Newsletter Winter 2004
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Max Kade Institute Friends Newsletter VOLUME 13 NUMBER 4 • WINTER 2004 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON, 901 UNIVERSITY BAY DR., MADISON, WI 53705 Conference explores tales WHAT'S INSIDE: of immigration Directors' Corner. By Nicole Saylor, CSUMC Archivist Page 2 Stories of contact with other cultures are at the heart of the im- Friend's Profile: migrant experience. These narratives can cultivate a sense of cul- Marita Ritsche. Page 3 tural identity, but they can also be a means of control or exclusion. They are a lens into the teller’s values and biases, and may reveal Elias Molee's the “truth” but not necessarily the facts. Stories can help sustain dream of an a dying language, and international provide a critical perspec- language. tive on U.S. immigration’s Page 4 impact not only on those who encountered the new- Milwaukee's German-Ameri- comers but on those who can taverns in the 1940s. Page 7 stayed behind. Storytellers, linguists, Luxembourg-American folklorists, historians, cultural center in Ozaukee and community members County. Page 9 convened Nov. 11–13, 2004 to explore these Calendar of events. threads and much more Page 11 during a three-day confer- ence, “Tales of Contact Kathrin Pöge-Alder speaks on how immigrant storytellers treat traditional Collection and Change: Traditional Feature: German folktales. See the Stories of Immigration,” at sights in the Pyle Center on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. America! The event—a blend of panels, scholarly presentations, and eve- Page 12 ning story concerts—was co-sponsored by the Max Kade Institute and the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures. More Book Review: The Mystery than sixty people signed in at the event, coming from Madison; the of the Ancient Coins Wisconsin communities of Mequon, Onalaska, Summit Lake, and Page 14 Sussex; and as far away as California and Germany. The event kicked off Thursday night with a conference reception German-American sympo- sium in Bielefeld, Germany. prior to a provocative keynote address by Jack Zipes. A professor Page 15 at the University of Minnesota, an internationally recognized Continued on Page 10 2 3 Directors' Corner MKI resources attracting researchers By Cora Lee Kluge and Mark L. Louden, MKI Co-Directors We are looking back on a fall semester of hard stock at year’s end, we feel that we should be very work and success. The exterior of the Keystone pleased. House was repaired and brightened with a new It is satisfying to note that the MKI’s library and coat of paint, and some of the carpet inside was archive holdings have been attracting visitors from replaced. Workstations throughout the house have other parts of the United States and from abroad. continued to hum with activity, signaling that Since the summer, visitors from Germany have ongoing projects are progressing. In November included: (1) Bernadette Friedrichs, a master’s the conference on “Tales of Contact and Change: degree candidate in History at the University of Traditional Stories of Immigration” (sponsored Mainz and a student of Professor Helmut Schmahl, by the MKI and the Center for the Study of Up- who came in June and in November to do research per Midwestern Cultures) took place and was well on the Forty-eighters; (2) Dr. Ulrike Brenning, received. Financial support for the conference a writer, documentary filmmaker, and television came from the Wisconsin Humanities Council journalist from Hannover, who teaches interdis- with funds from the National Endowment for the ciplinary media studies in both Hannover and Humanities, the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds Göttingen, and who came to the UW in the fall as from the State of Wisconsin, and the Friends of the a Brittingham Visiting Scholar; (3) Dr. Dieter H. Max Kade Institute with funds from the Federal Lange, a retired art history professor from Han- Republic of Germany/Consulate General Chicago. nover, who is doing research on Gustav Blöde; And, finally, a new MKI publication appeared and (4) Dr. Holger Kersten, a professor of American is available in bookstores: German Immigration Studies at the University of Magdeburg, who par- and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective, edited ticipated in the November conference; and (5) Dr. by Walter D. Kamphoefner and Wolfgang Helbich Helmut Schmahl, a long-time friend and fellow (Madison: MKI, 2004). On the whole, as we take inhabitant of the MKI, who now teaches American history at the University of Mainz and who also took part in the conference. We are happy to wel- come these and other visitors who come to use our resources, and we thank them both for their inter- The Newsletter of the Friends of the Max Kade Institute est and for spreading word about the MKI and our for GermanAmerican Studies is published quarterly at work here when they return to their home bases. the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The Newsletter Please visit our Web site (http://csumc.wisc. is edited and produced by Kevin Kurdylo with the assistance of the Newsletter Committee of the Board edu/mki) to stay on top of announcements and of Directors and is printed by Great Graphics, Inc. The activities at the MKI. Click on “News & Events” Newsletter appears quarterly in March, June, September, to find information about our American Languages and December. Submissions are invited and should be digitization project, new publications, forthcoming sent directly to: events, and new library acquisitions, as well as to Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies visit our Newsletter Archive. Also please note that 901 University Bay Drive the MKI library can now again be searched online. Madison, WI 53705 Finally, we look forward to seeing you during Phone: (608) 262-7546 Fax: (608) 265-4640 the spring semester, and in the meanwhile, we Any submissions via e-mail may be directed to wish all of you the best for the holiday season and [email protected]. energy and happiness to meet the challenges of the Visit the Max Kade Institute on the year ahead. World Wide Web at: http://csumc.wisc.edu/mki Cora Lee and Mark 2 3 Friend's Profile Family letters inspired Ritsche to write novel By Antje Petty, MKI Assistant Director It all began with a shoebox Marita Ritsche scribe the essence of the person my father was and received one day from her sister: a box filled with the times he lived in.” Marita is already work- letters written to their father, Theodor Ritsche, ing on a sequel about the next stage in Theodor who had passed away. Theodor had left his home- Ritsche’s life: the making of a successful furniture town of Daisendorf near Meersburg manufacturer, businessman, and on Lake Constance, Germany, in family man. 1923 for a new life in the American Even though Marita grew up Midwest. For Marita, reading the with her German-speaking father letters began a process of deeper and a mother of German heritage, interest in the life of her father, re- she did not learn German at home. search into the experiences of Ger- In high school she studied Span- man Americans after WWI, and a ish and became a Spanish teacher, wish to share her father’s story with working in Wisconsin schools for a wider audience, which ultimately twenty-three years. Marita credits led her to the Max Kade Institute. her late husband, UW–Milwaukee Her work resulted in Cross Cur- geography professor Robert Reich rents—In the Wake of the Great War for awakening her first interest in (Prinstar, 2005), a creative non- German language, culture, and fictional account woven around her literature. She learned the language eighteen-year-old father’s jour- when the family stayed in Germany Marita Ritsche ney. The story begins in “The Old for sabbaticals in the sixties and early Country” with Theodor Ritsche’s train ride across seventies and eventually decided to get a master's Germany in August 1923. “Across the Big Pond” degree in Germanics. continues with a reflection on that unlikely com- Now in her retirement Marita is busier than ever. munity of emigrants on an ocean liner who have In addition to writing books and researching Ger- little more than destination and hope in common. man-American history, she is involved in global In “The New Country,” we experience the final awareness projects, international peace and justice, leg of Theodor’s journey in September as he takes ecology and the environment, and remains an another train ride, this time across the Midwest to active participant in the Wisconsin Association Eden Valley, Minnesota, where he has to face the of Foreign Language Teachers. Her commitment realities of beginning the new life of a stranger in to teaching and lifelong learning extends to her a foreign land. involvement in the Unitarian Church North in Me- Says Marita: “I did not want to write a chrono- quon, WI, where at present she is Adult Religious logical account of my father’s life, because this Education Co-Chair. The church was built in 1987 would have made for a boring read. Using the in the style of the nineteenth-century octagonal tools of creative non-fiction allowed me to de- Clausing barns in Ozaukee County. The Friends of the Max Kade Institute Board of Directors Rose Marie Barber, Milwaukee Bob Luening (Treasurer), Madison Robert Bolz (Vice President), Madison Antje Petty (ex officio), Madison Charles James, Madison Karyl Rommelfanger, Manitowoc Jim Klauser, Pewaukee Jeanne Schueller, Milwaukee Cora Lee Kluge (ex officio), Madison William Thiel, Eau Claire Ed Langer (President), Hales Corners Ted E. Wedemeyer, Milwaukee Mark Louden (ex officio), Milwaukee Don Zamzow, Wausau 4 5 Speaking of Language Elias Molee and the dream of an international language By Mark L.