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December 2006/January 2007
‘Tis the Season
by Krista Scarlett
Savor sights, sounds, and spirit of a traditional German Christkindlmarkt a bit closer to home.
The view from Germany’s Christkindlmärtke is enough to put even the grouchiest Scrooge in the Christmas spirit and warm
anyone’s heart, despite the cold temperatures outside. The extravagant lighting and the dazzling Christmas ornaments from the outside stands could brighten the darkest of winter skies and the scents from the
delectable foods and treats inside can be smelled from miles away.
Every Christmas season, the memorable scents and sights of Christkindlmärtke draw in thousands of visitors. What once began
centuries ago to signal the beginning of Advent season, in which traders would sell their goods in preparation for the cold winter days ahead, has grown into elaborate celebrations and anticipated traditions in
many German communities.
Today, while maintaining the same focus, the markets have grown dramatically. They have become meeting grounds for locals to
market their homemade Christmas decorations and treats while celebrating the joyous season with friends and family.
These German markets have even become so popular as to cross seas. Three towns across North America – Akron, Ohio; Kitchener,
Ontario, Canada; and Denver, Colorado – have introduced their towns to this market, making this German tradition a local town favorite during the holiday season.
Akron, Ohio
This holiday season will mark Akron’s third year holding a Christkindlmarkt, the largest market between New York and Chicago, with
last year’s attendance reaching nearly seventy thousand people. The market began when the town’s sister city, Chemnitz, Germany, wanted to find a way to bring business and culture to Akron. What better way than
introducing a Christkindlmarkt to the city!
This year the market will begin November 24 with the Holiday Lighting Spectacular Show and end December 31. The market has
expanded in size and will display twelve cottages with many different German vendors in each. The market hosts fun events for everyone from skating on the largest seasonal ice skating rink in Ohio to live music
and entertainment.
Along with the festival’s regular activities, events, and vendors, Akron will also implement a few other traditions similar to
that of Chemnitz. Like last year, lantern parades will be held in the streets. Elizabeth Sheeler, Communications Director of Holidayfest, says, “It’s a German tradition for kids and families to make their own
lanterns each Christmas season. A band from Chemnitz will dress in coal mining uniforms and parade with the kids around the park.” This year, Akron will also implement another German tradition – the Advent
Calendar. Sheeler says, “ every day until the New Year, one gift box will be opened in celebration of the Advent season.”
Sheeler says the market is “fun, affordable, and free to attend. The market is almost its own city within the park. It’s a fun and
memorable holiday activity for the family, as well as local German residents. Many Akron residents come from the German community and we find the market allows them to speak German with others and recall the
original markets in Germany.”
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
In 1996, Tony Bergmeier brought this German tradition of Christkindlmarkt to Kitchener, Ontario, making Kitchener the location for
Canada’s original Christkindlmarkt. Since then, the market has been so successful as to win such awards as “Best New Festival 1999” by Festivals and Events Ontario and “Top 10 Events in Ontario.”
This year, Kitchener will celebrate its tenth annual market from December 6 to 10. The celebrations begin with the candlelight
procession and the opening ceremonies December 7 at City Hall with the official lighting of the Christmas tree, as well as performances from the Hallelujah Chorus and Grand Philharmonic Choir. Every day visitors
can enjoy live brass and gospel music as well as various German dancers and singers, a live nativity scene, and Kinderecke – a children’s craft and pottery center. The market also holds over seventy vendors
selling tasty treats, antiques, decorations, candles, coffees, toys, and ornaments. With so much variety, there is something for everyone. The market concludes December 10 at City Hall with closing remarks and
raffles.
Denver, Colorado
In 1999, Jack Englert and Karl Schmidt of the German American Chamber of Commerce in Colorado (GACC) introduced the holiday
tradition to Denver as a small eight-vendor celebration lasting only three days for the first three years. Now, in its seventh year, the market has grown and is under new management.
Fred Reim, Market Manager for the GACC, says, “When the management was given over to an organizer from Germany, it was lengthened to
twenty-eight days, from the Friday after Thanksgiving to the Friday before Christmas. This year, the market will begin on November 24 with the opening ceremony featuring the original Nuremberg Christkindle
performing the prologue, and will last until December 22.”
- The market has expanded to eighteen booths with vendors from Germany,
- Ukraine, and Central America as well as local Denver vendors. Merchandise, food, drinks, and craft demonstrations, including glass blowers and
shows, will be found.
Reim says, “Many of the previous vendors were so happy to have the market reappear and are returning. It will have a new look with
different style booths and increased entertainment.”
From food to entertainment to crafts and activities, there is something for everyone to enjoy at Christkindlemarkt. This year’s
market is sure to put everyone in the Christmas spirit while leaving visitors with the sense of a traditional German Christmas in a local, hometown setting.
For more information about these Christmas markets, visit the following websites:
Christmas in Pennsylvania
Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania
This year, Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, celebrates its eighteenth Christkindl Market from December 7 to 9. What was once started by
Rudi and Joanna Skucek and was not expected to last through the first year, has grown to be a local favorite. This year’s theme is “The Frosty Flakes of Christmas” and the market will exhibit many old traditions
such as the Thursday evening parade complete with brass band, nativity scene, and St. Nickolas’ arrival on a white horse, as well as many new attractions like a fifteen-foot German Christkindl pyramid and
eight-foot high roving Christmas tree. Tasty treats such as roasted chestnuts, German sausages, gourmet coffees, cookies, desserts, and hot-spiced wines will be available. With such authenticity, it is no wonder
the market draws in nearly ten thousand visitors each year.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Over seventy-five vendors will be on hand in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) this year for the four weekends that comprise the
Bethlehem Christkindlmarkt. Limiting vendors to the highest quality artisans and craftspeople each year makes the event a tradition for those seeking the perfect holiday gift. Live holiday music, rides for the
children, food, activities, and a visit from St. Nicholas create the perfect holiday environment. The Christkindlmarkt is held in Bethlehem's downtown historic district the weekends of November 24 to 26;
November 30 to December 3; December 7 to 10 and December 14 to 17.
For more information about these Christmas markets, visit the following websites:
- Mifflinburg’s Christkindlmarkt: www.mifflinburgpa.com/christkindl.htm.
- Bethlehem’s Christkindlmarkt: www.christkindlmarkt.org or telephone: 610-332-1300.
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The Unknown Tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff
by James E. Held
In the twilight of World War II, a series of torpedoes from a Soviet submarine sent the Wilhelm Gustloff to the bottom of the
Baltic Sea claiming more lives than 9-11 or the sinking of the Titanic.
The Red Army offensive launched on January 13, 1945, quickly drove the Wehrmacht to the Baltic shores of East Prussia, Germany’s
easternmost province. Over four million trapped civilians escaping Soviet massacres fled into blizzards on what historian Antony Beevor calls “the largest panic migration in history.” Aircraft strafed
their long wagon treks and, if overtaken by Russian soldiers, men were murdered and women violated. Their sole salvation became Operation Hannibal, launched January 21, by the Commander of the German
Navy, Admiral Doenitz; seven hundred ninety vessels in a sealift seven times larger than Dunkirk, braved storms, mines, and torpedoes to rescue two million East Prussians, but one – the SS Wilhelm Gustloff – became history’s largest maritime disaster.
War on the Eastern Front possessed a singular savagery, and Soviet propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg exhorted soldiers to avenge
countless Nazi atrocities: “Kill. Kill. In the German race there is nothing but evil…Use force and break the racial pride of these Germanic women. Take them as your lawful booty!” Red Army Captain and future
Nobel laureate, Alexander Solzhenitsyn captured in verse the brutal retribution:
And then they shot the housewife first,
Spattering with blood the carpet’s pile
The husband was bedridden, ill:
They cured him with a carbine burst
A moaning, by the walls half muffled:
The mother’s wounded still alive.
The little daughter’s on the mattress
Dead. How many have been on it?
A platoon, a company perhaps?
A girl’s been turned into a woman,
A woman turned into a corpse. . .
DO NOT FORGET! DO NOT FORGIVE!
BLOOD FOR BLOOD! A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH!
Terrorized refugees streamed into the Baltic port of Gotenhafen, “the harbor of hope” where, on January 22, 1945, the Gustloff’s sixty-three-year-old Master, Friedrich Petersen received the ominous orders – PREPARE THE SHIP TO BE UNDERWAY IN 48 HOURS. With
fifteen hundred submariners boarding as well, he would share command with Naval Captain Wilhelm Zahn over this 25,484-ton vessel, six hundred fifty feet long and seventy-two feet of beam that was launched
on May 5, 1937. After a brief career as a cruise vessel with six hundred sixteen cabins and ninety-five-hundred-horsepower engines, she became a hospital ship (Lazarettschiff D), following the 1939
German invasion of Poland. Naval Command, however, realized the Gustloff’s sixteen knots were too slow for active service and, on November 21, 1940, she made fast in the Baltic harbor of Gotenhafen – Polish Gdynia. This nautical dinosaur became the barracks for the Second
U-Boot Training Division until Operation Hannibal began.
Merchant Captains Kohler and Weller completed the Officers for the voyage to Kiel while Chief Engineer Bruno Lobel readied an engine
room idle over four years. Second Engineer Walter Knust remembered “. . . we never had time to smoke a cigarette,” but if breakdown offered an easy target, dockside the Gustloff was equally vulnerable to refugees desperate to escape the Soviet Flood. Elsewhere, stampedes had crushed children and pushed victims between the surging ships and quays. Many believed this leviathan was unsinkable, but
when shipyard manager Eugen Jeissle begged Chief Officer Louis Reese to take his family, he replied, “Don’t! I don’t have a good feeling about this voyage.” And when three hundred seventy naval nurses boarded,
one girl wailed. “What’s wrong?” her friends asked, “the Gustloff is huge and beautiful.” “I don’t want to go on that death ship!” she cried.
Still, purser-assistant Heinz Schoen remembered, “A ticket on the Gustloff was half your salvation, and we couldn’t hold them back.” Thirteen-year-old Heinrich Korella and his mother stowed-away, and twenty-one-year-old Eva Dorn remembered that refugees “. . . came and they came and they came,” while just offshore, Soviet submarines lurked.
At 1300 hours on January 30, the convoy – consisting of the Gustloff, the liner Hansa, torpedo boat Loewe, and TF-1 – got underway, but the Hansa’s engine trouble forced
the ships to anchor. Just when the Gustloff received orders to continue, the tiny Reval, packed with freezing refugees, pulled alongside. If Heinz Schoen speculated that eight hundred passengers
clambered aboard, Radio Operator Rudi Lane estimated over two thousand embarked, although no one counted. Then, as the convoy rounded the Hel Peninsula thirty-knot winds and twelve-foot seas forced TF-1 back,
leaving the tiny Loewe the sole guardian of this behemoth holding perhaps eleven thousand souls.
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Austria’s Christmas Glow
by Ernest H. Robl
The warm glow of candlelight spreads across Austria, filling hearts with the “Light of Peace” from Bethlehem each Christmas.
During the short and often dark days preceding Christmas, you may encounter Austrian railroad employees – both on the national system
and on smaller private railroads – carrying a small flame in a simple wood and glass lantern. That lantern does not indicate failure of modern lighting or signaling appliances. Rather, it is the railroads’ way
of distributing the “Friedenslicht” – the Light of Peace.
Just as year-round, the railroads deliver passengers and freight, during Advent, they deliver something a little more special – a
light that comes from Bethlehem that many Austrians take into their homes as part of their observance of Christmas. Lit in Bethlehem and brought to Austria in a miner’s lantern, much the way the Olympic flame is
transported across oceans, this one flame is multiplied tens of thousands of times. Each successive lantern or candle is lit from a flame – whose origin can always be traced back to that single flame that came
from Bethlehem.
Particularly on December 24, Christmas Eve, you will find the peace light burning in staffed stations throughout Austria – and aboard
many trains – so that the light can be distributed even at the smaller unmanned stops.
Austrians even use the Friedenslicht to light candles on their Christmas trees. Yes, many Austrians still use real candles. (And,
yes, many Austrians also manage to set their trees and homes on fire during the Christmas season. Public service announcements caution about keeping trees moist – and a fire extinguisher handy.)
Railroads are not alone in distributing that light of peace. ORF (the Austrian Broadcasting Service), Scouting groups, and the
Austrian Red Cross all participate, but it is the railroads, with their network of thousands of trains and many hundreds of stations, that make the light of peace accessible to even the residents of the smallest
and most far-flung towns. Even there, candles for the church or the local Christmas procession can be lit from a flame that has come from Bethlehem.
When the annual Christmas procession retracing the steps of the authors of "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" (Silent Night,
Holy Night) begins in the tiny village of Arnsdorf, heading to Oberndorf, the marchers there, too, have lit their candles from the light distributed by the railroaders. In this case, they are employees of the
Salzburger Lokalbahn (SLB or Salzburg Local Railway), who received the flame from the Austrian Federal Railways. Arnsdorf, where one of the authors lived, and Oberndorf, where the much-beloved Christmas song was
first heard, are only a few miles from Salzburg.
On Christmas Eve morning, the SLB makes a special run to the end of its line with its pride and joy, a 1908 self-propelled car that
is beautifully restored and still fully operational. The electronic departure board in Salzburg even announces “Friedenslicht.” Passengers are welcome to ride for free, and a handful usually do – but the most
honored passenger is a small lantern, with a carefully guarded flame.
During stops in the small towns above Salzburg, young and old come to light their own candles from that simple lantern, helping to
spread that light of peace from Bethlehem. Volunteer musicians from the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) accompany this run and engage in "Adventblasen" – the performance of seasonal music by a small
brass band…
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Frankfurt for Fun
by Leah Larkin
A modern skyline, congenial pubs, fine shopping, and wonderful culinary choices are highlighted during a sentimental return to
“Mainhattan.”
Waiters wearing black vests rushed back and forth carrying plates brimming with German delicacies and gray crockery pitchers filled
with apple wine. Customers crowded at tables, some with long benches, in this lively eatery with its woodsy, cozy décor. It was our first night in Frankfurt at one of the city’s famous apple wine (Ebbelwei) taverns in the Sachsenhausen district.
“This is the kind of place you’d expect to find in Munich,” remarked my husband. However, apple wine, not beer, was the drink of
choice, and Sachsenhausen, on the south side of the Main River, is filled with gemütlich pubs and taverns where Frankfurt’s favorite brew can be enjoyed. The low-alcoholic beverage, which has a strange, sour
taste, is said to be good for the circulation and nervous systems. According to one German friend, “You must drink at least five before it begins to taste good and you must drink it with Handkäs mit Musik,”
small pickled cheeses and sliced onions, a local specialty.
We passed on the cheese and opted for roast goose with red cabbage and dumplings instead. It was November, the time for eating goose
in Germany, and our meal was superb. As were the two days we spent rediscovering Frankfurt, a city many know only by its airport, the busiest in continental Europe.
It is worth leaving the airport and exploring this dynamic, exciting city. I had visited many times when I lived in nearby Darmstadt
years ago, relishing my trips to the big city with its throbbing pace. This time I went back to some of my favorite haunts but made tracks in some new territory as well. I was enthralled, sharing the feelings of
a Darmstadt friend who hails from Frankfurt.
“I am impressed by my hometown,” she said. “It’s so lively. People at outdoor stands drinking wine…open markets… yet there’s still a
lot of elegance. In the banking district you see men in black suits and women well dressed. There are stores with elegant merchandise.”
That first evening we crossed the Main River and followed a pedestrian path along the shore on the Sachsenhausen side. The view
across the water of the city’s imposing collection of skyscrapers was magnificent. The city, sometimes called “Mainhattan,” has Germany’s tallest buildings – the Commerzbank, at eight hundred fifty-four feet,
ranks as Europe’s tallest office building. Frankfurt is Germany’s financial center and a pressing need for office space has driven construction upwards, with more new buildings on the horizon.
The city of six hundred fifty thousand was largely demolished in World War II, but painstaking reconstruction has recaptured an ambience of the old at the Römerberg, a large square of
half-timbered buildings dominated by the Römer, a building complex of three merchant houses which the city purchased in 1405 and converted into the town hall. The three gabled silhouette of the Gothic building,
which still serves as the Rathaus, has become the city symbol.
The area will soon be bustling as the heart of Frankfurt’s huge Weihnachtsmarkt whose history dates back to 1393. Back then the
market at the Römerberg was accompanied by performances of ecclesiastical mystery plays. These days it is the venue for stands selling everything from ornaments and tasty sausages to pots and pans and Glühwein.
A souvenir favorite is a piece of “Bembel,” the local blue and gray stoneware used for the popular apple wine pitchers, as well as dishes and vases – all for sale at several stands.
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Festive Vienna
by Lucy Gordan
Celebrate the holiday season in the land of Sachertorte and Lipizzaners.
Venice, Prague, and Vienna are Europe's most nostalgic and romantic cities – places proud of their glorious pasts, not on today's cutting edge, but perfect for soaking up the refined
local atmosphere. Think Vienna and images of the blue Danube, waltzing couples, prancing Lipizzaner horses, Mozart, Vienna's world-famous choirboys, the historic opera house, coffee and Sachertorte, the grandeur
of the Hapsburg dynasty's palaces and schatzkammer or treasury, the Wienerwald or Vienna woods which inspired Beethoven, and Grinzing's inns to taste heurigen or young wines – will all float across your daydream.
Advent – from mid November to Christmas Eve – is the perfect season for a visit to Vienna. Unlike most German cities with one large Christmas market each, Vienna, a city of bon
vivants, boasts six major Christkindlmärkte, each in a different neighborhood, but with the common denominator of many small vendors offering Christmas decorations, Glühwein (mulled wine), and kartoffelpuffer
(potatoes roasted with garlic). The aromas of roasting chestnuts, cinnamon, cloves, gingerbread, and fir trees (for sale on many street corners) waft through the tingling frosty air. As they go from markt to
markt, the well bundled, joyous, and unhurried crowds do not seem the least bothered by the at-times icy gusts of wind.
Elegant, understated strands of sparkling Swarovski crystal lights – like the chandeliers in the city's ballrooms of yore – twinkle above the several downtown pedestrian shopping
streets: Kohlmarkt, Graben, and Kärtnerstrasse, branching out from the beloved majestic Gothic cathedral, Stephansdom, affectionately nicknamed "Steffl," the equivalent of "Stevie" in
English. For schedules of the free concerts held here and in many other Viennese churches during Advent read the wall posters around town.
The tradition of Christkindlmärkte in Vienna goes back seven centuries. In 1296, Duke Albrecht I granted the Viennese the privilege of organizing a "Dezembermarkt" over
fourteen consecutive days at which mostly textiles and groceries were sold. In the sixteenth century, its name changed to "Thomasmarkt" and it took place the week between Christmas and New Years,
adding pastries to the merchandise. About two hundred years later – in 1764 to be precise – its name changed again to "Nikolo-und-Weihnachtsmarkt" (St. Nicholas and Christmas market) or
"krippenmarkt” (crèche market) at Freyung, the triangular uphill square lined with fine recently restored Baroque buildings, now home to fashionable boutiques, cafés (particularly special the Central at
Herrengasse/Strauchgasse), and art galleries.
Christmas as celebrated today dates to the "Biedermeier" – when the Viennese aristocracy began imitating the northern-German tradition of setting up elaborate Christmas trees
in their feudal homes, but it was not until after the Wiener Kongress or Vienna Congress in 1814 that gift-giving began. At this time, there was still only one market located on the vast centrally located
monumental square "Am Hof." We know from surviving invoices that it was like any ordinary market except that its many small vendors also sold silver-plated nuts, candles, and tinsel.
One of Vienna's six Christmas markets is still at "Am Hof" (first district – www.kunsthandwerksmarkt.at); another still in Freyung (both a short walk up the Graben from
Stephansdom or easily accessible on the U2 subway line or trams 1, 2, and D). Today, the many stands at "Am Hof" specialize in wooden toys, while those at nearby Freyung (first district –
www.altwiener-markt.at) tempt visitors with Austrian cheese, sausages, and homemade sweets, all to be washed down with spicy Glühwein…
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Feather Trees: Germany’s First Artificial Christmas Tree
by Brenda Ruggiero
A German holiday tradition finds renewed life through American craftsmen.
It seems that beautiful works of art are sometimes born out of necessity. While they serve their purpose at the time and
fulfill the immediate need, their timeless beauty may then endure to touch future generations and create a link to the past. Such is the legacy of the feather tree.
Artificial Christmas trees made of goose feathers were first created in Germany in the nineteenth century, according to
Felicitas Hoeptner of the German Christmas Museum. At that time, decorated trees were becoming a popular part of the holidays, but there was growing concern that trees would be depleted from the forests. The
result was artificial trees fashioned after the white pines that were found in the German forests.
Goose feathers were readily available, and were wrapped around stiff wire to form the branches, which were then attached to a
wooden rod that served as the trunk. A stable base then supported the entire tree.
“German immigrants brought feather trees with them when they sailed across the Atlantic to the New World,” explained Merry
Cotton of M.C. Cotton and Associates, a producer of feather tree kits in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. The original trees, which are currently a popular collectible, are sometimes called the Nuremberg
Christmas tree.
Feather trees were soon being imported in several sizes, and many families reportedly sent them to soldiers on the frontiers
during World War I.
“Their popularity was increased when President Theodore Roosevelt also responded to the diminishing supply of fresh evergreens in
America by ordering that no live trees be used in the White House holiday decorations,” Cotton said.
Around 1920, they were first offered in the United States through the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog. She noted that the most popular
versions were green, but trees were also created in white, lavender, and gold. Decorations often included hand-blown glass ornaments, homemade tallow candles, and fresh garland.
“In the 1950s, a sad-looking Christmas tree similar in style to the feather tree appeared in the Charlie Brown comic strip,” Cotton
said. “A sort of revival of feather trees occurred, probably in response to the popular comic hero. Some feather tree enthusiasts even refer to them as ‘Charlie Brown Trees.’”
According to Hoeptner, most people in Germany forgot about the feather trees as artificial trees made of plastic became a
cheaper alternative.
“As far as we know here, the interest in feather trees came up again in the U.S. in the 1980s,” she said. “In the meantime,
they are reproduced again.”
Feather trees have achieved a new level of status in recent years among Christmas enthusiasts and Christmas crafters, according
to Cotton.
“I would have to say I’ve seen the feather tree business boom,” she said. “The completion of a feather tree represents the
epitome of craft projects, as they afford the crafter the challenge of creating an enchanting reproduction of a bit of folk art as well as a family heirloom.”
Cotton’s interest in feather trees took root in her childhood holiday memories as she grew up in northern Ohio and Pennsylvania…
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Victory at Yorktown – Hessian Views of the Aftermath
by Robert A. Selig
Hessian soldiers recount the devastation left in the wake of the battle that effectively ended the Revolutionary War.
OCTOBER 19 [1781]. In the afternoon between 3:00
and 4:00, we and all the troops of Lord Cornwallis' army marched out of our line with all our packs and equipment with covered colors but ringing music. We marched along Williamsburg Street through the entire
enemy army, all of whose regiments stood armed in parade line and made fine music, particularly the musicians of the French. … We marched in procession through the enemy and the drummers beat a march. The French
stood on our right as we marched out and paraded magnificently. They were mostly fine young men and looked very good.
At the left stood the Americans, first of all the regular troops, afterwards the Virginia Militia, who, however, couldn't hold a
candle to the first ones and were just like night and day. We observed all these troops with amazement and were staggered by the multitude of them who had besieged us. We appreciated also at the same time … that
they could have eaten us up with their power. For they had munitions, provisions, and everything imaginable in abundance and lacked nothing. It was a good thing for us that they had negotiated such an agreement
with us.
With these lines, twenty-six-year-old Stephan Popp from Dachsbach near Neustadtander-Aisch, appointed lieutenant in the
Ansbach-Bayreuth Regiment von Seybothen on the day of the surrender, records one of the most momentous events in United States and world history. Few of Popp's contemporaries, though happy with the events of
October 1781, thought that the surrender of Lord Cornwallis meant victory in the war and independence for the United States. The "ragged Continentals" and their French allies had undoubtedly won an
important victory, but writing on 20 October, the day after the surrender, General George Washington considered Cornwallis' surrender but "an interesting event that may be productive of much good if
properly improved." And on 26 October, General Mad Anthony Wayne used almost identical words in a letter to Robert Morris, in which he described the victory as "an event of the utmost consequence & if properly improved, may be productive of a glorious & happy peace."
Washington and Wayne knew all too well that the more than seven thousand officers and men taken prisoners constituted only about
one-fourth of the British land forces operating on the American mainland – Sir Henry Clinton still had over ten thousand troops available in New York City alone, while ten thousand more were stationed in
Charleston, Canada, and Louisiana. However, none of this mattered to Lieutenant Popp and his fellow German prisoners, that is, the two Ansbach-Bayreuth regiments von Voit and von Seybothen, the Hessian Regiments Erbprinz and von Bose, and Johann Ewald's Jäger,
altogether almost two thousand officers and men. For them, the war was over, though many more difficult days lay ahead of Lieutenant Popp during the more than two years as prisoner of war and on the Atlantic
Ocean before he would see his home again.
His stay in Yorktown would be but brief: the departure of Popp, guarded by Virginia militia, on 21 October was the beginning of a
huge draw-down of personnel at Yorktown made necessary by the sheer number of humans gathered there. Continental Army (five thousand nine hundred) and Virginia Militia (three thousand three hundred) amounted to
about nine thousand two hundred Americans. French forces under Rochambeau (five thousand) and the Marquis de St. Simon (three thousand five hundred) plus six thousand Marines and another twenty-four thousand
naval officers and seamen on the fleet in the York River, not to mention the more than seven thousand POWs, brought the total number of people assembled in and around Yorktown to at least fifty-five thousand.
That was twice the size of Philadelphia, the largest city on the North American mainland. "In the afternoon about 3:00 we were marched out of Yorktown as prisoners of war. … We made a march of 5 to 6 miles
and camped in the open … . Our tents remained standing in our line and we had to turn them over to the enemy. Still we were happy that they had taken nothing else by force."
Popp and his fellow Germans could indeed be "happy," for Yorktown lay in ruins and was a dangerous place even after the
fighting had ceased. Eyewitnesses such as Private John Hudson, who had served as a thirteen-year-old (he was born in June 1768) boy-soldier at the siege in Colonel Goose Van Schaick's First New York Regiment,
later remembered how the scene appeared to him:
"I visited the town, and walked through it until I came to the road leading to the river. I expected from the character of the
siege to find every thing in the place covered with blood, nor was I disappointed. … The road, as well as land on the right side, descended gently to the beach; and on that side were several cellars, which had
been covered with frame buildings, of at least four rooms to the floor. The buildings had been blown to pieces and no sign of them left; and the cellars were all filled with dead bodies, rounding over the level
of the cellar walls and covered with earth."…
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How Bright Appears the Morning Star
by Roy Ledbetter
Geometry and Moravian tradition emanate from each beautiful Moravian Star.
In 1599, Philip Nicolai, a Lutheran pastor on the Elbe River in Hamburg, wrote the words of one of Germany’s best known Advent hymns, this article’s title: “How bright appears the
Morning Star, with mercy beaming from afar.” Each year across Germany, the words of the hymn come to life on the First Sunday in Advent as the many-pointed Advent Star from Herrnhut, a small city in between
Loebau and Zittau in the mountains of Upper Lusatia in Saxony near the Czech border, delights the eyes of church goers across the land from the dome of the beautifully reconstructed Frauenkirche in Dresden to
the internationally well-known Thomaskirche of Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig. The Advent Star shines also from the Himalayan marches of Ladakh to the sunbaked shores of the Cape of Good Hope, from the frozen
coast of Labrador to the steamy riverbanks of Surinam.
Often called the “Moravian Star,” the star is also found throughout the United States. The Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, founded in 1742, boasts a twelve-foot diameter yellow twenty-six-point star that hangs in the pulpit arch there. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, founded by Moravians in 1766, uses the white
twenty-six-point Advent Star as its official Christmas decoration on the streets of the city; and, during Advent, a great star with one hundred ten points greets arrivals in the Lancaster airport in Pennsylvania.
In times past, the stars in America were usually concentrated in areas with Moravians: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and the Upper
Midwest. Now they may be seen in lots of places. It still startles me to see the familiar Advent Star here in the wilds of Missouri where I now live. Produced commercially by the Moravian Church in Herrnhut, the
paper stars are available now in many stores throughout the world, as are plastic stars produced by a minister in North Carolina, so they are not confined to areas with Moravian congregations anymore.
The origins of the Advent Star, as it is correctly called, are well known if the name of the originator is not. The Moravian Church
(officially the Unitas Fratrum, die Evangelische Brueder-Unitaet or Evangelische Bruedergemeine or Herrnhuter Bruedergemeine) has been known since 1724 for its schools throughout the world.
Two of the most famous Moravian schools in Germany claim to be the birthplace of the “Moravian “ Advent Star.
Kleinwelka near Bautzen, was seat of the Missionsanstalt, a boarding school for the children of Moravian missionaries. From
mission fields all over the world, missionaries’ children returned to Saxony for their formal education, beginning in the boarding school there in Kleinwelka. The Paedagogium in Niesky in Silesia was a boarding school with a classics program for non-Moravian boys as well as for pupils preparing for the Moravian Seminary. Both of these schools lay claim to the title of birthplace of the Advent Star. Although it was in one of them, no one knows for sure which one it was.
Since the boys lived in the schools full time, they had to be occupied all day every day. They lived in the boarding schools in “Room
Companies” supervised by a tutor and attended classes every day but Sunday. About 1850, an unknown teacher or tutor in one of the schools invented the Advent Star as a way to keep his boys busy as well as a way
to teach his young charges the basics of geometry. With straight edge, compass, and pencil, the pupils learned to measure and draw the squares, triangles, hexagons, pentagons, and other figures that produce the
stars in their many permutations…
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Gallery:
Fraktur: An American Folk Art Rooted in Old-World Traditions
by Cynthia Elyce Rubin
As immigrants from Germanic Europe assimilated into the American melting pot to form our early nation, they brought Old World
artistic traditions to their newly settled land. Countless artisans perpetuated a heritage that we acknowledge today as an outstanding Germanic contribution to American Folk Art.
It was William Penn's founding of Pennsylvania that set in motion the first substantial migrations from German-speaking groups in
Europe, the upper Rhine country of Germany, Alsace in France, and the German cantons (districts) of Switzerland. Penn made two trips to the Netherlands and Germany in 1671 and 1677, respectively, and his
philosophy of religious and economic freedom was further disseminated in pamphlets and through agents hired to recruit colonists. Glowing accounts of the New World were also echoed in publications such as Daniel
Falckner's Curieuse Nachricht von Pennsylvania, a 1702 tract describing a country where "fertility is excellent…[and] whereby all things grow with a more rapid energy, and give one a second harvest,
just as plentiful, if not more."
As these immigrants adapted to life in America, customs and arts were transplanted, changed, and eventually influenced by and shared
with neighboring communities. Folk art in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland took many forms, often determined by the regional characteristics of the different regions but usually inextricably tied to aspects of
work and domestic life. Rich, brightly colored decoration embellished ordinary items. In America, Germanic craftsmen continued their artistic expression with traditional Rhenish motifs – the heart, tulip,
sunwheel, flowers, and birds – on furniture, pottery, tools, and documents.
Of the Old World visual repertoire of symbols, many of them having both religious and non-religious meanings, the heart occupies a
central place. Considered the source of understanding, love, courage, devotion, sorrow, and joy, the heart is symbolic of many facets of earthly life and pertains to every member of the human race. Flowers, most
often the tulip, reflect the fragility of life. Birds, such as parrots and eagles, display an interest in the natural world. Angels, crowns, and the pervasive sun or sunwheel with its variation of the whirling
swastika or fylfot, were also popular graphics.
Foremost among American arts that incorporated these early motifs is fraktur. In American usage, the word “fraktur” takes on meaning
that goes beyond its original German designation, defined by Alexander Schem in his 1871 German-American Conversation Lexicon as a word used in the printing trade for a font or typeface. Fraktur, a shortened form of Frakturschriften (Fraktur Writings), is derived from the Latin word fractura meaning a broken or fractured style of lettering or calligraphy. There are two traditional explanations. As a fraktur is handwritten, the writing instrument is lifted from the paper after each letter is completed, which leaves a "break" between letters. The second explanation is that it refers to the breaking up of formerly round forms in the typeface, such as the O or U letter. The writing may or may not center around a text (usually religious), but it always is decorated with symbolic designs of the Pennsylvania German tradition…
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Language:
Auf deutschen Spuren in Cincinnati
Von Gert Niers
Der romantische Dichter Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gebrauchte (allerdings nicht als erster) den Beinamen “Queen of the West,” und
noch heute spricht man von “Queen City,” wenn man Cincinnati, Ohio, meint. David Ziegler aus Heidelberg war der erste Bürgermeister (nach ihm ist ein Park benannt worden), und der hohe deutsche
Bevölkerungsanteil, zumal in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, ist bis zum heutigen Tag auf vielfältige Weise spürbar.
Die inzwischen 331.285 Einwohner (Census des Jahres 2000) zählende Großstadt am Ohio River wurde 1788 von John Cleves Symmes und
Robert Patterson gegründet. Der Landvermesser John Filson gab dem Ort den Namen Losantiville, eine linguistische Eigenschöpfung, die auf die geografische Lage Bezug nimmt. Arthur St. Clair, Gouverneur des
damaligen Nordwest-Territoriums, änderte 1790 den Namen zu “Cincinnati” um, weil er damit die Society of the Cincinnati, deren Vorsitzender er war, verewigen wollte. Diese Gesellschaft huldigte George
Washington, der als zeitgenössischer Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus gefeiert wurde – jener sagenumwobene römische Feldherr, der seine Stadt rettete, der Verführung der Macht widerstand und sich auf seinem Landgut
zur Ruhe setzte.
Der deutsche Bevölkerungsanteil von Cincinnati beträgt heute 20 Prozent oder rund 66,000 Einwohner und stellt die größte ethnische
Gruppe dar. Ihr ehemaliges Viertel hieß – aus Gründen sentimentaler Erinnerung – “Überm Rhein.” Gemeint war damit eine Gegend jenseits des Miami-Erie-Kanals, der den Ohio River mit dem Miami River verband und
somit einen verkürzten Wasserweg zum Erie-See erschloss. Bereits um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts verlor jedoch dieses Kanalsystem an Bedeutung und wurde streckenweise zugeschüttet. In Cincinnati verläuft heute
der Central Parkway, wo sich einst der Kanal befand.
Im Zuge der verstärkten Einwanderung nach 1848 ließen sich deutsche Einwander auch in anderen Teilen der Stadt nieder. Trotz der
antideutschen Hysterie, die während des Ersten Weltkriegs dem deutschen Element – nicht nur in Cincinnati – irreparablen Schaden zufügte, lassen sich heute noch zahlreiche Spuren deutscher Präsenz nachweisen.
Im ehemals deutschen Viertel sind es zunächst zahlreiche Kirchen verschiedener Konfession, deren Architektur an deutschen
Sakralbauten ausgerichtet ist. Gottesdienste in deutscher Sprache werden noch in der katholischen Marienkirche und in der Concordia Lutheran Church gehalten…
Tracing Cincinnati’s German Heritage
by Gert Niers
The Romantic poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used (however, not as the first one) the epithet “Queen of the West,” and still today we
speak of the “Queen City” when we refer to Cincinnati, Ohio. David Ziegler from Heidelberg was the first mayor (a park has been named after him), and the high percentage of citizens of German background,
particularly in the second half of the nineteenth century, can still be felt in many ways today.
The city on the Ohio River (331,285 inhabitants according to the census of the year 2000) was founded in 1788 by John Cleves Symmes
and Robert Patterson. To give the place a name, surveyor John Filson chose Losantiville, a linguistic creation of his own reflecting the geographic location. Arthur St. Clair, the governor of what was then the
Northwest Territory, changed the name to “Cincinnati” because he wanted to give everlasting recognition to the Society of the Cincinnati whose president he was. This society revered George Washington as a contemporary Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus – the legendary Roman general who saved his town, withstood the temptation of power, and retired on his countryside estate.
Today Cincinnati’s sixty-six thousand inhabitants of German heritage make up twenty percent of the population and represent the
largest ethnic group. For reasons of nostalgia, their former quarter was called “Over-the-Rhine” referring to the area beyond the Miami-Erie Canal that connected the Ohio River with the Miami River, and thereby
opened a shortened waterway to Lake Erie. However, this canal system had already lost importance around the middle of the nineteenth century and was partially filled in. In Cincinnati, Central Parkway is running
today where once the canal took its way.
Due to increased immigration after 1848, German immigrants also settled in other parts of the city. Although the anti-German hysteria
during World War I caused irreparable damage to the German element (not just in Cincinnati), many traces of a German presence can still be identified today.
First of all, there are numerous churches for different denominations in the former German quarter. Their architecture is clearly
influenced by the style of ecclesiastical buildings in the old country. Religious services conducted in the German language are still being held in St. Mary (Catholic) and Concordia Lutheran Church…
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At Home:
Christmas Cookies: Traditional Holiday Treats
by Sharon Hudgins
Who could imagine Christmas in Europe without all the special cookies that are traditionally baked for this important holiday?
During almost a decade of writing this food column for German Life, I've shared with readers my own favorite recipes for
several German Christmas cookies: Springerle, Lebkuchen Bars, Cinnamon Stars, Peppernuts, Spekulatius. However, my files are full of recipes for other cookies that you'll also find on those platters of homemade
treats that every German, Swiss, and Austrian home baker proudly serves to guests at this time of year.
Anise Drop Cookies are pale, elegant, little
cookies – about the size of an American quarter or a one Euro coin – with a puffy meringue-like top. They aren't super-sweet, but they have a haunting flavor that makes you keep going back for just one more
cookie...then another...then another.... Because they're not very sweet, these cookies are sometimes served as an accompaniment to German and Alsatian white wines. Anisplätzchen is the standard German spelling, but you'll also find them called Anislaiberl in Bavaria, Anisplätzle in Schwabia, and Anisbredle or Anisbretle across the border in Alsace.
Europeans from Scandinavia in the north to Greece in the south have hundreds of recipes for cookies made with honey and spices. I
especially like this recipe for crunchy Honey-Spice Cookies that are very easy to make. You can also tart them up with a lemon-flavored white icing glaze.
This recipe for Swiss Hazelnut Cookies was given to me by a German friend whose husband is allergic to eggs. Although she has
had to modify her cooking to eliminate eggs from all dishes, she still manages to make a variety of delicious egg-free Christmas cookies every year.
Frohes Weihnachten!
ANISE DROP COOKIES
NOTE: I use a heavy-duty electric mixer to make these cookies, because they require a lot of beating. Thank goodness for such
labor-saving devices! Think how much effort it took our great-grandmothers to beat by hand the eggs and other ingredients for this recipe, using only a whisk.
1 tablespoon anise seeds
2-1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour (sifted before measuring)
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1-1/3 granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Set your oven at its lowest temperature setting. Put the anise seeds in a small plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
Mix the flour and anise seeds in a bowl, and place the mixture in the oven to warm while you prepare the other ingredients.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed until they are very pale (5 to 7 minutes). Gradually add
the sugar, beating well after each addition. Continue beating (5 to 7 minutes longer) or until the mixture forms a "ribbon" when you lift the beaters out of it. Beat in the vanilla extract. Sprinkle in
the warmed flour-anise mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
Butter and flour four large baking sheets. Drop the dough by half-teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets, placing each cookie one inch apart. Try to drop the sticky dough into smooth rounds (you'll get better with practice). The cookies will flatten slightly, to about one inch in diameter (maximum). If they spread too much, beat another 1/4 cup of flour into the dough before you put any more dough onto the baking sheet.
Let the cookies dry on the baking sheet, uncovered, at room temperature in a warm kitchen for 12 to 18 hours.
Preheat the oven to 325° F. Bake the cookies on the middle rack of the oven, one baking sheet at a time, for 8 to 10 minutes –
only until the bottoms are pale golden and the tops are still white. Immediately remove the cookies with a spatula and set them on a wire rack to cool completely. You can then store them up to four weeks in an
airtight container. The flavor of these cookies improves as they age.
Makes approximately 160 bite-size cookies.
NOTE: These cookies are best made in cool, dry weather. Don't try to make them on a day when the humidity is high. The flour will
absorb too much moisture, and the cookies won't puff up like they should when baking…
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Family Research:
Surnames Spur Loads of Interest
by James M. Beidler
No “Family Research” column has generated a greater volume of mail than the June/July article on surnames, which really drills home what a basic yearning there is for learning
about the family names in one’s genealogy.
German Life reader Nancy Yuelkenbeck said she had started genealogy research more than twenty years ago by going through old papers her mother had found. “We determined that my
grandfather came from Westphalia,” Yuelkenbeck wrote. This agreed with what one of her father’s friends had said about him coming from Münster, the capital city of Westphalia. Her father died when she was young
and other relatives were gone before she was born, so that is as far as she took things.
Then, three years ago, a friend’s husband was transferred to Frankfurt, Germany, and Yuelkenbeck visited the friend, Susanne, who had grown up in Germany. “I told her I would like
to see Münster, so she allowed for an afternoon stop there on our weekend trip by train to Amsterdam,” she wrote. “We made our way to the city offices, where we were referred to the Catholic archives.”
At the archives, they arrived before it closed for noontime and put in an order to see church books when it reopened. During the lunch break, they were directed to the church in
which indexes had indicated there would be Jülkenbecks. “I was able to see the church where my grandfather and, as we found out later in the afternoon, his one brother, six sisters, and parents were baptized,”
Yuelkenbeck wrote.
“The lady in the archives gave me the name of Burkhard Jülkenbeck, who had been in the archives doing some research a few years before,” Yuelkenbeck wrote. “When I returned home,
I was entering the information I had obtained in a family tree on Ancestry.com and entered Burkhard’s name in a search on one of the pages on that site.”
She sent him a short e-mail to confirm that he spoke English, which he did. “He had not come across my line of the Jülkenbecks yet, but added us into his tree going back to the
1600s (at the top is a female who inherited the family farm, so her husband took her name),” Yuelkenbeck wrote. “I visited Germany again in 2004 and spent a week with Burkhard in Münster.”
Last year, October 2005, she visited again – in the meantime he had researched her grandmother’s family from an old change of address card that she had received many years ago and
for some reason was in with the few papers of her dad’s that her mother had passed on to her…
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Calendar:
November
December
Frederick, MD
December 1: Der Stammtisch monthly social gathering at Brewer’s Alley, 124 N. Market Street. Call 301-631-0127 and ask for Fritz or Stammtisch.
San Antonio, TX
December 1: Beethoven King William Area Event at the Beethoven Halle und Garten, 422 Pereida Street. Call 210-222-1521.
Sparta, NJ
December 1 – 2: 5th Annual German Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt) on the shores of Lake Mohawk. Call 718-816-8167 ext. 410 or visit www.lakemohawkgermanchristmasmarketcom
Fredericksburg, TX
December 1 – 3: 9th Annual Weihnachten in Fredericksburg. Call 1-888-997-3600 or visit www.tex-fest.com .
Leavenworth, WA
December 1 – 3: Christmas Lighting Festival. Email info@leavenworth.org or call 509-548-5807.
Tulsa, OK
December 1 – 3: 8th Annual Christkindlmarkt at the German American Society of Tulsa building, 2301 East 15th Street. Call 918-744-6997 or visit www.gastulsa.org .
Denver, CO
December 1 – 22: 7th Annual Denver Christkindl Market. Visit www.denverchristkindlmarket.com/ or email Fred Reim at foreim@msn.com.
San Antonio, TX
December 2: Kristkindlmarkt at the Beethoven Halle und Garten, 422 Pereida Street. Call 210-222-1521.
Adamstown, PA
December 3, 10, 17, 24: Christkindlmarkt. Events held at noon. Call 717-484-4386 or visit www.stoudtsbeer.com.
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
December 6 – 10: 10th Annual Kitchener Christkindlmarkt. Visit www.christkindlcanada.com .
Washington, D.C.
December 7: The German Historical Institute’s Competing Modernities Lecture Series with Philipp Gassert (University of Heidelberg) and Christina von Hodenberg (Queen Mary College, University of London) at 1607 New Hampshire Ave., NW. Must
call 202-387-3355 or email events@ghi-dc.org for reservations, or visit www.ghi-dc.org for more info.
Mifflinburg, PA
December 7 – 9: 18th Annual Christkindl Market. Visit www.Mifflinburgpa.com/Christkindl.htm .
Leavenworth, WA
December 8 – 10: Christmas Lighting Festival. Email info@leavenworth.org or call 509-548-5807.
San Antonio, TX
December 9: Christmas Party, Maennerchor/Damenchor at the Beethoven Halle und Garten, 422 Pereida Street. Call 210-222-1521.
Washington, D.C.
December 14: The German Historical Institute’s Competing Modernities Lecture Series with Simone Lässig (German Historical Institute) and Rainer Praetorius (Helmut Schmidt University) at 1607 New Hampshire Ave., NW. Must call 202-387-3355 or
email events@ghi-dc.org for reservations, or visit www.ghi-dc.org for more info.
Leavenworth, WA
December 15 – 17: Christmas Lighting Festival. Email info@leavenworth.org or call 509-548-5807.
Danbury, NH
December 17: German Cookie Making Class. Inn at Danbury & Alphorn Bistro. Call 603-768-3318, email info@innatdanbury.com , or visit www.innatdanbury.com .
Washington, DC
December 17: Washington Saengerbund’s Traditional Christmas Concert. United Church, 20th & G Streets, NW. For information visit www.saengerbund.org .
Oakford, PA
December 17: Christmas Party and Show. Visit www.ughclub.us/.
San Antonio, TX
December 31: New Year’s Eve Party at the Beethoven Halle und Garten, 422 Pereida Street. Call 210-222-1521.
Oakford, PA
December 31: A Gala New Year’s Eve Party. Visit www.ughclub.us/.
January
Frederick, MD
January 5: Der Stammtisch monthly social gathering at Brewer’s Alley, 124 N. Market Street.
Call 301-631-0127 and ask for Fritz or Stammtisch.
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