Only in America . . .

. . . would this German-American farce work so well. Here is one page from a 16-page Dialog by W. Heinecke, entitled "Sell war ä hard Case" (That was a hard case). It was published in the early 1900s by the Antigo (Wisconsin) Publishing Company in a series for Jugendvereine (youth clubs), and features 8 male roles: Der Richter (an English-speaking judge); Farmer Schmierkäs; Farmer Käsewurm; ein Pennsylvanier; and four Zeugen or witnesses, Heiner, Jochen, Klas, and Seppl.

A lot of the humor comes from the German-speakers, who seem to be quite the lovers of beer, misunderstanding the judge. For example, when the judge thunders, "Stop now, what do you want here?" Käsewurm asks, "Wohnt hier. . . wer wohnt hier?" (Lives here, who lives here?) or the same character hearing "schöne Tag" (nice day) when the judge says "I can't understand your talk."


We haven't yet discovered much information on W. Heinecke, except that he wrote several of these playlets that were published in Antigo, with several featuring the character Seppl, including "Seppl läßt sich photographieren," "Seppl will reich werden" and "Seppl macht Geschäefte." Given the prevalence of Pennsylvania German dialect in the works we've seen, Heinecke may hail from that state, but we don't know for certain. If anyone has additional information on Heinecke and these humorous plays, do contact us at the Max Kade Institute!

The Perils of Marrying a German-speaking Immigrant

Francis A. Hoffmann (1822-1903), was born in Herford, Kreis Minden, Westphalia, and fled the Prussian draft in 1840. He settled in Illinois where he was a teacher and Lutheran minister. In 1851 he moved to Chicago and became an attorney and banker on behalf of German immigrants. A fervent opponent of slavery, he helped found the Illinois Republican Party in 1854, and was elected Lieutenant Governor of Illinois during the Civil War. He was also a consul to the Kingdom of Hanover and a land commissioner for a railroad company. But in 1875 he retired to a farm along the Rock River in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, and devoted his time to writing articles on farming and horticulture for the German language press under the pen name Hans Buschbauer. In an article* written by his granddaughter, Minna Frances Hoffman Nehrling (married to Werner F. Nehrling, son of Henry Nehrling, author of Nordamerikanische Vogelwelt), we are treated to this intriguing anecdote:


My grandfather, Francis A. Hoffmann, wooed my grandmother, Cynthia Gilbert, while he was a young Lutheran minister stationed in De Kalb County, Illinois. . . . As soon as they were married, grandfather spoke nothing but German to grandmother, who was of pure British antecedents. After about six weeks of this, she did what many young wives do, namely, went home to her mother. She, being a very sensible woman and the mother of fourteen children, made her go back to her Francis when she found that otherwise he was good to her. And she proved an apt pupil, for when they went to Europe fifteen years later, someone told her: "I can tell from what part of Germany your husband comes, but your German is so free from accent, that I can't determine what province you hail from." Needless to say, this pleased her greatly and was quite a feather in her cap."


*"Memoirs of 'Riverside Farm,'" Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 13, no. 4, June 1930, pp. 356-364.

The Mysterious Country of “Biron”

Researching 1860 U.S. Census data for Middleton, Wisconsin, I came across a place I had never heard of. A number of residents with German-sounding names are listed as being born in “Biron.” Where could this country have been? Further research and other clues revealed the place of birth as Bavaria. But why “Biron?” Most likely, when the census taker asked the settler where s/he was born, the answer was “Bayern” which an English speaker could easily sound out as “Biron.” There are many spelling mistakes and other recording errors in the censuses, but Bavaria seems to have been an especially difficult case for the census takers. For example, a significant number of Bavarian immigrants lived in the rural community of Bristol, Dane County, Wisconsin, but only very few people from Bavaria show up in the 1860 census. Instead we find many families from mysterious places called Biron, Biren, Brian, or Bryn—sometimes helpfully amended as Germany/Brian or Germany/Bryn.

History in the Landscape: Settlers from Mecklenburg in the Town of Middleton, Wisconsin

The Max Kade Institute is collaborating with Pope Farm Conservancy in Middleton, Wisconsin, on researching the history of immigration and settlement in the Town of Middleton, particularly the experience of settlers from the small German state of Mecklenburg.

Pope Farm Conservancy , a beautiful hundred-acre public park west of Middleton, features educational trails that interpret the site’s history and unique physical and cultural geography. One important group of visitors are fourth-grade students who study Wisconsin.

Recently, the footprint of a settler’s cabin was identified on Conservancy land that once belonged to Fritz Elver, a farmer from Mecklenburg. After 1867 the cabin was inhabited by another Mecklenburg immigrant family: Joachim Goth, along with his wife, son, and mother, and—over the years—nine more children. Joachim worked as a day laborer on the Elver farm. Following the typical chain migration pattern, Joachim had followed his uncle Jürgen Goth (immigrated in 1854) and his brother Carl (1857). Today, descendants of the Goth family and other Mecklenburgers still live in the area. One of them, Carl Goth’s granddaughter Mae Goth Hartwig provided us with invaluable information about her family, family documents such as original letters, and stories of what life was like in this German-American community.

Under the guidance of Mel Pope, three signs now have been posted where the cabin once stood. They inform visitors about the immigrant family that once lived there and the history of German immigration to the area in general. But this is only the beginning. As we continue to research the history of settlers from Mecklenburg in the Town of Middleton, we will also develop educational materials and post resources on the MKI Web site. And we invite you all to come and visit Pope Farm Conservancy and experience German-American history in the rural landscape!

Susan Kriegbaum-Hanks of Buffalo, New York, has combined her passion for the history of her city and region with her interest in German language and literature to post original German materials along with her translations online at <http://www.archivaria.com/>.

Included on this page is a translation of the history of Buffalo from a German perspective; the History of the Germans in Buffalo and Erie County; the autobiography of Charles Boller, Sunday School Superintendent of the First Church of the Evangelical Community; many materials on German Lutherans in North America and in Buffalo; articles from Buffalo newspapers and journals; and some photographs and images.

Also included are selections from Das Buch der Deutschen in Amerika (The Book of Germans in America), published in 1909 by Walter's Buchdruckerei in Philadelphia under the auspices of the National German-American Alliance (founded 1900). This massive tome provides a history of German immigrants from the 16th through the 19th centuries, with special emphasis on German contributions to the growth of this nation and to American culture. Kriegbaum-Hanks provides images and translations for the biographies of German-American poets (pp. 368 – 419), a brief history of Buffalo's German-language press, and the creation of National German-American Alliance, known as "The Bund," along with biographies of its founders and prominent members.

Importing German Birds to North America

This concise entry in the Was gibt's Neues? section of the May 1890 Das Evangelische Magazin (Cleveland, Ohio) leads modern readers into an interesting chapter in American history:



"Here's the most recent information about the importation of German songbirds birds into the area of Portland, Oregon: In the town of Milwaukie, about seven miles southeast of Portland on the Willamette River, a flock of approximately 16 young German larks has been observed; these are the first offspring of a group of larks brought to Portland by the German Songbird Society. German thrushes and blackbirds were found foraging in many of Portland's gardens over the winter, and they regularly nested in the Germania Gardens there. Soon the migratory birds will begin to return, and hopefully those German ones that left in the fall also won't forget to come back."

German-speaking immigrants missed the birds they had known from their childhood, and efforts were undertaken throughout the 19th century to introduce these species to North America. In his 1891 book Die Nordamerikanische Vogelwelt (Milwaukee, Wis.: Geo. Brumder), ornithologist and horticulturist Henry Nehrling describes reasons behind efforts to acclimatize foreign birds in this way: "With longing he [the German immigrant] thinks back to those times when the nightingale’s song permeated the grove, the exultant trilling of the lark rang down from the blue heaven, and the fluting tones of the blackbird, the love song of the blackcap, and the call of the chaffinch resounded from mountain and valley. This love for the old homeland and for the songbirds that brightened one’s younger days motivated the founding of so-called acclimatization societies [Einbürgerungsvereine] in several locales.”


Ignoring objections raised by prominent ornithologists, German songbirds were introduced in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Boston, and New York. Of the many birds released in these areas, Nehrling reports that only goldfinches in Boston and New York, and some larks in other places, were successfully domesticated. Most of the experiments ended in failure, because the severe winter weather of the eastern, northern, and central states annihilated the exotic birds there.

In 1889, an attempt to bring German songbirds to the mild climate of Portland, Oregon, fared much better. Mr. Pflüger, the Secretary of the “Verein zur Einführung nützlicher deutscher Singvögel in Oregon,” reports that 300 pairs of German songbirds were imported, including nightingales, blackcaps, blackbirds, larks, song thrushes, bullfinches, siskins, quail, crossbills, and various types of Sylvia. Many reproduced successfully and could within a few years be found all over the state, with many of them remaining through the winter rather than migrating. Mr. Pflüger writes that “in the spring of 1890 a little snow fell. One saw blackbirds flying around together with American robins. Many of the native Americans stared in astonishment at the black birds with yellow bills, which otherwise closely resembled robins; they had never seen anything like them before. . . . One also now hears the singing of song thrushes on a daily basis.” The imported nightingales probabhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifly became extinct, as few survived the long trip from Europe, and none have been seen since. But the success http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifed the Society to import another large group of birds in March of 1891: Mr. Pflüger reported then that the Skylarks, Blackbirds, Goldfinches, Siskins, Linnets, and Greenfinches were doing especially well.


For more information on Henry Nehrling and Die Nordamerikanische Vogelwelt see the cover article of the Fall 2007 Friends of the MKI Newsletter: <http://mki.wisc.edu/Newsletter/MKI_Fall07.pdf>. And here is a Wikipedia entry on Frank Dekum, the German-born President of Portland's German Songbird Society <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Dekum>

The Spirit of the Revolution Lives On!

When the freedom-minded revolutionists of 1848 and 1849 failed to overthrow imperial governments in German-speaking Europe, many fled to America, with a surprising number of them settling in Watertown, Wisconsin. Twenty-three years later, this advertisement appeared in the October 12, 1872, issue of the Erzähler, a supplement to the Watertown Weltbürger. During difficult economic times in America, butcher R. E. Steinberg invokes a spirit of upheaval with his cry: "Down with high prices! Revolution in the Butscherei!" The term Butscherei is uniquely German-American, as is the spelling of Butschershaps. Steinberg also assures his honorable customers that the quality of his casings is very high, and will never bring anyone into embarrassment. His purpose is not to become rich quickly, but instead to grow his shop into one of renown equaling the Butschershaps of larger cities.

Finding Water in 19th-Century America

This question and answer comes from the "Mit Unserm Leser" (With Our Readers) section of Das Evangelische Magazin, vol. 22, no. 4, April 1890, published by Lauer und Mattill in Cleveland, Ohio, and edited by C. A. Thomas and R. Matt. We provide a translation here:

A reader, Kansas. 1. Is it really true that there are people who can run around the land with a rod in their hands, and then are able to say where to find water for a well? 2. Is it advisable or recommendable to employ such a person if one wants to dig a well?

Answer 1: Using a so-called "dowsing rod" to search for water, coal, oil, natural gas, and also minerals is quite an old practice, and is based upon completely natural principles. It does not involve any magic or witchcraft. Artificial dowsing rods have even been invented, which work as well as hazel rods. Everything depends, however, on the constitutional conditions of the individual person, since the hazel twig or dowsing rod is not effective in every person's hand. We do not have the space here to discuss cause and effect.

Answer 2: If we wanted to bore a well and could find a neighbor who knows how to carry the rod, then we would ask for his advice, and would cut the hazel rod to his own satisfaction, and also try it ourselves. Who knows, perhaps the rod would be effective in the hand of our inquirer. It is neither superstition, abuse of the name of God, nor hocus pocus, because it happens completely naturally.

"Deutsche Farmer, kommt nach Louisiana"

It's three degrees Fahrenheit today in Madison, and the snow is falling, which makes this advertisement from 1907 in "Bürger und Bauer," a magazine for German-American farmers, very appealing:

“German farmers, come to Louisiana! Are you inclined to leave the cold, freezing North? If so, and if you want to find a good homeland in the sunny South, then write us. Write in German. We will answer in German. This is a German settlement area. We would like to send you an illustrated brochure in German for free. We already provided a new homeland for many German farmers from the North. Here you will find an amazing opportunity to purchase excellent farmland for a low price, make a lot of money, and to enjoy the best climate in the world…. You do not need to stay in a place where you spend half of your life shoveling snow.”