Possible causes for the Peikerts to immigrate from Germany

 Julius Peikert and his wife, Emma nee Hauser, immigrated from Loiusenfelde, Prussia (now Brandenburg) to New York in July 1885. They were aged 32 and 27 respectively. Germany was doing better than most of Europe at that time, what drove the immigrations from Germany to the US during that time?

In the mid-1800s, many Germans and Irish migrated to the United States. The Irish came because of the potato famine, the Germans came to escape political persecution. The Germans in the middle of the century came with money and so were able to spread out across the US with major centers in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

When emperor Bismarck came to power in Germany, he began consolidating the various states and building alliances with Austria/Hungary and Italy against France. The German empire had great influence over the Nordic countries as well as the Netherlands. This was the Germany that Julius and Emma grew up in. It was becoming a world power and cautiously eyeing Russia's desire to grow.

Germany had the upper hand until 1873 which started a 4-year depression. This severely affected both farming and industry. The depression ended first for industry and farmers were still struggling into the 1880s. 

When they came to America, they bought a farm in Genessee, in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. This area had a high percentage of German immigrants from previous migrations. Emma appears to have run the farm as Julius began working for the railroad in 1885, became a fireman by 1900 and finally took a job as an engineer at a pumping station that he held for at least 20 years. He began listing his employment as farmer after the Great Depression. Perhaps he lost his job and opted to help Emma on the farm at that point.

Germany had a policy of universal education in the 1800s which undoubtedly helped the German immigrants who could all read and write and had skills not seen in other immigrant populations. Given that Emma ran the farm, I can induce that perhaps her family were farmers in Germany and so were severely impacted by the German depression of 1873. It is possible that the Peikerts were also farmers and the struggles for farmers were what brought the Peikerts to America. It doesn't seem unreasonable to think that Julius choice to work in industry while Emma farmed was a way to safeguard their family from uncertainty upon their arrival in America.

Though Emma's father emigrated to America later, there is no indication that the elder Peikerts ever left Germany. I have been unsuccessful so far in identifying the ancestors of Julius Peikert who was my great-grandfather, so I am not able to substantiate my hypothesis. The above is my assessment of the world events at the time of Julius and Emma's decision to emigrate and how it might have influenced their decision to come to America.