|
|
|
|
A transfer of ownership of Carl Schurz's Handbibliothek from the General Library System at UW-Madison to the MKI will mean the transfer of sixty four cartons of books to the Institute. Dr. Louis Pitschmann, Associate Director of Collection Development of UW Libraries and member of the Institute's Interdisciplinary Executive Committee, facilitated the transfer of ownership, saying "It is fitting that the library of perhaps the most well-known German immigrant of the 19th century be secured at the Max Kade Institute, where it will be accessible to scholars interested in seeing firsthand those materials which may have influenced and inspired Schurz."
Carl Schurz, a university student and revolutionary during the failed uprisings in Europe during 1848 -49 and political refugee, fled to England. There he met and married Margarethe Meyer Schurz. Not being able to return to his homeland for fear of arrest and probable execution, he and Margarethe journeyed to America, residing first in New York and then moving to Watertown, Wisconsin in 1855. Schurz purchased a farm there and also practiced law. Margarethe established a Kindergarten, believed to be the first such school in the country.
Schurz became a champion for social and political issues that included expanded public schooling, greater rights for immigrants and workers, greater separation of church and state and an end to slavery and discrimination.
Schurz's public service career was long and full. He served on The Board of Regents of the State University of Wisconsin, was U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Civil War General during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, was a U.S. Senator from Missouri and served as the first Secretary of Interior in the Cabinet of President Hayes. He achieved the highest political status afforded to any person not born in the United States.
A portion of the Carl Schurz library is now on microfiche as part of The German 1848 Revolutionaries: Their Impact on 19th Century America, published by Belser Wissenschaftlicher Dienst in cooperation with the Max Kade Institute.
The significance of acquiring the library of such an important immigrant activist and public servant may not be completely known until the books are catalogued and shelved. It is safe to say, however, that this will not happen any time soon, as the MKI library is at capacity already.
The good news/bad news reality is that this important personal library has great potential for scholars, but until we have additional space at the Max Kade Institute, this specific collection, and the potential for the Institute's library to grow into a premier library for German-American immigration, must lie dormant.
| The Carl Schurz Park (CSP) society invites you to visit its clean, quiet, park on Moose Lake in Stone Bank in Waukesha County this summer. The CSP society offers a multitude of benefits and will help you to plan picnics around a day at the park, or enjoy a weekend with home-cooked and reasonably-priced meals. You must make arrangements with a CSP member. Please call Marianna Luther (262)-966-7567 for more information. |
An unexpected, but very welcome donation from the Interlibrary Loan department at UW-Madison's Memorial Library will provide the means for researchers to view the MKI's microfiche collection of the German 1848 Revolutionaries. This collection holds approximately 12,400 pages of text - in the original format - about the impact of the `48ers.
For genealogists, the microfiche reader will allow viewing of a recent acquisition of church records, donated by Martin W. Johnson of Belvidere, IL.
To use either of these fiche collections, please contact Heidi Marzen, Max Kade Institute's new librarian, at 262-7546.
By Dennis Boyer
On the evening of March 23, 2000 I had the pleasure of accompanying Friends of MKI President Bob Luening to a special table lodge (banquet) of Milwaukee's Aurora Lodge # 30, Free and Accepted Masons. The event was in celebration of that lodge's one hundred and fifty years as a German-speaking lodge of the order. The bulk of the speakers' remarks, toasts, and prayers were in German.
The dinner was followed by masonic ritual in which an "Entered Apprentice" degree was conferred on a candidate in the German language, following practice known as the "French Rite." While the content of such proceedings is not discussed outside masonic halls, it can be noted that Bob Luening was recognized as the grandson of one of the founders of Aurora Lodge. Bob's grandfather wrote one of the original German inspirational readings used in the ritual.
By Susan Stoddard
The existence of over one hundred letters, written largely between 1848 and 1865, and in the beautiful, flowing German script of the time, were a complete surprise when discovered in my parents' home. They were written to Jacob Sternberger (my father's maternal grandfather), who immigrated to Wisconsin, in 1851, from Kaden, Bohemia. It is obvious to the remaining family that this wonderful correspondence should be part of the archives of the University, and specifically the Max Kade Institute. Hopefully these letters will help us understand the failed 1848 Revolution from yet another historical and political perspective, as well as provide linguistic and intellectual information from this time, and give us a picture of the struggles faced by those who came to find a new life.
Jacob Sternberger was born in 1822, in Kaden, which is north of Pilsen. Papers included in the collection show that he was well educated at the local gymnasium, and later at the University of Prague. He worked as a mining engineer before he, his cousin, and a third man decided to leave Europe, when it became obvious that the hoped-for revolution was a failure. One document signed by the three men sets out the rules for their commune. There is a letter in which the choice of Pennsylvania as a new home is discussed. Perhaps translation of the letters will tell us how Wisconsin became the ultimate destination! Finally there are letters from Jacob's brothers in Bohemia, which discuss the war between Schleswig and Denmark. Jacob served in the Civil War, but only for three months since he contracted malaria. Finally, he became a citizen and married in 1865, and returned to Europe with his bride, Franziska Leute. He returned to Wisconsin, and settled in Bangor, La Crosse Co. They had four children: Julia, who married Emil Ruedebusch from Mayville; Hannah who died in her teens from Scarlet Fever; Karl who settled in Milwaukee; and Agnes, who was still a very young woman when her father died. Jacob served his community as assessor and treasurer, and tutored his children while he lived.
The few letters that have been translated, have been done by Walter Lewinnik, MD, from Merrill, Wisconsin. His health has prevented him from continuing to work on this project, but he has given us enough to know that there is quite a story in this pile of letters that have been saved for all these years.
By Pamela Tesch
Recently the Max Kade Institute received a donation of family letters, photographs, and official documents from the family of Steven and Susan Stoddard in Wausau (see article above). The letters in German script reveal the story of the German immigrant Jacob Sternberger, Susan's relative, and his travels from German-speaking lands to Wisconsin. Like other Wisconsin 48ers, he left his hometown and family because he was disillusioned with the failed 1848 revolution. His letters contain details of nineteenth-century life in Europe and the United States, including information about political activity, economic endeavors, and news and information during the late 1800's.
According to the official papers preserved by his family, Jacob Sternberger had a traditional university education and his exposure to philosophical works might explain his political activity in Wisconsin. One of the most fascinating documents showing his rebelliousness is a draft of the statutes for a commune named Marienstern signed by Sternberger and his colleagues. It outlines an agreement among all members to combine property and wealth and stipulates requirements for those wishing to leave the commune. The following is an excerpt from a letter written in October 1851 and translated by Walter Lewinnik:
By-laws for Members
1. All material property is community property. The difference between mine and yours is abolished.
2. The individual is obligated to let the Society use intellectual achievements in its interest and to its advantage.
3. The Society is empowered to dispose of both of the above. In any situation where an individual is unable to secure the Society's opinion in advance, he may use his own judgment; however, he must account for it later.
4. All actions are decided by simple majority unless otherwise stated in the statutes.
The seventeen statutes include stipulations for membership, rights of women, communal property ownership, and education of children that show the influence of philosophical thinking, and a revolutionary desire to overcome traditional European hierarchic society.
Another interesting letter excerpt from December or May of 1851 witnessing the economic trials and tribulations of a German inventor, describes his struggles with his invention of a metal or ore-processing device:
I skipped . . . in Weimar because I was not satisfied with my machine, but it is now in good shape; in a few days it will be fully functional for general use and hardly be in need of further improvement.
At any rate, I am expecting several thousand guilders. What I will do then, I don't know yet myself. I am not inclined to follow your path, much as I enjoy agriculture, and even though I would devote myself to it with passion.
This letter witnesses the entrepreneurial spirit of the nineteenth century, as Europe was becoming industrialized, and the importance of the mining industry in both Europe and the United States.
Another interesting letter, possibly written in 1849, ponders European news and expresses the disappointment of an Austrian-German law student for the failed 1848 revolution.
Of course, the entire State of Austria is creaking in every joint, but why? Is it because an enormously strong despotism has triumphed over an impotent freedom? Is it perhaps just the opposite, that this artificial empire, grown to its present magnitude, or rather cobbled together, by dynastic marriage schemes, can no longer hold out against the nationalistic, liberty-seeking movements which are storming from all sides against the iron shackles of despotism, but is yet powerful enough to assure its survival at all costs?
In this letter, the writer continues, expressing his desire to see a unified Germany no longer under the rule of the Prussian or Austrian monarchies.
These few pieces from translated letters have only begun to tell the story of Jacob Sternberger, one of Wisconsin's forty-eighters. Hopefully, the untranslated letters may contain answers to some of the remaining questions, such as why he emigrated to Wisconsin instead of Pennsylvania (a more established German-speaking community).
The Max Kade Institute is grateful to Steven and Susan Stoddard and their family for donating their family's letters so that they can be researched by historians and other scholars for generations to come. The letters will be archived at the Max Kade Institute and will eventually be translated and made available to the public on the web through the Institute's special digital library collection.
Reviewed by Suzanne Townley
In Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy, Jeffrey Sammons offers an informative, clear, and often entertaining overview of several nineteenth-century German authors who wrote about America. He focuses on the three of the title, discusses five more briefly in the form of two "excursuses," and concludes with a survey of twentieth-century German novels about the United States. While the book is scholarly in nature, it is also accessible to readers with a general interest in the topic of German-American relations as viewed through the prism of fictional writing. The book begins each treatment of a new author with a brief biographical sketch and overview of his (in one case, her) literary production. It would serve as a good starting point for a newcomer to the subject; for the reader who is inspired by the book to investigate a particular author in more detail it offers a useful bibliography of the pertinent secondary literature and includes discussions of the current critical debates. Sammons' close attention to historical context often leads him to argue for revision or rejection of the standard interpretations of the novels under investigation, thus the book should be considered required reading for anyone with a research interest in the topic. The book does require that the reader know German, as there are many untranslated quotes.
"Part I: Ideology" consists of five chapters devoted to Charles Sealsfield, born Carl Postl, an Austrian monk who escaped from his monastery in 1823 and fled to the United States, where he resided for several years. The "ideology" of this part's title refers to Sealsfield's didactic intention in his fiction. While the consensus among most scholars is that Sealsfield intended "to hold up to his German and Austrian readership a model of democracy" (23), Sammons' analysis of the Jacksonian political views in Sealsfield's works leads him to a different conclusion: ". . . Sealsfield's reputation as a radically democratic writer must undergo considerable revision. [. . .] Long misunderstood as a `realist,' he was in fact an ideologue, a utopian prophet of Manifest Destiny" (57). Sammons argues that Sealsfield finally abandoned his writing career because he realized that the Jacksonian ideology was at odds with his ideals of freedom and democracy. While Sammons rejects Sealsfield's political convictions, he is impressed with him as an artist, praising his "sharp ear for the American idiom" and finding his narrative talent "brilliant" (89).
He has considerably less praise for the two authors who are the subject of the first excursus entitled: "The Emergence of the German Western: Balduin Möllhausen and Friedrich Armand Strubberg." Möllhausen's several expeditions to the western U.S. resulted in a number of interesting travel works and a slew of popular adventure stories, which latter, according to Sammons, are "not to be taken seriously" (95). Strubberg's life, like Sealsfield's, is somewhat mysterious. According to his own, probably greatly fictional account, his adventures included leading a colony of German immigrants in Texas, fighting in the Mexican War, and practicing as a physician in Arkansas before returning to Europe and beginning his writing career. The superhuman, supposedly autobiographical persona he developed in his books leads Sammons to term Strubberg "a kind of proto-Karl May" (105). In one of his few references to the readership of the literature under discussion, Sammons suggests that the sentimentality in his books may have been "an attempt to reach the female readers who were believed to be the majority of consumers of fiction in his time" (105).
Sammons returns to the question of readership in his discussion of the works of Friedrich Gerstäcker ("Part II: Mimesis"). Gerstäcker spent several years in the United States and met many German immigrants who had been misled by the falsehoods abounding in both fictional and nonfictional literature on America. A significant part of his writing was geared toward offering potential emigrants a more veracious description of the U.S. Sammons is unable to answer the question of whether Gerstäcker actually reached his target audience, noting that many emigrants of the lower classes were too poor to buy books and were functionally illiterate.
In Sammons' treatment of Gerstäcker we encounter a certain unevenness in the book: his clear predilection for Gerstäcker as an author over Sealsfield and May occasionally leads him to questionable conclusions. For instance, he characterizes all three authors as having ambivalent feelings about Indians. While they sympathized with the Indians' plight, they viewed their eventual removal or elimination as inevitable (27, 146-47, 230, 238). Yet Sammons interprets this common sentiment differently for each author. Sealsfield's position is viewed as "generally Jacksonian in spirit" (26), May's position is termed "an unsystematic confusion" (239), while Gerstäcker's allegedly demonstrates "the limits of unmediated, unanalytic mimesis" (150). In each case, Sammons' assessment is determined by the judgment he has already passed about the authors. Much of Part II is influenced by Sammons' obvious sympathy toward his subject.
The second excursus treats the "anti-American" authors Talvj (Therese Albertine Luise von Jakob Robinson), Ferdinand Kürnberger and Reinhold Solger. Only one of the three novels is shown to be truly anti-American, Kürnberger's Der Amerika-Müde. While Sammons' summary is amusing in its delineation of the petty details of life in America with which Kürnberger found fault, and though Kürnberger never went to the U.S., still Sammons takes the novel seriously, arguing that such a book "reinforc[es] prejudices and ill will for long decades" (219).
"Part III: Fantasy" is devoted to Karl May. Sammons clearly approached this part of his topic with dread, and accordingly keeps his comments brief, perhaps too brief; he assumes in his readers a basic knowledge about Karl May that was not assumed for the other authors. In the second chapter Sammons raises the question of why May has not been more popular in the U.S., suggesting that May's aristocratic thinking and conservative social, moral and religious views made his writings irrelevant to America.
The final chapter, "Outlook," is a very brief overview of a few other nineteenth-century German authors who wrote about America, and then a host of twentieth-century authors on the subject, ranging from Kafka to Martin Walser.
At the forefront of Sammons' discussions and in his evaluation of each author is the question of mimesis: to what extent the books accurately transmitted a balanced perspective on life in America to a German audience. He clearly states his premise: " . . . I am not hesitant to link mimesis with value" (xi). In the course of the book, however, he demonstrates a troubling tendency to equate mimesis with value. The tripartite structure of the book implies an evaluation of each author based on the accuracy of his American vision: Gerstäcker = mimesis = good; Sealsfield = ideology (which clouded his vision of reality) = not so good; May = fantasy = bad. This perspective on literature seems to diminish the myriad dimensions of fiction to a single expository level. Sammons himself rejects the conflation of fiction and nonfiction in the introduction: ". . . I do not hold with methods that would obliterate the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, because the fictive imagination . . . captures more of the richness, ambiguity, irony, and irreducibility of reality than more disciplined exposition is normally able to encompass" (xi). Despite this distinction, Sammons often draws equally from both fictional and nonfictional writings of the various authors as sources to determine their opinions on various questions, whereby the literary qualities of the fiction tend to get short shrift. For instance, while praising Gerstäcker over Möllhausen and Strubberg on the basis of literary quality, he fails to make a convincing argument for the stylistic superiority of Gerstäcker's writing. He even praises in Gerstäcker ". . . the relatively seamless transitions between his fiction and nonfiction" (200). The reader of the book must finally wonder: why did Sammons choose to investigate fictional texts at all?
But the literary qualities of these German texts about America may not be the most compelling reasons to read them anyway. Sammons suggests in the final chapter that Germanists in the U.S. ought to take on the responsibility of assessing representations of America in contemporary German fiction, in order to improve our countries' mutual relations. Studying such representations in nineteenth-century German literature can teach us where we've been, that we might see better where we're going.
The Platt Deutsche Corporation will be hosting the US's fourth Plattdüütsch Conference, entitled "Wi snack Platt." The main focus will be on Low German spoken in the Midwest and the renaissance of interest in the language and culture of those who speak it. The varieties of Low German that will be represented at the conference include East Fresian, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg, Lower Saxony, and East Pomeranian. A surprisingly large number of children who grew up in the country learned to speak these dialects at home before entering Kindergarten where they were taught English, but not German. As a result, many of them now enjoy speaking Low German as their mother tongue, but only learned to read and write in English.
The conference is of special interest to a group of North Germans, for they will visit US descendents of Low German speakers. Their trip, besides the conference, will include the following: Low German Theater in Cole Camp, Missouri; the Pommerscher Verein, Wausau, Wisconsin; East Frisians in Northern Iowa; and Mennonites in Kansas.
In 1995, the American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society, under the leadership of Glenn Sievers, organized the first Low German conference in America. In 1989, the society's Vice President, Bill Storjohan, developed the first ever language course in Low German for speakers of English. Since then, some scholarly articles and dissertations under the advisorship of Prof. Bill Keel, Kansas University, and Prof. Joseph C. Salmons, Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, had been published. At the end of 1998, Robert Lee Stockmann released his 500-page book, Platt Düütsch/Low German: A Brief History of the People and Language plus Glossary and Orthography (Platt Düütsch Press, 10748 100th Street, Alto, MI 49302).
During the Late Middle Ages, the Baltic seaport of Lübeck, which is in the northern most state of Germany — Schleswig-Holstein — was vitally important. This had been the administrative and cultural center of the Hanseatic League. The league was reaching a network of more than 160 cities, from England to Russia. This predecessor of today's European Union was committed to free trade; the primary language was Low German. Today, no longer the language of economical activity and business, ". . . the uniquely warm and expressive nature of the Low German language thankfully still resonates in several parts of the world," and brings people from all social classes and both sides of the Atlantic together (Stockmann, 440).
Fred Hedde, 1848 revolutionary from Schleswig-Holstein, founded Grand Island, Nebraska in 1857. City Mayor of Grand Island, Ken Gnadt, expects over 500 participants from around the country and Northern Germany.
For further conference information, contact Ken Gnadt, City Hall, 100 East First Street, Box 1968, Grand Island, NE 68802-1968; phone: (308) 385-5444 (ext. 100); FAX: (308) 385-5486; e-mail: mayor@gionline.net or Dr. Joachim Reppmann, Professor of German; mailing address: 3 Lincoln Lane, Northfield, MN 55057; phone: (507) 645-9161; fax: (507) 663-7929; e-mail: yogi@moin-moin.com; web page: http://www.moin-moin.com.
1 All-purpose Low German phrase for "howdy!" and "cheers."
By Fran Luebke
A small but enthusiastic group of Friends of the Max Kade Institute met at the Manitowoc County Heritage Center on May 11, 2000, for the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Friends. A business meeting was held prior to the program at which members of the Board were elected for the coming year. New Board members include Bill Thiel (Eau Claire), Sue Stoddard (Wausau), and Kent Salomon (Appleton). Dennis Boyer was re-elected for another term as a Board member.
Outgoing President Robert Luening commended members leaving the Board and delivered an inspirational address on how the grade,"GOOD", an acronym for Gratitude, Optimism, Opportunity and Doing, was the best grade in his house and demonstrates the contributions of the Max Kade Institute. Luening went on to say that The Honorable Frank Zeidler served the board for many years with good questions, and sage advice; a motion to commend him for his service was met with thunderous applause. Tom Litdke, also leaving the Board, was commended for his great contributions in the cultural dimension, especially in German-American art. Joe Salmons commended Robert Luening for his years of service to the Friends as Treasurer and President, and each of the other outgoing members.
In the Director's Report, Salmons discussed the past three years and the tripling of income but that the staff is still 50 percent of what they need and that there is no summer salary for the director. Pam Tesch was introduced as a new summer researcher who will also assist with receptionist duties. She and Antje Petty and a graduate student will be working on a course on immigration. Grants have been written to establish a regional center to focus on immigrants. Research is continuing on the German language dialect project. Mary Devitt expressed appreciation to Lynn Main who has volunteered to help locate families in Sheboygan and Manitowoc counties for the "Germans and the Land" project.
At the close of the business meeting, members went upstairs in the Center for a dinner and outstanding program given by Steven Geiger, Michael Lind and Joseph Salmons on "Voices from the Past: Preserving a Half Century of Wisconsin German Dialect Recordings." Lind and Geiger described their research and presented audio taped examples of the different dialects they are studying. Salmons spoke on the significance of preserving the old recordings and continuing to document dialects for both historical and linguistic significance. The evening was an outstanding success and the Friends of the Max Kade Institute are most appreciative to Karyl Rommelfanger, Mary Devitt, and others whose efforts made it possible.
| We are saddened to learn of the death of Joachim von Elbe. He participated in the reconstruction of the German legal order after the collapse of the Third Reich, and was involved in the negotiations which eventually readmitted Germany to the community of free nations and membership in the Western Alliance. After retirement he authored several books, including Witness to History: A Refugee from the Third Reich Remembers published by the German-American Cultural Society, Inc., for the Max Kade Institute. |
Lynn Main specializes in German-American genealogy and local history and has been working on German-American projects for 35 years. She has volunteered many hours to the MKI's special research project on "The German Experience with the Land in Wisconsin." This project includes a team of interdisciplinary and international scholars, as well as project assistants Scott Moranda, Beth Schlemper, and Suzanne Townley. The team is exploring the historical relationship between people and land, using the German-American experience in Wisconsin as a case study. In this comparative project, Wisconsin researchers investigate western Dane, Dodge, and Fond du Lac counties, while German researchers focus on areas up and down the Rhine, from Darmstadt to Cologne. With her ability to read old German script and her research expertise, Lynn has established a database of over 200 pages recording German emigrants in the four northeasternmost townships of Fond du Lac county (Calumet, Forest, Marshfield, and Taycheedah). Gathering such an amount of information is no simple task. She has spent countless hours searching records in various government offices, poring over church books, and entering data on the computer.
Patricia Reeves presented this workshop in 1995 to rave reviews. For students of German genealogy at all levels, it presents, explains, and provides practice in the vocabulary needed for the research of genealogical documents. Emphasis is placed on language roots, pronunciation, old script, geography, and old trades and professions. Students have a chance to decode sample documents and can bring in documents pertinent to their own research. Materials are provided in class and the registration fee is $54. Offered by the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, the workhop will be held June 24th, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1-3 p.m. at the Max Kade Institute. For registration information call 262-2075.
People of Pomeranian descent will celebrate their ethnic heritage at Mequon City Park on Sunday, June 25, from noon to 6 p.m. Features include: Alte Kameraden Band, Pommersche Tanzdeel, Ethnic Food, Cultural Exhibits, Genealogy Displays. Free Admission and Parking. Mequon City Park is located on 11333 N. Cedarburg Rd. Mequon, WI. Sponsored by Pommerscher Verein Freistadt. For more information call (262)242-0653 or (262)376-7641; or e-mail pommern@execpc.com.
Mon., September 11, MKI, 7 p.m.
Klaus Dehne, Universität Passau:
"German immigration and its Influence on Knox County, Indiana"
Thurs., October 5, MKI, 7 p.m.
Johannes Strohschänk and William Thiel:
"The Official Word vs. the Real Experience: Comparing the
Description of Wisconsin by the Commissioner of Emigration with
Accounts by German Immigrants."
Wed., November 15, MKI, 7 p.m.
Dennis Boyer:
"Germans and Tavern Tales in Wisconsin."
Upcoming Conference
October 26-29, 2000
"German-Jewish Identities in America: From the Civil War to the Present"
by Heidi Marzen, MKI Librarian
The MKI libraries continue to grow. In this issue, we include a mix of older German-American imprints donated to the Institute and more recently-published books and pamphlets we have bought or been given. The German-American volumes go into our growing collection of German-language materials published in the United States. The contemporary works go into our research collection on the second floor. Our collection of archival material is growing as well, with a recent donation containing the personal letters of a German immigrant (see stories above).
Assing, Ottilie. Radical Passion: Ottilie Assing's Reports from America and Letters to Frederick Douglass. Lohmann, Christoph, Editor and Translator. New York: P. Lang; 1999. 378
Boeke, Liwwaet. Liwwaet Boeke, 1807-1882, Pioneer: the Story of an Immigrant Pioneer Woman and Her Husband Who Settled in Western Ohio as Told in Her Own Writings and Drawings. Knapke, Luke B., Compiler and editor. Minster, Ohio: Minster Historical Society; 1987. 198 p.
Carr, Charles T. The German Influence on the English Vocabulary. London: Clarendon Press; 1934. 95 p.
Carsten-Miller, Ingeborg. Poetry: Ingeborg in Beltsville. Ingeborg at L'Enfant Plaza. Ingeborg at St. Elmo. Silver Spring, Md: Carmill Press; 1997; 1999.
Eisenträger, Ulrike. Ich bin in Liebe gefallen mit dem grünen Wisconsin. 1998. 12 p.
Falck, Myron R., ed. Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church. Morrison Township, Brown County, Wisconsin: Marriage Records (1859 - 1897). Saint Peter, Minn.: Falck; 2000.
Golder, C. Horst John H. Schaal J. G. Geschichte der zentral deutschen Konferenz: einschliesslich der Anfangsgeschichte des deutschen Methodismus. Cincinnati, Ohio: Jennings & Graham; [1905?]. 447 p.
Hirsch, Alice M. "Das Recht, nach dem Glück zu suchen: Spuren eines hessischen Auswanderers aus dem Richelsdorfer Gebirge in Amerika (1838-1885)." Rund um den Alheimer: Beiträge zur Geschichte und Landeskunde des ehemaligen Kreises Rotenburg. 1989; Band 11:6-31.
Jubiläums-Ausgabe zur Feier des 50jährigen Jubiläums der Reformirten Zions-Gemeinde in Sheboygan, Wisconsin am Sonntag, den 12. Juli 1903. Sheboygan, Wis.: Sheboygan Publishing Company; [1903]. 16 p.
Kuehlwein, Heinz. "Leb wohl du teures Land, das mich geboren...": Die Auswanderung nach den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika zwischen 1840 und 1870 im Bereich der Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Emskirchen. Bausteine Emskirchner Geschichte. 1999; Nr. 19/20:3-61.
Längin, Bernd G. Gottes letzte Inseln: Wie die Hutterer und Amischen leben. Augsburg: Pattloch; 1996. 352 p.
Merrill, Peter C. German-American Urban Culture: Writers & Theaters in Early Milwaukee. Madison, WI: Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies; 2000. 128 p.
Moeller, Friedwald. Altpreussisches evangelisches Pfarrerbuch von der Reformation bis zur Vertreibung im Jahre 1945. Band 1: Die Kirchspiele und ihre Stellenbesetzungen. Hamburg: Verein für Familienforschung in Ost- und Westpreussen e.V.; 1968; Band 1, Sonderschriften des Vereins fuer Familienforschung in Ost- und Westpreussen e.V.; v. No. 11.
Pumroy, Eric L. and Rampelmann, Katja. Research Guide to the Turner Movement in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press; 1996. 358 p.
von Elbe, Hermann. Dettmannsdorf: Home of Hermann and Charlotte von Elbe from 1928-1947. [Madison, Wis.]: Hermann von Elbe; [1985?].
Please visit our library catalog online.
Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and continuing well into the twentieth, Milwaukee was home to a remarkably vibrant and complex German-language intellectual scene. This collection of essays presents Milwaukee's most notable German-speaking writers and their works, including Wisconsin-written plays and operettas, prose, poetry, serial novels, and Feuilleton contributions. A number of essays treat the cultural context these writers worked in, especially Milwaukee's most important German-language theaters, up through the renovation of the Pabst Theater. This book concludes with a broad, synthetic essay on German-American urban culture in the city.
Peter C. Merrill is well known for his wide-ranging scholarly work on German-American artistic and literary culture. He grew up in the Chicago area but now lives in Florida. From 1968 to 1998 he was a professor in the Department of Languages and Linguistics at Florida Atlantic University. In addition to many essays, Merrill is the author of German-American Artists in Early Milwaukee, published by the Max Kade Institute, as well as German Artists in America and German-American Painters in Wisconsin, all three published in 1997.
