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August / September 2006

Ute Lemper
by Vickie Rubinson

    The German chanteuse breathes life into cabaret.

    Ute Lemper is a quintessential torch singer. Her run at the famously popular Carlyle Hotel in New York City has attracted audiences far and wide to the posh dark café where she is known internationally for her theatre music, European cabaret songs, and tunes by Kurt Weil. This post-modern Dietrich takes guests on a musical excursion through waterfront dives, revolutionist cabals, silk stocking precincts, and Parisian bistros that populate her songs.

    “I was born in Münster Germany in 1963,” says Ute in a telephone interview from New York. “After graduation from the Dance Academy in Cologne and the Max Reinhardt seminary Drama School in Vienna, Austria, I started performing in Stuttgart with roles in plays by Fassbinder and others.

    “After I got out of drama school, I was twenty or twenty-one. I conceived for myself a recital of Weil’s music and I would perform in gymnasiums. People would be sitting on benches and I would be performing in my leather pants, a t-shirt, and no makeup. I would just go out there and sing the songs in order to educate the people about what happened to Kurt Weil as a German-Jewish composer during the days of the Weimar Republic and how he was treated by the Nazis.

    “I used to read quotes from the Nazi papers that trashed Weil’s music, his character, and personally calling him a monkey and a Negro and all these other racist remarks that were heaped upon the Jews during that time.”

    Because Ute’s generation grew up with an understanding of what happened under Hitler, the newer generation was not familiar with the personal level of grief experienced by the previous generation and Ute took as her mission in life to educate the later generation.

    “It was treated as history and even though it was closed history, it was just something that was not spoken about too deeply with parents or teachers because you would stump them with questions about responsibility and collective guilt – about being a soldier in the war and knowledge about what was happening to the Jews. There were all these questions but somehow a vacuum of answers.”

    As a result, Ute’s identity as a German was twisted and sorrowful and she did not know how to deal with it.

    “For example, during my first trip to America in the early 80s, I would meet a young man at a café and we would start talking…hooking up a little. He would say, ‘So you have an accent…where do you come from?’ I would say ‘Germany’ and that was the end of the discussion. People were brought up with very simplistic visions on both sides of the ocean. For him as an American Jewish man, it was the simplistic vision that all Germans are bad. For me, it was a vision that my parents didn’t know what was happening, end of story. So for me, revisiting Kurt Weil’s fate as well as his fabulous compositions, was a mission to help clarify the simplistic vision…

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A Dom, a “Dumpling”, and Me
By Mark Slider

    Try not to blink during a whirlwind tour of Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bonn, and Berlin during Germany Travel Mart 2006.

    At the end of my visit to Germany in 2005, it was announced that Düsseldorf, Bonn, and Cologne would host the following year’s Germany Travel Mart. As soon as I heard “Cologne”, my anticipation for the impending trip kicked into gear. As if the lure of a visit to the Dom wasn’t enough, this trip would also provide my introduction to Berlin.

     Our first home base for our tour was Düsseldorf. Our tour around the city introduced us to the “green” side of the city, which is attributed to Napoleon who, in 1811, had the old city wall removed and proceeded to lay out parks and gardens. Today the city is Germany’s home to fashion design and commerce. A host of Japanese companies have utilized the city so effectively in international commerce that Düsseldorf is home to an estimated seven thousand Japanese. The 240.5-meter Rhine Tower dominates the city’s riverside skyline while a two-kilometer promenade along the Rhine offers a leisurely option for taking in the scenery.

    A visit to the Art Palace Museum is a wonderful way to experience Düsseldorf’s surprising art scene. The museum’s permanent collection includes the most extensive glass collection in Europe as well as Baroque period paintings, sculptures from the Middle Ages, incredible works of the German Expressionists, and modern photography. Modern art in the form of architecture graces the skyline as well in the form of the brick, silver, and white building designs of Frank O. Gehry. The undulating forms were completed in 2000 and are the most photographed buildings in Düsseldorf. Across the Rhine, wonderful Art Nouveau homes line Kaiser-Friedrich Ring.

    The Schloss Park Benrath appears to be what a palace baked by Martha Stewart would look like. The pink and white confection houses the only museum of garden art in the world and offers some interesting interactive exhibits geared toward the younger generation.

    After our second full day of tours and sightseeing, the GTM delegation was transported to Cologne for an evening under the tent of the fantastic Circus Roncalli – an immensely entertaining combination of acrobatics, pantomime, and various human athletic skills.

    Our third day of the tour took provided us with tours of the two additional GTM host cities – Cologne and Bonn. As I had imagined, Cologne’s Dom is spectacular. I am a bit jaded when it comes to things living up to the expectation I have created in my mind but the intricate architecture, untold years of history, medieval reliquary including the Shrine of the Holy Three Kings, and the sheer immensity of the Dom make it something everyone should experience. ..

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The Games People Play  – The Settlers of Catan
by Anna Cramer

    “Have you Settled today?” Ask the question and you may soon be introduced to the worldwide board game phenomena The Settlers of Catan

    Thank God it’s Friday! - and the Tübingen game group is about to gather. Five couples, keen on socializing and forgetting the work and troubles of the week, are getting ready for their weekly game night. Tonight it is Susanne Spieker, who is hosting the event at her place, together with her boyfriend Tobias, who is already home from work, arranging tables, bringing up chairs from the basement and storing beverages in the refrigerator. Like every Friday, the game they will be playing is “Die Siedler von Catan”, The Settlers, which has literally conquered the world and even became the most successful board game in the United States.

    The revolution was brought about by the dental technician Klaus Teuber, who, in the early nineteen-eighties, started creating board games on the basis of fantasy stories. After three very successful games honored with the coveted Game of the Year (“Spiel des Jahres”) award (1988 “Rätselmeister”, 1990 “Adel Verpflichtet” and  1991 “Drunter & Drüber”) Teuber landed his greatest hit in 1995: “The Settlers of Catan”. This game, vaguely reminiscent of the development of Iceland by Scandinavian settlers in the ninth and tenth century A.D., immediately made it to the top, too. Teuber subsequently invented numerous sequels and expansions as well as other games, all part of the Catan world which has become a virtual universe of its own.

    Ever since bored cavemen, passing long winter months when hunting was impossible, discovered that moving around pieces of bones on the ground, creating patterns and building pyramids, perhaps competing for who could build the highest, was more fun than staring into the fire, playing games has become an important part of human culture. Noted philosophers like the Dutch Johan Huizinga have devoted entire books to the phenomenon of playing, reaching the conclusion that playing is essential to the development of the human being. It is only in play, that man is truly free in his actions. Playing requires independent thinking, and the person playing, the homo ludens of all times, develops his personality according to the experiences he made in playing games as a child. Modern pedagogy has profoundly changed its approach to teaching on the knowledge of the importance of playing.

    Many games we still play today have a long history. Over four thousand and three hundred years ago, the inhabitants of the valley of Mesopotamia already played the oldest known board game, the “Game of Ur” or “Go”. As the annual flooding regulated irrigation in their fertile valley, there were months on end where waiting for the flood was the main occupation. The rich harvests allowed storage, the mild climate eliminated the need to sew hide-clothing, there was time to build immense buildings – and to relax playing games…

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The Studebakers of South Bend
By Nancy McCaslin

    Over a century of German craftsmanship and American resourcefulness has entrenched this family’s name in the history of American transportation.

     “Wait until you see this one!”  “You’ve never seen anything like this!” Robert S. Williams enthusiastically repeated these thoughts to his young son, Cliff, every year as the two hurried to the local Studebaker dealership so Robert could proudly show the boy Studebaker’s newest model which he had helped manufacture. Williams, a loyal Studebaker employee for twenty-six years at the company’s South Bend, Indiana, production facility was a typical, dedicated Studebaker employee who was an integral part of a unique corporation which had developed from a tiny blacksmith shop funded with $68.00 and two sets of smithy tools into one of the world’s most famous automobile manufacturers.

     Entrepreneurship was a powerful thread in the economic fabric of the Staudenbecker family whose members were highly skilled blade-makers in Solingen, Germany, a city famous for cutlery. When religious freedom in the New World beckoned, this conservative German Dunkard Staudenbecker family consisting of two brothers, a cousin, and their families emigrated from Germany to Philadelphia in 1736. Immigration officials who were unfamiliar with German pronunciation recorded the family’s name in various ways and the name Studebaker emerged as the family’s New World name. Some of the Studebakers began farming in the Pennsylvania frontier area and others worked as blacksmiths or established themselves as wagon makers.

    In the 1830s, several Studebakers experienced financial difficulties as a result of their generosity.  As co-signers for individuals who began defaulting on loans, the Studebakers sold their farms to meet financial obligations. In 1835, with continuing hopes of prosperity, they packed their belongings into the wagons they had built and began a journey to new homes near other conservative Dunkard families in southwest Ohio in the Ohio River Valley. John Studebaker again established blacksmith and wagon repair shops and began making covered wagons which were similar in design to the Pennsylvania “Conestoga” wagon.  Despite his hopes of “owing no man anything but love” the businesses did not prosper.  John urged his five sons to move west--to Indiana--where more fertile business opportunities were available.

    In 1852, Henry and Clement Studebaker pooled their resources, moved to South Bend, Indiana, and established a blacksmith shop. They also built three covered wagons during their first year in business.  South Bend proved to be an ideal business location for the Studebaker brothers. The St. Joseph River, which flowed through the town, provided an abundance of inexpensive waterpower.  Hardwood forests were plentiful in the area, and a major railroad ran through the town…

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Charlemagne’s Dream - Aachen
By Dannielle Gonterman

    This city at the corner of three countries boasts a rich history as Charlemagne’s imperial city and a spa culture that enchanted the ancient Romans.

    Welcome to Aachen, the realm of Charlemagne! This lively German city of approximately two hundred thousand people was this notable emperor’s imperial seat. Charlemagne’s goal to make Aachen the center of fragmented Europe did not go unfulfilled, as the city is today a study in history, relaxation, and European unity. Upon arrival to this city, which abuts Holland and Belgium, the traveler remarks at signs written in three languages, just one indication of the fluidity of the country borders.

    Let us begin with a look at Aachen’s history, captured so magnificently in the city center.  Before Charlemagne founded his Pfalz (palace grounds) here, the Romans had already discovered Aachen’s springs and took their cure in its warm waters, boasted as the hottest springs west of the Alps. The name “Aachen” is said to derive from the Romans who named the spa town after a Celtic water god, “Aquis Granum.” Today, Aachen is filled with springs, spas, and fountains—one could devote an entire article to all the fountains alone! These watery fonts are all testaments to Aachen’s historical and current importance as a spa town.

    In 765 A.D, the Merovingians forced the Romans out of Aachen, and Pepin the Short divided the empire between his two sons: Charlemagne, an educated and stalwart man, and Charlemagne’s younger brother, Carloman. Though Charlemagne undertook numerous military conquests and united much of Europe, he chose Aachen as his imperial capital, with the vision of making it the center of fragmented Europe, in addition to the center of Christianity and learning. Charlemagne’s presence is evidenced throughout the city.

     Downtown Aachen is dominated by its awe-inspiring cathedral (der Dom), built by Charlemagne and originally serving as his chapel.  The alternating white and black archways of the cathedral basilica (die Marienkirche) and the gold chandelier remind the visitor that this church is far older than most in Europe. With marble imported from Italy, Charlemagne’s builder began construction on the Pfalzkapelle around 786.  The style of the cathedral—characterized by gilded fixtures and high arches—borrows heavily from the Byzantine. In its day it was truly sublime— the domed rotunda was the highest north of the Alps until the eighteenth century. Over time the church became too small for the many pilgrimages made there, and the Gothic choir was added in 1414.  Though chapels were added throughout the centuries, the original eight-sided Carolingian cupola still stands. My first impression of the cathedral—far more beautiful than the photo in my art history textbook—was a rush of historical appreciation.  If you see nothing else in Aachen, this must be it! View the church independently, or take advantage of almost daily tours…

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Ludwig I: “Bavaria’s Building King”
Part I
By Kim Carpenter

    His reign transformed Munich through architecture, art, and culture.

    “I want to make out of Munich a city which will bring all of Germany such honor that no one can know Germany unless he has seen Munich.”

    With these words, Ludwig of Bavaria promised to turn the capitol of his Kingdom into a “New Athens,” transforming the quaint, provincial city into one of Germany’s most beautiful and sophisticated centers of art and culture. While critics labeled his apparently unrestrained construction throughout the city as a “building obsession,” Ludwig considered himself Bavaria’s “Building King,” a monarch dedicated to giving his country a historical and cultural soul.

    Yet when most people think of Ludwig of Bavaria, it is invariably of Ludwig II, the infamous “Mad King,” who dotted his country with fairytale castles of unprecedented luxurious fantasy. In many ways, however, it was the Mad King’s grandfather, Ludwig I, who had a much greater and far more significant impact on Munich and Bavaria. Politically, economically and culturally, his achievements had long-lasting implications for his kingdom, and because of Ludwig I, millions of visitors today continue to enjoy events such as Oktoberfest as well as some of Germany’s best museum collections.

    Born in 1786 to Duke Maximilian Joseph and Augusta Wilhelmine Maria,Ludwig entered Bavaria’s Wittelsbach dynasty during times of major and profound political change. The French Revolution toppled the regime of Louis XVI, Ludwig’s godfather for whom he was named – and this event permanently altered the trajectory of European politics. When Napoleon conquered Germany’s numerous principalities, the self-crowned Emperor of France decreed the small Bavarian dukedom a kingdom, more than doubling its size. Bavaria’s new monarch Max Joseph welcomed the French incursion into his territory, using their powerful grip over Europe as an opportunity to modernize his country through enlightened absolutism. A naturally jovial man, Max Joseph was a beloved ruler, whose impromptu visits to market squares and beer halls engendered enthusiastic responses among his subjects. In this regard, the king was a savvy manipulator of public opinion, and when Ludwig married Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen in 1820, Max Joseph held festivities in the young couple’s honor. The celebration proved so popular that it became an annual tradition, and over one hundred eighty years after the nuptials, revelers continue to gather for Oktoberfest in the Theresienwiese (the meadow named for the young bride). As Crown Prince, Ludwig observed all this as part of his political education, taking cues from his father on how to cultivate loyalty to the new Bavarian crown.

    But even as a young man, Ludwig demonstrated different political beliefs from his father. While Max Joseph cultivated a relationship with Napoleon to his (and Bavaria’s) advantage, Ludwig supported the German nationalistic ideal, and for him, Bavarian freedom meant freedom from France. He made no secret of his hatred for Napoleon once commenting that the Frenchmen was a “political Satan,” who had “a great spirit but a small soul.” Even Napoleon sensed an opponent in the Crown Prince, and had it not been for his defeat at Waterloo, he would have had a Bonaparte follow Max Joseph to the throne…

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Innsbruck – Austria’s Olympic City
by Leah Larkin

    A rich history permeates this picturesque two-time Winter Olympics venue.

    Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian province of Tyrol, hosted the Winter Olympic Games, not once, but twice – in 1964 and 1976. In winter, you are likely to see folks with skis on their shoulders walking down the streets, as seven ski resorts are just twenty minutes to one hour from the city center. In summer, those who come to hike the mountains, including the new Eagle Trail, may use the town as a base, or stop by for a few hours, even a day, as Innsbruck is a pleasant place to visit. A walk through the old town with its arcaded buildings from the Middle Ages is a treat.

    “It’s a paradise – so clean and no crime,” noted an English tourist visiting the city ringed by snow-covered peaks. Innsbruck means bridge over the River Inn. The fast moving chalky green water of the river slices through town, its color due to the snow and glaciers from where it originates.

    The town’s main street, Maria Theresien Strasse, named after Empress Maria Theresa who ruled for forty years (1740 to 1780) and had sixteen children, is bordered with impressive Baroque buildings. It is also the site of the city’s famous Saint Anne’s Column, with a statue of the virgin, not Saint Anne, on the top. Saint Anne has a place at the base of the column, which commemorates July 26, 1703, the birth date of the saint and the same day Bavarian troops liberated Innsbruck during the War of the Spanish Succession.

    Maria Theresien Strasse becomes Herzog Friedrich Strasse as it enters Innsbruck’s charming old town, leading to the main attraction, the Goldenes Dachl (little golden roof), which was built in 1500. Emperor Maximilian I had the roof built to honor his marriage to his second wife, Maria Bianca Sforza. The decorative and curious roof sheltering an ornate balcony is adorned with two thousand six hundred gilt copper tiles, which glisten in the sun. It seems every Innsbruck visitor stops to take a picture of this landmark.

    During Maximilian’s day (1493 to 1516), Innsbruck was a cultural center as the Emperor, who loved the mountains, the outdoors, and hunting, preferred the town to Vienna and spent lots of time there. He wanted to have a church built in the town to house forty statues, but the church, the Hofkirche, did not see fruition until the reign of his grandson, Ferdinand I. It contains Maximilian’s mammoth coffin, which is empty (he is buried in a town near Vienna). During his lifetime, only four of the statues were completed, but the project continued after his death and, today, twenty-eight bronze statues, life-size or larger, surround the empty marble sarcophagus. They represent his forebears and eminent contemporaries, and are an impressive sculpture group of German Renaissance art standing guard around the empty tomb. The sculpted relief on the side of the great tomb depicts deeds of the emperor’s life, mainly battles…

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Auf Deutsch, Bitte! – Total Immersion German Programs in the United States
by Karen Pfeil

    Programs endorsed by the Goethe Institute offer the opportunity to learn, study, practice, and live the German language and culture, both in an academic setting as well as a social setting.

     Ask most people who speak two languages well: What is the best way to learn a foreign language? They are likely to give some version of this answer: Go to the country where the language is spoken, spend time there, and, most importantly, immerse yourself in the language and culture. Certainly, this answer has merit. Going abroad for months may be the ideal language learning experience but, for many, it may be impractical or impossible. In this case, at least for those interested in learning or improving their German language skills, there is another viable option. Namely, there are four total-immersion German summer programs located within the United States. These Goethe-Institute endorsed programs offer would-be fluent German speakers of all levels a chance to study, learn, and practice German in a total-immersion setting. Affiliated with the University of Rhode Island, Portland State University, the University of New Mexico, and Middlebury College in Vermont, these summer programs offer unique variations of the total immersion language learning experience.

    What is total immersion?

     Total immersion is a philosophy of language learning that emphasizes surrounding students with the target language and thereby increasing fluency in a short amount of time. What this means for participants at any of the four Goethe-endorsed programs is that they spend a summer living and learning auf Deutsch. On arrival, participants sign a pledge to speak only German for the length of the program and since participants live on-location with instructors, this means speaking German all day long – in the classroom, at meals, while socializing, and at extracurricular events.

    The total immersion approach aims to make the language “come alive” for learners. Suzanne Baackmann, director of the Deutsche Sommerschule von New Mexico, explains, “Linguists have identified a factor called language interference. This refers to the fact that it‘s much harder to go back and forth between two languages than it is to stay in one. Since the total immersion approach focuses on the target language only, students make remarkable progress in German in just four weeks.” In fact, according to Baackmann, many students have commented that a month in the total immersion program at Taos was worth more in terms of language improvement than a full academic year spent in Germany. Baackmann explains, “During their stay in Germany, many American exchange students meet Germans who would rather speak English with them than go through a halting conversation in German.” In contrast, at summer immersion programs both instructors and participants have pledged to speak only German.

     All four of the immersion programs work with this philosophy and, to maximize the learning potential of participants, the programs are structured in similar ways. Ranging from three to six weeks in length, the programs offer classroom instruction in the mornings and workshops or extracurricular activities (all auf Deutsch, of course) make up the rest of the day. Examples of extracurricular activities include excursions to nearby tourist attractions, German films, guest lecturers on cultural topics related to German-speaking countries, and seminars targeting specific areas of language learning, such as business German…

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Magdeburg – A City of Resilience
By Heidi Lux

    Trade laws brought riches while wars and nature brought near devastation. Experience this pivotal city on the Elbe.

    Yellow grain fields stretching flat to the horizon, roadside sparked by fiery poppies, this is the approach to Magdeburg. The city seems a surprise in the distance, yet has held this position at the crossroads on the Elbe River for more than one thousand two hundred years.

    Its skyline is dominated by the twin towers of Magdeburg Cathedral, dating back to 1290 in its current Gothic form. The city center has been scarred by near destruction three times: first by a devastating fire in 1118; then sacking in the Thirty Years War; and finally by a thirty-nine-minute WWII air raid that left ninety percent of the city in ruins. High water marks from the 2002 Elbe flood are visible on several buildings.

    Each time Magdeburg’s citizens have demonstrated great resiliency by building and rebuilding better than before. And each time new aspects have been added to this grand dame, who celebrated her 1200th birthday in 2005.

    As a result, Magdeburg is a mélange of architectural styles that not only place it on Saxony-Anhalt’s Romanesque Road, but also offer superb examples of High Gothic, Baroque, Dutch Gothic, Art Deco, GDR modern, and even Contemporary mall design such as the Allee Center. Outstanding among them is the surreal Green Citadel of Magdeburg, designed by the late Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

    Optimistically known as “green” for the bushes, grass and trees still growing to fill sections of the terraced walls and roof, the gold-domed pink metroplex stands out like a frilly, lopsided birthday cake. Magdeburgers have taken to their newest addition with characteristic enthusiasm.

    If there is a mother watching over Magdeburg, it is certainly the Virgin from the old city emblem who is said to appear on the town hall towers during times of crisis.

    If there is a father looking over Magdeburg, it is clearly the spirit of Otto I, fondly called Otto der Große or Otto the Great. Immortalized like a sun god in the gilded equestrian sculpture “The Golden Rider,” Magdeburg’s Emperor is said to turn around on his horse during the night. On the last night of the year some Magdeburgers swear he jumps down from his perch in the market square to ride through the streets of the city he loved.

    Many of Otto I’s actions during his reign changed the course of Magdeburg’s history. During a moment of prebattle angst before taking on the Hungarians in 955 AD, Otto I made a promise to God. If he were victorious, he would create an archbishopric in Magdeburg. He won the battle and built the first cathedral in thanks. But it took him until 968 AD to found the archbishopric, perhaps because he realized it could usurp his power.

    In 1188, Archbishop Wichmann adopted the Magdeburg Rights, a set of laws perfected over centuries by Magdeburg courts, favoring Magdeburg merchants in matters of trade. The Rights, comparable in many ways to the 1215 Magna Carta, brought the city wealth by giving it a monopoly on trade along the Elbe. It prevented outside merchants from selling directly to Magdeburg citizens, allowing them to sell only to Magdeburg merchants. All ships passing through the Elbe were stopped and unloaded in Magdeburg; local merchants then selected the cream of goods to sell in the city…

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Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden and the Battle of Breitenfeld, 17 September 1631
by Robert A. Selig

    Bet' Kindlein bet', 
    Morgen kommt der Schwed', 
    Morgen kommt der Oxenstern        
    Der wird euch Kindlein beten lern'    
    Bet Kindlein bet'!  

    Pray children pray,
    Tomorrow the Swede will come
    Tomorrow Oxenstierna will come
    who will teach you how to pray
    Pray children pray!

    This nursery rhyme is one in a series of stanzas that tell the pain, misery, and death which the Thirty Years' War, which was in reality more of a series of declared and un-declared campaigns of shifting alliances that eventually involved all European powers, brought to Germany between 1618 and 1648. It recounts, ever so briefly, the story of the arrival of Swedish forces under King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden (1594-1632) and his chancellor Axel Oxenstierna (1583-1654) in Germany in 1630. Their crushing victory near Breitenfeld over the forces of the Emperor, which rescued the Protestant cause from the abyss of destruction, was one of the decisive events in the war.

    As the sun rose on the rolling plains near the small village of Breitenfeld situated just a few miles north-east of Leipzig in Saxony on 17 September 1631, the fate not just of Lutheranism but the future internal and external organization of the Holy Roman Empire hung in the balance. A victory of the Catholic League headed by the Emperor Ferdinand II (1578-1637, Emperor from 1619) of the House of Habsburg and its army commanded by the Bavarian Count Johan Tserclaes von Tilly (1559-1632), would not only strike an almost certainly fatal blow to the Lutheran heretics but might even restore to them some of the powers the emperors had lost since the late Middle Ages. A victory by the Swedish army under King Gustavus II Adolphus, on the other hand, would not only breath new life into the faltering cause of Protestantism and encourage anti-Habsburg forces across the Empire, but would establish Sweden once and for all as a great power in Europe. When the sun set again at Breitenfeld, Sweden had triumphed and Tilly's army lay destroyed.

    The victory at Breitenfeld constitutes the first major Protestant victory in a war that had begun some thirteen years earlier with the so-called De-Fenestration of Prague on 23 May 1618, when Czech nobles had thrown two imperial councilors out of a window of the Hradschin, the famous castle towering over the city of Prague. That action, committed in protest over attempts by the House of Habsburg to curtail the powers of the Czech nobility and to restore Catholicism in the Kingdom of Bohemia, quickly led to one of the longest and most brutal wars in early modern European history. ..

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LANGUAGE:
Vom Hühnerstall ins Klassenzimmer: Eine Überlebensgeschichte
Von Gert Niers

    Es war ein bis dahin nie dagewesener Umsturz, der Tod und Leiden von Millionen Menschen zur Folge hatte. Die relativ wenigen, welche die Zeichen der Zeit erkannten und die finanziellen Mittel zur Hand hatten, konnten ihr Leben retten und mitunter zu einer menschenwürdigen Existenz zurückkehren. Die Rede ist hier von einer Gruppe deutschjüdischer Flüchtlinge, die aus Nazi-Deutschland entkamen, Aufnahme in den USA fanden und als Hühnerzüchter in New Jersey landeten. Unter ihnen befanden sich Harold (Hanns) Neumann und seine Frau Ruth, geborene Schindler. Sie und ihre Eltern trafen Ende der dreißiger Jahre in Amerika ein.

     Doch bevor wir uns gründlicher mit ihrem Lebenslauf beschäftigen, sei darauf hingewiesen, dass jene Flüchtlinge aus Deutschland nicht die ersten Juden waren, die ihr Glück als Hühnerzüchter im Gartenstaat suchten. Früheste – und erfolgreiche – Versuche wurden bereits 1882 mit der Gründung von Alliance, einer landwirtschaftlichen Siedlung bei Vineland im südwestlichen Teil New Jerseys, unternommen. Tatsache ist, dass mehrere Gruppen und Generationen jüdischer Hühnerzüchter vor und auch noch nach dem deutschen Kontingent eintrafen. Die Zahl der deutschjüdischen Farmer beläuft sich auf mindestens 300.  Sie ließen sich vorwiegend in den Verwaltungsbezirken Monmouth, Ocean, Cumberland und Salem nieder. Von den anderen Juden wurden sie manchmal spöttisch als “Eierjecken” bezeichnet.

     Hanns Neumann wurde 1921 in Mainz geboren.  Sein Vater Otto Neumann, deutscher Offizier im Ersten Weltkrieg, war ein angesehener Rechtsanwalt in der alten Stadt am Rhein. Die Familie Neumann führte ein angehmes Leben mit kulturellen Interessen wie auch gesellschaftlichen Kontakten. Hanns besuchte das Humanistische Gymnasium und hatte zahlreiche Freunde, jüdische wie auch christliche.

     All das änderte sich nach Hitlers Machtantritt 1933.  Die Diskriminierungs- und Verfolgungsmaßnahmen gegen den jüdischen Teil der Bevölkerung wurden unerträglich.  Für die Familie Neumann war Auswanderung die einzige Art, dem Schlimmsten zu entgehen.  Hanns war der erste, der nach Übersee ging. Ein amerikanischer Verwandter war bereit, die Bürgschaft für den siebzehnjährigen Flüchtling zu übernehmen, der dann im August 1938 in Hoboken, New Jersey, ankam. Die amerikanische Wirtschaft litt noch immer unter der großen Krise, aber der junge Einwanderer fand Anstellung in einem Strumpfwarenbetrieb in Philadelphia…

From Chicken Coop Into the Classroom:
A Tale of Survival
By Gert Niers

    It was an upheaval of unprecedented dimensions that brought death and suffering to millions of people. Those relatively few who could read the signs of the time and had the financial means at hand managed to save their lives and sometimes return to an existence with dignity.  We are referring here to a group of German-Jewish refugees who escaped from Nazi Germany, entered the United States, and became chicken or egg farmers in New Jersey. Among them are Harold (Hanns) Neumann and his wife Ruth, née Schindler.  They and their parents arrived in America in the late 1930s.

    Before we go any deeper into their biographies, it should be noted that those refugees from Germany were not the first Jews who tried their luck as egg farmers in the Garden State.  Earliest – and successful – attempts were made already in 1882 with the foundation of Alliance, a farming village near Vineland in the southwestern part of New Jersey. As a matter of fact, there were several groups and generations of Jewish poultry farmers before and after the German contingent arrived. The number of German-Jewish farmers comes to at least 300. They settled predominantly in the counties of Monmouth, Ocean, Cumberland, and Salem. The other Jews sometimes referred to them in a mocking way as “Eierjecken.”

    Hanns Neumann was born in Mainz in 1921. His father Otto Neumann, an officer in the German army during World War One, was a respected lawyer in the old city on the Rhine River. The Neumann family enjoyed a comfortable, culturally rich life with many social contacts. Hanns attended the Humanistische Gymnasium and had many friends, both Jewish and Christian.

    All of that changed after 1933 when Hitler came to power.  The discrimination, harassment, and persecution of the Jewish population became unbearable. For the Neumann family, emigration was the only way to escape the worst. Hanns was the first to go overseas. An American relative was willing to sponsor the 17-year old refugee who then arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey, in August of 1938.  The American economy was still suffering from the Great Depression, but the young immigrant found a job in a hosiery mill in Philadelphia…

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AT HOME:
When the Frost is on the Pumpkin
By Sharon Hudgins

     On a trip to Austria last September I found myself in a center of pumpkin growing at the height of harvest. And Austrian cooks—from restaurant chefs to professional bakers to home cooks—were all making the most of the bountiful Kürbis crop.

     Everywhere I looked—in the open-air markets, grocery stores, gourmet shops, and cookware departments—pumpkins and pumpkin products were on display: Whole pumpkins, from tiny ones small enough to sit in the palm of your hand to giant globes that needed a forklift to move them.  Bottles of pumpkinseed oil and pumpkin schnapps.  Bags of toasted pumpkin seeds and jars of pumpkin pesto.  Special scrapers for scooping out seeds and those pesky strings. Cutters for notching the edges of pumpkin shells.  Decorated pumpkins with elegant baroque motifs, humorous faces, or harvest symbols carved on their rinds.  Floral arrangements with pumpkins and gourds of many sizes, shapes, and colors.  Even hollowed-out pumpkins used as vases for fresh or dried flowers.

     Every restaurant offered at least one pumpkin dish on its autumn menu.  And at some restaurants you could even make a complete meal of pumpkin-flavored dishes, from soup to dessert.

     Vienna's historic Griechenbeisl Restaurant highlighted the pumpkin specialties on its seasonal menu with an orange pumpkin symbol printed next to each dish featuring this ingredient. Diners could start with an appetizer of shredded pickled beets arranged to look like beef tartare, garnished with Tirolean ham and tiny croutons, and served with pumpkin seed pesto and cubes of cooked pumpkin marinated in vinaigrette—or a plate of paper-thin prairie-ox carpaccio with pumpkin-and-wild-mushroom salad…

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FAMILY RESEARCH:
Cluster and Chain Immigration
By James M. Beidler

    Family historians use various types of records when they attempt to find the hometown origins of their immigrant ancestors.

     Those records might be as easy to find as an entry in an online database or in a family Bible preserved in a grandmother’s attic trunk – or they can be as difficult to track down as naturalization papers filed in different court jurisdictions or unindexed ships passenger lists for an obscure port.

     But when those records fail to name the immigrant ancestor for whom you’re searching, it’s time to turn to the neighborhood for help.

     No, not the neighborhood you live in now.

     What I’m talking about here is using community-based genealogy to further your knowledge about your ancestor’s origins.

     I define “community-based genealogy” in a couple of ways – first, including individuals from your ancestor’s literal neighborhood and, second, those who are mentioned in records with your ancestor.

     The idea behind both these facets is that because so many new arrivals were part of cluster and chain immigration, studying the people they “touched” is a worthwhile endeavor since information on the hometowns of those people might be available.

     In addition, this sort of “macro approach” to genealogy also gives researchers the opportunity to put their ancestors in a much better historical context – adding the so-called “meat” to the “bare bones” of names-and-dates-only genealogy.

     The best resources for determining who was in your ancestor’s neighborhood vary by the time period.

     For the 1700s, items such as maps of original landowners (in Pennsylvania, for example, these are called “warrantee township maps”) can be useful in showing who lived next to whom in the early days.

    Tax lists – when you can find ones that have not been alphabetized – can show who lived next to each other as the assessor or collector rode his circuit around his jurisdiction.

    The U.S. Direct Tax of 1798, nicknamed the “Window Tax,” lists the name of one adjoining property owner for each listing…

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