Wisconsin German Land and Life

This volume, an innovative approach to immigration research, is the cooperative project of a group of German and American scholars. The focus is on migrants from farming communities along the Rhine who relocated to Wisconsin in the nineteenth century: from the Westerwald to Reeseville, from the Cologne area to Cross Plains, from the Eifel to the so-called Holyland in Fond du Lac and Calumet Counties, and from Rhine Hesse to Washington and Sheboygan Counties. Taking different approaches, the authors of the essays concentrate on the migrants' relationship to the land, and use, among other sources, official records on both sides of the Atlantic, such as census and family records, and land registers, plat maps, and land surveys. The broad picture presented here includes the migrants' situation in their original home, the migration process itself, and their experience in Wisconsin.

Distributed for the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies

Heike Bungert is professor of North American history at the University of Münster. Cora Lee Kluge is professor of German and director of the Max Kade Institute, and Robert C. Ostergren is professor of geography, both at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.