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APRIL / MAY 2004 - excerpts from the editorial
The Fränkische Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
by Robert A. Selig
It was a life less complicated but far from simple. Visit a living history museum that captures six centuries of life in Germany’s farming villages.
A wonderful hidden treasure, well worth your visit, is the Franconian Open-Air Museum. Located on one hundred acres on the southern edge of the city of Bad Windsheim, just south of Würzburg and
due east of Nuremberg, it can be reached by car, train, and bus, and there is plenty of free parking available as well. Established in 1979 to preserve the cultural heritage of the area through buildings
collected from throughout Franconia and Bavaria that would otherwise be lost to the ravages of time, disrepair, and destruction, it attracted some one hundred eighty thousand visitors in 2002 who wanted to get a
glimpse at how their ancestors lived. Or, if they were old enough, to reminisce about their own lives growing up in one of the many small farming villages that dot the German countryside and which are mirrored
in the buildings at the Freilandmuseum.
The museum is divided into five distinct sections, all interconnected with paths and walkways. One complex displays buildings from the Frankenhöhe, the Steigerwald, and the Main valley, while
another exhibits buildings from the Nuremberg region and the Frankenalb. A third complex shows buildings from the Altmühl Valley and the fourth and fifth display buildings from the Middle Ages. Almost all of
these exhibits convey the life of everyday people, primarily farmers. After viewing the wealth of the castles and cathedrals in Europe, it is a wonderful lesson in history to remember how the majority of people
actually lived.
The pace of the Open-Air Museum is unhurried and relaxed. While it lacks the polish of places such as Colonial Williamsburg, it is also extremely affordable (€4.50 per adult or €13 for
the whole family) and child-friendly (children under six are free, students pay €3.50). Visitors are free to roam at will and while there are no costumed guides at every building, there are also no lines
or gift shops and stores at every corner merchandizing the site through T-shirts or coffee mugs. There are, however, plenty of staff and volunteers available to answer questions. There are many opportunities to
touch and smell which is a wonderful part of the learning experience. It is one thing to read about farms with the barns right alongside the house; it is quite another to experience the sound and smell of those
houses. We were there in the terrible heat of last summer and got a first-hand glimpse of the reality of hard physical farm labor, cooking, and other chores that had to be done no matter what the weather
brought. The land is actually farmed in the way it was done in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Our daughter was enamored with the plow horses and the hay being loaded into the carts by hand. There was a
shepherd with his sheep and old shepherd wagons where they slept. However, I am getting ahead of the story…
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Gallery: The Daetz Center – Home of Masterpieces in Wood
by Jessica Sankey
The Daetz Foundation, founded in 1998 by Marlene and Peter Daetz, was established to help promote culture, tourism, and education in the free state of Saxony. The town of Lichtenstein entered into
a seventy-five year public-private partnership with the Daetz Foundation under the agreement that the town would provide the new building and the foundation would provide the exhibition material. When that
contract expires, the town of Lichtenstein will inherit all of the exhibits as a thank you gift. The foundation hopes to provide people with the opportunity to experience other cultures and generate a better
understanding among nations, through a variety of art. Since 1997, Mr. and Mrs. Daetz have personally collected and financed the purchase of over six hundred fifty works of art from Africa, Asia, Europe, and
North America.
The world’s first center for International Wood Carving Art formally opened its doors to the public in Lichtenstein/Saxony in June of 2001. Approximately one hundred thousand visitors from
Germany and abroad have experienced this museum since the opening. This multi-functional facility provides the public with activities and events, unique exhibitions, an international degree course in
woodcarving, further training activities, conventions, and conferences. The six hundred fifty unique works displayed in the center represent twenty-seven countries from Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia.
Each sculpture represents a myth, story, or legend unique to that country and is easily told and understood by way of an electronic guide system in either English or German.
The East African exhibit features woodcarvings from the Makonde people who reside mainly in Tanzania and Mozambique. Makonde artists use dark shiny ebony as their medium, which helps to
capture daily life as well as the mystical spiritual world. Through the carved masks, connections between the living and the dead are created using symbols such as Ujama, the tree of life, and Shetanis, small
demons and spirits. Modern Europe has been greatly influenced by the Makonde’s clear, flowing lines helping to establish modern art as we know it today. Artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henry Matisse were among
the first European artists to incorporate the unique style into their own works. Famous carvings from this exhibit include The Tree of Life, Man After Death, Adam and Eve In Paradise And Their Expulsion, Mask
Wearer and Evil Spirits Captivate Man.
The West African exhibit displays woodcarvings that represent a long tradition and, in some regions, few of these works have survived the climate and the test of time. The Baule people, off
the Ivory Coast, carve idols that act like talismans, helping them in their everyday lives. Religious roots are connected to the masks as they are thought to be the entrance into another world. Famous carvings
from the West African exhibit include Old Vessel, Peace on Earth, Kota Figure, Royal Chair with Kauri Shells and Agony in Truth.
North African woodcarvings differ from that of other exhibits in that their art carvings are on the walls rather than statues. In the Islamic religion, it is said Mohammad forbids the
depiction of living beings – therefore, the artists base their artwork on designs instead of people. Artwork from North African artists have been described as “the art of decoration to perfection: a harmony of
lines and colors.” The Moroccan artwork, which was influenced by Libyan, Berber, Mediterranean, Arabic, and African traditions, contains clear structures upon close inspection. The structures of this exhibit are
featured on various cupolas, alcoves and doors throughout the museum.
European wood sculptures appear in a variety of styles, shapes, and motifs and are typically carved from a single block of wood. The tradition-based exhibit contains concrete and abstract pieces,
religious and secular works, and traditional and experimental pieces. Some of the woodcarvings displayed in this exhibit are Temptation, She Appears, Tax Coin, Cradle Warmth, Balance and Bust Young/Old…
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Profile: Heidi Klum
by Vickie J. Rubinson
One of Germany’s most popular exports, über model Heidi Klum has often been described as being DNA blessed. With her perfectly chiseled cheekbones and bright Colgate smile, this down-to-earth
model/actress has taken Hollywood by storm.
“I’ve never slept with a rock star, taken drugs or been photographed naked,” Heidi says proudly. “I pretty much live a very clean life.” Born on June 1, 1973, Heidi grew up in Bergisch
Germany where her father Gunther worked for a cosmetics company and her mother Erna was a hairdresser.
She was just eighteen when she stumbled upon an ad for a modeling competition. Initially laughing off the idea, she was persuaded to apply by a friend and found herself with a three-year
modeling contract and a very busy schedule. Soon she had racked up some pretty impressive frequent flyer mileage, jetting between the catwalks in Paris and Milan before settling in the United States.
“As a newcomer to the world of modeling, I left my card everywhere which read: “Heidi Klum, 5 foot 9-1/2* inches, 35-26-36, green-brown eyes and light brown hair.” Yet despite her jet-set
lifestyle, expensive hotels and bundles of roses from admirers, Heidi insists she is still the same down-to-earth girl she has always been, even when she is winging all over the world and living out of her
suitcase. “I hate to fly,” she admits. “But I do enjoy seeing the world and different people. That fascinates me.”…
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Germany’s Cowboy – Karl May
by Phyllis Meras
Although he never actually visited the American West, the writings of Karl May captured the spirit of the region and fueled the imagination of countless Germans.
A nineteenth-century villa called Shatterhand, in the quiet Dresden suburb of Radebeul, houses a seemingly incongruous display of Apache Indian cradles, a Crow medicine man’s snakeskin pouch, Ute
moccasins, and Navajo weaving. Portraits of the Apache Geronimo, the Shawnee Tecumseh, and the Dakota Sitting Bull hang on the walls. And nestled among the birches and conifers in the garden are a white tepee, a
pioneer’s log cabin, a totem pole, and crouching statues of Indians.
From 1896 until 1912, imposing Villa Shatterhand was the home of the storyteller Karl May. His rip-roaring novels about a young German living with Indians and scouts in the American Wild West in
post Civil War days, and of adventures in the mysterious Near East, have sold more than one hundred million copies in German and an estimated eighty million more in the thirty-nine other languages into which
they have been translated. They have been the subjects of six films. Today the villa is a museum that houses both North American Indian artifacts from a May admirer and the memorabilia with which May surrounded
himself – mounted lions’ heads and tiger skin rugs, hubble-bubble pipes and Persian rugs.
Devotees of May’s writing range from the humanitarian Albert Schweitzer to the mathematician Albert Einstein, to writers Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse and dictator Adolf Hitler. May aficionados
have their own club with thousands of members. And, each summer, there are three Karl May Festivals held in Germany.
From May 21 to 23, 2004, in the Lössnitz Valley in Radebeul, there will be parades, country and Western musical entertainment, and re-enactors attacking an old steam engine transformed, for the
occasion, into the Santa Fe Express. Then outdoor theater presentations of May’s work will be offered in Bad Segeberg near Hamburg in the summer and in Elspe in the North Rhine Palatinate from June 6 through
September 12, 2004.
The unlikely hero of Karl May’s first-person Western novels that, for generations, have intrigued his countrymen, is a brilliant German university graduate, Karl (called “Charlie” in America) who
goes to St. Louis as a tutor in a wealthy German immigrant family. A well-known gunsmith takes a liking to the Teuton because he reminds him of his dead son. The gunsmith soon discovers that, though Karl is a
greenhorn in the West, he can wrestle and fence and is an excellent horseman as well as a remarkable marksman…
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Lüneburg – From the Salt of the Earth
by Leah Larkin
Feast upon the unspoiled architecture of this medieval city made prosperous by its rich reserves of salt.
Lüneburg is salt city. This charming town of seventy thousand in northern Germany was built on a salt deposit and owes its fame and fortune to the “white gold” which was a treasured commodity in
the Middle Ages.
These days, architecture is the star attraction. “You must look up when you are in Lüneburg,” our guide advised as we followed her down a street lined with brick gabled houses. “Notice the
wonderful motifs.”
Each house is a treasure. Lüneburg is noted as one of the main centers of North German brick architecture with numerous public buildings and burghers’ houses in late Gothic and Renaissance style.
Its stepped and scrolled gables have a shape similar to that found in Lübeck, but with a special decoration – stone twisted in the form of thick pieces of rope, “Tausteine.” As Lüneburg was not bombed during the
war, the architectural jewels, including many elegant half-timbered houses, are perfectly preserved. Many have been restored in recent years. It is a living museum.
In 1371, Lüneburg joined the Hanseatic League, the maritime and commercial organization that linked more than two hundred towns and guaranteed the prosperity of northern Germany. The city on the
Ilmenau river was one of the wealthiest members. Neighboring Lübeck and capital of the League was keenly interested in the salt trade and created a direct waterway link to Lüneburg, the “Stecknitz-Fahrt,” which
exists today as part of the modern canal between the Elbe and Trave Rivers. Salt was shipped from Lüneburg’s salt works via the waterway to the Trave where it was stored in huge warehouses and sold primarily to
Scandinavia, which needed copious quantities to preserve fish…
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At Home: Seeing Red: Germany's "Other" Cabbage
by Sharon Hudgins
Red cabbage is a popular food in Central and Northern Europe, where it is eaten raw, cooked, and pickled. In Germany, this colorful vegetable is called Rotkohl and Rotkraut (red cabbage), although
Germans in the south often refer to it as Blaukraut (blue cabbage). Yet this kind of cabbage is actually more purple in hue than red or blue.
You'll find red cabbage in home kitchens and on restaurant menus in many regions of the country, from the Baltic to Bavaria, from the Rhineland to Thuringia. It turns up in salads – raw
blanched, or pickled – as the main ingredient or a colorful accent. And throughout much of Germany, red cabbage braised with apples and onions is a classic accompaniment to roast pork, roast goose, grilled
sausages, and game.
Braised red cabbage has been a favorite dish of mine ever since I first encountered it served alongside a richly flavored Rhenish Sauerbraten. However, the first time I ate red cabbage raw,
as an elegant appetizer, was at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Alsace. Shredded leaves of the humble cabbage had been tossed with cubes of foie gras, chopped walnuts, and diced apples, then tossed with a
dressing of walnut oil and red wine vinegar, and garnished liberally with shavings of black truffle. A fine start to a memorable meal!
Despite its potential as haute cuisine, red cabbage has long had a reputation as peasant fare – perhaps because it's easy to grow and inexpensive to buy. It's also nutritious: low in
calories, high in fiber, and a good source of vitamins B and C, as well as calcium and iron…
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Taking the Cure in Badenweiler
by Walt Hubis
In a culture of wine and “taking the cure,” Badenweiler holds to its traditional Roman spa roots while preparing for an inevitable societal change.
”Ziehen Sie sich bitte aus.” The attendant stared at me as I fumbled to figure out what she meant. We had just returned from a long hike that included a stop at one of the local wine vintners for
a sampling. An afternoon at the spa sounded like the perfect way to round out the day. I had not expected – and was not prepared – for this sort of challenge.
Our favorite hike near Badenweiler is the four-mile loop to the small wine town of Britzingen, situated on the Baden Wine Road. Entering these wooded hills, dark and dense with deciduous and pine
trees, it is obvious how the Schwarzwald was named. The foot trail drops out of the hills to overlook vistas of the Rhine valley. Vineyards carpet the hills, broken only by the small towns that crop up above the
vines. In Britzingen, the local wine cooperative is a great place to stop, rest, and sample this area’s viniculture. The trail then returns to Badenweiler through the vineyards of the Markgräflerland.
After a long hike or a bicycle ride, the spa is an anticipated treat. The list of services is large and can be a bit confusing, but the Roman-Irish steam bath (Römisch-Irisches Dampfbad) with the
soap and brush massage (Seifenbürstenmassage) is the highlight of any visit. The entrance price for this treatment includes admission to the various pools and vapor rooms on the ground floor. The steam bath,
saunas, and massage are upstairs, where I was trying to understand what the attendant was requesting…
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Switzerland’s Painted Ladies
by Lori Hein
If a picture is worth a thousand words, these Swiss building façades are encyclopedic.
If every picture tells a story, then Switzerland’s painted façades hold a treasure trove of tales. More than just pretty painted ladies, the buildings are links to the country’s folklore and
history.
Schaffhausen and Stein am Rhein are great places to see a bevy of these painted beauties. Both towns brim with Renaissance and medieval houses whose frescoes tell of knights and burghers,
myths and legends.
On Schaffhausen’s Vordergasse, the Haus zum Ritter is a window into the sixteenth-century world of knight Hans von Waldkirch. In 1568, Waldkirch commissioned Swiss painter and wood-engraver
Tobias Stimmer to give the newly renovated house the look of a Renaissance palace. Stimmer, painting in deep ochres, golds, blues, and greens, surrounded the building’s asymmetrical windows with friezes rich in
allegory and ancient Greek and Roman themes. “Mythological and allegorical themes were characteristic of the humanism of the sixteenth century,” explains Gwyneth Hughes, art assistant at Schaffhausen’s Museum zu
Allerheiligen.
Many of the house’s paintings celebrated knightly virtues and victories. Figures with lion and snake symbols represent strength and intelligence. A victorious knight returns home to
townspeople waving palm branches. Maidens, horses, armored soldiers, and mythic beasts dance across the façade.
The paintings on the Haus zum Ritter today are not Stimmer’s. After long consideration, twentieth-century Schaffhausen officials decided on a plan to conserve what remained of Stimmer’s work
and maintain the building’s artistic and historic integrity, both important tasks. According to Gwyneth Hughes, “Stimmer is, after Dürer and Holbein, the most significant artist of the German-speaking late
Renaissance.”…
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Bye-Bye Bavaria – Hello America!
by Sue Grant
A new German exhibition documents the trials, tribulations, hopes and dreams of the millions who emigrated from Germany to a new life in the United States.
Frank McCourt has been there, done it and written the book. Ever since Angela’s Ashes, his poignant account of his childhood in Limerick, the stories behind the mass arrival of emigrants in the
United States has triggered a new wave of interest and nostalgia. But although many of the best-selling author’s compatriots left their native Ireland to settle successfully across the water, a quarter of all
Americans today trace their roots back to German ancestors. Most of these hailed originally from Bavaria and the former Bavarian Pfalz.
For those keen to trace their ancestral history, “Bye-Bye Bavaria – hallo USA”, a new state exhibition by the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte is a must. From the eighteenth century until the
present day, the roving display will trace the socio-economic and political reasons, but also individual stories behind emigration especially from the Bavarian region.
Franz Daniel Pastorius, from Sommerhausen in Franconia, set the ball rolling. On 6th June 1683 he boarded the America-bound Concord in England and has gone down in the history books as being
the first Bavarian emigrant to have founded a community: Germantown in Pennsylvania.
Immigration to the States from Bavaria was however never a linear activity, but occurred rather in waves. These were particularly prominent in the years 1816/17, around 1830, then in the
Revolution period 1848/49, around 1865/66, again in 1880, after the turn of the century in 1923, again in the 1930s and after World War II.
So what provoked people to pack their bags and head for distant shores? In the nineteenth century, farmers in rural Bavaria found it increasingly difficult to eke out an existence: failed
crops and epidemics forced workers into seeking alternative employment as craftsmen, and when that yielded no more possibilities for employment, many saw no other alternative to emigration…
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The Young Empress Sisi
by Sue Grant
It was the stuff of fairy tales – swept off her feet and married by age sixteen, a controlled life of expectation and a sad demise. Remembering the most beautiful woman of her time on the one
hundred fiftieth anniversary of her nuptials.
Two lovers meet in the mountains. She is standing at the door of the hut, a slim, young woman with her long hair in neat braids. He is standing a few yards away, handsome, proud, and
upright. The sky is blue and the sun shines brightly as he catches sight of her and gasps “Sissi!” Blushing with pleasure, she answers his call with a fervent “Franz!”
Even one hundred fifty years after their marriage, on 24 April 1854, in Vienna, can there be anyone not familiar with the stars of the 1957 movie Sissi, featuring Romy Schneider as “Sissi”
(Elisabeth or Sisi, the Empress of Austria and Hungary) and Karl-Heinz Böhm as Emperor Franz Joseph I? Later to be described by critics as a romantic, sentimental, and typically 1950s Heimatfilm, the mammoth
three-part production has always appealed to the masses and is arguably responsible for the ongoing cult surrounding the figure of “Sissi” – in a national television poll undertaken at the end of 2003 to
ascertain Germany’s top one hundred personalities, Empress Elisabeth placed number eighty whilst Romy Schneider (in her stage role as “Sissi”) just slipped past her to the post at seventy eight.
No doubt about it, the nineteenth century Queen-of-Hearts, by all accounts the most beautiful woman of her time, is not forgotten, as the recent “Sissi” musical, Sisi exhibitions, Sisi
museums, “Sissi” river cruises, “Sissi” Syndrome (a psychological brainwave synonymous for restlessness, hatched out in 1998), Sisi biographies, Sisi fan clubs, and Sisi memorabilia (such as the recent auction
of her one hundred ten-part private dinner service) prove. Many details of her life have, however, become confused with the image portrayed in the movie, so as Vienna prepares for the wedding anniversary in
April 2004, here are some facts to separate Sisi from “Sissi.”…
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Freiburg im Breisgau
by Phillip R. Callaway
Mistakenly riddled with bombs during World War II, this town, bordering France and Switzerland, has rebounded and offers vacationers something out of the ordinary.
Along the southwest edge of the Black Forest, you can almost smell France and Switzerland – hence the name “Three-Country Corner.” The French border is only ten miles away. Sixty miles to the
south you are in Switzerland. About a hundred miles to the north of Lake Constance lies Freiburg, a city often described as having a Mediterranean flair. The surrounding regions, known for their warm
temperatures, are sometimes called “the kitchen of the wine god Bacchus.”
Starting at Freiburg’s magnificent Gothic cathedral on the Münsterplatz, enter and climb the 329 steps to the top of the West Tower. Enjoy the view, and when you finally exit the cathedral, say
hello to the teeming outdoor market with its colorful fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, sausages, olives, home decorations, and all sorts of knickknacks. On Mondays, look for Martin Meier and his mother, Leni,
whose vegetable and fruit stand is located across from the Hotel Rappen where they eat their breakfast of rolls, cheese, and Wurst. They will be across from the library on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Ask them if
you can taste their berries – "darf ich dies kosten?"
Stick around long enough and you will be sitting at a café or restaurant soaking up the ambience, relaxing to the sounds of street melodies coming from guitars, violins, accordions, horns, and
lovely voices. Across the way, on the other side of the cathedral, you may be lucky enough to take in a genuine local theatrical extravaganza performed by children.
No, you did not just arrive in heaven, but Freiburg is a slice of paradise. You are in the Altstadt, the old city, surrounded by lovely buildings of all types. There are, of course, the
traditional Fachwerk buildings, modern department stores, and charming little medieval water channels (die Bächele) dug right into the narrow streets.
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Family Research: Baptismal Frakturs Oft Hold the Key
by James M. Beidler
When the German tradition of meticulous record-keeping collided with the artistic talents of the teachers in eighteenth century Pennsylvania German parochial schools, a new form of folk art
was created that has blossomed into an extremely helpful group of documents for genealogists.
Pennsylvania Germans used Frakturschriften (which literally means “broken script” because, unlike cursive writing, the letters are left unconnected) in both printed and freehand documents
from roughly 1740 to 1910. Any number of different documents can be called Fraktur – birth, baptismal, and marriage certificates; bookplates; penmanship models of Bible verses or sayings; even rewards of merit
for schoolchildren – when such a script was used.
Of these various forms, the baptismal certificate, or Taufschein in German, was the most common and, by far, the most genealogically valuable. While scholarship is still evolving concerning the
predecessors of the Taufschein in Germany, it is commonly regarded that something new happened amongst the Germans of southeastern Pennsylvania around the middle of the 1700s.
Interestingly enough, the Taufschein was not brought by the German-speaking peoples from the Old World. Counterparts to the Taufschein – called by German words such as Taufzedeln,
Taufpathenbreife, Goettelbrief, or Pattenbrief – developed in Europe about the same time as the Taufschein developed in America. These European counterparts were often made as gifts from a godparent to the
baptized child. The creation of Pennsylvania German Taufscheine (which is the word’s proper plural form) were usually authorized by the parents for the child…
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Language: Eine Sprache mit Zukunft
Von Gert Niers
Es gibt ein altes deutsches Weisheitswort, das lautet “Reisen bildet”.
In der Tat: sind wir nicht immer weiser und reicher an Erfahrung, reicher an neuen und erzählenswerten Eindrücken und Abenteuern (guten und schlechten) von unseren Reisen zurückgekehrt? Man stelle sich vor, um wieviel höher der Bildungswert und die positiven Erlebnisse einer Auslandsreise sind, wenn man die Sprache des Gastlandes spricht und sich artikuliert mit den Einheimischen verständigen kann! Es ist klar, dass für Reisende nach Deutschland, Österreich, Liechtenstein und in die meisten Kantone der Schweiz sich die Beherrschung der deutschen Sprache auszahlt.
Für Angehörige des englischen Sprachraums sollte die Beschäftigung mit Deutsch nicht allzu schwierig sein, da beide Sprachen derselben Sprachfamilie angehören – es gibt sprachhistorische und
etymologische Verbindungen, die unmittelbar einsichtig sind, zumal heutzutage in zunehmendem Maße englische Wörter Eingang in die deutsche Umgangssprache finden.
A Language With a Future
by Gert Niers
There is an old German saying which proclaims that traveling has an educational value (“Reisen bildet”). Indeed, haven’t we always returned home from our travels wiser and more experienced than
before, with new impressions and adventures (good or bad) worth talking about? Imagine how much more educational and full of positive experiences a trip to a country would be if we could speak the language
and communicate in an articulate fashion with the inhabitants! Of course for travelers visiting Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and large parts of Switzerland, a command of the German language would be helpful.
For speakers of English the crossover to German should not be too difficult since both languages belong to the same language family – there are historical and etymological connections which
are immediately obvious, even more so now that an increasing number of English words are becoming part of everyday German…
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CALENDAR
Please contact events directly to confirm dates, times, locations and admission fees.
APRIL
Fredericksburg, TX
April 10: 58th Annual Easter Fires Pageant. Featuring a cast of over 600. For information, call 830-997-2359 or visit www.gillespiefair.com/easterfires.htm
Philadelphia, PA
April 17: GTV Almrausch 79th Stiftungsfest/Spring Dance. Held at the Cannstatter Volksfest Verein. For ticket information call Bob Eppinger at 215-632-3976.
Moorehead, MN
April 18 – June 20: The Snow Country Prison Internment Camp Exhibition. At the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center. For information, call the North Dakota Museum of Art at
701-777-4195.
New Ulm, MN
April 22-25: The Society for German-American Studies 28th Annual Symposium. Presentations, city tours, banquets and high mass sung in German at Holy Trinity Cathedral. For
information contact: Jenny Eckstein phone: 507-233-4300 or visit www.newulm.com
Muenster, TX
April 23-25: Germanfest. For information, contact: Muenster Chamber of Commerce at 940-759-2227 or visit www.nortexinfo.net/gfest
MAY
Charlotte, NC
May 1: Maifest. Held in conjunction with Charlotte’s Sister City, Krefeld, Germany. For information, contact Charlotte Sister Cities, phone 704-333-3399 or visit www.charlottemaifest.org
Jessup, MD
May 2: 35th Annual German-American Festival at Blob’s Park. Music, food, drink, dancing and vendors with German items. For information call: 202-554-2664, email:
ahoythere@earthlink.net or visit: www.geocities.com/agas_dc/
Baltimore, MD
May 7: Maifest. Maibaum erected in the Zion Church Garden. Singing, dancing and a home-cooked dinner. For information call: 410-727-3939.
Gibson City, IL
May 7-8 and 14-15: Bayernstube’s Maifest. For information and reservations, call 217-784-8304 or email bayern@advancenet.net
Brenham, TX
May 7-8: 114th Annual Maifest. Parades, pageants, food, crafts, music and exhibits. For information, call 1-888-BRENHAM or email: info@brenhamtexas.com
Covington, KY
May 14-16: 25th Annual MainStrasse Village Maifest 2004. Food, drink and works by nearly 100 artisans and craftsmen. For information call: 859-491-0458 or visit www.mainstrasse.org
Leavenworth, WA
May 14-16: Maifest. Experience the Grand Parade, live entertainment, traditional German dancing including the Maipole Dance. Stroll through the Bavarian Village of Flowers,
visit Art in the Park and tap your toes to Oompah music!
For information call: 509-548-5807 or visit www.leavenworth.org
Godfrey, IL
May 15 – mid June: Maximilian-Bodmer Art Exhibition. Lewis & Clark Community College. Rare exhibit of more than seventy-five Native American portraits, frontier landscapes and
depictions of tribal life produced by German scientist Prince Maximilian and Swiss artist Karl Bodmer documenting their pioneering expedition across North America and up the Missouri River in 1832-1834. For
information, call the St. Louis CVC at 314-421-1023.
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