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In focus:
The legendary American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller - The legendary American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller had German roots, which can be traced close to the town known today as Neuwied. His ancestors emigrated as early as 1723. At the age of 38, Rockefeller controlled almost 90% of the country’s oil refinery capacity. In 1879, he was one of the 20 richest men in the United States. © dpa

Faces and Moments: Emigration

New horizons: German immigrants to the United States have left their mark to this day.

07.04.2025
In great demand and frequently forged: Levi’s jeans.
Levi Strauss - Who is not familiar with the iconic blue jeans? The German-American industrialist Levi Strauss is regarded, together with his business partner Jacob Davis, as the inventor of jeans. The roots of the company date back to 1853, when Jewish immigrant Löb Strauss from Upper Franconia founded a textiles firm in San Francisco. Löb Strauss later became Levi Strauss – his company remains family-managed to this day. © dpa
Levi Strauss around 1880.
Levi Strauss around 1880 - Who is not familiar with the iconic blue jeans? The German-American industrialist Levi Strauss is regarded, together with his business partner Jacob Davis, as the inventor of jeans. The roots of the company date back to 1853, when Jewish immigrant Löb Strauss from Upper Franconia founded a textiles firm in San Francisco. Löb Strauss later became Levi Strauss – his company remains family-managed to this day. © dpa
Warhol’s Pop art: “Heinz Tomato Ketchup Box”.
Henry John Heinz - It is not only thanks to Andy Warhol’s world-famous depiction of the Heinz box that the ketchup is still widely known today. The company founder was Henry John Heinz, one of eight children of German immigrants. His father Johann Heinrich Heinz came from the Palatinate, his mother Anna Margaretha Schmidt from Hessen. © dpa
The legendary American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller - The legendary American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller had German roots, which can be traced close to the town known today as Neuwied. His ancestors emigrated as early as 1723. At the age of 38, Rockefeller controlled almost 90% of the country’s oil refinery capacity. In 1879, he was one of the 20 richest men in the United States. © dpa
Budweiser beer is known throughout America.
Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch - Budweiser beer is known throughout America. It was in St. Louis in 1870 that German immigrants Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch first founded the brewery that would become the largest in the country. InBev bought the company in 2008. Today, Budweiser is available in over 80 markets worldwide. © dpa
The roots of the American aircraft producers Boing reach back to Hohenlimburg in the Sauerland region.
Wilhelm Böing - The roots of the American aircraft producers Boing reach back to Hohenlimburg in the Sauerland region. Wilhelm Böing emigrated to the United States from there in 1868. He began with very little capital in Detroit and invested in the timber trade. His son Wilhelm Eduard, who later named himself William Edward Boeing, founded the Pacific Aero Products Co. in 1916 which became the Boeing Airplane Company the following year. The present-day group is by far the largest aircraft producer in the world. © dpa
North America was a particularly popular destination for German émigrés
Hamburg as port of departure - According to the passenger lists in Hamburg’s archives, some five million people left this Hanseatic city on their journey across the Atlantic between 1850 and 1934. At first many Europeans mainly embarked in Rotterdam, Antwerp and Le Havre to emigrate. But because of the strong flow of people leaving Eastern Europe, steamship traffic from Hamburg to North and South America increased considerably. North America was a particularly popular destination for German émigrés, because there was enough land, a favourable climate and fertile soil. © dpa

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