Deutsches Auswandererhaus Bremerhaven [German Emigration Center]Photograph: Kay Riechers © Deutsches Auswandererhaus

The German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven is Germany's first and only museum to look at emigration from and immigration to Germany over the last 300 years.

Over 20 years in the making, the German Emigration Center opened in 2005 with support from the state of Bremen and the city of Bremerhaven. The architectural and conceptual design of the new museum were carried out by Studio Andreas Heller Architects & Designers in Hamburg.  The museum is operated by the private operating company Paysage House 1 – Gesellschaft für Kultur und Freizeit mbH & Co. KG. In 2012 the private-public partnership project, funded by the federal government, the federal state of Bremen, the operating company and European Regional Development Fund program, opened its new extension wing, once again designed by Studio Andreas Heller.

While the cultural history museum initially focused solely on German and European emigration to the new world via Bremerhaven, the extension of the museum premises also meant a thematic expansion of the permanent exhibition to cover historical and current immigration to Germany – and thus put the finishing touches on a museum of migration covering a 300-year history of emigration and immigration. With its newly opened library and as a host of scientific events, the museum has emerged as a centre for migration research.

The German Emigration Center collects, preserves, researches and displays objects, documents and images from German migration history from the 18th century to today and places them in their respective historical, sociological and ethnological contexts. The collection focuses on material and non-material cultural products: biographical volumes of migrant families as well as their life histories, objects on the subject of travel and geography as well as statistics, facts, debates, anecdotes etc. on the subject. The centre is guided by a definition of migration based on the anthropological conception of migration (homo migrans) and emphasizes the temporal, spatial, social and cultural variability of his existence, including all kinds of migrants, be they of a temporary or permanent character: the traditional labour migrants and emigrants as well as cross-border commuters, guest students, seasonal workers, forced labour, late repatriates, refugees and displaced persons.

In the permanent exhibition, the objects in the collection, the subject of migration (history) and the core definition of migration are presented using innovative strategies: at the beginning of the tour, visitors receive one of 18 emigration and 14 immigration biographies whose steps they trace through the detailed room reconstructions. Within the rooms, some of which feature period actors, visitors can use a variety of multimedia options to access general and more specific information about the subject. This enables visitors to approach the subject of migration in two ways: on the one hand, they experience some aspects of the phenomenon of migration that cannot be accessed through the reflective acquisition of knowledge by getting a sense of the perspective of the emigrant or immigrant; on the other hand, they reflexively acquire an understanding of the structures and overarching historical contexts that goes beyond imagining the migrant experience.

For this innovative museum concept, the German Emigration Center was awarded the  European Museum of the Year Award in 2007. With some 200,000 visitors per year, it has also been a resounding public success.

Current projects

Sonderausstellung: Deutsche in Australien. 1788 – Heute vom 29. September 2013 bis zum 2. März 2014

Publications

Blaschka-Eick, Simone / Simon, Hermann (Hg.): Irene Stratenwerth: Der Gelbe Schein. Mädchenhandel 1860 bis 1930. Edition Deutsches Auswandererhaus. Bremerhaven 2012 
Blaschka-Eick, Simone / Heß, Karin (Hg.). Fluchtgeschichten. Aus und nach Deutschland. Biografien und Hintergründe 1933-2011. Edition Deutsches Auswandererhaus. Bremerhaven 2011
Blaschka-Eick, Simone / Quirin, Katrin (Hg.): Götz, Heike / Greve, Christiane: Unsere Stadt war New York. Friesen in Amerika. Edition Deutsches Auswandererhaus. Bremerhaven 2011
Blaschka-Eick, Simone: In die Neue Welt! Deutsche Auswanderer in drei Jahrhunderten. Hamburg 2010
Deutsches Auswandererhaus (Hg.): Das Buch zum Deutschen Auswandererhaus. Edition Deutsches Auswandererhaus. Bremerhaven 2009
Eick, Simone (Hg.): Nach Buenos Aires! Deutsche Auswanderer und Flüchtlinge im 20. Jahrhundert. Edition Deutsches Auswandererhaus. Bremerhaven 2008
Deutsches Auswandererhaus (Hg.): Hoffnung – die zweite Seele der Unglücklichen? Zeitung zur Sonderausstellung mit gleichnamigem Titel. Edition Deutsches Auswandererhaus. Bremerhaven 2007
Deutsches Auswandererhaus in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Buddenbrockhaus Lübeck (Hg.): Pacific Palisades – Der Weg deutschsprachiger Schriftsteller ins kalifornische Exil 1932-1941. Edition Deutsches Auswandererhaus. Bremerhaven 2006

Exhibitions

„Speisen auf Reisen“ – Kinder erfinden „Einwanderungsrezepte“. 5th competition in cooperation with GEOlino, 2012/13
Der Gelbe Schein. Mädchenhandel 1860 bis 1930, 2012/13
Nach New York: „In Hamburg kannten wir doch keinen.“, 2011 
Tierisch weit weg! Kinder erfinden Auswanderertiere. 4th competition in cooperation with GEOlino, 2011
Wurstfest. Das größte deutsche Volksfest in Amerika, 2011
Auf ins All. Kinder wandern aus in ferne Welten. 3rd competition in cooperation with GEOlino, 2010
Auf der Flucht. Sieben Lebenswege nach Deutschland 1980-2010, 2010
Wie schützt sich der Mensch vor Naturgewalten? 2nd competition in cooperation with GEOlino, 2009
Nach der Flut die Flucht. New Orleans – die ausgewanderte Stadt, 2009
Lena. Portrait einer deutsch-russischen Auswanderung 2003-2008, 2008/09
Ich packe meinen Koffer... 1st competition in cooperation with GEOlino, 2008
Nach Buenos Aires! Deutsche Auswanderer und Flüchtlinge im 20. Jahrhundert, 2008
Stangen’s Party – Die erste deutsche Pauschalreise in die USA. Photo exhibition in cooperation with Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde e.V., 2007
Hoffnung – die zweite Seele der Unglücklichen? Exhibition project, 2007
Felix Schlesingers „In der Pass- und Polizeistube vor der Emigration“ (1859) – Geschichte eines Bildes, 2006/07
32x Global. Fußball und Migration: die Nationalmannschaften der WM 2006. Special exhibition on the Football World Cup in the Deutsches Auswandererhaus, 2006
Augustus F. Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920, 2006 
Pacific Palisades – Wege deutschsprachiger Schriftsteller ins kalifornische Exil 1932-1941. Special exhibition in cooperation with Buddenbrockhaus Lübeck, 2006