The Unbounded German Nation: Dr. Otto Hahn and German Emigration to Canada
Hahn’s trip to Canada in the summer of 1878 allowed him to collect fossils and information for settlers. It also revived his idea of an agricultural settlement, built on the spiritual foundations of the New Church: a Reutlingen Bruderhaus colony. Traveling from Quebec City, to Montreal and Toronto, Hahn stopped in Berlin, Ontario, a largely German-speaking town which was home to a thriving Swedenborgian congregation, the Church of New Jerusalem. He then made the trip northward into what he called the primordial forest (Urwald). His enchantment obvious in his report, Hahn quickly made the unfamiliar familiar to himself and his readers by a simple process of appropriation, describing Lake Nipissing and its surroundings on the edge of the Canadian shield in terms of a Lake Constance landscape, with rolling hills, mixed forests, rich harvests, encounters with fellow Swabians and Swiss settlers, and Magnetawan, a bustling village with stores, mills, a hotel and a post office. “This place is ideal for migrants from Wurttemberg,” he concluded. Within days he had bought a piece of land just outside Magnetawan Village where Annie Blaser of Switzerland and a brother from the St. Chrischona mission in Basel had attempted to run a home for Swiss orphans. Hahn intended to transform the home into an agricultural training station for youths from Wurttemberg.
Far from having given up on the Bruderhaus ideal or his association wit Gustav Werner, Hahn in fact approached his old friend after he returned to Germany and, with the help of the energetic Elise von Koerber, convinced the philanthropist to support the venture and help organize the first group of youths, who left for Canada in the spring of 1879. Hahn then appointed as a director of the new Canadian venture Jacob Haerlen who had previously been in charge of one of the Wurttemberg farms that had become part of Gustav Werner’s network. The brand new “manager of the German settlement at Magnetawan” was to provide advice and settlement assistance to new arrivals from Wurttemberg in the spirit of providing training to young lads with the intention of allowing them to acquire their own land later. Haerlan would work solely for the proceeds of the farm but without salary “in the interest of the cause.” (an ambiguous reference which could either mean German emigration to Canada or the establishment of Swedenborgian communities overseas). It is not clear whether the Canadian government was aware of this particular project but in the spring of 1879 Hahn was appointed as Canadian immigration agent in Wurttemberg with a fairly substantial expense account. In the fall of 1880, $100 out of this account went to Haerlan for improvements to the house and $250 to Annie Blaser.
Angie Sauer, PhD
Associate Professor of History
Texas Lutheran University
The above submission is part of a presentation prepared for the German Studies Association conference scheduled in San Diego in October 2007. Individuals having information to contribute to this project are invited to contact
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