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April/May 2008
Gallery: Max Liebermann – “The Monet of the Germans”
by Phyllis Meras
In the 1860s, upper-class Berliners began to build elegant villas set in restful gardens on the shores of Berlin’s Grosser (Greater) Wannsee Lake. There, on the blue-green waters,
sailboats tacked back and forth. The Koenigliche Forst (the Royal Forest) was nearby for Sunday afternoon excursions. Neighbors were largely of a kind – successful industrialists, publishers, and entrepreneurs.
This suburban community flourished and, in 1909, the German Impressionist painter Max Liebermann, whose family house was on Pariser Platz near the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, built himself a Wannsee
“country” villa. In those days, it did not matter that Max Liebermann was a Jew.
Designed by Paul Otto Baumgartner, a popular Berlin architect of the day, the Liebermann dwelling was in neo-classical Roman style and house and garden were integrally linked. From the
kitchen garden in front, one could look through the dining room, across a patio to two flower terraces, boxwood hedges, and a lawn with an avenue of birch trees down to the lake. The garden was formal in style
and based on the designs of Gustav Meyer, the gardener to the royal family. Liebermann called his property his “small Versailles.”
Before his death in 1935, two years after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, Max Liebermann painted some two hundred oils and numerous pastels and watercolors on his Wannsee property. They
were all sunny, romantic works that somehow put the viewer among the garden beds, beneath a chestnut tree or in the birch tree avenue.
Born in 1847, the son of a wealthy Jewish family that had been successful first in the textile business, then in iron, and later in banking, Max Liebermann decided early in life that he
wanted to be a painter, and in gymnasium (high school) was already sketching and painting. Next, he began studying seriously at the studio of Carl von Steffeck, the most renowned painter of horses in Germany of
his day. A fellow student there was Wilhelm von Bode, who became director of the Berlin art museum that now bears his name. Bode was an admirer of seventeenth-century Dutch painting and introduced Liebermann to
it. Earnest young Liebermann soon was learning to paint by copying Frans Hals works and he was instructed in landscape painting at the Weimar Academy of Art.
In 1871, when he was twenty-four, he made his first trip to Holland, falling in love with the simple rural life he saw that was in such contrast to sophisticated Berlin. For a long time
after that, he painted Dutch country scenes. Indeed, until the start of World War I, he summered each year in Holland, making drawings for realistic works he would paint in the winter…
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Global Warming – Germany’s Fight to Stay Cool
by Matt Johanson
Be it fact or fiction, as concern for the possible effects of global warming grows, Germany steps forward as a leader in initiating change for the future.
Getting world leaders to recognize the incremental effects of global warming has challenged environmental leaders for decades, but Frank Huber does not have to look far to see
evidence that his climate, at least, is changing. The chief architect of Zugspitze’s ski slopes, Huber has worked with a steadily shrinking glacier and an ever-decreasing amount of snow each year for decades,
and to him, the trend is unmistakable.
“Global warming is here. I’m sure of it,” said the twenty-year veteran of Germany’s highest mountain. “There used to be years up here when we got ten or twelve meters of snow.
Last year, we got two. Every year, ice is melting away. I think we have to live with it.”
However, that does not mean giving up. Every summer, Huber and his workers cover some twelve thousand square meters of Zugspitze’s glacier with protective tarps, which reflect the
sun’s heat, thereby slowing the glacier’s recession.
Similarly, Germany is acting to combat climate change and adapting to its effects. Passing an energy tax to finance the production of solar energy facilities and approving a
cap-and-trade system of reducing factory emissions, the nation has taken steps towards reducing its carbon footprint that other G-8 nations like the United States have so far refused to match.
“Maybe this shows a little bit of the German character. We are trying to do something,” said Dr. Ludwig Ries of the Federal Environment Agency, who supervises an atmospheric study
facility near Zugspitze’s summit. Like other monitoring stations around the world, the mountainside base has measured carbon dioxide levels increasing at a rate scientists consider dangerous to the global
climate.
“There is a considerable number of people in Germany who are aware the environment is warming,” Ries said. “They are aware of the world we are giving back to our children. They are also
aware we live in a way that we can’t continue to live. Germany is one of the biggest producers of carbon dioxide in Europe.”
More efficient power plants and buildings, increased investment in renewable energy sources such as wind, and calculating automobile taxes based on carbon dioxide emissions were among
Germany’s additional measures passed in 2007, with more slated to follow in 2008.
“I think that the effectiveness in German policy lies in the combination of these different measures,” said Enrico Brandt of the German Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The investment is not cheap: 3.3 billion Euros (about $4.8 billion) in 2008 alone. There are indirect costs as well; for example, Germans have paid through higher beer prices as farmers
turn away from barley in favor of corn to make ethanol. The price for an Oktoberfest liter climbed above $10.00 last year. However, the results are encouraging: through 2006, Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions
fell eighteen percent from the base year of 1990…
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Wolfenbüttel
by Zac Steger
Visit the former residence of the Welfs along the “Half-Timbered Route.”
The House of Welf is one of the oldest European dynasties and has included many German and British monarchs. For a period of three hundred twenty years, the Dukes of Braunschweig
held residence in Wolfenbüttel and their influence can be seen throughout the old town. Wolfenbüttel is also one of many charming towns on the Fachwerkstraße (Half-Timbered Road), which attracts visitors who
relish this charming old-world architecture.
Wolfenbüttel lies on the river Oker in Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) near Braunschweig (Brunswick), not far from the Harz Mountains. It was first mentioned in 1118, but was of little
interest until the Dukes of Braunschweig made it their residence in 1432. Gradually the arts began to thrive in the town and attracted famous residents including composer Michael Praetorius and author Gotthold
Ephraim Lessing. Not surprisingly, Wolfenbüttel lost its importance when the ducal court returned to Braunschweig in 1753.
In 1641, the Swedes defeated the Austrians here at the Battle of Wolfenbüttel during the Thirty Years’ War. Luckily, Wolfenbüttel was spared the damage seen by many of its neighbors in
World War II. It has retained much of its old charm and has many excellent examples of Fachwerk architecture.
Fine examples of half-timbered architecture can be seen throughout the pedestrian zones of the old town. From the Stadtmarkt through the surrounding streets, visitors can view this
charming style on the shops, restaurants, and hotels, as well as the Rathaus (Town Hall), which dates back to 1602.
Schloß Wolfenbüttel was first built in the sixteenth century and later rebuilt in the eighteenth century in the current Baroque style. This former ducal residence is the second largest
of its kind and houses the only High Baroque period ducal apartments in Lower Saxony. Today, the castle museum provides a look into the history of the town and shows some of the treasures of the Welfs, the
family line that would continue to the British throne.
The Herzog-August-Bibliothek (HAB) has one of the largest and most famous collections of ancient books in the world, particularly bibles and books from the Reformation period.
Originally founded in 1572 by Duke Julius in the castle, today’s structure was built between 1883 and 1887 and replaced the eighteenth century rotunda. It possesses over eight hundred thousand volumes, nearly
half of which date back to the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries…
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Germany Down Under – South Australia’s Barossa Valley
by James E. Held
German immigrants to “Oz” found a home where both they and their beloved grape vines thrived.
Every footfall stirs the dust of this sun-baked soil, as Werner Gattermayr leads us past rows of lush, laden vines. “With the Para River nearby,” our Austrian-born guide explains,
“kookaburras,” an aggressive Australian bird, “are natural pest-control to protect the ripening grapes from hungry silvereyes, parrots, and other birds.” Harvest at the Langmeil Winery nears as does the bustling, biannual Barossa Vintage Festival, but today little stirs under the blazing sun. Hard to believe we needed blankets for warmth last night, but “hot days, cold nights” forms the mantra for superlative wines in a tradition begun by German religious dissenters. “There they are,” says Werner as he points to the callused Shiraz vines first planted by Christian Auricht in 1847. Gnarled and beautiful as any bonsai tree, these three and a half acres of vines create Langmeil’s Freedom label,
named in honor of the freedom of worship that brought these immigrants to South Australia’s Barossa Valley in 1842.
In 1839, German explorer Johannes Menge prophesized, “…that we shall see flourishing vineyards…throughout New Silesia,” as the region was originally named. The low ranges and
valley between Lyndoch and Stockwell encompass only eighteen by five miles, yet sustain one of the oldest viticulture traditions outside of Europe. Over fifty wineries produce such celebrated names as Jacob
Creek, Penfolds Grange, Wolf Blass, Yalumba, Peter Lehmann, Basedow’s, Henschke’s Hill of Grace, and Lehmann’s Stonewell, among many others.
Still, amid gum trees, grasslands, and red soil, pioneers such as Pastor Kavel, Johann Gramp, and Joseph Seppelt knew they were far from home after religious strife had set this
migration in motion; while Anglo/Irish prisoners populated other Australian regions, these German settlers saw the island/continent not as a sentence but a new home – Prussian King, Frederick William III, a
Calvinist, imposed new liturgies on the Lutheran Church that dissenters such as Pastor Kavel rejected. Old Lutherans suffered fines, imprisonment, and property confiscation until Kavel met in London with the South Australia Company’s director, George Fife Angas. To populate the colony with industrious Germans, Angas sent them on a six-month voyage carrying not only belongings and bibles, but vine cuttings wrapped in damp cloths…
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The De-Fenestration of Prague, 23 May 1618, and the Origins of the Thirty Years' War
by Robert A. Selig
"'De·fen·es·tra·tion' – A noun with the etymology: de- + Latin fenestra, i.e., window. The throwing of a person or thing out of a
window." "Not a high-frequency word in the English language," most readers might be tempted to add on their own upon reading this term. As a matter of fact, the only time they are ever likely to
hear the word used is in the context of events that took place in the city of Prague almost four hundred years ago, when, on 23 May 1618, Czech nobles threw two imperial councilors, Wilhelm Slawata von Chlum and
Jaroslav Borsita von Martinic, together with their scribe Philip Fabricius, out of a window of the Hradschin, the famous castle towering over the city. The councilors only fell about sixteen feet and landed on a
pile of manure, thereby escaping serious injury, but the event became the spark for a war that spread from Bohemia across the Habsburg lands to the Holy Roman Empire and ultimately engulfed all of Europe.
When the fires of this longest and most brutal war in early modern European history had finally burnt themselves out, Germany lay in ashes and its population was cut in half. In his
largely autobiographical Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch, d.h. die Beschreibung des Lebens eines seltsamen Vaganten, genannt Melchior Sternfels von Fuchsheim of 1668, Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621 to 1676) not only penned the greatest German novel of the seventeenth century, but provided a haunting image of the havoc wreaked by that war as well. In an attempt to explain the horrors man was prepared to commit against his fellow man in the name of religion, philosophers such as the French bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet declared (in his Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture)
that man, though created in the image of God, was yet by nature evil and that in a state of nature, war of all against all prevailed. However, what were the forces and mind-sets that set in motion the chain of
events that led to such horror?
By the time an assembly of Czech noblemen led by Count Matthias von Thurn tried the councilors on 23 May 1618, tensions between the Protestant Czech nobility and their Catholic German
overlords had been growing for decades already within the Habsburg lands. The councilors were found guilty of violating the Letter of Majesty of 1609, which granted them, so they claimed, the right of free exercise of their religion, In 1526, the Kingdom of Bohemia, today more or less identical with the Czech Republic but which, in the sixteenth century, also included Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, as well as the Kingdom of Hungary, had come under the rule of Ferdinand of Habsburg (1503/1526 to 1564). Ferdinand had been elected king following the death of King Louis II of Bohemia and Hungary in the disastrous defeat of his forces by Turkish troops under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent at Mohacs in August. The choice of Ferdinand had been based on sound politics: only a ruler from the House of Habsburg, the most powerful family in Europe, with territory adjacent to their own, would be able to provide military and political support against the relentless advance of Islam into Europe. For his part, Ferdinand not only welcomed the addition of these two kingdoms to his already substantial realm, but also was able to adroitly use their need for defense to expand his prerogatives at the expense of the noble estates and the cities that had elected him…
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“…breathing the air of Heaven” – Neuschwanstein: Ludwig II’s Dream
by Anna Cramer
His life was tragically short but his vision and longing for a place of refuge led to the creation of one of the most recognized and beloved structures in the world.
The traveler who rejects the horse-drawn carriage or minibus and instead approaches Neuschwanstein Castle on foot has to hike about thirty minutes uphill through the woods and
begins to wonder whether he is on the right trail, when he is suddenly dwarfed by high white walls, gables, and turrets rising abruptly above him. "Holy and unapproachable," that is, how King Ludwig II
of Bavaria wanted this castle to be, a place of refuge and withdrawal from the world for himself and his closest friends alone. He even wanted the castle, which today is visited by 1.3 million tourists each
year, destroyed rather than have it "desecrated" by the public. Ironically, only six weeks after his violent death, Neuschwanstein was opened to the public and has since become the best-known example
of romanticism in Germany and perhaps even in world architecture.
The magical appearance of the building with its turrets and towers is securely anchored in the minds of people the world over. Disneyland's fairy castle was shaped after it and it
is one of the most often photographed buildings in the world. The name Neuschwanstein has become synonymous with historicism, the period which romanticized all things medieval and which inspired kings like
Ludwig to view themselves in direct succession of their imagined ancestors.
Seen from the distance, especially on a misty fall morning, the steep belfries, towers and gables appear like a fata morgana, their white lime stone façade forming the
foreground against the dark backdrop of the Bavarian, Lechtal, and Allgäu Alps. From inside, the many windows with their Moorish or Romanesque arcades frame the views of the lake and the lush meadows of
Schwangau like a landscape painting. Ludwig is said to have often stood immobile for long periods of time, looking across the plain. His enthusiasm for the idyllic setting is easily shared by any modern visitor:
"The location is one of the most beautiful to be found," he had written to his friend. Neuschwanstein, which received its name only after Ludwig's death, is the most famous of his many castles.
Architecture and interior design form the epitome of romantic historicism and eclecticism of the nineteenth century while incorporating state-of-the art technology of his time. In the design of his castles,
Ludwig was also a practical person and spared no costs to make life more comfortable, certainly inspired by what he saw at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1868.
The castle complex occupies a long, narrow ridge on top of a steep hill, its outer walls rising vertically from the sheer rocks. It consists of the gateway building at the eastern
end, the bower to the south, the knights' house to the north, and the "Palas," with two towers, at the western end. It is adorned with uncountable turrets and gables, with statues, balconies,
colonnades, outside staircases, and frescoes. For his "New Castle," Ludwig had set-designers, artisans, and architects implement his detailed ideas, which were inspired on a trip to the Wartburg in
Eisenach, by Richard Wagner's musical dramas, and by his vision of kingship. As a boy, he had already become acquainted with mediaeval sagas at his father's nearby castle which had been decorated with such
scenes, including the legend of the swan knight Lohengrin – the swan happening to also be the heraldic animal of the Counts of Schwangau, local tradition meeting history here. A performance of Wagner's
"Lohengrin" had deeply impressed the young Ludwig, and when he became king, he befriended the famous composer, saved him from his notorious political and financial troubles, and helped turn Munich
(through Wagner's work for a decade) into the musical capital of the world. Wagner's description of Ludwig after their first meeting shows astounding insight: "He is unfortunately so beautiful and wise,
soulful and lordly, that I fear his life must fade away like a divine dream in this base world."…
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Chile’s German Flavor
by Leah Larkin
As if cast to the wind, early German emigrants found a hospitable home in South America and the influence remains today.
Southern Chile’s Lake District is a paradise of nature with mountains and volcanoes, lush forests and raging rivers, sparkling lakes and intriguing islands. It is also imbued with
the influences of old Germany.
Back in the mid 1800s, Chile needed settlers for this rugged part of the country. The government tried to tempt the Irish, but they preferred to go to Canada. The Germans were prime
candidates as many were anxious to leave the country due to the failed revolutions in many German states in 1848. And, this part of Chile was much like Germany – rolling green countryside with a rainy and misty
climate.
There was a colonization program along the shores of Lake Llanquihue between 1852 and 1880. Germans who came were, for the most part, not farmers, but they were given a plot of land and
had to learn to till the soil. Among the early settlers were beer-brewers, tanners, furniture makers, pharmacists, and professors. They all left their mark in the towns that grew up around the lake, and these
unique Germanic characteristics are still in evidence today.
In those early days, both Lutherans and Catholics from Germany settled the region, and they each established their own schools. The Lutherans did not intermarry with the Chileans and
continued to speak German at home. According to Bettina Holzmann, the director of the tourist office in the lake town of Puerto Varas, it is those with a Lutheran background who still speak German today. “Some
still speak Spanish with a heavy German accent even though they’ve never been back to Germany,” she added.
Germans have also immigrated to other parts of Chile, including Santiago, but the Teutonic influence is perhaps the strongest in the Lake District.
“A lot of Germans came to live here, both before and after World War II,” noted Holzmann, “and they’re still coming.” Up until 1989, Germany continued to send German teachers to Chile
and subsidize some German schools in the country, but with reunification that year, the programs stopped as the funds were needed elsewhere, Holzmann noted.
The tourist director’s father immigrated to Chile from Germany in 1973, but moved the family back to Germany in 1977, then back to Chile in 1989. She stayed in Germany, became a nurse,
but moved to Chile in 1990. She married a Chilean, a fifth generation German who does not speak the language, and has no regrets about leaving her homeland…
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By Foot, Bike, and Caravan – A Tour of the Alps
By Jörg M. Unger
The picturesque Alps beckon and promise to fill a free-form vacation with memorable panoramas.
As our daily life is usually very scheduled, we do not like planning every detail of our summer vacation. Last summer, we took a map of the Alps and marked some places we had not
visited before and which seemed to be of interest. Then I joined up the marks and our route through the German-speaking regions of the Alps was ready. To be independent of any bookings, places, and times, we put
our mountain bikes, rucksacks, and some camping equipment into a caravan and drove to Füssen at the edge of Allgäu – the starting point of our journey.
The town of Füssen originates from a Roman fortress as archaeological excavations revealed in 1955. In the late thirteenth century, the first town wall surrounded a small unfinished
castle on a hill near the banks of the river Lech. When the bishopric of Augsburg acquired the place in 1322, the castle was completed as a summer residence of the bishop. Between 1490 and 1504, it was extended
into an imposing “Burgschloss” and received its present shape, including the outer fortifications. The illusionist paintings that decorate the facades of the castle are unique among German late Gothic
architecture and make the buildings very intriguing.
We cycled through the old town of Füssen, passed the lakes Forggensee and Alpsee, and rode on up the hill to the royal castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. As we did not
want to join the crowd of visitors into the castles, we followed a trail up to the mountains, passing gurgling creeks and luscious green pastures, dotted with alpine plants, blooming in white, yellow, red, and
blue. Behind a mountain hut, the trail crossed the Austrian border, and leaving the German peaks behind us, we cycled downhill to Lake Plansee to continue our round trip via Reutte back to Füssen.
The second day, we decided to have a trip to Ehrwald, where we took the funicular to Mount Zugspitze, which is (with an altitude of nine thousand seven hundred twenty-one feet)
the highest mountain of Germany. The cross on the summit is on German territory but you can get up to the top from both sides. As the day was sunny, we had a wonderful view of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the
nearby lake Eibsee in Germany as well as of Mount Daniel and the village of Ehrwald in Austria.
After that short detour, we followed the course of the Lech River upstream through West Tyrol and stopped at a campground in Feldkirch. Leaving our caravan there on the following day,
we cycled to Vaduz, the capital of the small principality of Liechtenstein, which has a size of about sixty-two square miles and lies between Austria and Switzerland. We rode past grain fields and vineyards,
passed high-technology factories, banks, and modern business buildings, and cycled on the levee of the Rhine…
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BallinStadt: Port of Dreams
by Don Heimburger
The BallinStadt Emigration Museum pays homage to the German emigrants who took daring steps into the unknown.
A roll call of German-American leaders in business and finance, sports, music, and the arts would include such names as Astor, Boeing, Chrysler, Firestone, Guggenheim, Heinz,
Hershey, Rockefeller, Steinway, Strauss, Ruth, Gehrig, Stengel, Dietrich, Sousa, Wurlitzer, Stroh, Schlitz, and Miller. Joined by many others over the decades, these daring emigrants filled ships and made the
arduous journey from the port of Hamburg in their homeland to America.
To celebrate the successful emigration of these and millions more, most of whom traveled as much as three thousand three hundred twenty miles across the Atlantic between Hamburg
and New York City's Ellis Island, the $17.5 million seven-acre BallinStadt Emigration Museum (Port of Dreams) opened its doors in July of 2007 in Hamburg. Situated on historic ground next to the Elbe River in
the suburb of Veddel, the museum is a place rich in emotion and history. Here visitors can trace each stage of emigration – departure, the ocean crossing, arrival in New York, and settling into a new home.
The many and varied accomplishments of German-Americans have had a profound effect on making America a better country. However, not all who came to the United States were as famous as
those mentioned. There were millions more, like Ralph Becker, as recalled by Peter Morton Coan in an oral history project entitled Ellis Island Interviews, for whom BallinStadt was built as a remembrance.
Becker was born in 1900 and raised in the mountain town of Daaden, northwest of Frankfurt. His father and mother later passed away, and fourteen-year-old Ralph and his brother – both
working as apprentices in a blacksmith shop – lived with his mother's younger sister in Daaden. In 1921, inflation was rampant and Ralph fell in love, but he and his bride could not even afford an apartment. “I
started thinking about America,” recalls Becker. With money from the sale of his mother's land, they booked passage on the Hamburg-America Line's Ohio to go to the United States. Once in the United States, he worked at General Electric as a machinist in Schenectady, New York. “... the difference between Germany and America I felt right off,” said Becker. “The superintendent...used to call me by my first name. And I thought, well, this is democracy. That is what democracy represents.”
Becker was one of millions of Germans to leave their home because of difficult situations that included poverty, hunger, and hopelessness. The social and economic forces at work to make
people leave their homeland were many and varied, but they all had one common goal: to enjoy a better life…
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Language: Briefmarken zum Gedenken der deutschamerikanischen Geschichte
Von Gert Niers
Zu meiner Schulzeit war das Sammeln von Briefmarken, besonders von Gedenkmarken, eine beliebte Freizeitbeschäftigung. Diese Postwertzeichen setzten uns in Kontakt mit der Welt,
machten uns neugierig auf andere Länder und deren Leute und zogen sehr oft auch wegen ihres grafischen Entwurfs unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf sich. Schüler, die an ihrer Sammelleidenschaft festhielten, wurden
ernstzunehmende Philatelisten. In dieser Hinsicht gibt es keine strenge Altersgrenze. Briefmarken können zu einem realen Geschäftsunternehmen werden. Das postalische Dienstleistungsgewerbe in aller Welt weiß
das, und Sammler wissen es auch. Was Bildmotive betrifft, so wurden auch deutschamerikanische Persönlichkeiten und historische Ereignisse, die für beide Länder von Bedeutung waren, auf diesen kleinformatigen
Regierungsdokumenten verewigt. Dabei ist es aufschlussreich festzustellen, welcher Ereignisse und welcher Deutschamerikaner auf diese Weise gedacht wurde.
Gewiss stand das Jahr 1983 im Zeichen eines denkwürdigen Ereignisses, und zwar der Dreihundertjahrfeier deutscher Gruppeneinwanderung nach Amerika. Im Jahr 1683 war nämlich Germantown,
Pennsylvania, gegründet worden. Organisator der Siedlung war Franz Daniel Pastorius. Die aus Pietisten und Mennoniten bestehende Gruppe aus Krefeld, die auf Einladung von Pastorius den Atlantik überquerte,
benutze ein Segelschiff namens Concord. Dieser Segler ist sowohl auf einer deutschen als auch auf einer amerikanischen Briefmarke abgebildet.
Während des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts erlangten zwei Einwanderer aus Deutschland landesweite Bedeutung in ihrer neuen Heimat: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-1794), der während des
Unabhängigkeitskrieges Ausbilder der amerikanischen Truppen (Inspector General of the Army) war, und Carl Schurz (1829-1906), der zum Senator von Missouri gewählt wurde und später unter Präsident Rutherford
Hayes als Innenminister diente. Eine amerikanische Briefmarke zu Ehren Steubens erschien 1930 (zum Gedenken seines Geburtstags 200 Jahre vorher). Die deutsche Bundespost ehrte den Baron 1994 anlässlich seines
200. Todestags. Carl Schurz, der berühmteste Achtundvierziger (er nahm an der deutschen Revolution von 1848 teil), wurde in seiner alten Heimat 1952 und 1976 mit einer Briefmarke gefeiert. Die amerikanische
Postbehörde setzte 1983 sein Porträt auf eine Marke…
German-American History Commemorated on Postal Stamps
by Gert Niers
During my school days, it was a popular hobby to collect postal stamps, especially commemorative ones. They connected us with the world, made us curious for other countries and
their people, and very often were also appealing because of their graphic designs. Students who kept on collecting turned into serious philatelists. There is no strict age limit in that regard. Postal stamps can
also be real business. The postal services of the world know that, and so do collectors. As far as picture motifs are concerned, German-American personalities and historic events relevant to both countries have
also made an appearance on those small governmental documents. It is interesting to see which events and which German-Americans were commemorated that way.
The year 1983 certainly marked a major event: it was celebrated as the tricentennial of German group immigration to America. It was in 1683 that Germantown, Pennsylvania, was founded.
Organizer of the settlement was Franz Daniel Pastorius. The group of Quakers and Mennonites from Krefeld who crossed the Atlantic upon invitation by Pastorius used a sailing ship by the name of Concord.
This windjammer is shown on both a German and an American stamp.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, two immigrants from Germany gained national importance in their new country: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-1794), who became the drillmaster of the American troops (Inspector General of the Army) during the War of Independence, and Carl Schurz (1829-1906), who was elected Senator of Missouri and later served as Secretary of the Interior under President Rutherford Hayes. An American stamp was dedicated to Steuben in 1930 (to commemorate his birth 200 years earlier). The Federal German Postal Service honored the Baron in 1994 on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his death. Carl Schurz, the most famous Forty-Eighter (he took part in the German revolution of 1848), was recognized with a stamp in the old country in 1952 and 1976. The U.S. Postal Service featured him on a stamp in 1983…
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At Home: Global Goulash
by Sharon Hudgins
Goulash turns up on so many German and Austrian menus – and in so many German-language cookbooks – that you'd almost be tempted to think that it's an authentically local dish.
However, goulash actually originated in Hungary and later spread beyond its borders, first to the Austrian Empire, Germany, and the Balkans, and finally around the world.
Hungarian goulash traces its roots back to nomadic Magyar herdsmen in the ninth century. Shepherds cut meat into cubes and slowly stewed them in a heavy iron kettle over an open fire
until the liquid evaporated. Then they spread the meat out in a single layer to further dry in the sun. This dried meat, an early convenience food, could be carried with them as they followed their flocks across
the vast expanse of Hungary's Great Plain. To reconstitute the meat, they simply added water and heated it – sometimes with other ingredients, too – in a pot over a fire. If a lot of liquid was added, the dish
was called goulash soup. With less liquid, it was simply goulash meat. In both cases it was eaten with spoons dipped into the communal cooking pot.
Goulash got its name from those early herdsmen, who were called gulyás in Hungarian. However, goulash as we know it today did not develop until the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth, with the widespread cultivation of peppers in Hungary and the use of paprika as a popular spice. Originally it was considered peasant food, eaten primarily by country folk – farmers, shepherds, cowboys, and swineherds. With the rise of Hungarian nationalism in the second half of the nineteenth century, paprika-seasoned goulash moved from the campsites and farmhouses to the tables of middle-class and wealthy city dwellers, to the menus of fashionable restaurants, and eventually across the globe.
Goulash is now the Hungarian dish most widely known abroad. However, in many parts of the world, dishes called "goulash" bear little resemblance to the gulyás that originated in Hungary and is eaten there today. In Hungary, gulyás is a meat dish halfway between a soup and a stew, made with small cubes of meat (usually beef), no more than 3/4-inch in size, and flavored with bacon or lard, onions, and paprika. Gulyás is traditionally served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon…
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The Baltimore Sage: On the Trail of H.L. Mencken
by Don Heinrich Tolzmann
He was a third-generation German-American and his gift for acerbic critique influenced thoughts on American life and culture in the early twentieth century.
All roads lead to Baltimore when tracking down H.L. Mencken. Historically, it was one of the major ports of entry for the German immigration, and its German heritage is well known. Not
surprisingly, it gave rise to H.L. Mencken (1880 to 1956), who has gone into the annals of American journalism as the “Sage of Baltimore” due to the considerable influence he exerted as a social, cultural, and
literary critic in the first half of the twentieth century.
A Germanophile, he wrote,” the dominant German ideas were also my ideas.” Not surprisingly, German philosophical and literary influences are prevalent throughout his work. Even though
his parents and he were American-born, Mencken was keenly aware and proud of his German heritage, and wrote that he still felt it “impossible to fit myself into the accepted patterns of American life and
thought,” which he often described as predominantly Anglo-Saxon and Puritanical. He also wrote, “After all these years, I remain a foreigner.” Nevertheless, Walter Lippmann called him “the most powerful personal
influence” on his generation.
Mencken was a third-generation German-American. His grandfather came to Baltimore after the 1848 Revolution, and perhaps some of the rebellious spirit flowed into his veins, as his
works certainly displayed the mind of a cantankerous iconoclast. From a more distant ancestor he may have inherited an inclination towards writing. Johann Burkhard Mencke (1674 to 1732), a learned professor in
Leipzig, published several volumes of verse, and a satirical work dealing with academicians that Mencken brought out in English translation with an introduction by him as: The Charlatanry of the Learned (1937). A satirical bent with a rapier wit were also part of Mencken’s writing arsenal…
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Family Research: More from the Magazine’s Passionate Readership
by James M. Beidler
As has been proven before in this column, German Life readers come up with some of the best topics for questions – sometimes spurred by previous columns and others that cause
this writer to do some serious research. Here are a few interesting questions from the past year.
Q: Your article about people who researched their German ancestors by accessing www.ellisisland.org made me wonder: Relatives from both sides of my family came through the port of
New Orleans out of Le Havre, France. Do you know if there is a similar Website for people coming through New Orleans? And is there a Website for Le Havre that you might know of?
Richard Berkel, Belleville, IL
A: While people inevitably think about Ellis Island, this reader makes the important point that many immigrants arrived in places other than the port of New York – and New Orleans was
probably the second most popular port of arrival for German-speaking people in the nineteenth century.
The New Orleans passengers lists are online as part of an Ancestry.com subscription – a good Website that acts as a gateway to the New Orleans lists, as well as showing some other
information on the port is: http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/neworleans.html.
Unfortunately, embarkation lists – data from the other side of the Atlantic – is more difficult. However, the same Website listed above does mention Le Havre, which was an important
point of departure in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/onlinelists.html….
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Calendar
Please contact events directly to confirm dates, times, locations, and admission fees.
April
Cambridge, MA
Through April 13: Paintings by Max Beckmann from the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. Busch-Reisinger Museum. For information, visit www.artmuseums.harvard.edu .
Cambridge, MA
Through June 30: “A Taste of Power: 18th Century German Porcelain for the Table. Busch-Reisinger Museum. For
information, visit www.artmuseums.harvard.edu .
Frederick, MD
First Friday of the month: Der Stammtisch at Brewer’s Alley, 124 N. Market Street. Call 301-631-0127.
Indianapolis, IN
First Wednesday and first Saturday of the month: Docent-led tours of the Athenaeum at 401 East Michigan Street. Call 317-630-4569 or E-Mail athfound@sbcglobal.net .
Long Island, NY
April 5: GTV Die Gemütlichen Enzianer’s Annual Bavarian Bauernball at the Polish American Hall in Port Washington, NY. Call 516-822-2190.
Harmony, PA
April 12: Harmony Museum German Dinner. Reservations required. Call 888-821-4822, E-Mail: hmuseum@zoominternet.net , or visit www.harmonymuseum.org .
Ambridge, PA
April 12: Old Economy Village Spring Garden Workshop. Pre-registration and pre-payment required. Call 724-266-4500 ext. 101 or visit www.oldeconomyvillage.org .
Columbus, OH
April 19: NW Ohio’s Teutonia Männerchor and Damenchor Spring Concert. For tickets and information call 419-474-6052 or 419-472-9721.
Miami, FL
April 25-27. Maibaumfest (German Spring Festival). German American Social Club of Greater Miami, 11919 SW 56 Street. Call 305-552-5123 or
visit www.germanamericanclub-miami.org .
Casselberry, FL
April 26: 2008 Fruehlings Fest. German-American Society of Central Florida. For information, call 407-834-0574.
Ambridge, PA
April 26: Old Economy Village Trades Workshop: Leatherworking. Pre-registration and pre-payment required. Call 724-266-4500 ext. 101 or
visit www.oldeconomyvillage.org .
Kutztown, PA
April 26-27: Old Time Plow Boys Plowing Show. Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center. Visit www.kutztown.edu/community/pgchc .
Bellville, TX
April 27: Frühling Sängerfest. Concordia Hall, 952 South Tesch. Call 979-865-3407, E-Mail: bellvillechamber@sbcglobal.net , or visit www.bellville.com .
May
Frederick, MD
First Friday of the month: Der Stammtisch at Brewer’s Alley, 124 N. Market Street. Call 301-631-0127.
Indianapolis, IN
First Wednesday and first Saturday of the month: Docent-led tours of the Athenaeum at 401 East Michigan Street. Call 317-630-4569 or E-Mail athfound@sbcglobal.net .
Miami, FL
May 2-4. Maibaumfest (German Spring Festival). German American Social Club of Greater Miami, 11919 SW 56 Street. Call 305-552-5123 or visit www.germanamericanclub-miami.org .
Tulsa, OK
May 2-4: Annual Germanfest. German American Society facility 2301 E. 15th Street. Call 918-744-6997 or visit www.gastulsa.org .
Brenham, TX
May 9-10: Maifest Visit www.maifest.org or call 979-830-5393.
Covington, KY
May 16-18: 29th Annual MainStrasse Village Maifest. Call 859-491-0458 or visit www.mainstrasse.org .
Cincinnati, OH
May 18: German Heritage Museum Spring Opening. Features exhibits and displays. For information, visit www.gacl.org .
Harmony, PA
May 27: Harmony Museum’s Annual “Quilt in a Day” program. Reservations recommended. Call 888-821-4822, E-Mail: hmuseum@zoominternet.net , or visit www.harmonymuseum.org .
Cincinnati, OH
May 31-June 1: German Day Weekend. Sponsored by the German-American Citizens League. For information, visit www.gacl.org .
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