Arrest of Atzerodt

[Claudine]

(08-21-2012 11:00 AM)jonathan Wrote:  [...] Two things about that bother me though. First, I've been to Germany, and I know that there is a lot of English spoken there, though I don't know if it would have been the same in the mid 1800's, and I don't know if it would have been the case where Atzerodt lived as a boy. Second, it's always been my impression that immigrants tend to be eager to adopt the language, and so it seems like a lot of English would have been spoken while George was growing up, even in Germantown, MD.

In the mid 1800's simple folks, working men, farmer didn't learn any foreign language. If available they attended rural schools, learned how to read, write, how to calculate and their catechism. There was simply no need to learn a foreign language. In general the level of education depended on the area, the state you lived in. Maybe intellectuals were able to read or write in English, even though French was still more spread. However, in some German states like Hannover, Prussia (dynastically linked to Britain) or Hamburg, as an economic centre, existed a certain affinity and you probably found more English speaking people (intellectuals, nobility or business men) there than in other German territories.