Griesinger, Karl Theodor b. December II, 1809; Kirnbach, Wurttemberg d. March 2 1884; Stuttgart,Wurttemberg
One of numerous authors who for political reasons emigrated with high hopes to the United States after the failed revolution of 1848. On his return he published accounts and narrative texts for those who stayed behind, in which he chiefly described working life in New York.
After reading theology in Tubingen, Karl Griesinger became a curate in Trossingen in 1832, advancing a year later to deanery curate in Freudenstadt. However, it was not long before he decided to devote himself entirely to writing. With this aim in mind, he moved to Stuttgart, where he edited the Wurttembergische Landboten (Wurttemberg Country Herald) and, from 1839 to 1841, published satirical news and observations about the press, social conditions, individual personalities, and comical events in his magazine, Der Schwabische Humorist (The Swabian Humorist). To earn a living, he assisted at a bookshop from 1841 onward. Like his democratic colleagues Albert Dulk and Robert Prutz from the prerevolutionary period of the Vormarz, Griesinger also concerned himself with the Jud-Suβ theme. In 1848 he spoke out in favor of radical political and social change, propagating his ideas in his democratic publication Die Volkswehr (The People’s Defense). His radical views provoked accusations of high treason and a two-year prison sentence at Hohenasperg fortress. When he was acquitted in the wake of an extensive amnesty, Griesinger spent several troubled years before emigrating with his family to the United States in 1852. He became acquainted with the living conditions of the German Americans in New York City until 1857 when, after struggling to adapt to his new surroundings, a disappointed Griesinger returned to Stuttgart. A year later, his book on the United States, Lebende Bilder aus Amerika (Living Images of America, 1858) appeared, featuring portrayals of characters primarily modeled on occupational groups.
For potential German emigrants at home, Griesinger’s informative reports on little Germany’s role as an economic and cultural center for migrants shed light on the most successful professions and, above all, trades and the working methods and opportunities available, which greatly differed from those in Germany. He also described new professions and social problems (prostitution, pickpocketing). In his Emigrantengeschichten (Emigrant Stories, 1858) he illustrated what life was like in the United States and, above all, how the Germans living there behaved. In Land und Leute in Amerika (Land and People in America, 1863) Griesinger once again described life in New York’s little Germany. He claimed that his fictional texts were authentic in that their characters lived the typical problems and lifestyles of immigrants. At the same time, he illustrated the differences in the political, judicial, and social climate of the United States and Europe and reproduced themes common in travel literature: the competitive American society in which social advancement was possible versus the entrenched hierarchical society in Europe based on nepotism and personal connections.Griesinger also referred to the perils of emigration. In Fahrten und Abenteuer eines Marinesoldaten (Travels and Adventures of a Marine), he criticized the policy of numerous German governments of deporting criminals to the United States. He also discussed the issue of unemployment among German emigrants. The informative character of Griesinger’s narrative texts is also demonstrated by the numerous explanations of the English language and translations of specialist terminology for tradespeople in particular. In spite of Griesinger’s unsuccessful stay in the United States, he created in literary models hypothetical stories of German American reconciliation and German emigrants who made great careers for themselves in the United States. In Hochzeiter wider Willen (The Unwilling Bridegroom) he developed a utopia of German American families bringing up bilingual children and a synthesis between spirit and strength.
In the narrative text Germania in Amerika (Germania in America, 1858) Griesinger portrays how an attempt to establish a German home (Heimat) in the United States ends in financial disaster. The text does not, however, culminate in the failure of this dislodgement project, propounding instead the virtues of integration. The mayor of Germania moves with his followers to a small American town called Littlefalls, which is expanding into a large trading center. As the process of integration progresses, the ties with Europe are severed.Contrary to his future-oriented inte- grational models in his fictional texts, Griesinger failed in the United States and returned to Europe. Back there, he was careful not to repeat his early critical political views nor to publish his liberal and democratic convictions. Instead, Griesin- ger concentrated on humorous observations of working life, customs, and fashions from Wurttemberg (Silhouetten aus Schwaben [Silhouettes from Swabia]). His writings are cultural historical documents describing social and technical change. In the postrevolutionary period of the
Nachmarz, he mostly wrote historical novels portraying the history of Wurttemberg from the Middle Ages to the modern age within the ruling circles of society (Die let- zten Zeiten der Gravenitz; Ida: Grafin von Salmandingen; Cagliostriana; Friedrich von Zollern). Griesinger was awarded the gold medal for art and science by the king of Wurttemberg in recognition of his literary accomplishments in general and the book entitled Wurttemberg nach seiner Vergan- genheit und Gegenwart (Wurttemberg after Its Past and Present) in particular.
Claude D. Conter
See also Forty-Eighters; New York City; Novel, German American; Travel Literature, German-U.S.
References and Further Reading
Conter, Claude D. Jenseits der Nation—Das vergessene Europa des 19. Jahrhunderts: Die Geschichte der Visionen und Inszenierungen von Europa in Literatur, Geschichte und Politik. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2004.
Deutsches-Literatur-Lexikon: Ein biographisches und bibliographisches Handbuch. Ed. Wilhelm Kosch. Bern: Francke, 1949, 732.
Krauss, Rudolf. “Karl Theodor Griesinger.” Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (1904): 348-350.