A great read while traveling
I very much enjoyed Frieda Fritz Stiehl’s “Alfred & Agnes” and found it was a terrific page-turner to take with me while traveling on a train this summer. Family genealogies and histories are becoming a trend, and Stiehl shows us how to do it in an engaging way. As the narrative moves forward we never know what is going to be happening next. Stiehl’s book provides a rare look into the past as only a lovingly constructed family history can. And these were large families! Yet she takes us deftly from one story to another without losing focus on her parents, who emigrated to America like so many others did, but who have their own interesting story.
Stiehl gives us historical and legal details as context, helping to explain people’s choices. I found this to be above and beyond most narratives, and quite educational and eye-opening.
Interspersed with the text, a treasure trove of
old family photos offer their silent testimony.
Stiehl’s honesty, compassion and knack for storytelling inspire us to look over our old family photos and tell our family stories as well!

Remarkable journey

Frieda Stiehl has written a remarkable story of her family heritage, taking us on a journey through generations of her ancestors in the southwestern region of Germany. Along the way she provides historical context to illustrate the causes and effects of emigration from Germany and which influenced her own parents to make their way across the Atlantic to start a new life in America. That they made that harrowing ocean voyage twice is incredible and reading Frieda’s account is very moving and suspenseful. Most of us immigrants from Germany will relate to some aspects of her story as I did, having parents who themselves made the same decision to leave their homeland. The story of Alfred and Agnes left me inspired and in awe of this couple, particularly Agnes, who, with unending love for her children, loyalty to her husband, and faith in a better future courageously guided her family to their ultimate home in rural Pennsylvania.

A wonderful picture of an immigrant family
ALFRED and AGNES: The Story of My Immigrant Parents by Frieda Fritz Stiehl
What a wonderful book! The author has written a history of her family, especially her father and mother, German immigrants to the United States in the last century. With a plethora of photographs and an unflinching eye on her family’s “characters,” she has written a chronicle for all German-Americans -- all immigrants. Her family comes alive in the pages as each of their lives is detailed. She makes these ordinary people, their work, their homes, their villages and, ultimately, their Americanization, come alive for the reader. This is an unforgettable archive of the recent past.
The research is impeccably done. The photographs help orient the reader and bring the narrative to life. Stretching back to the Thirty Years War, coming forward to German Unification, World War I and the devastation on the German psyche by reparations and the rise of Nazism, the Dust Bowl years in the Midwest and finally a dairy farm in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania, all are presented in vivid relief.
Anyone who is interested in immigrants, rural life, family dynamics, friendships, farming, pre-industrial life and “how things are made” will find much of interest. Book groups, especially those with an immigrant or farming interest, will be able to sustain a lengthy discussion.
5 of 5 stars

AGNES & ALFRED IS A DELIGHTFUL READ
At first glance, it appears to be the story of the author's parents, a chronicle of their lives on both sides of the Atlantic. But the book is so much more! Not only is it a “personalized” account of the lives of rural Germans set against the backdrop of the tumultuous times in which they lived (World War I, the German Inflation of the 1920s), but in describing how her own parents were affected, the author enriches the reader’s appreciation of how these catastrophic events touched the lives of other “ordinary” people.

The author's father and mother joined the throngs of German immigrants to America. They worked hard, and through diligence and perseverance, and in spite of numerous setbacks, they were at last able to achieve their own version of “the American Dream.”

Although written as a family history, this book is not just a dry chronicle of events. Filled with true-life stories, the emotional impact of this meticulously researched immigrant-family saga is equal to that of any work of fiction, and it would read like a suspense novel were it not for the fact that the author must serve two masters: A family history, by definition, must include a large array of ancestors. Such a multiplicity of names can at times be confusing, and a general reader may find it difficult to keep track. And yet, in spite of the large number of names, the author has succeeded in weaving her family history into a narrative that reads like fiction.

Personal family history in cultural context
Alfred & Agnes is a story of survival, a compelling family history narrative set against the social-political backdrop of the first half of the 20th century. The author delves deeply into her ancestral past, bringing to life her immigrant parents’ respective childhoods in northern (Niedersachsen) and southern (Württemberg) Germany before proceeding, with great empathy, to tell their life-stories – their decisions to emigrate, the hardships they endured and overcame through the personal strengths they possessed, and the eventual achievement of their dream. This is a richly detailed memoir that reads like fiction, but is true. 305 pages illustrated with 165 photographs.