Past Events
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May 2Friends of MKI Annual Meeting in MilwaukeeKegel's Inn, 5901 W National Ave, West Allis, WI
We invite you to join us for the 2026 annual meeting of the Friends of the Max Kade Institute, which will be held at Kegel’s Inn in West Allis, just west of Milwaukee. The business meeting will be followed by a luncheon, featuring German dishes, and a presentation on “Milwaukee Brewers in the Post-Prohibition Era.” …
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Apr 11Virtual Workshop: “Learn to Read the Old German Script: Letters and Personal Documents”Mark L. Louden, Antje Petty
Registration is required by April 9, 2026 You will receive a Zoom link and workshop materials by April 10, 2026. REGISTER HERE Some of the most challenging texts to decipher in the old German Kurrent script are personal documents, such as letters. Readers must not only learn unfamiliar characters but also adapt to individual handwriting …
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Mar 10Virtual Lecture: An Unusual Moravian DiaryPaul Peucker
Virtual Lecture
Free and open to the public, but registration is required. Click here to register for a Zoom link. Members of the Moravian Church (Brethren) were among the earliest German-speaking settlers in the American colonies. This presentation is anchored in a unique document that was passed down for generations within an American family: a diary of …
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Feb 25Virtual Lecture: ” German and American Protestant Pastors in Occupied Germany”Brandon Bloch
Free and open to the public, but registration is required. Click here to register for the Zoom Webinar Following Germany’s defeat in 1945 and its occupation by the Allied powers, the German Protestant Church assumed critical social and political roles as both a provider of humanitarian aid and a mediator between the German population and …
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Feb 12Virtual Lecture: “German Americans and the Founding of the United States”Emily Sneff
Free and open to the public, but registration is required. Click here to register for a Zoom link. The names of German Americans do not often come to mind when we think about the founding of the United States. In fact, some of the “Founding Fathers” held negative views of German communities. However, immigrants and …
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Feb 3Language and Place: Poetry in Yiddish and Pennsylvania DutchJosh Brown (UW–Eau Claire), Matt Johnson (UW–Madison), Mark Louden (UW–Madison), Sunny Yudkoff (UW–Madison)
UW–Madison Memorial Union, Old Madison Room, 800 Langdon Street
Yiddish and Pennsylvania Dutch are among a small number of minority languages in North America that are thriving. In addition to being vibrant vernaculars, both languages serve as vehicles for multiple literary and dramatic genres, including poetry. This event will showcase poetic works in Yiddish and Pennsylvania Dutch that deal with the concept of place. Josh Brown (UW–Eau Claire), …
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Jan 27West Bend, WI: “German Community Life and Traditions in Wisconsin”
Antje Petty
Cedar Community, 5577 Home Drive, West Bend, WI
German immigrants kept many of their traditions while also being part of the state’s multi-lingual and multi-ethnic society. This presentation will look at their organizations and clubs; music, theater, and tavern culture; newspapers and magazines; as well as events today that have a German angle, such as Christmas markets and Oktober fests, but represent a …
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Dec 1Presentations, Exhibit, Reception: “Early Anabaptist Documents at the Max Kade Institute”Mark L. Louden, J. Denny Weaver
University Club, 432 East Campus Mall, Madison. Room 313 (presentations at 4pm), 4th floor (exhibit, reception at 5pm)
Join us at the Max Kade Institute to celebrate the recent acquisition of a collection of books, some of them quite rare, published by and about Anabaptists. Donated by J. Denny Weaver, these mostly German- and Dutch-language items were collected by Weaver and his late father-in-law, J. C. Wenger, a professor at Goshen College who …
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Nov 20Virtual Lecture: The German Audience for the U.S. Declaration of IndependenceEmily Sneff
Virtual Lecture
Free and open to the public, but registration is required. Click here to register for a Zoom link. July 4, 2026, will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. Almost immediately after being adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the document was translated into German. Join Dr. Emily …
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Nov 15Virtual Workshop: “Introduction to German Genealogy”Antje Petty
Virtual Workshop
Registration is required by November 12, 2025 (see below) A Zoom Link will be emailed to you on November 13, 2025. This workshop is intended for genealogists who are new to researching ancestors from German-speaking lands. Session I: Where did They Come From? To trace your German-speaking ancestors, it is essential to know their place …