English Translation of the article in Kieler Nachrichten, January 4, 2016

Sylt Love Movie
The Couple from a Picture Book
By Kristiane Backheuer
A couple from Sylt are becoming movie stars more than 100 years after their deaths. During his research, Dr. Joachim Reppmann, a historian from Flensburg, came across the story of Mathilde and Bleik Peters, who immigrated to Iowa in the middle of the 19th century. Now their love story will be made into a film.
Sylt. The Filmwerkstatt Kiel of the Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein is providing a research scholarship for the love story. The pair serves as an example for the roughly 200,000 people who immigrated to America from Schleswig-Holstein between 1830 and 1930.
Joachim Reppmann spent nine months digging through archives in both America and Sylt -he was blown away by the Sylt emigrants from the beginning. "Thilde, how Mathilde was named, is comparable with Angela Merkel or Hillary Clinton", the 58 year-old reports enthusiastically. "Comparing all the democratic revolutionaries of 1848, she was always a touch more brilliant than the best of the boys. She was a dream woman in a time, when they said: 'Men make history'."
Politics seperated the young couple.
Northern Germany in 1846: Bleik Peters was 21 years old when he got to know Thilde Henningsen, who was 17 years young. He had rented a room at her relative’s in Husum. After only a few weeks, they became engaged in secret. The young Bleik enthusiastically wrote, "Thilde, charmed by her kindness, modesty and grace… . It was no wonder that I felt deep love for her."
But politics again tore the young couple apart. Bleik Peters namely studied law from 1846 to 1850 in Kiel, Heidelberg and Flensburg, but also became involved politically. Between 1848-1849, he turned his attention to the people of Schleswig-Holstein who were struggling to win their freedom from Denmark. In 1852 as a failed 1848er revolutionary, he boards the steamboat "Indian Queen" and sets out to exile in America. 3808 miles from his Thilde, he finds a job as a farmer in Nebraska and then as barkeeper in St. Louis.
His fiancée stayed with her parents-in-law in the "Altfriesisches Haus" in Keitum, which is now a local history museum. At that time on the island, Bleik Peters’ father is a respected captain. Then in 1854, Thilde packed her bags and took the steamboat from Hamburg over to New York. " Four months later, after detours that included Detroit und Chicago, she reached Davenport on the Mississippi River with only a half dollar in her bags", Joachim Reppman tells. "There, west of Chicago, is where the center of the Schleswig-Holstein immigration to America is located."
"Very cozy in his business"
That same day, her fiancé came running from St. Louis. The following day, they were married. Thilde Peters writes about their first years: "My Peters is a nice man, a good host, and very cozy in his business. We get up every morning at half past five and go to bed at 9 o'clock." In 1857, Bleik Peters became a notary and began a successful legal career that led to the respectable office as a justice of the peace, Reppmann tells.
Thilde makes a name for herself as a poet, journalist and president of the Davenport Women's Association. Reppmann says, "She has published many articles and poems in the German-speaking daily newspaper 'Der Demokrat'." Into old age she preserved a spirit for politics, literature, arts and culture. Particularly important for Bleik Peters is the Schleswig-Holstein 1848er Veteran's Association in Davenport, of which, he was president for many years. At the age of 73, Thilde Peters died of a pneumonia; Bleik Peters followed her five years later.
The project will immortalize the history of the childless couple; a short film will be made in their honor. "I am very optimistic we will continue our project in the spring of 2016 through Filmförderung. We wish to produce more films in the future and bring the project to a bigger and more interactive digital dialogue."
Photo caption:
Into old age, Thilde and Bleik Peters were inseparable. They only just missed their golden wedding. To their regret the marriage remained childless.

A Schleswig-Holstein foundation, Filmwerkstatt Kiel, gave money for exploring the production of a video about Thilde's extraordinary LOVE Story.

Would you believe in a love at first sight?
Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time.

The Beatles

Thilde and Bleik Peters: Eternal Love at first Sight

Eternal love - does it exist - even at first sight? Skeptics doubt that, but research do proof this twin fortune. Doc Wolfgang Krüger, Berlin, psychotherapist and author of books, is sure, that about every second romantic relationship starts as "love at first sight". And couples' therapist Hans Jellouschek has experienced that eternal love is growing slowly and depends/relys on hard work. A couple of the German democratic Forty-Eighter emigration history is an amazing example for eternal love: Mathilde ( "Thilde" ) Henningsen and Bleik Peters.

The essential contours of their biographies in the 19th century proof their love at first sight with permanent effect. These Schleswig-Holsteiners of the educated classes got to know each other in 1846, when Thilde just was 17, and high school student Bleik 21 years old. Already, after a few weeks they became engaged secretly in Husum and hanged on their young fortune forever without a relative or anybody spoiling it. As the democratic revolution had failed in Schleswig-Holstein, Forty-Eighter Bleik had to go into exile to America in 1852 - and Thilde, for those days already an extraordinary independent woman, followed him two years later. In Davenport at the Mississippi (west of Chicago) they built up their livelihood. As respected and popular citizens they took part in public life. Thilde was a lyric poet, a journalist and president of the Davenport women's support association.

After the first dates with his sweetheart Bleik wrote glowingly: "Thilde enchanted with her kindness, modesty and charm everybody coming into closer touch with her. It was no wonder that I felt deep love for her." Thereby Bleik had great happiness to encounter the same requited love. Maybe the couple knew the beautiful poem written in 1844 by the romantic Heinrich Heine; he probably must have had a dream woman like Thilde in front of his poetic eyes: (Translation by Emma Lazarus 1881:)

I know that thou must love me --
'Twas long ago made clear.
But thy confession filled me
With deep and secret fear.
I clambered up the mountain,
And sang aloud for glee.
Then while the sun was setting,
I wept beside the sea.
My heart is like the sun, dear,
Yon kindled flame above;
And sinks in large-orbed beauty
Within a sea of love.

Bleik was born on March 20th 1825 as a son of a highly respected captain in Keitum on the Island of Sylt, northwest of the City of Husum ("Old Frisian House" - now museum). Already as a 16-year-old 'he had his nose into the wind': Together with his father, Bleik made a cruise trip to Caracas, the capital of the young South American Republic of Venezuela. From 1842 to 1846 he attended the humanistic Hermann Tast grammar school in Husum. In September 1846, only three months after his secret engagement with Mathilde, Bleik took part in the progressive people's assembly in Nortorf near the City of Rendsburg - a beacon of the Schleswig-Holstein movement for freedom against its sovereign, the Danish King.

Thilde was born on February 18th 1830 in Copenhagen - as a daughter of Nicolay Heinrich Henningsen, a leading administrator of the department for agriculture in the Schleswig-Holstein retirement chamber. She grew up in a very protected environment. Thilde, an intellectual, sharp as a tack, was highly skilled. She easily had command of the languages of her homeland - Danish, German, Frisian, Low German - and learned the main languages of Europe, French and English. Thilde hat two siblings: Thora and Heinrich.

In 1842, 12 years old, family Henningsen moved to Egernsund, the birthplace of her father: Today, Egernsund is located on the Danish side of the Flensburg Fjord, close to the summer residence of the Danish Queen in Gravenstein. The young, charming lady had access to the court of the duke. Her mother died early, and soon the father married a girl friend of Thilde, who was only a few years older. The parents-in-law of the stepmother had lived in Husum and had rented out one guest room to Bleik Peters, visiting student from the Island of Sylt.

During a visit in the town of famous author Theodor Storm on the North Sea the fateful meeting took place in Mai 1846. The young people all at once were head over heels in love and became engaged in secret on June 22nd 1846. The student recorded in writing: "We enjoyed most happy days until the family returned home." The engagement became formal nearly four years later on March 28th 1850, a few months before the Danish king had been beat ing up the Schleswig-Holstein liberty army near the village of Idstedt - south of Flensburg.

Bleik studied law from 1846 to 1850 in Kiel, Heidelberg and Flensburg where he passed the exam. In the meantime he took part in the freedom fight of the Schleswig-Holsteiners against Denmark. The very discrete correspondence with Thilde was difficult and scarce during the time of studies and fighting, because Thilde's jealous father should not get to know anything about it. In the middle of the war of 1848 the young woman - "surrounded by fanatic Danes" - experienced hard years of apprenticeship in housekeeping and resisted bravely the Danish fighters standing in front of the house. From 1851 to 1854 Thilde repeatedly stayed in Keitum, Sylt, in the "Old Frisian House" of the future parents-in-law. She won - as Bleik wrote later - "all hearts by her kindness".

The politicization of the young revolutionary from Sylt turned into a life-changing step, as it was taken by thousands of Schleswig-Holsteiners. In 1852 Bleik travelled with the steamer "Indian Queen" to New York and from there to Iowa, the center of the Schleswig-Holstein emigration. "He had lost the prospect to find his fortune in his old homeland", chroniclers wrote. The fiancée, Thilde, first stayed home. For a shorter time Bleik became a farmer in Nebraska and a barkeeper in St. Louis.

Then, Thilde followed her beloved fiancé - at frist from May to July 1854 with the steamer "Oder" from Hamburg to New York. Via detours to Detroit and Chicago the young woman, faced misfortune and luck; finally reached Davenport at the Mississippi on August 4th, 1854 - with half a dollar in her purse. At first Thilde found accommodation with the Ankerson family, a sister of her mother-in-law. But already on the same day there was reunion with her fiancé, Bleik, who came rushing up from St. Louis. Everything nearly happened immediately: Only one day later, on August 5th, 1854, the most happy couple married in the home of the step aunt Ankerson.

Thilde worked as "caring housewife" and Bleik "outside their home to earn our daily bread". A little bit later, at their home in Davenport, they hosted many relatives, acquaintances, and friends. In 1855, Thilde wrote about her first impressions in America: "My Peters is a dear good man and very comfortable in his business. We get up every morning at 5:30 am and go to bed at 9 pm." Thilde described literary her life, the advantages of the American freedoms, but also constraints in the churchly shaped Midwest of the USA: "You don't find everything so free as it is told over there in Europe." And: "We are living completely the German Way of Life." She predicted her father, he will be "very unhappy" in America.

Bleik's work at first as a barkeeper in St. Louis was profitable; the couple lived in two rooms in the belle etage. The move to Davenport was followed by the step of civilian integration: In 1857 Bleik Peters became a public notary and started a successful legal career up to the position as a justice of the peace. The spouses visited great theatre premieres, lavish balls and moving lectures at the Socialist Turnverein Davenport with the motto "Freedom, education and well-being of all". In 1863 the couple moved to its own house "on the Bluff" at the Mississippi in Davenport, Iowa - with today's address: 824 West 7. Street. Many relatives from Thilde's part followed her example and emigrated as well to America; only the father remained.

Thilde recognized that the political mind of her husband stayed the same. In the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) he clearly stood up for the rights of the African Americans, while Thilde, according to her possibilities, got involved politically, socially and sacrificially in the community. As "a good citizen and patriot", she supported soldiers of the Union, cared for wounded people and became president of the Davenport women's support association. Bleik wrote: "She welcomed the homecoming warriors as cordially as she had welcomed homecoming Schleswig-Holsteiners 1849 near Düppel, Schleswig-Holstein.

Thilde's political and journalistic engagement corresponded with the attitude of self-determined women in the Germany of the years of revolution in 1848/49: active support of the men during the fight for freedom as basic work in clubs and local institutions. Her strong interest in literature, arts and culture and political developments, shaped by the Age of Enlightenment, Thilde preserved an intellectual attitude, until her death. The German Davenport newspaper "Der Demokrat" called Thilde "a highly educated and sensitive lady". She owned "a very good heart and has done a lot of good, as much as she was able to do". She was "utmost modest herself, wished welfare only for the purpose to be able to do good".

Bleik was President of the Schleswig-Holstein Forty-Eighters veteran's association in Davenport for many years. The couple, sadly, remained childless. Thilde Peters died on March 23rd 1903 with the age of 73 years because of pneumonia - shortly before their golden wedding anniversary. Bleik Peters said in his funeral speech: "To me, she was a wonderful companion, and in such a way, like a human and a brave patriot in the old as in the new fatherland, she has completely fulfilled her human fate as a noble woman." In an obituary for the beloved spouse he stressed: "Your whole life was a labor of love, a sacrifice of love from the beginning to the end." 1898, Bleik Peters had a leading role commemorating at 50th anniversary of the Schleswig-Holstein Revolution in Davenport, Iowa: He died on April 28th 1908 with the age of 83 years.

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Erhard Boettcher