Author: apetty

As we eagerly await a vaccine and effective treatments for the COVID-19 virus, it is easy to forget how much has changed in the field of medicine in the last 100–150 years. At a time when there were neither vaccines nor antibiotics, people often had to be their own doctors. This is reflected in the …

German immigrants arriving in America marveled at the different flora and fauna they encountered, which included many birds they had never seen before. Some were much bigger or more colorful than the ones they remembered from home. Others looked remarkably familiar, but their songs were different. And some didn’t sing at all. One of the …

One of the hardest things about isolating at home during the COVID-19 crisis is not being able to meet with family and friends. We now Zoom, FaceTime, chat, write emails, or “simply” talk on the phone. In the nineteenth century, when many Germans left for America, they could stay in touch only through letters. It …

One of the Max Kade Institute’s most requested outreach presentations is Mark Louden’s “Who Are the Amish?”. Mark had several talks scheduled for this spring that, unfortunately, we had to cancel or postpone.   THE AMISH → Now that we are all staying at home, we invite you towatch one of Mark’s presentations online, “Who Are …

The weather is slowly getting warmer, and if the low supply of seeds in (online) gardening stores is any indication, many of us are planning some gardening. What better time to take a look at nineteenth century advice books for German-Americans gardeners! The most prominent of them was the Amerikanisches Gartenbuch für Stadt und Land (American gardening book …

Many of us are baking at home right now. So we will start our new “series” by sharing a few recipes from a nineteenth-century German-American cookbook: the “Practical Cook Book,” published in Milwaukee in 1904. The Max Kade Institute published a facsimile of this cookbook under the title “Pickled Hering and Pumpkin Pie.” You can …

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED! Join us on April 1, at 6:00 p.m. for a lecture by Christof Mauch, Professor of History at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. For detailed event information CLICK HERE Adolf Cluss (1825-1905) was a native of Heilbronn, Germany, who immigrated to America after the failed German revolution of 1848. A member …

We are very sorry that the 2020 Friends of MKI Annual Meeting and Program has to be cancelled because of the COVID-19 situation.  CLICK HERE for further information.  The Friends of the Max Kade Institute will hold their Annual Meeting 2020 in Ozaukee County, a center of German and Luxembourg immigration in the 1850s and …

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED Step back into Wisconsin’s Low-German past! On March 24, 2020, the Max Kade Institute will showcase the life and work of Albert F. W. Grimm. Join us for a fun evening with short presentations, readings (with translations), and musical selections featuring Max Kade Institute Director Mark L. Louden and Friends …

We have added a new “Focus on Communities” element to our webpage “Neighbors Past and Present: The Wisconsin German Experience.” This page features German-American history, traditions, culture, resources, and much more, in communities where our traveling exhibit has been displayed.  Local collaborators have augmented the exhibit with special programming, displays, resource materials, and features on …