The two Mecklenburgs counted until the 20th century among both the German and European countries with the highest number of overseas emigrants. As in other regions, a massive rural exodus to the booming major cities also set in here around the mid-19th century. Both circumstances led to the stagnation of population growth in Mecklenburg until the 20th century. Many Mecklenburgers had sought their fortune outside of Mecklenburg over the centuries, which also applied to the Mecklenburg Jews.
Since the Mecklenburg dukes depended on their subjects, it is not surprising that emigration was fundamentally prohibited until the early 19th century. Mecklenburg-Schwerin therefore found it necessary between 1760 and 1792 to repeatedly counter emigration to America and the solicitation thereof through ducal decrees.
All of this, of course, affected only the long-established Christian population at that time, for Jews, particularly from more eastern settlement areas such as Pomerania, Posen, and Galicia, found Mecklenburg, by contrast, still to be a country of immigration. It was precisely during this period that most Jewish families and communities in the Mecklenburg towns were established.
Already in the period from the early 19th century to the German Revolution of 1848/49, Mecklenburg saw an increasing out-migration, with rural people initially comprising the largest group of emigrants. For the basis of the rural economy in Mecklenburg had always been the serfs, who performed their compulsory labor on the manorial estates and domains, were available in large numbers to the estate owners, and were employed by them in equally large numbers. This changed in 1820 with the abolition of serfdom, which meant that estate owners now employed only as many farmhands and maids as they absolutely needed. A first great wave of emigration was the result. More were to follow, later intensified by the labor demand of the incipient industrial revolution. For the Mecklenburg Jews, at least as far as the rural Jews were concerned, the opposite movement was still more typical in this phase: at the beginning of the 19th century, the first protected Jews were establishing themselves, primarily striving to gain an economic foothold in the towns and to provide for their families honestly. When Jews left their hometown or even Mecklenburg at this time, it was mainly due to a denied privilege, economic difficulties, or relocation through marriage.
Beginning with the Revolution of 1848/49, Mecklenburg saw three peaks of emigration in the second half of the 19th century: between 1850 and 1855, between 1865 and 1875, and between 1880 and 1885.
The failed German Revolution of 1848/49, which legally set Mecklenburg back to the 18th century, now drove many out of the country who were disappointed and dissatisfied with the economic and political conditions in Mecklenburg. In addition to farmhands as typical emigrants, craftsmen, merchants, clergy, and academics now joined their ranks. Overseas emigration therefore reached a peak in the first half of the 1850s and at times took on dramatic proportions. For instance, in the neighboring town of Crivitz, 37 persons left their home for overseas within two months in 1864.
For the Mecklenburg Jews in particular, the failure of the revolution, with which they had once again pinned their long-cherished hope for complete emancipation, was a catastrophe, as it once again cemented their status as second-class citizens. Thus they were driven overseas not only by the prospect of a new economic beginning but above all by legal equality. Among the emigrants of this phase, the first Jewish overseas emigrants are therefore to be found. Tragically, many emigrations also led to Jewish descendants facing each other as soldiers of enemy nations in the First World War.
Compelled by the rising emigration numbers, the two Mecklenburgs issued various regulations by 1857 intended to give emigration at least a legal framework. Emigration henceforth required the consent of the state government, which was only granted once civic duties had been fulfilled. First and foremost among these was completed military service. And yet there were illegal emigrations from Mecklenburg, estimated at about 30% of the total.
Besides emigrations, there were also migrations during the same period from the Mecklenburg towns to the booming economic centers outside Mecklenburg.
The year 1867 and the following years brought yet another accelerated migration from Mecklenburg. The two Mecklenburgs had joined the North German Confederation, and the Law on Freedom of Movement enacted on 1 November 1867 guaranteed a legally unrestricted and free choice of residence within the federal states. Although a period of flourishing now began for the Mecklenburg Jews, it was precisely this that heralded the end of many Mecklenburg communities. In contrast to the preceding times, overseas emigration now decreased in favor of migration to the major cities of the German federal states, as many Mecklenburgers wished to seize the opportunities of the Gruenderzeit in the booming and expanding major cities.
Overseas emigration experienced another upturn in the 1880s and early 1890s. As the 19th century progressed, departures decreased overall. This was, however, by no means due to changed conditions, but solely to the fact that the Jewish communities had already shrunk to such an extent that hardly any younger family members still lived in Mecklenburg.
The seizure of power by the National Socialists also changed the attitude of many Mecklenburg Jews towards their ancestral homeland and forced them to migrate to often life-saving foreign countries or to the supposed anonymity of the major cities. Almost all of the departures still documentable in the later period from 1933 to 1942 must be regarded as persecution-related in all cases. This ultimately led in Mecklenburg to the situation that by 1942 virtually all Mecklenburg towns were reported as "free of Jews".
The reasons for departure of Jews from Mecklenburg were similar from the early 19th century into the 1930s and can be reduced to a few. They differed, however, considerably between women and men due to their different social and societal positions. For younger women, marriage above all led to departure. For those who remained unmarried and widows, it was moving to join a relative living elsewhere, and for older women, elderly care and the frequently associated move to a retirement home. Only to a minor extent were economic reasons present in the case of women. This does, however, appear to have been the case particularly among the female emigrants to America. For men too, relocation occasionally occurred for such reasons. The vast majority of them, however, moved to a major German city or even emigrated abroad for better economic prospects or the mere hope thereof.