(Nearly) Everyone's an Immigrant

"Deutsche Farmer, kommt nach Louisiana"

2012-01-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

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.”

NEH Challenge Grant Awarded to MKI

2011-12-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

We are thrilled to announce that the MKI has been named the recipient of a prestigious NEH Challenge Grant to support the MKI Library Project. The award will go toward an endowment for a librarian/archivist position, the remodeling and renovation of the MKI’s new quarters in the University Club, and the purchase of some new acquisitions. The NEH Challenge Grant provides us with $300,000, which we must match over the next few years on a three-to-one basis. Thanks to the generous support of friends and associates, the Library Project Campaign is already well on its way. We are happy about the recognition this award is bringing to the Institute and are looking forward to meeting the next challenge.

2011-11-29T12:32:00.000-08:00

In 1626, Peter Minuit — a native of the German town of Wesel am Rhein — purchased Manhattan Island for 60 guilders worth of trade goods. Since that purchase, German immigrants have been integral to the development of the city of New York. As the German community in New York exploded in size, it built churches, started businesses, founded hospitals, created clubs, propagated culture, erected monuments, and birthed dynasties in business and the arts. Over the years, however, the community assimilated and dispersed, but it left an indelible mark on the city. New York has been built up and torn down, both by design and by tragedy, but if you look closely, traces of the German immigrant experience can still be found hiding throughout the city’s corridors. German Traces NYC is a mobile, augmented reality experience designed to let learners explore German cultural heritage in New York City. The application makes use of archival documents, photographs, and multimedia narratives to bring to life to this significant thread of New York City and United States history.
German Traces NYC and GeoStoryteller are a joint project between the Goethe-Institut New York and Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science.

MKI German Genealogy Workshops

2011-11-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

The MKI is pleased to offer three German genealogy workshops in March 2012: "Genealogical Resources for German-American Ancestry, Online and Off" (March 3); "Tracing Your Jewish Roots from German-Speaking Europe" (March 18); and "Reading Old German Script" (March 24). More details and registration information is available on the MKI Web site "News & Events" page. (scroll down the page)

40-50% Off on Selected MKI Publications!

2011-10-31T08:55:00.000-07:00

Just in time for the holidays and for a limited time only, the MKI drastically reduces the prices of some of its popular books, when ordered directly from the UW Press: click on the link below, add to cart, add promo code KADE11, click checkout and the new price will appear.

"Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie: A Nineteenth-Century Cookbook for German Immigrants to America," paper, now $14.95.

"German Jewish Identities in America," cloth, now $14.95.

"Land Without Nightingales: Music in the Making of German America," cloth with CD, now $19.95.

"Atlas of Pennsylvania German ," cloth, now $19.95.

"Other Witnesses: An Anthology of Literature of the German Americans, 1850-1914," cloth, now $19.95.

Foremothers: Genealogy and Gender

2011-10-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

In a lecture entitled “Foremothers: Genealogy and Gender,” presented on October 8, 2011, for the Dane County Area Genealogical Society, Cora Lee Kluge outlined—using as her example a family that lived in the latter part of the nineteenth century in Janesville, Wisconsin––special difficulties researchers encounter when looking into female ancestors. It is often difficult to find out about their backgrounds, since their names may be subsumed under those of their husbands. Furthermore, they lived their lives for the most part in the private rather than the public sphere, so that official documents and records relating to them may not exist at all. Even death notices, obituaries, and grave markers may be of no help, and the records they left—including diaries, letters, or autobiographical writings—tend to belittle their own contributions and achievements. Cora Lee pointed out that such problems confront all genealogists and researchers, but particularly those looking for immigrant forebears. After outlining resources and approaches that are easily overlooked, she asked whether information about these “anonymous” women would be of interest, concluding that without them, their perspectives, and their interactions with others, we are missing a large and equally valid part of the story.

The MKI Library Project Campaign

2011-10-14T08:52:00.001-07:00

We are almost there! As many of you have heard, the Max Kade Institute is now moving to a much larger and more centrally located place on the UW–Madison campus: the University Club. We are using this opportunity to build a state-of-the-art library and archival facility for our unique collections of German-language materials published in North America, including an exhibit space and comfortable reading areas for our patrons. The renovation is budgeted at $1.1 million, and we are within reach of our goal. Please help us preserve this important part of American history and support our efforts to raise the final $200,000.

HELP US RAISE $200,000

Through the end of 2011 all donations will be matched dollar for dollar by the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

· Gifts can be made by check, made out to UW Foundation, with MKI Library Project in the memo line and mailed to: Max Kade Institute, 901 University Bay Dr., Madison, WI 53705

· or online through the MKI Web site: http://mki.wisc.edu (click on “MKI Library Campaign”).

All gifts to the MKI Library Project are fully tax deductible.

For additional information contact: Antje Petty at the Max Kade Institute (608-262-7546) or apetty@wisc.edu

When is a man a German American?

2011-09-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

The above question-and-answer comes from the February 1889 issue of Das Evangelische Magazin, edited by C. A. Thomas and R. Matt and published in Cleveland, Ohio, by Lauer und Mattill. Such inquiries appear in the magazine’s “Mit unsern Lesern” section, and while the majority of them are of a religious nature, occasionally something more secular appears. Here a reader from Missouri asks if a man born in America to German parents is a German-American or something else. The editors proclaim that such a person would be as much an American as if his parents had come on the Mayflower with the Puritans. They offer the distinction that a German-American would be someone who was born in Germany, but either naturalized here or became a citizen through the citizenship of his father. The situation, they point out, would be the same for anyone from any other country; but if you are born in America you are simply an American, even if your father was an English lord or an Italian count.

An interesting emphasis on the democratization of America, though perhaps a bit disappointing for those of us today who wish to proudly identify our ethnic heritage, or perhaps even wish to bask in the glow of a presumed noble “von.”

A bit of research into the history of the magazine itself reveals it was published from 1869 through 1927 under several different editors and publishers (although the location of the publishers, despite name changes, was always given as 265-275 Woodland Avenue. This, we discovered was the home of the Publishing House of the Evangelical Association, which produced materials in both English and German). We were also able to discern that R. Matt was Robert Matt, but haven’t been able to yet learn much about him. We did find some information in the 1894 Congress of the Evangelical Association on C. A. Thomas: “Rev. C. A. Thomas, at the head of the publishing interests of the Evangelical Association, was born in Germany in 1840 and came to this country when a boy of fourteen. He entered the ministry in 1859, was elected Presiding Elder in the Spring of 1879, and in the Fall of the same year editor of Das Evanglische Magazin and German Sunday-School literature, Cleveland, Ohio, which office he still holds.” This image of C. A. Thomas was also provided:

We’d like to learn more about Thomas and Matt, and about the German-language activities of the Evangelical Association – if you have information you’d like to share, do contact us at the Max Kade Institute for German Studies in Madison, Wisconsin!

International Plattdüütsch Konferenz in Wausau, Wisconsin

2011-08-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

This year, September 9-11, the 16th Annual International "Plattdüütsch" Conference will be held in Wausau, Wisconsin. Hosted by the Pommerscher Verein Central Wisconsin, the conference will feature talks on the history and characteristics of the Low-German dialects and the culture and traditions of "Platt" speakers around the world. The Max Kade Institute will be represented with an exhibit and talks by Professor Mark Louden and Antje Petty. And there will be plenty of opportunity to have a good time with music, dance, "Platt" demonstrations, and - of course - good food. For more information and a detailed program click here (PDF).

German-American Comedy Songs on the National Jukebox

2011-08-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

The National Jukebox, a project of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, is now online providing access to more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Included in this treasure trove of historical and cultural materials are ethnic or dialect recordings that sought to entertain the American public through the use of characters or elements reflecting "attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs associated with ethnic and regional groups at the time the selections were written and performed." Among these we find quite a few recordings of a German-American nature, with performers employing "an exaggerated broken-English dialect infused with German pronunciation, syntax, words, and phrases." The National Jukebox Web site alerts us that dialect recordings (particularly those associated with African Americans) contain "characterizations [that] may utilize outmoded and offensive stereotypes of nationalities, religions, or races." Although the German-American recordings might be a challenge to follow due to the thick "accents," the representations are fairly light-hearted, featuring folks who are "stout, good-natured, musical, hard-working, slow-witted, and frumpy. . . , fond of beer, pretzels, sauerkraut, sausages, and small elongated dogs."

According to Prof. James Leary of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, dialect recordings associated with German Americans (or the "Dutch" as the English of the 18th and 19th centuries referred to anyone from a wide range of Germanic regions) entertained and appealed to both German-American audiences and mainstream Americans.

Take some time to listen to comic songs, skits, and recitations such as "The Germans' Arrival," "Hans Krausmeyer and His Dog Schneider," "Krausmeyer's Wedding Party," "Louisa Schmidt," "Fritz and Louisa," "The Happy German Twins," and "It Takes the Irish to Beat the Dutch." Some of these recordings may also be found and listened to by searching for "German dialect" or "Dutch dialect" on the Cylinder Project site at University of California-Santa Barbara .

You may also wish to read Prof. Leary's paper, "Dialect Songs among the Dutch" [PDF] and listen to audio samples associated with the work: http://csumc.wisc.edu/mki/Resources/Online_Papers/MusicConfPapers/DutchmanSongs/DutchmanSongsIndex.htm

And to examine German-American ethnic stereotypes through cartoon images found on popular postcards in the 20th century, see: http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/incs/documents/GemutlikeitSchnitzelbankandKitsch.pdf.

Germany Reports on German Heritage in Wisconsin

2011-08-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

I always find it interesting what German papers report on German history and traditions in America. Over the summer germany.info, the official Web site of the German Missions in the United States, did a series on German heritage in Wisconisin. Read what they have to say about "Bierbrauer vs. Piraten," "Appleton's Ancestral Ties to Germany," and "30 Years of Milwaukee's Original Haus Party."

Some Things Remain Much the Same. . .

2011-04-14T11:33:00.001-07:00

As America commemorates the sesquicentennial of its Civil War, we at MKI are poring over the materials in our collections to illuminate how the events of this era were documented by German speakers in America and in Europe. The following comes from the Geschichte des Tages (Events of the Day) section of the August 4, 1855 Illustrirte Abend-Schule, published in Buffalo, New York. While still several years before the outbreak of armed conflict, this summary of the mood in German America is telling:
America: Party politics, temperance litigation, murders, railroad and steamship disasters – and that's it.

Friends of the Max Kade Institute 2011 Annual Meeting ---- St. Nazianz Village, Manitowoc County

2011-03-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

Join us on Saturday, May 7, for our annual meeting and an exciting day in Manitowoc County where we will visit St. Nazianz, the site of the Oschwald communal society you have read about in your newsletter. A guided tour will include St. Gregory’s Catholic Church and cemetery; a walk through the village, a visit to the local museum; and a stroll to the old Salvatorian property just south of the village, where we will hold the Annual Meeting. We will conclude the day with supper at the Silver Valley Banquet Hall just west of Manitowoc.

1:30 – 2:00 Registration at St. Gregory's Church, 214 Church St., St. Nazianz, WI
2:00 – 4:00 Tour of St. Nazianz village and Salvatorian property
4:00 – 5:00 Annual Meeting and social time (followed by brief Board of Directors meeting)
5:00 – 5:30 Drive to Silver Valley Banquet Hall, 1222 S Alverno Rd. Manitowoc, WI
5:30 Dinner at Silver Valley Banquet Hall (Buffet with a variety of German dishes)

Please register by April 30th -- click HERE for PDF with registration form and driving directions

University of Heidelberg Honors American Abolitionist and Former Slave

2011-03-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

By establishing the James W.C. Pennington Distinguished Fellowship, the University of Heidelberg/Germany is drawing attention to a long forgotten historic occurrence that brought together German democratic revolutionary ideals, the international peace movement and the abolitionist movement in America. In 1849, James W. C. Pennington became the first African American to be awarded an honorary degree from a European University when the University of Heidelberg conferred on him the honorary doctorate of divinity. He had been invited to Heidelberg by the theologian and democratic activist Friedrich Wilhelm Carové after the two met at the 1849 World Peace Congress in Paris.

Pennington was born in 1807 as Jim Pembroke, a slave on an estate in western Maryland, and later worked as a blacksmith. He escaped bondage as a young man, fled north, was able to educate himself, and became the first African American to attend classes at Yale. He was eventually ordained as a Presbyterian minister. In 1849, he published The Fugitive Blacksmith, or Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington, an account of his harrowing escape. With his oratory and literary skill, Pennington became a leading voice for the abolitionist movement, representing its Evangelical Christian branch.

According to Dr. Mischa Honeck, Assistant Professor at the University of Heidelberg’s Center for American Studies, Pennington’s honorary degree from Heidelberg not only raised his prominence in the abolitionist movement in the US, but it also was seen as a positive tool for the foundering cause of German liberalism. More information can be found here.

German and German-American Dimensions of the Civil War

2011-01-31T11:19:00.001-08:00

2011 is the year of the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the American Civil War. The Max Kade Institute will mark the occasion by hosting an international symposium to examine the time before, during and directly after the Civil War from a unique angle, focusing on immigrants (especially those from German lands) and the global impact of the war (especially within German-speaking Europe). Join us March 3-5 at the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union and the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison. For a detailed program and abstracts of presentations see the MKI Website.

Music of the Old Order Amish

2011-01-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

On February 10 at 7pm, Professor Mark Louden (German Department, University of Wisconsin) will hold a lecture on "Music of the Old Order Amish." Professor Louden will give an overview of the variety of forms of musical expression among the Amish, which show influences from both Central European hymnody and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American gospel music. An experience "Vorsaenger" (lead singer) himself, Professor Louden will demonstrate how Amish songs are led in worship and at Sunday evening social gatherings. Join us at the Memorial Union on the UW-Madison Campus!

Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present

2011-01-19T12:46:00.000-08:00

An ambitious project coordinated by the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., will highlight the role played by immigrant entrepreneurs—specifically those who came from German-speaking lands—in the development of America's economic success. The project will utilize a wide range of source materials to provide biographical sketches as well as company histories for businesses from the early eighteenth century to the present day; the information will be presented online free of charge. All entries are to include information concerning the individual's reasons for migration; his or her social origins, regional identity (either in the home country or in the U.S.), religion, ethnic networks, Americanization, and business strategies; the impact of problems in America such as nativism, anti-German sentiments, boycotts, and anti-Semitism; and also the business's development and change over time.
The site is in progress at: http://www.ghi-dc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=964&Itemid=856

Announcing: Anglo-German Walks 2011

2011-01-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

Submitted by MKI Friend JoAnn T.

Neil McDonald, a German teacher from Yorkshire, England is an experienced hike leader and has organized cross-cultural walking weeks for adult participants since 1993. Both English and German native speakers share a week of language, culture, and most-importantly, hiking in the British Isles and German-speaking areas on the continent. I participated last June in the German-speaking Italian Alps (Südtirol), hiking in the area around Meran (see picture) and have fond memories of following the splashing Waalwege downhill and stopping for refreshment at Gasthäuser with unforgettable views!
Destinations for 2011 are the Höllental im Schwarzwald (Black Forest), Dahner Felsenland (Pfalz), Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland) and Harzgebirge (Harz Mountains), as well as Exmoor, the Welsh Marches, the Scottish Southern Uplands, and Hadrian’s Wall.
Find more information and request a brochure at:
www.anglo-german-walks.com.

Instruction in German in American Schools

2010-12-07T06:18:00.000-08:00

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Midwestern landscape of America was dotted with schools whose language of instruction was not English, but German, Polish, Norwegian, or something else. The library and archive of the Max Kade Institute contain numerous German-language school materials used in North America, such as primers; study guides for the German script; textbooks for learning math, science, and other subjects; readers for young adults; report cards; and more.

Now we would like to learn more, and wish to gather stories, anecdotes, and experiences of those who were taught in the German language in American schools.

If you attended a German-language school, or have stories of family members who received German-language instruction, please contact Antje Petty at: apetty(at)wisc.edu

If you know someone who has stories they'd like to share, do please send us contact information for them!
---

German Christmas Traditions "at the Inn"

2010-12-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

If you are in South-East Wisconsin this weekend, check out Christmas at the Inn at the Dousman Stagecoach Inn Museum, 1075 Pilgrim Parkway in Brookfield, Wisconsin. On Saturday (10am-4pm) and Sunday (noon-4pm), the Elmbrook Historical Society showcases Christmas traditions from Bavaria, Hesse, Pomerania, and the Danube settlements (Donauschwaben), - four European regions, from which many German-speaking immigrants in Wisconsin came from.

Germanic Languages and Migration Network (GLaM)

2010-11-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

The Max Kade Institute is actively involved in "Germanic Languages and Migration" (GLaM), an international and interdisciplinary network. Realizing that language changes constantly, and that it is not confined by national boundaries, the network brings together scholars from a variety of fields (sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, education, cultural studies, cultural geography, media studies, among others) to study the relations between language, migration, and transnationalism. Now two virtual seminars that grew out of a collaboration between the MKI and the Universities of Leeds and Southampton have been posted online: "Social Networks and Language Contact in the Early Modern Dutch Republic" by Professor Robert Howell, UW-Madison; and "The Times of Their Lives: Time, Place, and Space in Central European Language Biographies" by Professor Patrick Stevenson, University of Southampton. Also check out the "New Glarus Heritage Tour."

Immigrant Names

2010-08-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

According to one enduring myth, the surnames of many immigrants (including German immigrants) were anglicized or changed at Ellis Island. Not so! On the contrary, immigration officials at Ellis Island meticulously recorded names exactly as they were written on ship lists or other documents the immigrants brought with them. Only rarely and mostly because of transliteration questions, names were spelled differently our changed. An interesting article "New Life in America no Longer Means a New Name" in the New York Times looks at why some immigrants with ethnic names have opted for a change. The paper comes to the conclusion that these name changes today are rare, and if they occur, it is mostly for personal reasons (the wish to use a spouse's name for example) rather than a wish to disassociate with an ethnic name.

September 2010 Conference: Investigating Immigrant Languages in America

2010-07-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

Investigating Immigrant Languages in America
September 16-17 (Thursday and Friday), 2010
in the Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus
Free and open to the public

This event will bring together a set of scholars with the aim of creating new collaborations in linguistics and related areas.

Wisconsin has a long tradition of research into immigrant languages in North America, led by luminaries like Einar Haugen (Scandinavian Studies), and others including Frederic Cassidy (English / Dictionary of American Regional English) and Lester W.J. Seifert (German).

Haugen, a Norwegian-American bilingual from the Upper Midwest, was one of the creators of modern sociolinguistics, and made great contributions to our understanding of language structure, bilingualism, language contact, and language history. Building directly on that tradition, this conference will present new research in all these areas, including a presentation on Haugen’s work, founded on insights in his Bilingualism in America.

The conference aims to reach two distinct audiences. The first day focuses on linguistics, more directly intended for linguists faculty and students. Particular attention will be on syntax, an area long ignored in the study of immigrant languages. The second day aims to attract and engage a broader public, including language learners, members of heritage communities, and those interested in American dialects.

(Please see Today in the Union [TITU] for room information on days of conference.)

Click here for conference details and schedule (PDF).

Dance Halls in Texas

2010-01-04T10:51:00.000-08:00

A recent report on National Public Radio has brought our attention to efforts to restore and preserve dance halls in Texas, most of which were built by German or Czech immigrants, although some are the handiwork of African Americans. Featured in the NPR story is the effort to restore Sengelmann Hall in Schulenburg, between Houston and San Antonio. Built in 1894 by German-speaking settlers, it closed during World War II and hadn't been danced in for more than 60 years. The NPR story can be read and heard online here, while an informative database of Texas dance halls can be viewed on the Web site of the Texas Dance Hall Preservation Inc.

Herta Müller, 2009 Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature, and the Story of her Ancestors' Migration

2009-12-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

On December 10, Herta Müller accepted the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature in a ceremony in Stockholm. When the award winner was announced in the fall, many asked: “Who is Herta Müller?” Her selection may have come as surprise, but the timing was no coincidence. 2009, after all, is the year of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in Europe, and much of Herta Müller’s work focuses on life in Romania under the repressive Ceauşescu regime. Her perspective is that of a member of the Romanian-German minority population, and she writes in German.
Herta Müller grew up in the small village of Nitchidorf in Romania in a German-speaking family and a German-speaking community that was founded by immigrants from Southwest Germany over 200 years ago...
Read the complete article here
Image 1: germanyinfo.de; Image 2: nitzkydorf.de

"An exhibit of national forgetfulness"

2009-11-16T13:49:00.001-08:00

Cora Lee Kluge’s 2007 publication, Other Witnesses: An Anthology of Literature of the German Americans, 1850-1914, continues to attract attention for its attempt to include German-language works by immigrant writers as part of American literature. A new review by Andrew Yox (Northeast Texas Community College) has just appeared on H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences Online, and is worth reading.

During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, enough of the American population read German to allow for a rich harvest of writing in that language; as revealed in Other Witnesses, authors produced works ranging from poems to plays, and from fiction to travel literature. But the audience of German readers did dwindle, and German-language publishing houses eventually ceased their operations, with the result that such German-American writings have been relegated to libraries and archives, while essentially fading from our national consciousness.

Of course, the greatest obstacle to appreciating these works today is indeed the fact that they are written in German. We’ve all heard the phrase, “lost in translation,” and no doubt some of the impact and beauty would be lost if the words of these “other witnesses” were shifted into English. But someday, perhaps, the task will be undertaken, and America can once again reclaim a part of its literary heritage.

German and Polish Students Study Immigration and Ethnicity in the Upper Midwest.

2009-10-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

A week ago, a group of sixteen students from the American Studies Institutes of the University of Leipzig, Germany, and of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland visited Wisconsin. Led by Professor Hartmut Keil, the group was on a two-week study tour of the Upper Midwest to learn about immigration and internal migration past and present, and issues of ethnicity in rural and urban America. At UW-Madison, the group attended a workshop on Language & Immigration and the following day visited one of Wisconsin’s many small rural communities that were settled in the 1850s primarily by German immigrants: Hustisford in Dodge County. Members of the Hustisford Historical Society graciously showed us their town, the historical museum Founder John Hustis’ old house), and the Lutheran church. Evidence of Hustisford German-American history was everywhere: in names, stories, signs, buildings, and the personal inscription in an old family bible that Prof. Keil translated. Read more about the Immigration and Ethnicity Study Tour on the group’s blog.

Wilhelm Tell in New Glarus – Last Performance in German?

2009-09-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

Every September for 72 years, the community of New Glarus, WI has performed Wilhelm Tell, Friedrich Schiller's play about Swiss independence. The play is presented on a natural outdoor stage in two versions: in English and in the original German. Now the Wisconsin State Journal reports that, due to dwindeling audience numbers, this year might be the last year the play is staged in German. Furthermore, the English show has been shortened from three to two hours. If you want to experience (maybe for the last time) a unique example of traditional German-language American community theatre come to the Wilhelm Tell Grounds on September 5 at 10am, and also join the weekend-long Wilhelm Tell Festival. More information is available at wilhelmtell.org.

German Word Blocks

2009-09-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

Recently I visited the WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod) Historical Institute, which is located in the Salem Landmark Church in northwest Milwaukee. The institute is in the process of restoring this beautiful church. In the basement there are displayed a number of artifacts and documents related to WELS history, most of which were donated by individuals, congregations, and schools from the Milwaukee area. In a display devoted to early parochial schools, I was fascinated to see a collection of about 32 wooden blocks, each measuring about 10" x 10" x 10". On each face there was a German word or pair of words in Fraktur (and also punctuation marks), which were applied with black paint and (probably) stencils. The material is light plywood and each block is numbered. The blocks were stored in a folding cabinet about 5 feet tall. Two pictures of these blocks and the cabinet are given below:

The gentleman who gave me the tour through the collection said the blocks likely came from a WELS school in downtown Milwaukee. Their function was evidently to give children practice in composing German sentences. I have scoured the Internet for references to similar teaching aids and have not found anything comparable, which suggests that these blocks might have been the brainchild of one enterprising German teacher (with some good carpentry skills). I would be excited to hear whether any of our readers have seen or heard of anything similar!

Mark L.

Dirndl for Barbie

2009-08-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

It was to happen sooner or later…. Just in time for the Munich Oktoberfest, Barbie – the most American of all dolls – will add a Dirndl to her vast collection of outfits. Designed by Munich designer Lola Paltinger the stylish Bavarian dress will be unveiled at the Oktoberfest and other events.
This means Barbie has come full circle. Barbie was inspired by the Bild-Lilli doll, who was presented as a young, attractive woman, dressed in fashionable clothes and having her own career, and who was modeled after the heroine of a popular 1950s comic strip in Bild magazine. At that time, Ruth Handler, American mother and wife of a Martell toy company co-founder, was looking for a doll for her daughter that was not an infant. On a trip to Europe, she saw Bild-Lilli, brought several of the dolls to America, made some design changes, and convinced her husband to manufacture her new Barbie. And the rest is history…
For more on the story go to Germany.info, which is also the source of the picture used here. (© picture-alliance/dpa)

Historic American Newspapers in Languages Other Than English?

2009-08-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/) is a new digital project initiated by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. The Web site provides descriptive information about all American newspapers published from 1690 to the present day, including those in languages other than English, such as Albanian, Arabic, Cherokee, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Norwegian, Thai, and many more. Information on a specific newspaper includes title, place of publication, publisher, dates of publication, frequency, succeeding titles, and a summary of available holdings, in original format or microfilm, at various institutions.

Digital images of select newspaper pages can also be viewed online. At this point in the project, only pages from English-language papers published from 1880 to 1992 from the following states are available: California, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

We at the MKI would of course like to be able to search, retrieve, and view pages from German-language newspapers, and hope they might be included in the scope of the project as it continues. No doubt researchers would like to see pages from newspapers published in all the other languages as well, which would help to create a richer picture of American history.

A search of the site shows that only Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Vermont had no German-language newspapers, while Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Wyoming only had ones published in Prisoner of War camps. Consulting the impressive three-volume The German Language Press of the Americas by Karl Arndt and May Olson (München: Verlag Dokumentation, 3^rd edition, 1976), shows just a few differences, particularly for Nevada, where there were apparently four extremely short-lived German-language papers. It may be that no copies survived, and thus none of the libraries reporting to the online project had any records for them.

Chronicling America is an important project, and we look forward to checking in on its progress in the future.

Language Matters for Wisconsin

2009-05-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

We are excited that the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies has received an Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment grant for the project "Language Matters for Wisconsin." MKI, together with Thomas Purnell (Linguistics), Eric Raimy (English), and Joe Salmons (Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures) will work with community partners across Wisconsin to hold public forums addressing local and regional language-related issues and concerns. We are also producing language maps, developing community-linked Web sites, and producing a general-interest book exploring languages and dialects across the state. This project builds on the highly successful Wisconsin Englishes Project . Stay tuned!

Impressions from Max Kade Institute Banquet and Conference

2009-04-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

The capstone events of the Max Kade Institute's 25th anniversary year were a huge success. Over a hundred people attended the banquet on April 1 where German Ambassador Dr. Klaus Scharioth (here with MKI Director Cora Lee Kluge) was our guest of honor and spoke to the audience about "Why the German-American Relationship Matters."

Professor Emeritus Jost Hermand of the UW-German Department gave the keynote address: "Forced out of Hitler's Reich: Five Eminent Madisonians."

On April 2 and 3, the conference "Excursions in German-American Studies," drew a large audience of students, faculty, Friends of the MKI, and many other people interested in the diverse and thought-provoking presentations. We all came away with new insights, thoughts, and an awareness of how broad the field of German-American Studies is, and how many angles remain to be explored. Here is Louis Pitschmann, Director of Libraries at the University of Alabama, presenting to a rapt audience on "Advancing German-American Studies in the Digital Age."

Fachwerkhäuser of Dodge County and Annual Meeting of MKI Friends, May 2

2009-04-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Join us on Saturday, May 2, for an exciting day as we explore the German heritage of Dodge County, WI. We will take a bus tour of German Fachwerkhäuser (half-timbered houses) of Watertown and Lebanon with historian Lyle Lidholm, hold our annual meeting at the Beaver Dam Community Library, visit a special exhibit at the Williams Free Library and Museum in Beaver Dam, and have a traditional dinner at Feil's Supper Club in Randolph. All the details are on the MKI Web site.

German in Wisconsin

2009-04-01T14:19:00.000-07:00

If you're not able to attend the MKI 25th Anniversary banquet this evening, you might want to tune in to NPR's All Things Considered, which is running a great story on German in Wisconsin, with a focus on Hustisford. Joe Salmons is one of the featured experts. You can access the story online here.

Mark

International Confernece: Excursions in German-American Studies

2009-03-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

Please join us for the Capstone Event of the Max Kade Institute's

25th Anniversary Celebration
April 2-3, Memorial Union, UW-Madison Campus

April 2, 2009, 9–12 a.m.: “America and Her Immigrants: Ethnicity, Policy, Ideas.”
1. Walter Kamphoefner (Texas A&M University): “Elvis and Other Germans: Some Reflections and Modest Proposals on the Study of German- American Ethnicity.”
2. Daniel J. Tichenor (University of Oregon): “German Americans and the U.S. Immigrant Experience: Historical and Contemporary Significance.”
3. Hartmut Keil (University of Leipzig): “The Americanization of Francis Lieber: Liberal Ideals and the Realities of the Slave South.”

April 2, 2009, 3–5 p.m.: “German-American Language and Literature.”
1. Daniel Nützel (University of Regensburg): “German Dialects on Different Paths to Extinction: The Examples of Haysville, IN and New Ulm, MN.”
2. Lorie A. Vanchena (University of Kansas): “Taking Stock: The Disappearance of German-American Literature.”

April 3, 2009, 9–12 a.m.: “Creating the American Myth.”
1. Hugh Ridley (University College Dublin): “Sealsfield’s ‘Prärie am Jacinto’: The Half-Unfolded Spring of German and American Literature.”
2. Steven D. Hoelscher (University of Texas at Austin): “Performing the American Myth by Speaking German: Changing Meanings of Ethnic Identity Between the Wars.”
3. Kathleen Neils Conzen (University of Chicago): “Democracy and Diversity: German Theorizing in Tocqueville’s America.”

April 3, 2009, 2–5 p.m.:“Learning From Each Other.”
1. Uwe Luebken (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich): “Explorations into the History of Floods and Flood Control in the United States and Germany.”
2. Louis A. Pitschmann (University of Alabama): “Advancing German-American Studies in the Digital Age: Opportunities for Collaboration.”
3. Members of the University of Wisconsin Faculty: Panel Discussion.

The conference has been generously supported by the Federal Republic of Germany, Consulate General Chicago; the Max Kade Foundation; the UW Anonymous Fund; the Friends of the Max Kade Institute; the UW Department of German; and the UW Center for German and European Studies.

Shrove Tuesday in Pennsylvania

2009-02-24T13:17:00.000-08:00

Hello!

As you may know, today is Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday), the eve of the Lenten Season. Known as Karneval in Cologne, Fasching in Bavaria, and Fasnet in southwestern Germany and parts of Switzerland, traces of the tradition have come to Pennsylvania via the German-speaking progenitors of the Pennsylvania Dutch (about whom we will talk in week 4). The word for "donut" in PA Dutch is "Fasnacht", from "Fastnacht" (< 'eve of the fasting season'). At this time it was traditional for people to use up some food items (lard, sugar, etc.) they would be forgoing during Lent, hence the practice of making donuts. "Fasnacht" has entered regional Pennsylvania English (somewhat like "bismarck", from the Bismarck Hotel in Chicago, I believe). At left is a photo I received from Joshua Brown, a graduate student in German Linguistics at Penn State University. Although State College, PA, is located outside of the traditional Dutch Country, that hasn't stopped the Dunkin Donuts there from capitalizing on their day in the sun!

You can also access an article on fasnachts from the Morning Call in Allentown, PA, here.

Enjoy, Mark (Louden)

MKI Online Course on the German-American Experience

2009-01-23T13:51:00.001-08:00

Over the years many of our Friends from outside of Madison and Wisconsin have complained that they were unable to attend MKI lectures and classes. Now is your chance! Together with the Wisconsin Alumni Association, we are offering a six-week online course on the German-American Experience. The course provides you with archived video and audio, interviews, slides and the expertise of six UW-Madison faculty and staff. To enhance your experience even more, the course includes a supplemental reader, other publications and an online class message board for comments and questions.

The cost is $139 per person, with a special rate of $119 for WAA and UW OLLI members, and members of the Friends of the Max Kade Institute. It's not too late to become a Friend of the MKI! Join the Friends! To register for the course now click here: Online: The German-American Experience Registration deadline is Monday, February 9, 2009.

Weekly Topics and Instructors
1. The German Immigration Experience, Cora Lee Kluge,Professor of German and Director of the Max Kade
2. German-American Print Culture, Kevin Kurdylo,Librarian and Archivist for the Max Kade Institute
3. Languages of German-Americans, Joe Salmons,Professor of German and Director of the UW Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures
4. Pennsylvania Dutch: An American Language with German Roots, Mark Louden, Professor of German and former director of the Max Kade Institute
5. Dutchman Bands and Dialect Songs: German Folk Music in the Upper Midwest, Jim Leary, Professor of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies and Director of the UW Folklore Program
6. German American Cookbooks and Food Traditions, Antje Petty,Associate Director, Max Kade Institute.

The Diaries of Panorama Painter Friedrich Wilhelm Heine

2008-12-18T14:16:00.000-08:00

One of the MKI’s current projects is a collaboration with the Milwaukee County Historical Society and the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend to transcribe into modern German script and eventually translate into English the diaries of German-Milwaukeean panorama painter Friedrich Wilhelm Heine. From 1879 until his death in 1921, Heine kept a most meticulous daily diary in which he recorded every aspect of his life. The diary is written in miniscule old German script that is unintelligible even to most native German speakers today. Therefore we are delighted to have received a major grant from the Milwaukee Bradley Foundation that recognizes the tremendous importance of Heine’s writings and supports the hiring of a team of transcription experts for the first phase of the project.

Heine was already a well-known artist in Dresden, Germany when he came to Milwaukee in the summer of 1885. He had been recruited by Chicago businessman William Wehner to help establish the “American Panorama Company.” In the second half of the nineteenth century, ‘panoramas’ or ‘cycloramas’ were the newest wave of art and entertainment. Huge circular buildings dominated the skyline of most major European and American cities. They exhibited 360-degree paintings that frequently covered close to 15,000 square feet of canvas, depicting mostly battle scenes, other historic or religious events, and landscapes. Sometimes called the “IMAXes of the nineteenth century,” these giant installations fell out of favor with the advent of the motion picture. Canvasses were dismantled and destroyed and the art form was largely forgotten. Scholars around the world now eagerly await Heine’s words in an accessible format to learn more about the world of panorama, the German-American art scene, the life of a German immigrant, and so much more. Members of the Friends of MKI will also find more information on the project and a detailed report on the International Panorama Symposium - that we held on November 1 at the Museum in West Bend - in the summer and winter 2008 issues of the MKI Friends newsletter.

Richard Zeitlin, 1945-2008

2008-12-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

Richard Zeitlin, longtime Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, passed away last week. For many people interested in the history of German immigration to Wisconsin, Richard Zeitlin’s book “Germans in Wisconsin” provided a first and concise introduction. At the MKI, we worked and consulted with Richard Zeitlin on a number of projects over the years. We were always grateful that he so freely shared his incredible knowledge of military history, Civil War history, and more specifically the history of German-Americans in the military. Many of us fondly remember the fascinating presentation he gave on "German-Americans in the Civil War" at our 2003 annual meeting.

“Swiss Center of North America” opens in New Glarus, Wisconsin

2008-12-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

On December 6, the Swiss Center of North America in New Glarus, Wisconsin will celebrate its grand opening. You are invited to join the festivities on 507 Durst Road between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. The idea of a Swiss cultural center grew out of the realization that descendants of Swiss immigrants have artifacts, books, papers, collections and other items they would like to see preserved and used to help tell the story of the Swiss in North America. However, unlike other ethnic groups, no national depository archive, library museum or center existed to portray the Swiss migration to North America. In 1999, New Glarus was chosen to become home of the Swiss Center of North America amidst enthusiastic local support as well as strong support from the State of Wisconsin, corporations like Nestle and Novartis, and the government of Switzerland.

MKI Director Cora Lee Kluge receives "Bundesverdienstkreuz"

2008-12-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

We are delighted to announce that MKI Director Cora Lee Kluge was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Order of Merit) by the Federal Republic of Germany ― the highest such honor bestowed to a foreigner by the German government ― for her work in furthering German-American understanding and friendship and her contributions to the fields of German-American Studies and German language and literature education. The award was presented by German Consul General Wolfgang Drautz in a special ceremony on November 24 at the Memorial Union in Madison.

Spring 2009 Course on the German Immigration Experience

2008-11-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

Prof. Cora Lee Kluge at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will once again teach a course that surveys the immigration experience of Europeans from German-speaking lands. The guiding questions of the course will include: Who were these immigrants and why did they come to America? Why did Wisconsin become a particularly strong area of German settlement? What kind of life and what problems and disappointments did German immigrants encounter? Historical, sociological, linguistic, and cultural aspects will be considered, in order both to gain insight into the greatest movement of peoples in modern times and to view the development of the United States from a unique perspective. The course requires no knowledge of German.

We know of a similar course offered by Johannes Strohschänk and William Thiel at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. We'd like to hear if other such courses are being offered in other locations!

Good old immigrants of 'yesteryear' who didn't learn English

2008-10-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

A newly published study done by Miranda Wilkerson (a recent UW-Madison Ph.D. in German who does second language acquisition) and former MKI Director and Professor of German, Joe Salmons, has gained national and international attention for questioning the myth that all early immigrants immediately learned English. Their article "Good old immigrants of yesteryear' who didn't learn English" appears in vol. 83, pp. 259-283, of American Speech. The following is an excerpt from an article in the Madison Capitol Times (10/18/2008):

Joseph Salmons has always been struck by a frequent argument in letters to the editor, national debates and in just plain old conversations: "My great, great grandparents came to America and quickly learned English to survive. Why can't today's immigrants do the same?" With "English-only" movements cropping up and debate growing about how quickly new Spanish-speaking immigrants should learn English, the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of German decided the issue was important enough to look more deeply into the past.
Focusing on German immigrants was a logical choice, Salmons said, since they represented the biggest immigration wave to Wisconsin in the mid-1800s, "and they really fit this classic view of the 'good old immigrants' of the 19th century." In many of the original German settlements in the mid-1800s from southeastern Wisconsin to Lake Winnebago and the Fox Valley, the researchers found that German remained the primary language of commerce, education and religion well into the early 20th century. Some second- and even third-generation German immigrants who were born in Wisconsin still spoke only German as adults. "These folks were committed Americans," said Salmons. "They participated in politics, in the economy, and were leaders in their churches and their schools. They just happened not to conduct much of their life in English."
"This finding provides striking counterevidence to the claim that early immigrants learned English quickly." [The authors] also found, surprisingly, that people in contact with the Germans learned to speak German as well. In Ozaukee County, for instance, there was evidence that Irish families who lived scattered among Germans could speak German.
According to Salmons, the study suggests that conventional wisdom may actually have it backwards -- while early immigrants didn't necessarily need English to succeed and responded slowly, modern immigrants recognize it as a ticket to success and are learning English in faster than was done in the olden days.

The Lusitania Effect

2008-10-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

Join us on Thursday, October 23rd, at the Memorial Union (Tripp Commons) in Madison for the first in a series of events celebrating the MKI's 25th anniversary. A guest lecture will be held by Professor Emeritus of German, Frank Trommler, University of Pennsylvania, followed by a reception. The title of Professor Trommlers talk is:

The Lusitania Effect: German Propaganda and German Identity in World War I

Next to the Titanic no other sinking of a ship has preoccupied so many journalists and historians than that of the British ocean liner Lusitania which was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915. The assault – which took the lives of 128 Americans – caused a rapid deterioration of American-German relations long before Wilson's declaration of war against the German Reich in 1917. It curtailed German propaganda for American neutrality and generated a new attitude of suspicion against German Americans which ballooned into an anti-German hysteria. Trommler discusses this development first in the context of other violent incidents that led to American military engagement in the 20 th century and then explores the deeper roots of the fast spreading confrontation with the German Americans, the largest ethnic group in the U.S. He analyzes the role of culture in the identity struggle of a nation of diverse interests, ethnicities and belief systems and defines the intensity of the fight against German culture – which surprised even critics of Germany – as part of the mobilization for war. Examining the anti-German campaign in light of the struggle for national unity, Trommler points to a larger contest in which American elites, most prominently John Dewey and Randolphe Bourne, used this confrontation for defining the specifics of an American mission, American culture, and the uses of the war.

In Memorium: Kurt Schaldach

2008-09-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

Kurt Schaldach passed away on April 14, 2008 in Napa, California, at the age of 95. In 1978 Kurt, a German painter living in Milwaukee, was commissioned by the Memorial Union of the University of Wisconsin in Madison both to design and paint the murals in the Stiftskeller and to perform the first ever restoration of the Rathskeller murals, which were painted in the 1920s. Living in one of the guest rooms, he spent most of two months painting and restoring the German murals. For more information on the Union's murals, see: "When Wine and Beer Fight" (the topic of one of Kurt's paintings).

Germans take notice of German in the U.S. Part II - Die Welt op Platt

2008-05-30T07:28:00.001-07:00

Speakers of German immigrated to places all over the world. The same holds true for those who came from the Northern German regions and spoke “Plattdeutsch” or Low German. For three years now, the Northern German TV broadcaster NDR has been running a successful series called “Die Welt op Platt” (The World in Low German). Two reporters, Julia Westlake and Yared Dibaba, travel the world to record speakers of the many variants of Low German, some of them heritage speakers generations removed from the original immigrant. They traveled from Siberia to Namibia, from Brazil to China, and to many other places. In the United States they visited New York, Nebraska, Kansas, Seattle, and Iowa. Rumor has it that they soon will record Pommersch speakers in Marathon County, Wisconsin. It is interesting to note that Yared Dibaba himself is an immigrant from Ethiopia, who grew up learning “Platt” in a German village. Thus the series shows language and immigration in full circle.

Image: "Die Welt op Platt" in New York (from http://www3.ndr.de/)

MKI's 25th Anniversary Year!

2008-05-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

It's a big year for us at the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies--October will be our 25th anniversary. We will kick off our celebration with a lecture and reception in October and will conclude our festivities with a major international symposium on German-American Studies in April 2009. Please have a look at the PDF of our Spring 2008 MKI Friends Newsletter and read about MKI’s founding in the cover story by Cora Lee Kluge, MKI Director!
http://csumc.wisc.edu/mki/Newsletter/MKISpring08.pdf

Germans take notice of German in the U.S. Part I - Texas German

2008-04-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of years, interest in things German-American has grown in Germany. People are curious about of what became of those German emigrants and their descendants. They are intrigued that German customs can still be found all over America and are fascinated by the fact that German dialects are still spoken in some parts of the U.S. Yesterday, for example, the German magazine Der Spiegel ran a two-part article on Texas German in its online edition: “Kuriose Sprachinsel – Man spricht Texas-Deutsch.” (A curious linguistic enclave – Texas German spoken here). The article describes the work of the Texas German Dialect Project (TGDP), an umbrella organization for carrying out research in representative Texas German speech communities in central Texas. Housed at the University of Texas-Austin, and currently led by Associate Professor of Germanic Linguistics Hans Boas, the project strives to preserve the Texas German dialect, to gather basic research information about the language variety, and to use the material collected in research projects for the improvement of educational programs about language and culture. Since Texas German—like so many other heritage languages—has not been passed on to younger generations for the last decades, the number of native Texas German speakers is shrinking drastically, and it is estimated that the dialect will become extinct by 2040.
Here are some Texas German examples as presented by Der Spiegel to its German audience, showing the strong English influence on the dialect.

Montag habe ich abgenommen - Monday I took off
mitaus - without
Wir sind nach den war nach Comfort gemoved - We moved to Comfort after the war
Die Eichkatz sitzt auf meine tools - The squirrel sits on my tools
Ich war kalt auf der porch - I was cold on the porch
The bread is all - The bread is all gone

In late February already, Germans were entertained with “Polka in Texas,” a one-hour show on WDR Weltweit, a broadcast by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk TV.

Image1: Prof. Boas speaking with Texas Germans (from http://www.spiegel.de/); Image2: Texas-German polka player (from http://www.wdr.de/)

Forty-Eighter Monument Dedicated in Davenport

2008-04-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

On March 30, 2008 a 24,000-pound monument honoring a group of German immigrants known as the "Forty-Eighters" was erected near the banks of the Mississippi. The story behind this massive monument begins almost 160 years ago in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

In 1848, the Northern-German duchy of Schleswig was a fiefdom of Denmark, while its neighbor, the duchy of Holstein was part of the German Confederation. When in March 1848, the king of Denmark tried to bind the two duchies closer to his Kingdom, German patriots from both provinces started an uprising against the Danish crown. Unsuccessful in their struggle, many of those Schleswig-Holsteiners immigrated to the United States, a great many of them settling in Scott County, Iowa.

In 1872, these former freedom fighters organized a veterans' society known as Der Davenporter Verein der Kampfgenossen der Schleswig-Holsteinischen Freiheitskriege von 1848, 1849 und 1850 (The Davenport Society of Veterans of the Schleswig-Holstein Wars of Independence of 1848, 1849 and 1850). Their members were the pillars of the Davenport community, and in March 1898, a stone monument commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Forty-Eighters' fight for freedom in their homeland was dedicated in Davenport’s Washington Square Park. Twelve hundred people attended the dedication ceremony. In his speech, Emil Geisler commemorated the struggle of the Forty-Eighters in their native homeland and their accomplishments in their adopted home of Iowa. He closed with the words:

"May Germania and Columbia like a pair of sisters, distinguished among the civilized nations of the world, always be united in their efforts for the welfare of their children and the distribution of the blessings of the civilization among all nations. And may the United States of America, now our blessed home, ever enjoy the blessings of peace and prosperity; and may it forever be the land of the free and the home of the brave, and its glorious banner forever wave!"

Less than two decades later, however, when anti-German sentiments during World War I were running high, the commemorative stone disappeared from Washington Square. Another ninety years later there is a renewed awareness of the accomplishments of the German Forty-Eighters and their contributions to American society, leading to the placement on March 30, 2008 of a new commemorative stone in Davenport on almost the very spot where the old one sat. More information, including historical photos and pictures from the ceremony, can be found on the Web Site of Dr. Joachim Reppmann.

Deciphering the Past

2008-03-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

Anyone researching their German-speaking ancestors has likely come across the “Old German Script” in church records, handwritten letters, or diaries. As if learning the German language wasn’t enough of a barrier, now there’s another code to break! The sharp, angled lines of the alte deutsche Schriften (“old German scripts”) can be confusing (the curvier Sütterlin version is only slightly easier to decipher), but once you get the hang of it, it can be an interesting puzzle. There are several good sites on the Internet with information on the history of these scripts (for example, see HERE and HERE) and some, such as THIS one, supply guides for decoding the letters.

The script was, of course, being taught in German-language schools in the United States. The Max Kade Institute has several primers in its collection, published in America during the 19th century, that include lessons for learning this handwriting method. We also have several collections of letters and a few diaries written in the old script.

Here’s an image of a cross-written letter from the archives of the Max Kade Institute—observe how the page was turned sideways and the writing continued, likely in an effort to save on postage as well as paper. Click on the image for a larger version and test your skills—see if you can make out “Mein liebes Mathildchen” as the greeting!
By 1941 (and by Hitler’s decree) the script was no longer being taught in German schools. Not many people who were taught the script in their youth are still around today—however, members of the Sütterlin-Schreibstube in the Förderverein Altenzentrum [Center for the Aged Support Association] in Ansgar (Hamburg, Germany) offer transliteration services from the old German script into Latin (Roman) script. More information on this service can be found here: http://www.suetterlinstube-hamburg.de/
The service provides intellectual stimulation for the members and helps make the diaries, letters, and other documents of our ancestors accessible.

We here at the Max Kade Institute are constantly wondering: How much American history is hidden in documents written by German-speaking immigrants? More researchers with skills in transcribing these scripts are needed!

"Osterfeuer" – A German Tradition in Texas

2008-03-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

Easter is around the corner. In Germany--as in the United States--this means colorful eggs, Easter bunnies and spring decorations. But all across Germany people celebrate the end of winter with another ancient tradition with clear pre-Christian roots: the lighting of “Osterfeuer” (big community bonfires) on the Saturday before Easter. There is one community in the United States, Fredericksburg in Texas, that still maintains this old tradition brought by German immigrants. It is interesting, though, that the popular belief among the Texas Germans today is that this practice dates back to contacts between German settlers and their Indian neighbors. According to this story, the custom originated in the early years of German settlement in Fredericksburg, when Comanche Indian scouts lit signal fires in the night to communicate with their chiefs, who were negotiating a treaty with German leader John Meusebach. The scouts presumably were informing their chiefs about the movements of the town's inhabitants. The following is the translation of an excerpt from the Max Kade Institute’s recent German-dialect CD publication “German Words – American Voices.” It features a Texas-German speaker recorded in 1964 by linguist Glenn Gilbert.

The Easter Fires burn every year on the Saturday evening before Easter on the hills around Fredericksburg. If you look up from the middle of town on that evening, you can see eight to twelve fires on top of the hills. Most of the fires have been built by various boy scout troops, but some families have built their own fires for many years. The family fires are mostly built out of wood, but the boy scout fires are mostly built out of lubricating oil and all kinds of rubber tires. In the weeks before the fires are lighted, the scouts look for and fetch old tires and lubricating oil. Each troop wants to have the biggest fire and each one also wants its fire to flare up first. Nowadays the people on top of the hills get a signal when they should light their fires. The signal comes from the fair grounds where a pageant is given. The pageant tells the history of the Easter Fires. It shows how hard the times in 1845 and shortly thereafter were, when the first German settlers arrived in Fredericksburg. They not only had a hard time with the weather, but also with cultivating the land; the wild Indians, mostly Comanche and Apache, often stole livestock, killed people, and dragged children away. For that reason the people were very afraid of the Indians. But that is why John Meusebach, a captain, like John Smith, wanted to make a peace treaty with the Indians. So the men went with Meusebach to the San Saba River, where the Comanche Indians were, in order to speak with them. While the men were away, the women and children were alone at home. The Indians probably also knew that the men had gone away to speak with them, since they built fires everywhere on the hills around Fredericksburg. When it was dark, a few children saw the many fires and they were afraid of them. The mother did not know at first what to do, but then she remembered the Easter Story she had learned as a child (in the old country). She knew that the children would understand the story since they had seen wild rabbits everywhere in Texas. So she told the children that the Easter Bunny and his helpers had built the fires in order to boil and dye the eggs. The little rabbits all fetched wildflowers to make the dye. The children were satisfied with the story and stayed quiet. The mother was glad that the children had fallen asleep and that she could boil the eggs so that she herself would not have to think about the Indians. So it is that every Easter the Easter Fires burn, just as there is a community Christmas tree every Christmas.

Image: Osterfeuer in Benneckenstein (harzinfo.de)

National German-American Heritage Center in Washington, DC

2008-03-19T10:45:00.001-07:00

Plans are under way for the first national German-American Heritage Center in the United States to be established in downtown Washington, DC. The Center will be located at Hockemeyer Hall, a spectacular 1888 Victorian townhouse. Originally built by John Hockemeyer, a successful German merchant, Hockemeyer Hall was later expanded to become a businessmen’s club in 1893. The German-American Heritage Foundation, the principal organization behind the project, has already renovated the exterior of the historic building and is looking forward to restoring its interior. Permanent exhibits at the Heritage Center will focus on immigration, migration, Jamestown and Germantown to name a few. They will be supplemented by rotating exhibits from around the country and special programs to present the history and communities of Americans of German-speaking ancestry that helped shape the United States.

German Words – American Voices

2008-02-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

The Max Kade Institute is pleased to announce the production of German Words – American Voices / Deutsche Wörter – Amerikanische Stimmen, a compact disc and bilingual companion booklet featuring German dialects historically spoken in the United States. This project was funded by a grant from the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Chicago. GWAV contains twelve sound clips accompanied by commentaries and translations into English and German. There is also a bilingual introductory essay. Quoting from the introduction ...

“Deutsch zu sein, bedeutet für mich, Deutsch zu sprechen ...” (What being German means to me is being able to speak German ...). Such is a typical response to the question “Was ist deutsch?” (What is German?) posed by the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit in a recent online survey. To be sure, the ability to speak German is centrally important if one wants to feel a part of German society. But what does it mean to speak German outside of Europe?

In German Words – American Voices we listen to speakers of German from across the United States, Americans quite distant from their European roots in both time and space. Each is a fluent speaker of some variety of German, but as Americans at least two generations removed from immigration, all are also fluent English-speakers. Indeed, to speak a language other than English that has been passed down from one’s ancestors does not mean that one is somehow frozen in the past. Speakers of heritage languages are no less American than their English-monolingual fellow citizens; rather, they have a somewhat deeper awareness of where they come from.

The sound clips featured in German Words – American Voices hail from the three regions of the United States where varieties of German have survived the longest after immigration: Wisconsin, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Wisconsin has the distinction of being the veritable buckle of the “German Belt” across the American Midwest: over forty-percent of the state’s inhabitants claim German ancestry. Deep in the heart of Texas, German-speakers in communities such as Fredericksburg and New Braunfels have also left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape. And Pennsylvania is where Pennsylvania Dutch developed, which is both the oldest German-derived language in North America and one of the very few American heritage languages overall whose speaker population is growing. ...

Interested? The GWAV CD and booklet may be obtained from the Max Kade Institute for only shipping and handling costs. Ordering information is available here.

H-GAGCS: A Forum for German-American and German-Canadian Studies

2008-02-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

Of the (way too many) e-lists I have subscribed to, one in particular has an interesting posting each and every time: H-GAGCS, the German-American and German-Canadian Studies discussion group on H-Net (Humanities and Social Sciences online). H-Nets numerous e-mail lists function as electronic networks, linking professors, teachers and students in an exchange of ideas and materials.

The H-GAGCS list in particular provides – in its own words – “a moderated multi-disciplinary forum for discussion of topics relevant to German-speaking immigrants in North America from the 17th century to the present. Disciplines involved include history, geography, ethnic and immigration studies, linguistics, literary and cultural studies. Topics may include the invention/ transformation of ethnicity and national identities among German Americans and German Canadians, patterns of settlement, patterns of maintenance and change in language and culture, civic participation, methods of conceptualizing German identity in North America etc. The list addresses an audience of primarily academics and graduate students. We stress the value of comparative and cross-border ethnic studies (a diaspora approach) and the idea of cultural regions, including on German communities in other parts of the world (South America, Australia) for comparative purposes.”

On the Web site you will find reviews of publications in German-American and German-Canadian Studies, announcements of events, and a Discussion Log of everything that has been talked about by subscribers. It is easy to subscribe. Join and write your own posts in English or German.

Carl Schurz in the news

2008-02-10T06:05:00.000-08:00

By sheer accident, I happened to catch just a minute of a speech on television yesterday by Mike Huckabee. He was repeating the political chestnut "My country, right or wrong". The quote comes, as he noted clearly, from the German immigrant and one-time Watertown, Wisconsin resident Carl Schurz. Huckabee gave this usual quote (the fuller context can be found here):

Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.

It's interesting to see this German-American immigrant being quoted so prominently in current political debate. People in Wisconsin celebrate Schurz for his long list of remarkable accomplishments — Civil War general, US Senator, Secretary of the Interior. Less noted today is how truly radical the thrust of Schurz's political activity was — see, for one simple example, his words on "true Americanism" in the first link above.

Image from the Department of the Interior website, here.

Language and immigration in Germany

2008-02-08T07:45:00.000-08:00

In Germany, language purists typically react very negatively to English and other loanwords coming into the language. But other currents are running right now; consider these two examples:

First, some positive attention is being given to loanwords by prominent groups in Germany with this initiative (graphic from there):

"Wörter mit Migrationshintergrund"
Wir suchen das beste eingewanderte Wort.

It's being supported by the Goethe Institut, Deutscher Sprachrat, Duden, and others. If you read the materials, it's aimed at celebrating immigration, and lexical borrowing.

Second, the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache publishes a journal called Der Sprachdienst. (They do Germany's Wort des Jahres and publish articles on various aspects of usage and other language topics.) In the last 2007 issue, they ran a piece by Dennis Scheller-Boltz called:

McDonald's – McAnwalt – McFit – McFlight.

The piece gives a lot of interesting data on how productive the Mc- prefix is in German right now, especially in creating new company names. Surprisingly, at least from my perspective, is that it means not only that a product is cheap and fast, but also that it's of good quality.

[Cross-posted with modifications from Mr. Verb.]

"Erfrieren zu verhindern"

2008-01-31T12:37:00.000-08:00

It is cold in Wisconsin! Yesterday morning, when I stepped out the door the thermometer read -9 F (-23 C), - and that didn’t even account for the wind chill. Today at least it was a balmy 3F (-16 C). How timely then to run across this little bit of helpful insight from an 1877 Milwaukee advice book for German-Americans: Der Praktische Rathgeber – Ein Schatzkästchen für Jedermann

Erfrieren bei großer Kälte zu verhindern. – Es ist schon häufig vorgekommen, daß reisende Personen, besonders Fußgänger, bei strenger Kälte und in tiefem Schnee, halb müde geworden, sich niedergesetzt, Branntwein getrunken, eingeschlafen und erfroren sind. Dies zu verhüten braucht man nur auf dergleichen Reisen ein Stückchen Kampher bei sich zu führen und wenn man sich ermattet fühlt davon zu essen. Derselbe erzeugt eine solche Wärme im Körper, daß die Kräfte wiederkehren und das Leben dadurch erhalten wird.

"Luxies" and Germans

2008-01-31T11:36:00.000-08:00

This anecdote comes to us from Kevin Wester, Director of Development, Luxembourg American Cultural Society, Inc. in Port Washington, Wisconsin (an area that's lousy with Luxies!).

It’s no secret that there is a certain ethnic rivalry between Luxembourgers and Germans. So often, we “Luxies” have been generically classified as Germans. And thus we continue to fight the good fight that we are uniquely ourselves and we are proud to hail from the little Grand Duchy. Though Luxembourg is so very small, we will not be pushed around by the “big guy.”

This pride in our heritage is evidenced in a humorous story appearing in Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Early Taylor County [Wisconsin], by Arthur J. Latton, 1920:

……The story is told of two former Medford [Wisconsin] men of different nationalities who found it easy to indulge in real arguments, in defending the merits of their respective fatherlands. One day the lame German, [Mr.] Lutz, was in the tavern of a Luxemburger, and as usual the argument became heated, and with each drink, a little more so. Finally, the German said he had tried to locate Luxemburg on a map of Europe, but found that a fly must have “lighted” on the map, and had obliterated Luxemburg entirely. This so angered the Luxemburg tavern man that he attempted to obliterate Lutz, and chased the limping man almost to his home on Whalen Avenue, before giving up the chase…….

When Wine and Beer Fight

2008-01-25T09:20:00.000-08:00

It's fairly well-known that Wisconsin has a history of being the soil into which many German-speaking immigrants put roots, so it doesn’t seem surprising to find a European-style Rathskeller and Stiftskeller in the Memorial Union at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Complete with soaring arches, vaulted ceilings, dark wood, evocative murals with German slogans, displays of beer steins, and—of course—a bar serving beer, these spaces for the congregation of students are also used and appreciated by townsfolk and visitors alike.

However, the official history claims the German themes were accidental, or perhaps providential. In 1927 Leon Pescheret, the Union’s French-born interior designer, was inspired by the bare space to remark on its similarity to a Rathskeller, or the cellar of a German village hall, where city fathers gathered for relaxation and refreshment after work. Since the space was intended to allow for the fellowship and refreshment of students, Pescheret was given permission to transform it along the lines of a Rathskeller. The murals, with German mottoes, were created by Eugene Hausler, who had trained in Germany and was very familiar with Rathskeller décor.

The adjoining Stiftskeller, or “cellar of the founders,” was created in 1962 when more space was needed for the overly-crowded Rathskeller. While the German theme was continued, a lack of funds delayed the addition of murals until 1978 when Kurt Schaldach, a German painter living in Milwaukee, was commissioned for the job. Schaldach was born in 1913 in Danzig, and studied art there before coming to the United States in 1952. One of the most striking murals in the Stiftskeller is Schaldach’s version of the “Battle between Beer and Wine.” Based upon the mural in the Munich Rathskeller, it depicts an army of beer steins streaming out of a town to assault a contingent of gnomes employing wine and champagne bottles with cork cannonballs to defend their Rhine Valley castle.An interesting note: If one travels about 45 miles southwest from the Memorial Union to visit Baumgartner’s Cheese Store and Tavern in Monroe, one can view yet another version of this fantastical battle!

We wonder how many other of these alcohol-infused battle scenes have been inspired from the one in Munich? Let us know if you’ve seen one, and send a photo if you can!

German Essay Contest has German-American Topic

2008-01-25T08:57:00.000-08:00

And talking about 400 years of German-Americans… Here is a fun project for students and teachers to explore German-American history and maybe even win a prize: every year the German Information Center USA at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. holds an essay contest for American students in grades 3 to 12 to familiarize them with traditional and modern German culture, language and society. This year’s contest topics are 1) “2008 – the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Germans in America” and 2) “Germany – Land of Ideas.” Essays must be written in English and submitted electronically by April 15, 2008. Prizes are $50-$100 book store gift certificates for students AND the teachers who advise them! For contest rules and guidelines see http://www.germany.info/relaunch/info/publications/Germany-in-Class/2008/080114/head1.html

325 or 400 Years?

2008-01-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

In 1983, the Max Kade Institute was founded on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the first German settlement in America. Now 325 years ago, thirteen Mennonite families from Krefeld had settled a few miles north of the newly founded town of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their settlement was soon to be known as “Germantown.” While those Krefeld immigrants were the first German-speakers to successfully establish themselves for generations in America, they were not the first Germans to arrive on the continent. In fact, Germans were among the earliest European arrivals in Jamestown, Virginia. In October 1608, 12 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, a group of five unnamed German glassmakers, three carpenters called Adam, Franz and Samuel and a Swiss-German mineral expert, one William Volday (or Wilhelm Waldi), arrived in Jamestown on the English ship “Mary and Margaret.” In 1620 a group of four saw mill wrights from Hamburg as well as two German miners recruited by the Virginia Company of London followed.
The German craftsmen were to help accomplish the Virginia Company’s mission of manufacturing tradable goods in the new world, and establish a livable space that could accommodate England’s overpopulation. However, like most of the earliest English Jamestown settlers the German colonists perished before they could accomplish their goal or leave any significant personal mark on America. Today only archeological finds give evidence to those early attempts at manufacturing. The remnants of a “glasshouse” with three ovens made of river boulders cemented together with clay was excavated in 1948. It is believed to be the earliest European manufacturing site on American soil. There is a record of “a trial of glass” being brought back to England in December 1608, but the glass trade imagined by the Virginia Company never took off. Today the remnants of the “glasshouse,” the worksite of the first German-Americans, can be visited in Historic Jamestown: http://www.nps.gov/jame/planyourvisit/glasshouse.htm

Frohes neues Jahr

2008-01-25T08:13:00.000-08:00

2008 is already a few days old, but here on our University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, the new semester has just begun, and at the Max Kade Institute we still feel like saying “Frohes Neues Jahr!” to everyone. A happy new year it should be. At the MKI we will celebrate our 25th anniversary. It will be an occasion not only to reflect on our Institute, but on German-American history and those many influences derived from German-speaking Europe that are visible in American culture today, - one example: American festive culture. We find “Oktoberfests” all across the country, we think that Santa Claus and the Christmas tree originated in Germany, but how do we celebrate the beginning of a new year?
For me, growing up in Germany, Silvester (New Year’s Eve) was a time of fun and partying with friends and family and of course good food and drink. We ate Berliner (those jelly-filled doughnuts, JFK did NOT talk about) and - living in the North – Heringsalat (herring and red beet salad). And, of course, we had a Feuerzangenbowle, that spectacle of a mulled wine drink with a burning sugar cone on top (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feuerzangenbowle). At midnight, champagne corks flew and Fourth-of-July style fireworks broke out in the neighborhoods, colorfully illuminating the skies over every city and little town at the exact same moment across the country. Now living in Wisconsin, there are no fireworks at midnight in our suburb, but we always have a Feuerzangenbowle, - which turns out to be popular among many of our American friends, too. I buy Berliner, and sometimes I even make Heringsalat, - which I mostly have all to myself.
But there is a place in America, where the whole town celebrated New Year 2008 with German traditions AND on German time (!): Harmony, Pennsylvania, founded by Lutheran pacifists from a village near Stuttgart over 200 years ago. There were German foods (the Southern kind – no Heringsalat) and German music. There were traditions of old such as Bleigießen (dissolve a soft metal – lead in the olden days - in a spoon over a candle, pour it into cold water and see clues for your future in the resulting object), and there were traditions of new (the British skit “Dinner for Two” which plays on German TV every New Year’s Eve). And at “midnight” there were fireworks!

More about “Silvester in Harmony” on the following Websites.
http://www.harmonymuseum.org/Silvester.htm
http://www.germany.info/relaunch/info/publications/week/2007/071221/misc1.htm

Help save our past!

2008-01-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

Are you interested in that “other” perspective on America’s development that can be found in documentation handed down to us by our country’s earlier immigrants? This is commendable! Are you one of those whose New Year’s resolution is to clean out your basement or your office, to get rid of what you are not using? This is commendable, too! Did you answer “yes” to both questions? You may be contradicting yourself.

We attempt to preserve important records that illuminate the past. But what is important—and how can we tell the seed (or the wheat) from the chaff? How can we “make new friends, but keep the old,” when there is limited room in our lives and on our shelves? How can we identify these things, when so many records were even written in a variety of foreign languages?

Recent years have seen the publication of two incomplete German-American texts: Essellen’s Babylon and Lotta L. Leser’s short story “Wie Peter Meffert ‘nein’ sagen lernte.” Three of thirty-three installments of the former (which German scholars had long feared totally lost) could not be found, and half of the latter has also vanished (although the story won first prize in 1908 in a literary competition).

Documents of the government, churches, and social organizations of many communities—especially those not written in English—have found their way to the landfill. Even personal records such as letters and diaries, which tell stories inaccessible in other forms, have been relegated to the dump by descendants who can do nothing with them. We shudder to think....

How can we go about doing a better job of rescuing the past? We face a dilemma: before long it will be too late.