Eine Welt fuer sich. Endogamie und Nicht-Integration einer schweizerisch-deutschen Wirtschaftselite in Sueditalien im 19. Jahrhundert

This article explores the marriage strategies and behaviour of three generations of Protestant and German-speaking migrants, mainly coming from Switzerland and the German Confederation, who settled in Naples (Italy) during the 19th century. These migrants, who were entrepreneurs and businessmen, once in Southern Italy founded cotton firms and operated in banks and trade importing technologies, machines, modern patterns of management and frequently also technicians and workers They also built a religious community, schools, a cemetery, clubs, philanthropic societies and a church. Resourceful, drawing on a considerable amount of social capital and sharing a high level of training and culture they developed a specific pattern of settlement avoiding contacts and formal relationships with the local elite and refusing integration and assimilation in the host society. The article shows how a high level of marriage endogamy (at the same time national, religious and social), growing in second and third generations, helped protecting and perpetuating this Protestant enclave and examines the role plaid by gender, friendship, kinship, origins, education and religion in orienting marriage strategies.