American Dreams?
Why did people from the South-West migrate to the US?

We “interviewed” historical figures from the time by looking at info texts and original sources. There were some positive stories and some negative, like Georg Rapp who led a big religious group promising the return of the Messiah. This was part of the section called “The Promised Land”. Another part was called “Land of Opportunities”. Amalie Struwe came to the US for having more opportunities and she fought for women’s rights and against slavery. Through these personal stories, we learned a lot about the people, their reasons for leaving and their life after they moved from Germany to America. Their stories might be different but overall we learned that it was a similar dream: All these people wanted a better life, they wanted to achieve their aims and they wanted to change something in their own life or even the political situation. Later we discussed a topic: Whether the great American Dream can be achieved or not. With the help of a lot of material, we then came to conclusion that the American Dream might be achievable through hard work and passion, but it is not that easy. We want to say thanks to  our guide Enrico and the employees at Haus der Geschichte and our teacher Mrs Leiß