Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2013/Spring/Ernst Gotthelf Vollmer

This page is connected with English 105 at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - Federal Writers' Project - Life Histories

Overview:

Ernst Gotthelf Vollmer (1884-1957) was a German soldier who fought in World War I. After the war, he and his family moved to the United States in order to seek a better life. After earning enough money, he built a house and grew a vast vineyard in the hills of North Carolina that became one of the most renowned wineries in the state. Ernst Vollmer and his family were interviewed as part of the Federal Writers’ Project in 1939.

Vineyard in Sonoma County, California during the Great Depression (Similar to one that would have been found in North Carolina)

Biography:

Ernst Gotthelf Vollmer was born in Wurzburg, Germany in 1884. He married Louisa Emma Rebmond who was born in 1893 in the Black Forest in Germany, where they resided for many years. They had their first and only child whom they named Johannes Rebmond Vollmer in 1914 at the time of the outbreak of World War I. Vollmer left home to fight in the war. After returning, he struggled to find work and support his family. Some friends told him of the fine vineyards in North Carolina, and as a vineyardist, Vollmer was convinced to immigrate to the United States in 1924. Once landing in Columbus County, North Carolina, theVollmer family was sponsored by Dr. Johannes von Hoff who was a vineyardist as well as a high school language instructor.

The Vollmers struggled with communication as they moved to the United States unable to speak any English. Johannes attended school, and kids teased him because of his accent. Vollmer and his wife struggled to make friends as well. They all felt homesick and longed to return to Germany where they could return to a comfortable environment. However, despite the treatment that Johannes received at school, he studied hard and eventually became fluent in English. In addition, Vollmer and his wife began to speak a little English and connect with neighbors and coworkers. After several years, Vollmer earned enough money working under Dr. von Hoff to travel back to Germany; however, after learning the language and assimilating into American culture, neither he, Louisa, nor Johannes desired to return to their hometown in the Black Forest. He used the money to open his own vineyard and build a nice cottage. One day the house burned down, and on his own, Vollmer built a new home and a new winery, which became very popular. He wanted Johannes to be his successor; however Johannes did not want to follow in his footsteps in the family business but instead, began to work at a hosiery mill.

Social Issues:

German Immigration:

When the Vollmer family arrived in the United States, they felt unwelcome, homesick, and out of place, which was an issue for most Germans who immigrated to the United States after World War I. Germany was blamed for the cause of the war and fought against the United States. As a result, German language and culture was not well received in the United States. The Encyclopedia of Immigration states that after the start of World War I, “hundreds of schools removed the German language as a course offering, and communities renamed streets and banned German books and music." After World War I, the difficulty of retaining the German language was at its peak and “the centuries-old tradition of German language and literature in the United States was pushed to the margins of national life, and in many places effectively ended." Most German immigrant children were teased and bullied for their native tongue in school by American students. As second generation German immigrants grew older, their German accents gradually faded and German cultural ties dwindled. Johannes’s refusal to follow in his father’s business demonstrates the point that “as second- and third-generation urban Germans gained success as entrepreneurs, industrialists, and managers, they began to adopt American urban culture and simultaneously to shape it." First generation immigrants in the early twentieth century may have attempted to retain their cultural heritage, but their children quickly assimilated into American culture, breaking the ties and traces to their family heritage and culture in the process.

Casks of aging wine in winery in Sonoma County, California during the Great Depression (Similar to a winery that would have been found in North Carolina)

North Carolina Wine Industry:

Vollmer owned and developed six acres of land known as Vollmer’s Vineyard, and established one of the most popular wineries in North Carolina. Vineyards and wineries were abundant in North Carolina, until 1920, when the United States passed the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol; however, there were loopholes to these laws for the wine industry such as medicinal purposes, sacramental wine, and “non-intoxicating” wine which left wine manufacturers still active. Although prohibition depleted a considerable amount of vineyards in the United States, many in North Carolina remained operational and somewhat profitable because of their abundant and popular muscadine grapes. Ian Taplin explains, “attention in North Carolina focused upon expanding existing grape growing since vines were known to grow quite easily." Though some North Carolina vineyards survived, anti-alcohol laws remained in place in the United States until the stock market crash and the arrival of the Great Depression in 1929. The country realized that the alcohol industry could create jobs and rehabilitate the suffering economy, and in 1933, the government passed the 21st amendment repealing prohibition. Particularly in North Carolina “wine was deemed worthy of coming to the rescue and alleviating the endemic poverty of the region.” Wine prospered as a market good once again in North Carolina and vineyards and wineries regained their success and popularity.

Issues of Historical Production:

During the Great Depression, the Federal Writers’ project was organized to create jobs for the unemployed writers. The jobs entailed interviewing American citizens who would otherwise be insignificant and writing down their life histories. Lewis Mumford states that the project is “the first attempt, on a comprehensive scale, to make the country itself worthily known to Americans." Though the project was successful and many of the life histories remain in tact today, many question their credibility. Leonard Rapport argues that to many people “accept these life stories as if they were tape recordings of words uttered forty years ago." One flaw of the project includes choosing writers who were not necessarily qualified to write history, leaving the histories vulnerable to creative writers who add and remove details to improve flow. The interviewer who wrote the life history of the Vollmer family wrote their history as a narrative with very few quotes from the Vollmers, which questions the credibility of the facts and details of the story.