GCS German-Canadian Studies at The University of Winnipeg

Students Explore German-Canadian Roots Happy Holidays! By Jamie Smith Frohe Festtage! A unique high school project has unfolded in Walkerton, Ontario. Mr Jamie Smith and his grade 12 Canadian History class have undertaken a project to preserve the oral tradition of Walkerton, Ontario. By studying the history of the local German butcher shop the students sought to $25,000 explore and document the history of the entire town by digitally recording the oral testimonies of its inhabitants, researching the history of the Walkerton Meat Market, Fellowship and then creating a documentary. The DVD was encased and then preserved in a town time capsule during recent Homecoming celebrations. Copies of the interviews Program were deposited in the local archives at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Center. The students had much of the responsibility for individual workstations and the - see inside! role of the teacher was to facilitate the process and guide the students thought the research, interviewing, and editing process. Once the documentary was complete the students conducted a number of in-depth extension activities involving German immigrants to their region. Facts gleaned and recorded from the interviews were incorporated into each individual assignment. The entire process culminated in a German Heritage Fair which showcased all that the students had uncovered about Walkerton including food, period costumes and ethnic dancing! If you want to learn more visit the study website at www. walkertonhistory.20fr.com. The work of the students has garnered the thanks of the community as its progress has been tracked by many who follow the local press. Components of the study have been in local newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasts. The ‘Walkerton Heritage Study’ has recently been selected as a finalist for the Governor General’s Award For Excellence In Teaching History. The project was supported by the Chair in German-Canadian Studies through academic advice and a research grant. The Chair congratulates Mr Smith and his students on the successful completion of their project, which has already stimulated similar projects in other provinces.

Jamie Smith (front row, third from right) and his Grade 12 Canadian History students. New GCS Fellowship Program offers $25,000 in Scholarships, Grants, and Awards The Chair in German-Canadian Studies is pleased to The German-Canadian Studies Research Grant is open to announce the Spletzer Family Foundation Inc. German- everyone who wishes to conduct research or plan a project in Canadian Studies Fellowship Program 2007. The aim of the field of German-Canadian Studies. It is directed, for example, this new fellowship program is to support excellence in at K-12 school teachers wishing to conduct a class project in research in German-Canadian Studies at various levels of German-Canadian Studies or at independent scholars, artists, scholarship and in a broad range of communities. filmmakers, etc. planning a project in German-Canadian Studies. The Research Scholarship Program awards a Ph.D. scholarship It is open to Canadian residents as well as to non-residents on a biennial basis. The scholarship of CAD 13,000 annually can wishing to use the grant toward research or project-related be renewed once. It is open to doctoral students at universities activities in Canada. in Canada and abroad. Students must have completed The German-Canadian Studies Undergraduate Essay of CAD their course work and use the funds to conduct research in 500 is awarded once a year to the best essay written by an German-Canadian Studies in Canada. At the Master’s level, undergraduate student at a Canadian university. the Scholarship Program offers an annual, non-renewable For more information on the awards and application forms, scholarship of CAD 9,000. It is open to students in any field please go to http://germancanadian.uwinnipeg.ca. The of research at a Canadian or foreign university to conduct deadline for all scholarships, grants, and awards is 15 April 2007. research in German-Canadian Studies in Canada.

Fragen nach, warum die Rezension kontinentaleuropäischen Paul und Eva Huber, Hrsg. European Origins Protestanten den Rufen and Colonial Travails. The Settlement of Englands überhaupt gefolgt Lunenburg/Steiniger Weg in die Neue Welt. sind und welchen Einfluß sie Protestantische Siedler gründen Lunenburg. heute noch auf die Stadt und Halifax, : Messenger Publications, die Region ausüben. Andere 2003. (192 Seiten. ISBN: 0-9733387-1-7. Beiträge beschäfitgen sich CAD 45,00 brosch., CAD 60,00 gebunden, damit, wie die Auswanderer inkl. MwSt., Porto u. Versand. Bestellungen: die Überfahrt erlebten (und Messenger Publications, 18 Armshore Drive, überlebten), warum sie im Halifax, NS B3N 1M5, Tel.: 902-477-9802, Fax: Dezember 1753 in Lunenburg 902-477-2346, Email: evahuber@chebucto. rebellierten und wie sie sich ns.ca). gegen Assimilierungsversuche Dieser reich bebilderte Band beschreibt wehrten. Viele dieser kurzen die Gündung und Besiedelung Lunenburgs Beiträge wurden ursprünglich in Neuschottland (Nova Scotia) durch die im Neuschottländer Boten “Foreign Protestants” in der Mitte des 18. veröffentlicht. Jahrhunderts. Anfang der 1750er Jahre Neben den historischen warb die britische Regierung Protestanten Entwicklungen und Ereignissen auf dem europäischen Kontinent an, werden die Herkunftsorte um ihre militärische und wirtschaftliche der ersten Siedler vorgestellt. Lage gegenüber den französischen und Dazu gehören Dörfer in der katholischen Siedlern in dieser Region Pfalz, freie Reichsstädte und eine Reihe weiterer Ortschaften (Akadien) des nordamerikanischen Kontinents zu stärken. in Deutschland, sowie Orte in Frankreich, Montbéliard Die meisten Einwanderer kamen zwischen 1749 und 1752 (Mömpelgard) und der Schweiz. Die Photos, die die aus Deutschland, insbesondere der Kurpfalz, aber auch aus Herausgeber bei ihrem Besuch der knapp 90 Orte im Juli 2002 Frankreich, der Schweiz und den Niederlanden. 1753 gründeten gemacht haben, zeigen Gebäude und andere Objekte, die sie Lunenburg, das vor einigen Jahren sein 250jähriges bereits zur Zeit der Auswanderung bestanden. Die Beiträge Bestehen feierte. sind in englischer, deutscher oder französischer Sprache, und In ihren Beiträgen beschreiben die Autoren nicht nur zum Teil in zwei dieser Sprachen. diese Wanderung und Besiedlung, sondern gehen den

2 German-Canadian Studies at The University of Winnipeg New Study In der Ferne zu Hause: German Emigrants in

Canada From 1983 Until Today By Ulrike Pape

Ms Ulrike Pape recently graduated from home region or who are settled with How have their relationships to the University of Göttingen, Germany their profession leave as well: The urge changed in the process of migration? with a 150-page Diplomarbeit (thesis) of devising one’s biography prevails The interviewees are involved in both titled “In der Ferne zu Hause: Sozio- over inner engagements, objections, Germany and Canada. One way this biografische Studien zu Motivation und and doubts as well as over external occurs is by keeping in touch with the Lebenssituation deutscher Kanada- circumstance or resistance, e.g. social ties ones they left behind, and at the same Auswanderer von 1983 bis heute.” Her in Germany. The interviewees frequently time socializing with locals in Vancouver. research was supported by the Chair in hold “Germany” or “the ” However, this process of acculturation is German-Canadian Studies’ Fellowship responsible for their departure: They not even. For example, their professional Program. Below is an abbreviated version often feel restricted or frustrated by integration is easier to manage than of her report. perceived repressive bureaucracy in their social one: The major challenge for The topic of emigration has recently Germany, which in many cases, however, the interviewed emigrants is to find and been on the public agenda in Germany: is interlinked with personal matters. make close friendships with Canadians. According to the results of a poll by the Experiences of loss of loved ones play Corresponding to their aspiration of “Marplan-Institut” in Offenbach, every a decisive role in their feelings of inner being different and individual, they third German dreams of moving to a emptiness. Likewise, disappointments initially distance themselves from different country. The Federal Statistical with friends or acquaintances can also other Germans and prefer contact with Office’s latest numbers reveal that cause feelings of being misunderstood or locals. This is followed by a phase of more and more Germans are realizing out of place and result in disillusionment re-approach to Germans. Eventually, an this dream: 145,000 residents left the and lack of ideas and goals. Moving to a international circle of friends emerges. country in 2005, which is the highest different place may make up for missing This international orientation is also level of emigration since 1954. Among social or professional ties and emotional apparent in their German networking, them, 3,029 went to Canada. Most bonds. which differs from postwar German studies in this field still refer to the How do German migrants evaluate immigrants. Instead of the German house high numbers of German emigrants their decision from today’s perception “Alpenklub,” the Internet is their meeting in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In and situation? point. contrast, my study “In der Ferne zu The decision to emigrate is a maturing With respect to national identity and Hause” investigates the recent German process shaped by both reason and feelings of belonging, the interviewed migration to Canada. It is based emotion and based on the interviewee’s emigrants feel involved in and attached on interviews with twelve German respective situation and life story. As the to both Germany and Canada. This immigrants who moved to Vancouver, emigrants’ ongoing attempts to confirm double identity and involvement BC over the last 23 years. My study seeks their resolution reveal, their decision of corresponds to transnational ideas to answer three questions: going abroad is to be seen as made but that meet their spirit of non-committal Why do Germans immigrate to nevertheless incomplete. It remains a individualism as the emigrants do not Canada today? The interviewees state tightrope act. As the partially arbitrary have to commit themselves to one lack of future prospects, longing for and subjective decision to emigrate may nationality only. Canada’s multicultural adventure and self-realization as key not always be understandable to others politics and society facilitate such a motives for migrating out of Germany. and even to themselves, various modes transcultural identity as it permits dual These yearnings and desires are built of evaluation assure the emigrants in citizenship (albeit only in exceptions on a variety of complex causes that their decision before and after going in the German case) and active are shaped by individual life courses as to Canada. One mode of evaluation is maintenance of their ethnic roots. well as long-term historical processes the perception of the emigration as an The Chair in German-Canadian Studies of secularization, individualization, and opportunity. The chance to emigrate congratulates Ms Pape on the successful globalization. arises from a unique situation and completion of her studies and wishes her Previous stays abroad, travels, or moves relieves the interviewees of the decision. luck in her future endeavors. prepare and conduce towards the Their secular thoughts of a non- major step to Canada. Nevertheless, repeatable life evoke constraints to either interviewees who are rooted in their act “now, or never.”

German-Canadian Studies at The University of Winnipeg 3 The Chair in German-Canadian Book Review Studies was established in 1989 with A History of Migration from Germany to Canada, 1850-1939. By Jonathan Wagner. grants from the Secretary of State’s Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2006. ix + 284 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $85.00 cloth, Program for Canadian $29.95 paper. Ethnic Studies and a group of private By Hans Werner (University of Winnipeg) philanthropists within the German- Most German speakers who came to Canada came from Eastern Europe, and as a Canadian community of Winnipeg. It result, the story of those who came directly from the Reich has often fallen between is located in, and affiliated with, the the cracks. The low numbers of migrants coming directly from Germany also means History Department at the University that Jonathan Wagner’s study of that migration is really more about explaining of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Canada’s failure to attract Germans than about their actual migration. It seems, according to Wagner, that Canada’s later and less complete transformation to an The Chair promotes the teaching industrial economy is to blame for this failure. It meant that Canada was seeking of, and research into the history immigrants to farm the wide-open spaces of the Canadian prairies in a Germany that and culture of German-speaking was a more advanced industrialized nation with few farmers left to be attracted. immigrants and their descendants Focussing on the period 1850 to 1939, and following a chronological sequence, in Canada. It interacts with the each chapter of Wagner’s book examines the political and economic realities of German-Canadian community in Canada and Germany, the methods of recruiting or restricting migrants, the agents Winnipeg, Manitoba and the rest of and agencies that assisted them, and the conditions of travel. The format leads to Canada through public lectures and some repetition and Wagner is forced to return frequently to the same conclusions: the newsletter. The Chair promotes Canada’s recruitment policies and promotional efforts were out of step with realities regional, national and international in Germany; its bias towards British immigrants prevented capturing a significant research through conferences, portion of the large flow of Germans to North America. publications and grants. The strength of Wagner’s analysis comes in his interesting and careful analysis of the role of propaganda, immigration agencies, and agents who tried to stimulate and Editor/Producer: Alexander Freund help Germans to come to Canada. He gives the reader rare and important insights Chair in German-Canadian Studies into the emigration climate in Germany and explains how an image of Canada, particularly the Canadian West, was created. He compares that image to the portrayal The University of Winnipeg of the American West that Germans found in the widely read novels of James 515 Portage Avenue Fenimore Cooper and native German authors such as the popular Karl May, who Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3B 2E9 emulated Cooper’s style. The more “peaceful, hardworking, sober, responsible” (39) Phone: 204-786-9009 Canada portrayed by Germans who had travelled in Canada and had their reflections paid for and published by the Canadian government, could not compete with this Fax: 204-774-4134 romanticized American West. Email: [email protected] Wagner’s approach is refreshing. He avoids narrow interpretations of the German- Unless otherwise stated, all articles Canadian experience, but chooses to use modernization and industrialization as the were written by Alexander Freund framework to explain the process of German migration to Canada. While his stated Submissions of articles, news, reports, purpose may not be completely fulfilled, Wagner’s study of German migration to and reviews as well as artwork Canada fills an important void in our understanding of host and sending countries and photos for publication in this response to migration. In particular his analysis of the production of images and newsletter are welcome. perceptions of migration process sheds new light on a neglected area of migration studies.

http://germancanadian.uwinnipeg.ca

German-Canadian Studies Newsletter Volume 11 Number 2 2006