During the 19th century about 5.5 million Germans embarked on the transatlantic journey. Between 1820 and 1860 they represented the largest group of immigrants to the USA. There, existing networks led to the founding of many German communities. Due to a comprehensive act of datafication and knowledge production, data on about 4.2 million immigrants, who were identified as German by the U.S. authorities, exist. Already digitized, the data can become part of detailed digital historical research into the largest process of German migration into the U.S.

During his fellowship, Sebastian will prepare the data for analysis and at the same time will start researching the governmental und administrative origin and emergence of the knowledge, which later was transformed into the Castle Garden Immigrations Center’s Database. Both, the digital history and the history of knowledge perspectives, will become integrated parts of a funding proposal for a research project.

In close cooperation with GHI and RRCHNM at GMU, the dataset will be migrated to a more powerful database format and preprocessed to efficiently model the migration process on the level of the individuals involved and to analyze its manifold structures, trends, and dynamics by applying exploratory methods. To be able to process the data reflexively a history of knowledge is imperative. To this end, relevant documents and holdings of the in Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization as well as the Senate Committee on Immigration, which concern the datafication of immigrants during the 19th century, will be identified in the National Archives.

These steps are necessary as preparation for a promising funding proposal. The opportunities and resources offered by the GHI and RRCHNM are of key importance to its success.