Mecklenburg in the 19^th Century - Background to Mass Emigration

After the repeal of serfdom in 1820 most of Mecklenburg’s peasants did not know what to do with their "freedom" because, for the majority of them, it only meant the loss of a right of a place to live. Serfdom had ended – homelessness had begun. Mecklenburg’s peasants, who had suffered a lot from the Napoleonic Wars, had to fight now for their everyday survival because of the even harder living and working conditions.

All attempts to repeal Mecklenburg’s out-of-date constitution for guilds had failed during the 19^th century and therefore, it remained as a hindrance to both economic and political development.

Thus, Mecklenburg’s situation did not change for decades.

Mecklenburg’s school system was extremely poor, particularly within the estates of the manorial villages. If the peasants’ children were just about able to spell out words from the bible, the objective of education had been achieved. Former serfs, now homeless tramps and beggars, roamed about the countryside. As a result, a house for farm workers in Guestrow was, in fact, no more than a prison for former peasants who had lost their homes and property, and was soon overcrowded. The political situation was marked by many restrictions: the censorship of books and the press, the total control of public life – particularly of the universities – and the prohibition of all kinds of political events and organizations.

There was only little hope of changes after the German Civil Revolution of 1848 had failed. The dreams of peasants and day labourers of getting their own land and property could not be realised because of the rigid political situation in the countryside of Mecklenburg.

In the towns the economy could not be developed because the guilds held on to their old privileges.

Thus, the increasing agricultural productivity combined with the slow pace of industrialization in the towns led to mass poverty and overpopulation in the countryside.

The dismissal of day labourers led to their social deprivation because the loss of a job led simultaneously to the loss of a right of a place to live. A few lords of the manor tried to make life at least bearable for their subjects but they represented only a small minority.

Thus, the rural population often had no other choice than to emigrate with the hope to obtain the rights that their local authorities refused to grant them in their homeland, in a foreign country.