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Language Matters

New MKI Publication

Other Witnesses: An Anthology of the German Americans, 1850-1914
Edited and with introductory essays by Cora Lee Kluge

The “other witnesses” represented in this volume are foreign-born immigrant authors who wrote in German of their experiences and insights. Their work provides today's readers with a unique perspective and a new understanding of America's growth and development between 1850 and the First World War. The collection includes poems, plays, prose fiction, reports, and memoirs by Christian Essellen, Reinhold Solger, Mathilde Franziska Anneke, Theodor Kirchhoff, Udo Brachvogel, Robert Reitzel, Julius Gugler, Lotta L. Leser, Fernande Richter, and others. Some of the works presented have never yet appeared in book form, and others are published here for the first time. Many have remained unknown, and all are difficult to locate. Introductory essays to each chapter provide biographical information, elucidate the cultural context, and point the way for further research.   

Introductions to the authors and their works are in English, while the original texts are in German.

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New MKI Publication

Wisconsin German Land and Life

The essays in this volume focus is on migrants from farming communities along the Rhine who relocated to Wisconsin in the nineteenth century: from the Westerwald to Reeseville; from the Cologne area to Cross Plains; from the Eifel to the so-called Holyland in Fond du Lac and Calumet counties; and from Rhine Hesse to Washington and Sheboygan counties. The authors examine the migrants' relationship to the land, utilizing official records on both sides of the Atlantic, such as census and family records, land registers, plat maps, and land surveys. The broad picture includes the migrants' situation in their original home, the migration process itself, and their experience in Wisconsin.

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Frank Zeidler, 1912–2006

With sadness the Max Kade Institute notes the passing last Friday of Hon. Frank P. Zeidler, the former mayor of Milwaukee. Frank and his wife Agnes were longtime Friends of the MKI and did much to promote interest in the German heritage of Milwaukee and the region. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a lengthy memorial article on Frank and his legacy: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=459264.

The staff and Friends of the MKI extend their heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Zeidler, their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

MKI launches new Web site on German-American dialects

The Max Kade Institute is pleased to invite you to visit a new Web site devoted
to German dialects spoken in the United States, part of the American Languages project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Go to http://csumc.wisc.edu/AmericanLanguages, click on "German dialects,"
and explore the site. We also invite you to complete a brief user survey,
which is linked under "Evaluation" at the upper right. Although the survey questions are formulated in English, you may answer in German or English.
This survey is important to us in making the site as user-friendly as possible.

Visit our new
"How German Is American?" Web site:
http://mki.wisc.edu/HGIA/index.htm

The “How German Is American?” site explores the many ways in which influences deriving from German-speaking Europe may still be seen flowing in the mainstream and tributaries of culture across the American landscape.
Here we consider how many of these themes help us understand the transatlantic ties that have bound the U.S. and Germany together throughout the years.

A feedback form is available to allow you to tell us more about the ways the concepts of "Germanness" and "Americanness" relate to themes of migration, cultural contact, and identity. We will compile responses and provide more information on the Web site in the future.

2006 MKI Conference

“The German Language and Immigration in International Perspective.”

New genealogy resource of note

Geogen—Distribution of German Surnames

Geogen stands for "geographical genealogy" which means location based ancestor research. On this website you can create maps which show the distribution of surnames in Germany. Significant concentrations can point to a local root of the family or the family name.

PDF bibliographies of the library and music archives
for the Sauk City, Wisconsin, Freie Gemeinde
may be viewed here: http://mki.wisc.edu/Resources/Freie_Gemeinde/Sauk_Gemeinde.htm

We are pleased to announce
that the MKI Library is once again
searchable on-line at:
http://csumc.wisc.edu/mki/mkisources/search.html

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