Heinz Prinz concluded his remarks by saying,
"In summary, at the beginning of the 18th Century, the living conditions of the miners and ironworkers in the Siegerland became worse and worse due to the political, economical, and religious circumstances there. The reigning Princes demanded more and more taxes from their subjects. Large sums of money were demanded from the Protestant areas for the reconstruction of the Lower Castle. The Catholic Prince Hyazinth cut off the delivery of new materials to the Protestant parts of the Siegerland, thus bringing the iron industry in those areas to a standstill which resulted in a large unemployment rate."
The emigrants from Siegerland in 1713 left their homeland, not only in response to an invitation to work in North America as miners, but with the strong motivation to escape the repressive political, economical, and religious conditions in the Siegerland at that time.
In the Kraichgau, where most of the Second Colony originated, there were very similar reasons. In Schwaigern, the ruling Prince was building a new castle, much larger than the size of his principality warranted. But as the Church Book at Gemmingen records, the motivation was to earn a better living by hard work clearing the forests of Pennsylvania. Or I believe it has been stated, "They wanted to better butter their bread."
Religion was important to both groups. Even though the First Colony had a pastor with them, they could not expect him to live much longer. The Second Colony made a sincere attempt in London to have in place the means for obtaining a minister when they were prepared. In both cases, there was no certainty that their religious needs would be met in the New World. In Germany, perhaps imperfectly, their religious needs were being met. They did not leave to improve their religious life.
More than anything, an improvement in their economic life was sought. Certainly, on the whole, they succeeded in fulfilling this need.
(04 Aug 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.