Baudissin,Adelbert Heinrich, Count b. January 25, 1820; Hovegaard, Denmark d. March 26, 1871;Wiesbaden, Prussia
German American author who wrote An den Ansiedler im Missouri-Staat: Den deutschen Auswanderen gewidmet (The Settler in Missouri: Dedicated to the German ImmigranD) to give potential German migrants a better description of the Missouri River valley.
Baudissin, a Forty-Eighter, a journalist, an author, and a member of prominent noble family in Schleswig- Holstein, was the son of Christian Carl Count Baudissin, who had been forced into Danish exile from his northern German estate after an affair with a married woman, Henriette Kungler, Adelbert’s mother. Growing up in Denmark and Schleswig, Adelbert experienced the political turbulence surrounding the duchy of Schleswig- Holstein and its principal antagonists, Denmark, Prussia, and Austria. After studying mining in Saxony, he became a civil servant in 1843 for the Habsburg monarchy. Despite their religious differences, he married the Catholic Pauline von Gersdorff in 1844 but divorced her within a year. When Schleswig-Holstein revolted against Danish rule and oppression, he volunteered for the Schleswig-Holstein militia and later rose to the rank of lieutenant in the duchy’s army. After the revolt was suppressed, he emigrated to the United States in 1852.With his brother Julius, Adelbert arrived in New York City in June 1852 on route to settle in Missouri, where two older brothers had settled years earlier; Waldemar in 1840 and Felix in 1847. While in New York City he married Luisa del Strother and arrived with her in the autumn of 1852 in Portland, Missouri, a small town located in central Missouri along the Missouri River, approximately 100 miles from St. Louis. Though he lived in the United States only for another ten years, his time in Missouri is characterized by intensive work on behalf of German immigration, his republican ideals of freedom and liberty, and a commitment to public life.
After two years in Portland, in 1854 Adelbert published An den Ansiedler im Missouri-Staat, one of the best examples of immigration literature. In the wake of Gottfried Dudens seminal work Bericht uber eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerikas (Report on a Journey to the Western States of America, 1829), German immigration to the United States exploded in the late 1840s and continued through the early 1850s, but many of the publications on the United States were general or academic in nature. Baudissin desired to correct misconceptions about life in the United States and offered a detailed account of what awaited German immigrants in one localized area, namely the Missouri River valley. The work reads like a cultural document, outlining social and natural conditions in the state. More than anything, it is a “survival manual” that offers pragmatic suggestions to the potential immigrant; warns him of dangers and pitfalls; and then gives specific advice on how to start a new life, such as purchasing property, clearing land, building a farmhouse, farming, and all other aspects related to life on the farm. Baudissin stresses that a successful German immigrant should have financial means; be knowledgeable about the area where he wishes to settle; and realize that everything, from farming, business, money, and personal relationships to politics is different in the United States and that former experiences in Germany will be useless in the new homeland. Baudissin reveals himself as a master observer and writes candidly about the horrors of the seven-week voyage to the United States and the dangerous trek across the country and then insightfully portrays the culture of the United States, including the concept of democracy, representative government and its institutions, American attitudes toward Germans, nativism, and the problem of slavery. Der Ansiedler serves as one of the first and arguably most thorough cultural and natural histories of Missouri whose format sets the standard for subsequent state histories.
Seeking a more prominent role in public life in the rapidly developing West, Adelbert moved with his family to Washington, Missouri, located approximately 40 miles from St. Louis, in 1854. Washington was a bustling town known for its German immigrant community. Civic minded and dedicated to the advancement of the arts, Adelbert founded the German-language newspaper, Der Courier (The Courier), and became active in local politics. He became a successful businessman, owning a drugstore, and farmer. Like the overwhelming majority of Forty-Eighters, Adelbert opposed slavery and welcomed the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Missouri was a slave state, though the population was evenly divided between Unionists and Confederates. This division soon engulfed the state, especially the Missouri River valley, where most German immigrants lived, in a fierce struggle. Disillusioned with initial southern victories, Adelbert returned to Germany with his family in 1862, settled in Hamburg, and resumed his life as a civil servant and author. Ironically, he returned to Germany just when Otto von Bismarck began to unify Germany through a series of
wars, culminating with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, during which Adelbert served as a war correspondent. He became sick in 1870 and died in the next year.
After his return to Germany, Adelbert published considerably on the Schleswig- Holstein wars of 1848-1851 and other political matters but could not forget the United States. In 1866 he published Peter Tutt: Zustande in Amerika (Peter Tutt: Conditions in America), in which he attempted to reveal everyday life in the United States to the Germans. His belief in representational government and personal freedoms is still apparent in sections on politics, voting, and July Fourth, but an undercurrent of disappointment in the United States caused by slavery, deception, and greed gives the publication a bitter tone. Unlike in Der Ansiedler, he no longer enthusiastically championed German immigration to the United States.
Gregory H. Wolf
See also Forty-Eighters
References and Further Reading
Baudissin, Adelbert Heinrich. An den
Ansiedler im Missouri-Staat: Den deutschen Auswanderen gewidmet. Iserlohn, Germany: Badecker, 1854.
Greely, Ralph. “Count Baudissin on Missouri Towns.” The Bulletin [of the] Missouri Historical Society (January 1971): 111-124.
Wilkey, Stanley. Washington, Missouri: Yesterday through Tomorrow. Washington, MO: Bicentennial Commission of Washington, MO, 1975.