HAMBURG, Germany --
BallinStadt, the new emigration museum located in the suburb of
Veddel, is a short ride by subway from the central train station
here, but it is a small irony that the most meaningful approach to
this historic departure site to the New World is a half-hour
mini-voyage via a passenger ferry that never ventures beyond the
gentle swells of the Elbe River.
After all, it was
by sailing far rougher seas that more than 5 million people,
Germans, Poles and Russians for the most part, rolled the dice and
ventured outbound from the port of Hamburg to the U.S. and South
America between 1850 and 1939.
Open since July,
BallinStadt is named after Albert Ballin, who as director of the
HAPAG shipping company at the turn of the century built a hygienic,
culturally diverse and welcoming city-within-a-city here for
prospective emigrants literally waiting for their ship to come
in.
Constructed from
1901 to 1907, the mass accommodations that greeted the thousands
who arrived at this self-contained island way station were unique
for their concern for the dignity and comfort of the transients who
took up residence here, some for a few days, some for as long as
several weeks.
On the grounds of
what essentially was a multicultural village, for example, were 15
buildings in all, including a reception hall, quarantine station,
two hotels, dormitories, shops, churches, a synagogue (Ballin
himself was Jewish) and a medical dispensary.
Most of this, including three meals a day, came at
a modest cost that even the deracinated could bear.
Certainly, the
emigration facilities were also built with commercial interests in
mind; screenings given prior to departure reduced both the risk of
sick emigrants being rejected 
and returned from distant
reception ports such as Ellis Island (at a heavy cost to the
shipping line) and eased the unjustified fears of resident
Hamburgers that Russians and other eastern Europeans in their midst
were responsible for a dreaded cholera outbreak.
BallinStadt today
features interactive video and audio exhibits, reconstructions,
life-sized animated figures, "talking" vintage photographs,
artifacts such as steamer trunks, ship line posters offering
passage to "Cuba y Mexico" and "Hamburg to New York," letters home
and ships' logs.
Three reconstructed
housing pavilions, rebuilt following the specifications from
founding plans and including some of the original bricks (and
cobblestones for the streets), constitute BallinStadt.
Family Research Center
Building One houses
the Family Research Center, where visitors can search at free
computer stations for data about family members who emigrated from
Hamburg between 1890 and 1908.
In all, more than 5
million names contained in 550 Hamburg ships' manifests, the
largest such collection in the world, eventually will be
accessible.
Building 2 details
the stages of an emigrant's experience, from his or her birthplace
in Europe, the decision to leave, interim residence in Hamburg, the
voyage (most often in the confines of steerage) and arrival in the
New World.
Here life-size,
animated figures and audio-enhanced photos tells the emigrants'
stories in their own words, while visitors can assume the identity
of an emigrant and face the trials and tribulations borne by his
intrepid forebears.
Films depicting
what life was like aboard ship during the six- to seven-day passage
across the Atlantic are shown in the "hull" theater of a re-created
emigrant steamer, among them a charming silent short called "The
Immigrant" starring a young and engaging Charlie Chaplin as the
innocent "little tramp" on his way to the U.S.
Everyday life in
the emigration complex is the focus of Building 3, where the last
surviving elements of the original structures are
maintained.
In this pavilion
guests will find the registration desk where the emigrants signed
in and were assigned their dormitory bed in the sleeping
quarters.
Passports, police
records, letters lend a real-world touch to the distant experiences
of those caught in transit between old home and new.
To
contact reporter Joe Rosen, send e-mail to [email protected].