Germans In Britain Since 1500

The present volume traces the history of German settlement through a series of essays designed to cover each period and to analyse specific aspects.

German-speaking people have always lived, either as temporary or as long-term residents, in the British Isles. While the majority of the visitors arrived to pursue trade, others came for a wide variety of reasons. In the sixteenth century German reformers came to promote Protestantism. In 1714 the Elector of Hanover came because he had inherited the crown. In Victorian times Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital in the British Museum. The nineteenth century was perhaps the highpoint in the history of German settlement, with the establishment of widespread German communities and organisations. The First World War, and a combinations of official and unofficial hostility, destroyed most of these communities. During the interwar years both Nazis and Jewish refugees from Nazism entered the country. Since the war, professionals have formed the basis of the German community. The present volume traces the history of German settlement through a series of essays designed to cover each period and to analyse specific aspects. Germans in Britain Since 1500 represents a unique history of an immigrant grouping in Britain over almost 500 years.

The series Prinz-Albert-Forschungen (Prince Albert Research Publications) publishes sources and studies concerning Anglo-German history. It includes outstanding works in German and English which significantly enhance or modify our understanding of Anglo-German relations. These are supplemented by critically edited sources designed to offer access to previously unknown documents of crucial importance to the Anglo-German relationship.

Both timely and topical, with 2005 marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, this unique book examines the little-known and under-researched area of German migration to Britain in the immediate post-war era. Authors Weber-Newth and Steinert analyze the political framework of post-war immigration and immigrant policy, and the complex decision-making processes that led to large-scale labour migration from the continent. They consider: * identity, perception of self and others, stereotypes and prejudice * how migrants dealt with language and intercultural issues * migrants' attitudes towards national socialist and contemporary Germany * migrants' motivation for leaving Germany * migrants' initial experiences and their reception in Britain after the war, as recalled after 50 years in the host country, compared to their original expectations. Based on rich British and German governmental and non-governmental archive sources, contemporary newspaper articles and nearly eighty biographically–oriented interviews with German migrants, this outstanding volume, a must-read for students and scholars in the fields of social history, sociology and migration studies, expertly encompasses political as well as social-historical questions and engages with the social, economic and cultural situation of German immigrants to Britain from a life-historical perspective.

Co-published with the Waterloo Centre for German Studies For centuries, large numbers of German-speaking people have emigrated from settlements in Europe to other countries and continents. In German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss, more than forty international contributors describe and discuss aspects of the history, language, and culture of these migrant groups, individuals, and their descendants. Part I focuses on identity, with essays exploring the connections among language, politics, and the construction of histories—national, familial, and personal—in German-speaking diasporic communities around the world. Part II deals with migration, examining such issues as German migrants in postwar Britain, German refugees and forced migration, and the immigrant as a fictional character, among others. Part III examines the idea of loss in diasporic experience with essays on nationalization, language change or loss, and the reshaping of cultural identity. Essays are revised versions of papers presented at an international conference held at the University of Waterloo in August 2006, organized by the Waterloo Centre for German Studies, and reflect the multidisciplinarity and the global perspective of this field of study.

Employing the first analysis of the entire population of any British town, this book examines how overseas migrants affected society and culture in South Shields near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Resituating Britain within global processes of migration and cultural change, it recasts British society pre-1940 as culturally and racially dynamic and diverse.

Filling an important gap in our understanding of the growth of early German socialism, this book is the first to combine the two crucial aspects of the study: socialist political theory and social and cultural environments. An essential student read.

This book is a documentary history of immigration into post-war Britain. Using a range of sources, it illustrates both the structural and personal reasons for immigration. The author pays special attention to the social and economic lives of immigrants--while some have found economic success, the majority remain underprivileged. Many have tried to maintain their ethnicity, especially through language, religion, politics and culture. As a result, many immigrants have faced varying degrees of hostility from the state and from individual "native" Britons.