Clara Ketelsen is fed up! She and her three little girls are living on Föhr, all by themselves, while her husband is already living in New York, just like many Frisians at the end of the 1920s. Clara, who really wants to be with her family, decides to move to America. At first, she travels by horse and cart to Wyk harbour and then by steamship from Hamburg to the USA. Years later, her then five-year-old daughter Inge tells her grandson Bente Faust about her memories of moving from the quiet Oldsum on Föhr to the lively streets of Harlem in New York. Bente then sets out to follow in the footsteps of his ‘ualmam’, his Frisian grandmother, on Föhr and in the USA.
Key resources for this episode:
Lorenz Braren: “Geschlechter-Reihen St. Laurentii-Föhr”, Vol. 1 & 2 (Husum-Verlag)
Johann Lorenzen: “Geschlechter-Reihen St. Laurentii-Föhr”, Vol. 3 (Husum-Verlag)
Reinhard Arfsten: “Chronik eines friesischen Dorfes – Süderende auf Föhr.” (self-published)
“Die Nordfriesen und die nordfriesische Sprache in den USA – Robert Kleih”, https://ferring-stiftung.de/2022/11/18/die-nordfriesen-und-die-nordfriesische-sprache-in-den-usa-robert-kleih/
Fact Checking: Ute Maack, Yves Müller
A podcast by Ferring Stiftung and Honig&Gold.
This podcast is based on the German podcast “Föhr nach New York – Eine Auswanderergeschichte” (by Honig&Gold, NDR Schleswig-Holstein, and the Ferring Foundation of Föhr from the year 2024.
You can find the German and Frisian versions of this podcast on the ARD Mediathek.