th. This day is also a bit like our Halloween. Children visit shops in the afternoon with a bag and sometimes wearing a costume. At the shop, they must recite a poem or give some sort of small performance and they are rewarded with free candy. I witnessed St. Nikolaus wandering the Mall and talking to children in Bremerhaven and later that day back in Vegesack's Hafen Hööv Mall I saw the children collecting their rewards.
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