In 1979 the German Society for American Studies organized a conference on German emigration to North America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Held in Stuttgart, the conference examined the results of the past two decades of German migration research. One of the conclusions reached at the conference was the need for more historical research on the migration process at the local and regional levels. This approach has since guided my own research on emigration from several counties in eastern Brandenburg within the administrative district or Regierungsbezirk of Frankfurt an der Oder between 1815 and 1893.

Located to the east of Berlin, these counties now straddle the present German-Polish border. As an example of regional migration history, my case study forms part of the emigration project at Rostock University, the focus of which is East Elbian emigration between 1815 and 1914.2 This essay looks at the social structure and causes of emigration from Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt/Oder as well as at factors that determined the emigrant's choice of destinations and settlement patterns. But prior to discussing the main topic, I would like to introduce briefly the goals, methods, and the sources used in this project.

A detailed study of emigration from Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt/Oder has been underway since 1987. The ultimate goal of this research is to examine the migration's structure, causes, motives, and organization. In order to avoid a orie-sided perspective on overseas emigration, continental and internal migrations were also taken into account. This approach opens up a perspective on the decision to emigrate as one of several possible choices. Thus, emigration is not seen as a one-way street without junctures, turning points, and countercurrents. Nevertheless, this study concentrates on overseas migration from those areas of Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt/Oder that had the highest emigration rate in the nineteenth century: Arnswalde and Cottbus counties. Between the 1840s and the 1890s, about nine thousand inhabitants of these two counties left Prussia with the permission of their government.This number of emigrants was nearly 32 percent of all the officially registered emigration from Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt/Oder, which was administratively subdivided into seventeen counties.