The Forty-Eighters were Germans who traveled to the United States and Australia after the Revolutions of 1848. Disappointed at the failure of the revolution to bring about the reform of the system of government in Germany, and sometimes on the government's wanted list because of their involvement in the revolution, they gave up their old lives to try again abroad. Many were respected, rich and well-educated; as such they were not typical migrants. Unsurprisingly, then, a large number went on to be very successful in their new countries and have become part of US and Australian history. The term Forty-Eighters is often used to mean specifically the US Forty-Eighters who took part in the US Civil War.

Forty-Eighters in the USA

In the United States, many "Forty-Eighters" sided with the Union because of their objection to Confederate slavery. Approximately 177,000 Germans enlisted in the Union Army.

Famous US Forty-Eighters

• Journalists, writers, publishers: Mathilde Franziska Anneke ; Christian Esselen ; Bernard Domschke ; Rudolf Lexow ; Reinhold Solger ; Karl Peter Heinzen
• Poets: Rudolf Puchner ; Edmund Märklin ; Konrad Krez
• Artists: Louis Prang ; Adelbert John Volck ; Friedrich Girsch
• political activists: Joseph Weydemeyer ; Carl Schurz (from 1852; later the US Secretary of the Interior); Lorenz Brentano (later a Member of the Congress of the United States); Friedrich Hecker; Gustav von Struve; Wilhelm Weitling
• Later generals in the US Civil War: Louis Blenker ; August Willich; Alexander von Schimmelpfennig ; Franz Sigel after living in Switzerland and England;
• other: Hugo Wesendonck , who founded the Germania Life Insurance Co, now Guardian Life Insurance Co.; Pauline Wunderlich (fought at the Dresden barricades) left to the USA after she was released from prison and amnesty.

Forty-Eighters in Australia

In 1848 the first non-British ship carrying immigrants to arrive in Victoria was from Germany; the Goddefroy, on February 13. Many of those on board were political refugees. Some Germans also travelled to Australia via London, for example those on the Parland which made the trip to Sydney in 1849. Many Germans became vinyers or worked in the wine-growing industry; others founded Lutheran churches. By 1860, for example, about 70 German families lived in Germantown, Victoria. (When the First World War broke out the town was renamed Grovedale.) In Adelaide, a German Club was founded in 1854 which played a major role in society.

Famous Australian Forty-Eighters

• Carl Linger the conductor and composer who went on to write "Song of Australia"
• Dr Richard Schomburgk , later director of the Adelaide Botanical Gardens
• Hermann Büring, in the wine-making industry
• Friedrich Krichauff, Chairman of the Agricultural Bureau