John
Rettinger, shown in Figure 1 and patriarch of the Rettinger family, was born in
April 1853 and grew up in the town of Wachenheim Germany, which is near
Strasburg, Germany. We know this because he listed his parents on his marriage
license as Matthius and Magdalena Haus Rettinger and his place of origin as
Wachenheim.Many Germans went to America as adventurers who hoped to become rich without much effort. Around the middle of the nineteenth century not a few Germans left for California, touched by the gold fever. Of a very different nature were industrial workers who left toward the end of the century to find jobs in American industrial plants. At that time there were also many young women looking for jobs as servants or salesclerks—or looking for husbands. In addition there were those who left the country because they could not cope with the society and its demands and regulations: draft evaders, young boys or girls who wanted to marry without the consent of their parents, and transatlantic vagabonds of all kinds.
The German immigration to America in the nineteenth century — comparable to other migratory movements from European countries to the New World — is often interpreted as an escape from imminent poverty or from unbearable living conditions. Different motives were intermingled: religious, political, social, economic, and psychological personally oriented ones. There are many studies about motives, and we are well aware of the various push-and-pull factors behind the mobility. Generally speaking, emigration was a result of tensions between the emigrant and a complex of forces impossible to cope with and from which escape offered the easiest solution.
Technological innovations and the Industrial Revolution changed traffic conditions considerably during the nineteenth century. Steam navigation on rivers and the construction of the railway system improved transportation from the old homes to the seaports in Germany and from the landing places in America to the new homes. The introduction of packet lines with fixed routes and timetables for departures and arrivals made ocean transportation easier: it particularly shortened the waiting time in the ports. Ocean steamers, which replaced sailing vessels after the middle of the nineteenth century, meant greater comfort and faster traveling. Instead of seven weeks immigrants could reach this side of the Atlantic in two weeks.
Of no little importance were pull factors working from the country of destination. Every emigrant expects something better than conditions at home. A specific image of the new country develops that, whether right or wrong, lures the emigrant away. What was the German image of North America and the United States? What were the attractive features? In 1903 the German banker Ludwig Max Goldherger published a book whose title immediately became a standard phrase: Das Land der unbegrenzten Moglichkeiten (The Land of Unlimited Opportunities).
It is true that Germans always cherished the idea that, to a certain degree, America was paradise, that it offered happiness and wealth to everybody. …… During the late nineteenth century it was the country of unlimited progress, of the "self-made man," of upward mobility from ditchdiggers to wealthy industrialists.
Such a venture could be undertaken only because emigration had become an accepted fact. German state authorities did not do much to protect emigration, but there were no longer any obstacles from their side. It is safe to say that from the middle of the nineteenth century, every German who had sufficient financial means to go away and settle in a distant country was free to do so, provided he had fulfilled his obligation toward the home society and the home country. He had to pay his debts before leaving, and he was not allowed to evade military service.
German-Americans, like members of other ethnic groups, had to solve the problem of adjustment, that is, the coexistence of the heritage of their native land and the life-style of their new environment. American society did not usually put direct pressure on them to adjust. Acculturation was something they had to accomplish by themselves. But if they wanted to he successful in their lives, they had to pick up the language, the customs, and the life-style of Americans.
Germans were famous for their love of beer. Perhaps they still are. but Little Germanys consisted of more than theaters and beer gardens. There were German shops in which German food and other German goods were sold. The German language could be heard everywhere. German churches and schools existed here, as well as German libraries and clubs of all kinds. Mutual-aid societies, voluntary fire and police organizations, and German institutions for various other purposes were also typical of the Little Germanys. There was a Bohne-Viertel in Brooklyn, a quarter called Over the-Rhine in Cincinnati, the North Side in Milwaukee, and a Little Saxony in New Orleans. These German enclaves in American cities helped preserve the German heritage. Nativists sometimes criticized them because of their foreignness.
The role of the Little Germanys was not, however, limited to the conservation of traditions. Such neighborhoods and homogeneous German quarters provided protection and support for members of a minority group during the time of their adjustment. There they could learn how to cope with the problems of a strange environment, learn the English language, and prepare themselves for the future. The German quarters functioned like buffers or "decompression chambers."
Raymond
John Rettinger married another Centralia native, Carolena Hoffman on October 14,
1908. Lena Hoffman was the daughter of Lawrence and Mary Droll Hoffman. Raymond
and Lena grew up living not more than a few blocks from each other in the small
town of Centralia and they also attended the same German ME church and probably
the same school. They could possibly have been childhood sweethearts or at least
known each other as children.