Fuhrmann Family

“It was 1960 when we first boarded a ship from Bremerhaven, Germany to New York City. We left on the first of November and arrived on the eleventh of November. We had with us only a few suit cases, a couple handbags, and a trunk full of our belongings.” Siegfried Fuhrmann, my grandfather or Opa.

It was a train from Frankfurt to Bremerhaven that was their first big step to their new lives. At the port in Bremerhaven, there on a wall you can see a plaque with their names, Siegfried and Erika Fuhrmann, amongst a list of all those who immigrated from Bremerhaven, Germany to America. Before arriving in America they had one stop in Southampton, England to pick up more passengers immigrating to America. Can you imagine the thoughts, questions, excitement, unknown, etc. that was on this ship?

I assumed this was more of a cargo ship that, but boy was I wrong. After asking more questions, I later learned this ship was more of a cruise ship. It had dancing (tanzing), entertainment, swimming pools, all the fun things to do. Also learned that the first few days on the ship Erika, my grandmother, also known to me as Oma, was rather sick the first 4 days from the unforgiving sea sickness. So each morning Siegfried, my grandfather, also known as Opa would go the dispensary to get her some pills to help with her nausea.

Once they arrived in America they took a Greyhound bus to Salt Lake, Utah, where my grandmothers brother was living and working. It took them five days, from the eleventh to the sixteenth of November to arrive in Utah. My grandfather started working on the twenty-second of November as a welder and then in the evenings part time cleaning and repairing apartments. They spent their first American Thanksgiving with his boss, who they said was a very generous man. Opa got drafted into the Army and spend two months at basis training in California, then was stationed in El Paso, Texas for twenty-two months. Texas is where my father was born and where my story eventually begins.

Three years ago I had the privilege of visiting Germany with my parents. My father had been to Germany as a small child, but hadn’t been back since. My parents flew our of Seattle, Washington and I flew out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The flight was my first over night flight and I knew I would not be able to sleep on the plane (I’m weird and have to be in a dark room horizontal to fall asleep). Slightly nervous I had arrived in Frankfurt, Germany a little past 9 am. I had the address of my aunt and uncles I was to meet my parents at. I found a taxi showed him the address and off we went.

I was meeting my dad’s aunt and uncle for the first time, alone. This was slightly intimidating, so many thoughts ran through my head including, do they speak English? I had taken German in high school and my grandparents would speak the German language, so I thought I would be able to communicate a little. Well… turns out… my German was not as good as I had thought, so I resorted to speaking English a majority of the time.

Within those weeks we explored Frankfurt, Berlin and Neubrandenburg; met family from both my grandmother’s and grandfather’s side and drank more wine than water. From these three weeks, I believe this where my hunger for adventure began.

The Food Piece:

For the first few nights in Germany I was completely exhausted but I just couldn’t seem to fall asleep. You know those times when you are physically exhausted and you feel sleepy but your brain just will not let you “go to sleep?” It took me a while to figure it out but….. but then I had a light bulb moment …. It was the afternoon coffee and cake sessions, we had been partaking in. Coffee = Caffeine. As heartbreaking as it was I realized I was becoming slightly sensitive to coffee. But then in denial I told myself the coffee there was probably stronger than I had been used to, because surely I was not becoming hypersensitive to coffee.

Below are some pictures of food and wine. I tried to capture some moments for my memory box. (: