In 1911, Thekla E. Scholz migrated at the age of 23 from her rural village in Upper Silesia to work as a maid in the United States. She and her husband Robert J. Kiefer, an itinerate cabinet maker and musician, settled in Kansas City after he served in the German Army during the First World War. Thanks to Thekla Scholz's lifelong habit of preserving holy cards, letters, photographs, and postcards, scholars can study her migration and subsequent life in Missouri as well as the ongoing challenges faced by her family and friends in both countries.

In 2020, the Robert J. Kiefer and Thekla E. Scholz Collection became the primary focus of a collaborative international online research seminar and project involving four faculty members and more than thirty graduate students in art history, ethnography, history, and public history from the Universities of Hamburg, Vienna, Wroclaw, Missouri-Kansas City and -St. Louis. German Migration to Missouri 2.0 consists of student-authored microhistories focusing on this one German-American family. It offers rare glimpses into the experience of German-American migration and acculturation through the lens of a fascinating working-class woman.

Das Buch ist gedruckt erschienen und zudem im Open Access unter dem folgenden Link verfügbar: www.geschichte.uni-hamburg.de/arbeitsbereiche/public-history/ebooks1/gmm-2-2021.pdf