Volume 22 No 3 • Fall 2013 The Milwaukee German Theater: Once the Pride of the City Cora Lee Kluge Milwaukee Libraries. Used with permission. Milwaukee Libraries. Used – Image from Special Collections, University of Wisconsin of Special from Collections,Image University The Schlitz Park Theater, where famous German Theater manager Leon Wachsner began his Milwaukee career
or many years, the Milwaukee ten. There are only a handful of older German Theater (MGT) en- articles, theses, and dissertations; a joyed widespread recognition, number of newspaper and journal Fnot only as an excellent German- articles that must still be located and INSIDE American cultural institution and collected; and incomplete assort- • Support the MKI Library one of the primary reasons for Mil- ments of other materials, including • New Publication: waukee’s reputation as the “German occasional theater programs and ad- Wisconsin Talk Athens,” but also as one the most vertisements. However, interest was • Book Review: extraordinary theaters anywhere in recently reawakened when a search- Rocking the Wall the world and performing in any able, digital index of the approxi- • Emigration from Tiefenort, language. Surprisingly—in view of its mately 3,000 items included in the Thuringia former excellence and significance— Milwaukee Public Library’s unique • New MKI Twentieth-Century not many today are aware that there Albert O. Trostel Collection of Ger- Oral History Project once was such an establishment in man Theater Scripts was prepared • Chicago’s Green White Soccer Milwaukee at all, and the theater’s Club history has essentially not been writ- Continued on page 4 • Upcoming Events DIRECTORS’ CORNER
Greetings, Friends and Readers!
reetings from the Keystone current major research and outreach Background of German and Ameri- House! We are pleased to projects: the Milwaukee German can Oktoberfests” in Waunakee, report that the long-antic- Theater Project, the Pennsylvania Wisconsin; “The Milwaukee Ger- Gipated renovation of the fourth floor Dutch Documentation Project, and man Theater” at the German Studies of the University Club is now under- the German Immigrant Oral History Association conference in Denver, way. If all goes as planned, we will be Project. We plan to showcase some Colorado; and “German POWs and in our new location by the end of the of the results of these projects at next the Mississippi Basin Model” in Dav- spring semester. Look for updates in year’s annual symposium of the So- enport, Iowa. Mark introduced the future issues of our Newsletter. ciety for German-American Studies, “Pennsylvania Dutch Documentation Our new home in the heart of cam- which will, conveniently, take place Project” at an Amish Studies confer- pus will enable us to do our work in Milwaukee, April 10–13, 2014. ence at Elizabethtown College, Penn- better and make it more convenient Over the summer and fall, outreach sylvania, and made presentations on for patrons to access our resources, presentations have taken us across the Amish and the Mennonites at including our library and archival Wisconsin and to other states. Here the Midvale Community Lutheran holdings. We are especially excited to are just a few examples: Cora Lee Church in Madison; and Antje spoke know that it will be more convenient gave a lecture on “The Historical Continued on page 11 for students to drop by and work. In recent years, we have strengthened our ties to the UW’s undergraduate and graduate students, in part by regularly offering German-Ameri- can-themed courses through the De- partment of German. Every semester, two or more such courses are now offered. This spring, for example, stu- dents will be able to choose among Cora Lee’s “German Immigration Experience” (now in its ninth year!), Mark’s “German Language in Ameri- ca,” and a new course, “Language and Immigration in Wisconsin,” taught by Joe Salmons. No other university in the country has the breadth of German-American offerings that the UW–Madison has, which gives us the opportunity to bring the unique resources of our Institute into the classroom. Photograph by Jerry Lowe. Used with permission. Jerry Lowe. Used by Photograph When we have moved to the Uni- Cora Lee Kluge with Matthew S. Zager, President of the Quad Cities Section of the American versity Club, we will also be able to Society of Civil Engineers. Cora Lee was invited to speak about German POWs and the Mississippi involve more students in our three River Basin Model at the German-American Heritage Center in Davenport, Iowa.
2 CAMPAIGN
Help Us Preserve and Enhance our Knowledge of German-Speaking Immigrants to North America!
Donate to the MKI Librarian resources and the library’s patrons. In will continue. Please support Support Fund! short, this person is the critical link our efforts by contributing to the between the Institute’s resources and MKI Librarian Support Fund. The Max Kade Institute is dedicated its outreach activities. As many of Your donation will count toward to collecting, preserving, researching, you know from personal experience, the match required by the NEH and sharing information about we are lucky to have such an Challenge Grant. German-speaking immigrants and experienced and dedicated individual Gifts can be made by check, made their descendants in America. These in the person of Kevin Kurdylo. out to the UW Foundation, with are our families’ stories; these are As the Institute’s collection will Max Kade Institute Librarian America’s stories. grow in the new facility, and as Support Fund in the memo line, In the last few years, we have ever more visitors will seek archival and mailed to: Max Kade Institute, undertaken a capital campaign to assistance, the need to make 901 University Bay Dr., Madison, WI renovate new quarters for the MKI. the librarian/archivist position 53705 Thanks to the tremendous generosity financially secure on a permanent or of our Friends, the Institute will basis has become paramount. online through the UW Foundation soon move to the University Club Therefore, the Institute is at http://mki.wisc.edu where on the University of Wisconsin– establishing an endowment fund you can click on “MKI Library Madison central campus. German- to support the position of MKI Campaign” in the center on the page. American materials from families librarian/archivist. We are delighted A link on the campaign page takes and communities—including that the MKI has been awarded you to an online donation form books, letters, diaries, photos, audio a National Endowment for the designated for the MKI Librarian recordings, and community records Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grant, Support Fund. you have donated—will be kept there which will be the cornerstone of in an expanded library and archive. this endeavor. But we need more Thank you for your support! We are now in the second stage of help to ensure that the work of the our Library Project Campaign, whose MKI and particularly access to its goal is to build an endowment for unique resources and collections our librarian and archivist position. A library without a librarian/ archivist is an empty shell. Highly Board of Directors, Friends of the Max Kade Institute specialized collections such as the Hans Bernet Monroe MKI’s, in particular, cannot serve Karen Fowdy Monroe Steven Geiger Wausau their purpose without the knowledge, Gary Gisselman Wausau expertise, and commitment of a Elizabeth Greene Treasurer, Madison special librarian. This librarian must James Kleinschmidt President, Fitchburg Cora Lee Kluge ex officio, Madison not only organize and maintain Edward Langer Vice President, Greenfield the collection and read documents Mark Louden, ex officio, Sun Prairie Antje Petty ex officio, Fitchburg in German Fraktur print and Old John Pustejovsky Secretary, WhitefishBay German scripts, he or she must Johannes Strohschänk Eau Claire also interpret materials and bridge Luanne von Schneidemesser Madison Pamela Tesch Oconomowoc the language barrier between MKI
3 Continued from page 1 energetic professionals with connec- tions to well-known theaters. Richard by Kevin Kurdylo, Adam Woodis, left a position at the Hoftheater in and Cora Lee Kluge of the MKI.1 Weimar to come to America, where Presentations about the MGT have his first engagement, in 1881, was been given at conferences, and this with the Chicago German theater. fall a course is being offered in the Welb emigrated to Milwaukee in UW Department of German entitled 1881, where he worked as an actor, “The German-Language Theater in artistic manager, and director until America.” Working with this topic he accepted a similar position with involves exciting, original research; the St. Louis German theater in 1900. and now, nearly 80 years after the Wachsner came to the United States official dissolution of the Milwaukee in 1868 intending to become a mer- German Theater Stock company, we chant, and was appearing in amateur are eager to pursue investigations in theater productions in the New York this area. area when Adolf Neuendorff of New In its early years German-language York’s Germania Theater offered him theater performances in Milwaukee a position. In 1880 he moved west Julius Richard were productions by amateurs; the to become a member of Milwaukee’s first was put on in February of 1850 and Pabst’s Whitefish Bay Resort, Schlitz Park Theater, which was man- by printers and typesetters of the essentially beer gardens offering the- aged by the German immigrant Otto newspaper Banner und Volksfreund. ater, music, and dancing. The most Osthoff (1849–1917). The stages were makeshift, and the important new contact for the MGT The backgrounds of Richard, audiences often interrupted the was Frederick Pabst, who in 1890 Welb, and Wachsner put them in performances with high-spirited purchased Nunnemacher’s Grand a position to move the MGT away remarks. In 1868—under the leader- Opera House, thereafter known as from what it had been—a provincial ship of actor and manager Henry the Neues Deutsches Stadt Theater, immigrant theater—by establishing Kurz, a native of Austria who had to be the theater’s new home. He also contacts with people and institu- come to Milwaukee at the age of 20 financed its renovation—twice—after tions abroad, as well as with the or 21—the 900-seat Stadt Theater fires in 1893 and 1895, the second broader entertainment industry of was built. This was the first building of which virtually destroyed it.2 The Milwaukee. Indicative of this was in the Midwest that was constructed Pabst Theater of 1895 could accom- particularly Wachsner’s connection specifically for German drama; and modate 1820 spectators and boasted with the Schlitz Park Theater, where that year is often cited as the real of newfangled features, including all- in the early 1880s comic operas such beginning of Milwaukee’s German- electric lighting, one of the country’s as those written by Gilbert and Sul- language theater. first fire curtains, an early air condi- livan were attracting large crowds of The most illustrious era of the tioning system, a 3000-pipe electric Milwaukeeans of diverse—not only MGT dates from 1884, when a trium- organ, new heating and ventilation German—ethnic heritage. The MGT virate of Julius Richard (1848–1891), systems, and lavish interior orna- was now working toward financial Ferdinand Welb (1852–1910), and mentation. Convinced that electricity security for the theater by involving Leon Wachsner (1851–1909) were was far safer than gas to illuminate the city’s business leaders, especially engaged to serve as the theater’s new his theater, Pabst also built an electric the beer magnates who, in order to managers. All three were German- power plant next door, a building make their names known (and to born—Richard in Hannover, Welb in now used by the Milwaukee Reper- sell their products), had established Frankfurt am Main, and Wachsner tory Theater, one of whose stages amusement parks such as the Schlitz in Stettin—and they were young and is called the Powerhouse Theater. Park, the Blatz Park, the Pabst Park,
4 In addition, it is believed that the per, Cincinnati’s Billboard, London’s Pabst was the first theater to employ Green Book Magazine, and the Berlin a counterweight system for hoisting publications Neuer Theater-Alman- scenery, though not until after World ach, Bühne und Welt, and Deutsches War I. Recognition of the histori- Bühnenjahrbuch. cal importance of the Pabst Theater Richard, Welb, and Wachsner— came in 1991, when it was designated and then the latter two alone, after a National Historic Landmark.3 Richard’s death in 1891—and then Under the management of Rich- Wachsner alone, when Welb depart- ard, Welb, and Wachsner, the MGT ed for St. Louis in 1900—established played a role in bridging the chasm the reputation of the company, en- between Milwaukee’s English- gaging new actors and securing guest speaking and German-speaking performances from some of the big- communities. Announcements and gest European stars, including Adolf reviews of the theater’s performances von Sonnenthal and Josef Kainz. A appeared in English-language as well number of the actors who came from as German-language local newspa- German theaters to Milwaukee re- pers—without reference to the fact mained in the United States. Others Leon Wachsner that the language used on stage was returned to Europe and to successful aged by the Hamburg portrait pho- German. And far beyond Milwaukee, careers there: Otto Kienscherf, whom tographer Rudolph Dührkoop, Lerski the world was taking notice. Reports Wachsner lured away from his posi- eventually moved to Berlin and was of Wachsner’s annual trips to Europe tion at the Stadt Theater in Leipzig hired by the UFA film studios, where to hire new members of the stock in 1898, and who had returned to he worked on major films such as company, beginning at least as early Germany by 1905 to become a direc- Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. as 1889, as well as notices about the tor at the Gro���ß�herzogliches HoftheHoft he-- The program of the MGT was also activities of the MGT, appeared in ater in Karlsruhe, where he remained innovative: in 1889 Henrik Ibsen’s numerous publications, including until his retirement in 1932; and The Pillars of Society was produced, the New York Times, the New York Paula Menari, who was in Milwau- and thereafter Ibsen’s works re- Dramatic Mirror, the New York Clip- kee from 1911 to 1913 and returned mained a regular part of the pro- thereafter to Munich, where she was gram. In 1894, when Ibsen’s Ghosts a successful soprano at the Theater was found by New York audiences am Gärtnerplatz until 1926. Some to be both scandalous and disgust- made the transition from work with ing, it had been part of the repertoire the MGT to the film industry—in- in Milwaukee for three years; and cluding Gustel Hansen, who came to dramas by George Bernard Shaw, Milwaukee from Vienna in 1912 and Oscar Wilde, and August Strindberg later returned to Europe as a movie had become familiar in Milwau- star; and Ludwig Kreiss, beloved kee—in German translation—when actor and later manager of the Pabst New Yorkers still considered them Theater, who played the part of Baron to be exotic fare.4 By the end of the von Stalberg in William Gillette’s lost 1890s, an average of some 70 to 80 1916 silent film entitled “Sherlock plays written by some 35 to 45 dif- Holmes.” Helmar Lerski (1871–1956) ferent authors were being produced was in Milwaukee from 1898 until 1914, first as an actor with the MGT, and then as a photographer. Encour- Continued on page 12 Ferdinand Welb
5 ANNOUNCEMENT
New Publication: Wisconsin Talk: Linguistic Diversity in the Badger State
ple; and the influx of new immigrants speaking Spanish, Hmong, and • The Native Languages of Somali continues to enrich the state’s Wisconsin; cultural landscape. These languages • Older Immigrant Languages; and others (Walloon, Cornish, Finn- • Immigrant Languages in Edu- ish, Czech, and more) have shaped cation: Wisconsin’s German the kinds of English spoken within Schools; the state’s borders, where three dif- • The on-WisconsinN Sound of ferent major dialects of American Southwest Wisconsin; English have been identified. • Words used in Wisconsin; Wisconsin Talk brings together • Standard English; perspectives from linguistics, history, • Ethnicity and Language; cultural studies, and geography to • Hmong in Wisconsin; illuminate why language matters in • Spanish in Wisconsin; our everyday lives. Individual chap- • Mapping Wisconsin’s ters cover the following topics: Linguistic Landscapes.
Wisconsin Talk: Linguistic Diversity of the Badger State has been pub- lished! This book grew out of MKI’s “Language Matters for Wisconsin” project and connects the state’s rich cultural heritage with the languages spoken here. It is edited by University of Wisconsin–Madison professors Thomas Purnell, Eric Raimy, and Joseph Salmons, and published by the UW–Press. Wisconsin is one of the most linguistically rich places in North America. It has the greatest diversity of American Indian languages east of the Mississippi; French place names dot the state’s map; German, Nor- wegian, and Polish—the languages of immigrants in the nineteenth and Percentage of Wisconsin residents born in Germany in 1900. Map by Mark Livengood; early twentieth centuries—are still data from the 1900 U.S. census. (Wisconsin Talk, p. 44) spoken by tens of thousands of peo-
6 BOOK REVIEW
Striking a Chord for Freedom: Bruce Springsteen’s 1988 Berlin Concert Rudy Koshar
Rocking the Wall. Bruce Springsteen: sume much of post-Wall historiogra- The Berlin Concert that Changed the phy’s emphasis on GDR “totalitarian- World. By Erik Kirschbaum. New ism.” Although Erik Kirschbaum’s York: Berlinica Publishing, 2013. study is not an academic monograph, his book adds fuel to the blaze. In ten n Within Walls: Private Life in engagingly written chapters, Kirsch- the German Democratic Republic baum, an American journalist based (Oxford University Press, 2010), in Germany for the past quarter Ihistorian Paul Betts shows that the century (and a UW-Madison gradu- private sphere assumed far more po- ate in history and German), takes the litical importance in East Germany reader through the dramatic events than scholars have thought. No one that brought American rock icon can deny the Communist regime’s Bruce Springsteen to East Berlin on attended the concert and still have “will to total power” or its ability to July 19, 1988. The concert drew more powerful memories of the event. repress and infiltrate civil society. than 300,000 fans (some say 500,000) Kirschbaum often refers to the Yet throughout the state’s history, and was the largest gathering in the regime as “totalitarian,” but so much individuals dug in their gardens, Republic’s history. Kirschbaum con- of his evidence argues against that socialized with friends, and listened ducted interviews with Springsteen’s concept. He shows that East German to Western rock music. Beyond their longtime manager Jon Landau as well authorities felt increasingly pres- personal meaning, argues Betts, these as with Free German Youth (FDJ) sured during the 1980s to address practices gained significance as po- leaders who got state approval for the restive youth’s thirst for rock music litical capital, especially in the 1980s. concert. In addition, he did inter- from the West. The crowds streaming Betts and others have started a views with many East Germans who into East Berlin to see Springsteen’s scholarly fire that promises to con- performance made that thirst mani- fest. But the evidence becomes even more convincing when we learn that many concertgoers—to Springsteen’s amazement and delight—sang along to tunes like Badlands, Chimes of Freedom (a Dylan classic), and Danc- ing in the Dark during the four-hour event. East German fans knew their rock lyrics far better than they knew their Das Kapital. Kirschbaum recounts how both Landau and Springsteen sensed that the seemingly granite-hard founda- tion of East German authoritarian-
A homemade U.S. flag banner welcoming Springsteen to Berlin Continued on page 11
7 EMIGRATION RESEARCH
Forgotten People: A German Town Finds Its Nineteenth-Century Emigrants Astrid Adler
iefenort is a small town on the river Werra in the German state of Thuringia. TIn the nineteenth century, when Tiefenort was part of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, over 400 of its residents, about twen- ty percent of the population, left for places like Wisconsin and Pennsylva- nia, never to return. As time passed, the people at home ceased to talk about them. Tiefenort had forgotten its emigrants—until 2012. It all began in the 1980s. Edwin Messing, living in New York, was researching his family history when he found clues in old letters that his ancestor Andreas Messing had An image of Tiefenort from around 1850 emigrated in 1855 with his wife and children from Tiefenort. He contact- Messing. A lively correspondence the first American Messing to visit ed Tiefenort’s Pastor Sobko, who put between Edwin in New York and the hometown of his ancestors. At him in touch with Messing families Richard and Elisabeth in Germany that time, Tiefenort was still behind still living in the local area, including ensued. the Iron Curtain. Hosting a visitor my relatives Richard and Elisabeth In March 1989, Scott Messing was from America was highly unusual and required clearing a multitude of bureaucratic hurdles. Everybody was excited to meet Scott as he was intro- duced to distant relatives in Tiefenort and neighboring communities. In the 1990s, after the reunification of Germany, more American family members visited Tiefenort, and in 2007 Messings from both continents held a reunion at nearby Krayenburg Castle. The Americans’ interest in their family history had piqued an interest among members of their German relatives, including me. I wondered: if we did not know about emigrants Old buildings in Tiefenort around 1909
8 in our family, how many others in myself with old church books and was only one among a great number Tiefenort were unaware of emigrants learn to read the Old German script. of emigrants. Over the next four in their family trees? Thus began my By combining this archival informa- years, I found more than 400 indi- search for the forgotten people of tion with the research that Scott had viduals from 94 different Tiefenort Tiefenort. done, we were able to create the first families who went to the United Initially focusing on the Mess- family tree of the Messing family that States, Canada, or Australia between ing family, I was surprised how included both the American and the 1846 and 1898. Many were related little information could be found German branches. to each other and traveled on the in Tiefenort itself. Research in the My research continued. I discov- same ship. Some individuals or small Lutheran Church’s state archives in ered connections between the Mess- groups emigrated separately, and Eisenach proved to be more fruitful. ings and other local families, and then reconnected with their families First, however, I had to familiarize soon realized that Andreas Messing on another continent years after the first members had left. With the help of the Internet, I was able to trace and contact descendants of many Tiefenort emigrants in America. Some were already working on their genealogy, but did not know that their ancestors had emigrated together with siblings or cousins. Now through my new connections I received more valuable information, documents, and pictures. In return I could supplement their efforts with the information that I had found in Germany. In 2012, a group of us in Tiefenort created an exhibit called “Verges- sene Menschen – Auswanderung im 19. Jahrhundert,” (Forgotten Peo- ple—Emigration in the Nineteenth Century). It coincided with the 875th anniversary of Tiefenort’s founding and told the stories of twelve extend ed families complete with photos, illustrations, and background in- formation. In just one week, it drew 1,200 visitors, including 31 from the United States and Canada. Many visitors knew or were related to the families depicted. Others came from neighboring towns and were inspired to research the emigration history of their own families and communities. An 1854 list of people intending to emigrate, showing the names Schäfer, Messing, Walpert, Thiel, As a result, I am broadening the Walch, Schmalz, Burkhardt, and Nordmann. project to include other communities
9 Homestead of Walter E. Messing in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Undated.
in the former Grand Duchy of Saxe- Weimar-Eisenach and the neighbor- ing Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen. If you have information on emigrants from these regions, please contact me. More information, including contact information, can be found at
Astrid Adler lives in Tiefenort, Ger- many, where she owns a business consulting firm. For her efforts in researching the history of emigrants Charles E. Messing’s meat market in New York. Undated. from Tiefenort, she received the Citi- zen of the Month award from the State of Thuringia in September 2012, and took second place for the State Citizen award for 2012. She is currently work- ing on an English translation of her book Vergessene Menschen.
All images in this article courtesy of Astrid Adler.
10 Continued from page 7 Continued from page 2 about “German Immigration to Wis- consin” to a visiting delegation from Hesse, Germany. In addition to our research and public outreach, we are also work- ing to ensure the future of MKI by securing permanent funding for our two key staff positions, the Librarian/ Archivist and the Assistant Director. We are deeply grateful to you, our Friends, for your support that has helped bring us so far over the past thirty years. We hope you will con- tinue to work with us as we build en- dowments for both positions, which are so essential to our mission. The iconic border crossing sign at Checkpoint Charlie, now a symbol of the Cold War With warmest regards from the Keystone House! ism was crumbling in July 1988. Most make that argument. —Mark and Cora Lee of the fans interviewed by the author General readers, rock music fans, recall feeling that too. They respond- historians and the history-minded ed gleefully when Springsteen inter- will find something of value in this rupted his marathon performance crisply written and entertaining study to give a short speech auf Deutsch. that reminds us once again how pow- Springsteen expressed hope that all erful cultural expression can be, es- “barriers” would be torn down in the pecially in dictatorial regimes whose future. (A mini-drama preceded the goal is to control the most intimate speech: FDJ authorities feared that spaces of people’s lives. The East using the word “walls,” as the original German regime fell well short of its text read, would cause trouble with authoritarian goal, and Springsteen political authorities, so Landau re- and his E-Street Band can rightly placed it with “barriers” just minutes claim to have made the failure more before Springsteen was to read his obvious to hundreds of thousands of statement.) Sixteen months later, the young people who rocked the night Wall came down and the process of of July 19, 1988 away. reunification began. Kirschbaum is careful not to assign Springsteen’s Rudy Koshar is the George L. memorable concert too much weight Mosse/Wisconsin Alumni Research in the downfall of the regime. But Foundation Professor of History, he also writes, “the roots of the East German, and Religious Studies at the German revolution can clearly be University of Wisconsin–Madison. traced to extraordinary moments like Springsteen’s rock concert” (136). His evidence puts him on safe ground to
11 Continued from page 5 “For the maintenance of German and the last one took place in March thought, speech and custom,” of 1931. No one was surprised when annually, and the number of modern recently gave an entertainment Milwaukee’s German Theater Stock pieces was increasing. Guest perfor- in English to raise funds, and company filed a legal notice of dis- mances enhanced the offerings, such this [...] points to the decadence solution on 7 June 1935. as a presentation of Richard Wagner’s of the purely German spirit [...] The Milwaukee German Theater, Siegfried on 20 March 1898 by the in that city. It is no wonder, then, the most visible showcase of Milwau- Damrosch Opera Company of New that Manager Wachsner con- kee’s robust and resilient German York, which was followed by four templates giving up the German culture, had come to an end. There dramas (Ibsen’s Nora, Hauptmann’s stock company that for years has were a number of reasons for its de- Die versunkene Glocke, Roberto Brac- produced in admirable form the mise, including the First World War co’s Untreue, and Victorien Sardou’s better German plays.6 and the Depression, but the most Cyprienne) presented by Heinrich The struggle to survive was on. important reason of all was assimila- Conried’s New York Ensemble with It did not help, of course, that the tion, the empty house—or, as one guest actress Agnes Sorma from the theater’s chief benefactor Frederick observer stated: “There is no longer Deutsches Theater in Berlin between Pabst had died on 1 January 1904; an audience.” A shift to English had the 10th and the 14th of April of the and yet Wachsner persevered until taken place, even in the residential same year. The next spring brought his own death—on a train—in Febru- and business areas that had been the Irving Place Theatergesellschaft ary of 1909, while on his way to New most German, where now “it has of New York with Adolf von Sonnen- York on business. Reports of the the- ceased to be a rarity to hear English thal for a performance of Lessing’s ater’s deficits became routine, and the spoken.”9 The MGT had become Nathan der Weise.5 The wealth of local newspapers regularly published strong because of its connections and material performed or considered by statements such as the following: interactions with people and places the MGT can best be seen in the 179 “The German theater will be contin- in the wider world of theater and archive boxes of the Trostel Collec- ued next year in spite of the fact that entertainment; but it was no longer tion of German Theater Scripts. last year it was run at a greater loss viable because of changes at the local To be sure, things were changing. than in the previous year.” 7 level, the disappearance in Milwau- At the end of the year 1904, the New An additional source of difficulty kee of its German-speaking base. York Dramatic Mirror published the was the anti-German hysteria of the following statement: NOTES World War I era. In 1917, sensing 1 Online through the Milwaukee Public Li- The announcement that the the mood of the city, the theater’s brary’s Web site:
12 ANNOUNCEMENT
New Max Kade Institute Twentieth-Century German Immigrant Oral History Project
e are excited to an- will be preserved in the Institute’s German Immigrant Oral History nounce a new Max Kade archives. They will be made available Project is a growing repository of Institute oral history to scholars and for educational personal accounts of emigration and Wproject! purposes, and will add to the new settlement, journeys near and In the twentieth century, over narratives of American and global far, triumphs and losses, assimilation two million German-speaking history. and acculturation, and traditions and immigrants came to America. We are interviewing and recording customs kept in a new world. Nearly 600,000 arrived in the first-generation immigrants from If you are a first-generation 1950s alone, making up 23 percent German-speaking regions in Europe German immigrant and would of all immigrants in that decade. who now live in the United States. like to contribute your story to this For the most part, the stories of We include individuals who speak project, please contact the Max Kade these immigrants have not been German or lived in a German- Institute. documented, and very little research speaking community in Europe, has been done on their experiences people who migrated directly to the and their impact on American United States or via another country, society. and individuals who came as adults MKI is now reaching out to or as children. Initially our focus citizens across Wisconsin, the will be on people who arrived before Midwest, and beyond. Our goal 1970. is to create a collection of nearly There are as many different forgotten immigrant stories, which experiences as there are people. The
Chicago’s Green White Soccer Club Like most newcomers, immigrants from German-speaking Europe who came to the U.S. in the mid-twentieth century preferred to live with people from their home region. Together they founded clubs and societies that reflected their culture and traditions. One such club is the “Soccer Club Green White” in Chicago, founded in 1956 by a group of German- speaking “Donauschwaben” (Danube-Swabians). Expelled from their hometowns in the plains of the Danube River (Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania) in the aftermath of World War II, they were part of SC Green White youth team in 1958. Image courtesy of Rick Kaempfer. http://scgreenwhitehistory.blogspot.com Continued on page 15
13 UPCOMING EVENTS
WORKSHOP TWO LECTURES by Dr. Andrea Mehrländer Reading Old German Script
Saturday, November 9, 2013, Lecture I 9 am - 2 pm. Memorial LIBRARY The Metamorphosis of a Reunified (Madison), Room 231 Berlin: Public Commemorations of the 50th Anniversary of John F. Ken- Instructor: Karyl Rommelfanger nedy’s Visit to Berlin and the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall Do you have correspondence from a German ancestor written in a script Wednesday, November 20, 2013, that you cannot read? Do you have 7 pm. University of Wisconsin– trouble finding your ancestor’s name Madison, Memorial Union (for in an official document, because you room, see TITU) can’t make out the letters? This work- shop will acquaint participants with This lecture, to be held two days the basics of the Old German written before the 50th anniversary of the alphabet so that they can transcribe assassination of John F. Kennedy, will Andrea Mehrländer is the Executive words or texts into modern script. juxtapose public activities in Berlin Bring your own documents! After Director of the Check Point Charlie to commemorate JFK’s famous visit Foundation in Berlin, Germany. providing a general introduction, the to that city in June 1963 with the instructor will assist you with your upcoming celebration of the 25th specific questions. Both lectures are free and open to anniversary of the fall of the Berlin the public, and are made possible Wall, and will discuss larger issues of Karyl Rommelfanger is a retired through the generous support of the commemoration and celebration of University of Wisconsin–Madison German teacher from the Manitowoc events in Berlin’s history. Public School System. She has tran- Lectures Committee with funds from scribed and translated documents the Anonymous Fund. They are co- sponsored by the Friends of the Max written in the Old German script for Lecture II 25 years. Kade Institute, the Department of For more information, including The Forgotten Minority: Urban Ger- German, and the Center for German registration details, see the MKI Web mans of the Confederate States Dur- and European Studies at the Univer- site. ing the American Civil War sity of Wisconsin–Madison. Co-sponsored by the Wisconsin His- torical Society and the Friends of the Thursday, November 21, 2013, Max Kade Institute. 7 pm. University of Wisconsin– Madison, Memorial Union (for room, see TITU)
Most German immigrants settled in America’s northern states, and most of the German Americans who took part in the American Civil War fought on the side of the Union. Focusing on three cities in the Confederacy—Richmond, Charles- ton, and New Orleans—this lecture examines the role of ethnic Germans in the nineteenth-century American South, particularly during the Civil War era.
14 MEMBERSHIP/RENEWAL
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Continued from page 12 Continued from page 13 Indoor games were played at the Armory, where they were a big draw 6 New York Dramatic Mirror, 12 November a multi-ethnic wave of immigrants: for Chicago’s expansive immigrant 1904. “displaced persons” who arrived in 7 The Milwaukee Journal, 1 June 1911. population. “There were something 8 See “Minutes of a Protest Meeting” held on the U.S. after 1948. In 1957, SC Green like 3000 fans every Sunday when we 15 February 1919, P2007–23, Library of the White started playing as one of seven Max Kade Institute for German-American played,” remembers Klaus Kilian, a Studies, Madison, Wisconsin. See also Cora “German” teams in the National former player. “Every nationality had Lee Kluge, “Outrage Over German-Language Soccer League’s Second Division. a section there. The sound/noise was Plays Divides Citizens of Milwaukee in Febru- ary, 1919,” Parts I and II, Max Kade Institute The recent influx of European deafening. It was so loud you couldn’t Friends Newsletter, Winter 2007 and Spring immigrants had brought many soccer even hear the whistle sometimes. But 2008. enthusiasts and experienced players 9 Both quotes are from an article entitled it was exciting to play in front of such “Dead Is the German Theater, Once the Pride to the Chicago area, and numerous a big crowd.” [Quote from http:// of Intellectual Milwaukee,” The Milwaukee clubs formed along ethnic lines. Journal, 7 June 1935, written by AHP (= Alfred scgreenwhitehistory.blogspot.com] H. Pahlke).
The Newsletter of the Friends of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies is published three times a year at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Submissions are invited and should be sent to:
Kevin Kurdylo Friends of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies 901 University Bay Drive, Madison, WI 53705 Phone: (608) 262-7546 Fax: (608) 265-4640 [email protected]
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