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Vikings to U-BoatsThe German Experience in Newfoundland and Labrador |
eBook Available
Recovering a millennium of German presence in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The first German arrived in Newfoundland with Leif Eirikson's Viking expedition. By 1914 St. John's was home to a vibrant German community while a Moravian enclave thrived in Labrador. Contemporary Newfoundland, however, remembers its German heritage largely in terms of U-Boat captains and local spies. Gerhard Bassler reveals what was lost when almost all earlier memories of Germans in Newfoundland and Labrador vanished.
Vikings to U-Boats explores the colony's hidden multicultural history, examining both sides of the German-Newfoundland/Labrador experience. From first recorded contacts to the end of World War II, Bassler traces the lives of German-speaking fishermen, musicians, doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs. He reconstructs the historical reality behind U-Boat and spy stories and analyses the change in status of the colony's German-speaking people from neighbours to "enemy aliens." Vikings to U-Boats challenges the assumption that the history of Newfoundland and Labrador was shaped solely by English-speakers from the British Isles.
Vikings to U-Boats explores the colony's hidden multicultural history, examining both sides of the German-Newfoundland/Labrador experience. From first recorded contacts to the end of World War II, Bassler traces the lives of German-speaking fishermen, musicians, doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs. He reconstructs the historical reality behind U-Boat and spy stories and analyses the change in status of the colony's German-speaking people from neighbours to "enemy aliens." Vikings to U-Boats challenges the assumption that the history of Newfoundland and Labrador was shaped solely by English-speakers from the British Isles.
Details
Part of the McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History Series (number 2.21 in series)
392 Pages, 6 x 9
41 b&w photographs
ISBN 9780773531246
October 2006
Formats: Cloth, eBook
Gerhard P. Bassler is the author of numerous books, including Sanctuary Denied: Refugees from the Third Reich and Newfoundland Immigration Policy 1906-1949, and professor emeritus, history, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Vikings to U-Boats
Gerhard P.Bassler
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 3
1 “I was born where wine and grapes are no rarity”: First Contacts 9
2 “The Esquimaux ... cannot be in better hands”: The Moravian Mission in Labrador 29
3 From Hamburg Bread to Turbines: Expanding Contacts in the Nineteenth Century 62
4 “Venturesome sons of the fatherland”: Immigrants, Sojourners, and Visitors, 1870-1914 89
5 “Few of civilization’s blessings”: Images, Impressions, and Perceptions 121
6 “I have with great patience withstood many insults”: The Enemy Alien Experience, 1914-1919 139
7 “I can get another Hiscock anytime, but I cannot get a Weber”: Newcomers after the War, 1919-1939 165
8 “Backwoodsmen of the sea”: Germans Look at Newfoundland between the World Wars 189
9 “We should first look to British stock”: Germans Deemed Undesirable? 205
10 “I had been loyal to the country”: Internment Operations and Experiences, 1939-1945 223
11 “Can the leopard change its spots?” The Nazi Fifth-Column Experience, 1939-1945 253
12 “The spy among us”: The U-boat Syndrome 285
Conclusions 295
Notes 305
Bibliography 347
Index 367
Gerhard P.Bassler
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 3
1 “I was born where wine and grapes are no rarity”: First Contacts 9
2 “The Esquimaux ... cannot be in better hands”: The Moravian Mission in Labrador 29
3 From Hamburg Bread to Turbines: Expanding Contacts in the Nineteenth Century 62
4 “Venturesome sons of the fatherland”: Immigrants, Sojourners, and Visitors, 1870-1914 89
5 “Few of civilization’s blessings”: Images, Impressions, and Perceptions 121
6 “I have with great patience withstood many insults”: The Enemy Alien Experience, 1914-1919 139
7 “I can get another Hiscock anytime, but I cannot get a Weber”: Newcomers after the War, 1919-1939 165
8 “Backwoodsmen of the sea”: Germans Look at Newfoundland between the World Wars 189
9 “We should first look to British stock”: Germans Deemed Undesirable? 205
10 “I had been loyal to the country”: Internment Operations and Experiences, 1939-1945 223
11 “Can the leopard change its spots?” The Nazi Fifth-Column Experience, 1939-1945 253
12 “The spy among us”: The U-boat Syndrome 285
Conclusions 295
Notes 305
Bibliography 347
Index 367
Winner
Rogers Cable Non-Fiction Award
Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards (2007)
Writer's Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador
Finalist
Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards, Non-fiction Award
Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador (2007)
Rogers Cable Non-Fiction Award
Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards (2007)
Writer's Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador
Finalist
Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards, Non-fiction Award
Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador (2007)
