96 Fontane Blätter 104 Literaturgeschichtliches, Interpretationen, Kontexte trying his luck and seeking salvation. 21 The curious idiom suggests that neither luck nor salvation could be found in Prussia since Lehnert only found them in America. This happiness was found in an unusually diverse household. Its com­position alone was a critique of German politics and society. Lehnert at first tried to befriend the overseer Martin Kaulbars. Kaulbars was a typical Brandenburger, Protestant and Prussian. Like Lehnert, he had served in the army during the wars of unification, helping to storm the Danish forti­fications at Düppel. 22 He embodied important aspects of Prussia in Ameri­ca so that Fontane could develop his criticism of Prussia at this safer dis­tance. In a long monologue, he explained to Lehnert the crucial importance of military service as the foundation of the nation. He alluded to the famous poem Die Rosse von Gravelotte by Karl Gerok that celebrated rigid military obedience during the Franco-Prussian war, an attitude that Fontane criti­cized sharply. 23 Kaulbars´»selbstgefällige Enge« made any deeper relationship impos­sible. 24 Immediately following this monologue Lehnert struck up a friend­ship with the Frenchman Camille L´Hermite who was a godless socialist and a member of the Paris Commune. The original readers would have certainly noticed that Lehnert shot Opitz, the symbol of Prussian authority, in 1877, just one year before two assassination attempts against Emperor William I that Bismarck used to pass laws against Social Democracy. Among the real migrants to America joining Lehnert were German social­ists who could now be legally evicted from their apartments among other restrictions. Thus, both as socialist and as French L´Hermite was an impor­tant and recognizable state and imperial enemy. Nonetheless these three »enemies« could work together and two of them even become close friends. 25 Although the first edition published in Die Gartenlaube cut out much of the discussion of this friendship, Christian Grawe imagined that Fontane would have been happy»trotz der viele Kürzungen mit Quitt Kon­terbande der schlimmsten Art in die auf bürgerliche Reputation und leichte Verdaulichkeit bedachte Gartenlaube geschmuggelt zu haben.« 26 The minor characters only extended this portrayal of a diverse family. The maid Maruschka, who emigrated with the Hornbostel family from Prussia, was a Polish Catholic. The Kulturkampf against the political power of Catholics was just ending as Bismarck took up his struggle against So­cial Democracy with the aid of the Catholic Center Party. For many Protes­tant readers Catholics were still imperial enemies. The fight against a growing Polish national identity in the east was also becoming more in­tense now. Totto, a Lithuanian who also migrated along with the family, was still seen as pagan,»glaubte, wenn überhaupt an was, höchsten an das schwarze und weiße Pferd seiner litthauischen Urahnen.« 27 And then there were Mennonites and Indians on top of that. Yet Prussians were at the