Contributions of the German Element to the Growth of the University of Maryland : Reprint from the Twenty-sixth Report of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland

Item Type Report

Authors Cunz, Dieter, 1910-1969

Publication Date 1945

Keywords University of Maryland, Baltimore--Faculty; Baker, Samuel; Miltenberger, George W.; Hemmeter, John C.; Germans-- Maryland--Baltimore

Publisher Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland

Download date 05/10/2021 12:20:59

Item License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10713/2333 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE GERMAN ELEMENT

TO THE GROWTH OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

By DIETER CUNZ

Reprint from the Twenty-sixth Report of

the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland

Baltimore, 1945 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE GERMAN ELEMENT TO THE GROWTH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND By DIETER CuNz

The University of Maryland began as several years represented "The Depart­ a Medical School in the year 1807. Its ment of Arts and Sciences of the Uni­ official name was "The College of Medi­ versity of Maryland." In the years 1913 cine of Maryland," after similar and 1915 the Baltimore Medical College schools in Philadelphia, Harvard, Dart­ and the College of Physicians and Sur­ mouth and New York, the fifth Medical geons were united with the University College in the United States. Five years of Maryland Medical School. later a university was engrafted upon In spite of several changes and en­ the Medical College and provisions were largements the basic structure of the uni­ made to organize besides the existing versity stood for more than a century medical division three new branches: of the way it had been set up in 1812. Divinity, of Law and of Arts and Sci­ Then the year 1920 brought a far-reach­ ences. Faculty members for the new ing reorganization. An Act of the departments were appointed in 1813, Maryland Legislature merged the uni­ yet it was several years until the new versity with the Maryland State College branches began actually to function. in College Park in Prince George's The university branched out again in County. From now on the name "Uni­ 1840, when the College of Pharmacy versity of Maryland" applied to the two was added, Less foresight was shown branches in Baltimore and College Park, when, in 1839, the university rejected which worked at separate localities but the plan to establish a Department of under a common administration. The Dentistry; subsequently a separate Maryland State College first was chart­ "Baltimore College of Dental Surgery" ered in 1856 under the name of Mary­ was founded in 1840, the first Dental land Agricultural College, the second College in the world. A generation agricultural college in America. It had later the necessity for such a depart­ profited by the Land Grant Act and had ment had become so urgent that in 1882 built up a high reputation in the field the university

3 scendants contributed to the develop· timore in 1809 and held this pos1t10n ment of the university. until 1833. As president of several Not until the beginning of the nine· medical societies he was very active in teenth century did the German element the organization of the Medical Library in Baltimore develop something like a in Baltimore. His oldest son, William social upperclass. After 1815, when Nelson Baker, became professor of new waves of German immigrants Anatomy in 1838; his early death cut poured into the state, it became obvious off a career which had begun under that some of the older German immi· very promising circumstances. His grant families, who had come during brother, Samuel George Baker, suc· the last decades of the eighteenth cen· ceeded to his father's old chair in 1837; tury and who had gained wealth and being at the time of his election only reputation, were becoming more and twenty-two, he was probably the young· more an integral part of the "society" of est professor the university has ever the city-families like the Hoffmanns, had. the Mayers, the Fricks, the Bakers, and George W. Miltenberger, born in Bal· others. These families were especially timore in 1819, graduated from the concerned about the lack of a higher University of Maryland in 1840. Upon type of educational institute in. the city. completion of his studies he was im· These circles were therefore particular· mediately appointed demonstrator of ly interested when the idea of founding Anatomy and in the ensuing years be· a college was brought up, and from came lecturer on pathological anatomy. these families again came quite a num· He was thirty-three years old when he her of teachers who built up the vari· accepted the chair of Materia Medica ous schools and colleges which today and Therapeutics. In 1855 he wa~ made are united under the common designa· Dean of the Faculty, and a few years tion of "The University of Maryland." later he was chosen for the chair of It should be mentioned in this con· Obstetrics. After half a century of nection that the first medical teacher of teaching he retired in 1891. High any prominence in Baltimore was a honors in the academic and medical German immigrant: Charles Frederick field were bestowed upon him; a great Wiesenthal. He had come from Prussia number of his scientific articles ap· in 1755, began to practice medicine in peared in the "Maryland Medical Jour· Baltimore, and in the eighties, deeply nal" and the "Transactions of the Medi­ concerned about the lack of proper pro· cal and Chirurgical Faculty of Mary· fessional training for young doctors, land." In the history of the university started a private medical school. Upon he deserves special mention as one of his death in 1789, his son, Andrew the founders and first president ( 1880) Wiesenthal, continued there courses on of the alumni association. anatomy and surgery to the time of his With the Baker brothers Charles own death in 1798. This was the first Frick (1823-1860) shares the fate of medical school in the state until 1807, brilliant careers suddenly ended by un­ when the College of Medicine _was timely death. After having taught for founded. several years in a Baltimore Prepara­ In the early history of the College of tory School of Medicine he became pro· Medicine the Baker family holds a con· fessor in the Maryland College of spicuous place. Three of its members, Pharmacy in 1856 and two years later Samuel Baker ( 1785-1835) , and his joined the Faculty of Physics (Medi­ two sons, William N. Baker (1811- cine) at the University of Maryland. 1841), and Samuel G. Baker ( 1814· Although only a few short years were 1841) , belonged to the most outstand­ granted to him, his teaching and his ing and most popular professors in the research work were long remembered Department of Medicine. Samuel Baker, as a high point in medical science in horn in Baltimore, was the son of a Baltimore. He had a great reputation German immigrant. He was elected to ,as an investigator; his chief interest the chair of "Materia Medica" in Bal- was directed toward fevers, the blood,

4 the kidneys and their secretions. His paratively new field: the history of book on "Renal Diseases" ( 1850) was medical science. His book, "Master in his time counted among the standard Minds in Medicine" (1927), became a works in that field. After his death a landmark in medical historiography. branch of the Library of the Medical Only in parentheses we may mention and Chirurgical Faculty was named his artistic ambitions; he was a thor· after him; beside.s, a "Charles Frick oughly trained musician, and even com· Research Fund" at the university pre· posed scores for orchestra, .voice and served his memory. piano. His cantata "Hygiea," first In the twentieth century the Frieden· performed at a meeting of the American wald family played as important a role Medical Association at Baltimore, is a in the development of the Medical praise of the science and art of medi· Faculty as the Baker family in the first cine; after several performances in this half of the nineteenth century. Harry, country the cantata was successfully Julius and Edgar, all three grandsons pro_duced by the Leipzig University of Jonas Friedenwald, who had immi· Choir (1923). When in 1931 Hem­ grated from Hessia to Baltimore in meter died, his widow donated his valu­ 1832, rose to prominent rank in medical able medical library to the University science. All three brothers were profes· of Maryland Medical School and his sors at the University of Maryland, literary books to the College Park Harry Friedenwald in the field of oph· Library. thalmology, Julius Friedenwald in gas· Without going into details we shall tro-enterology, Edgar Friedenwald in briefly enumerate some other medical pediatrics. teachers of German descent who during The most prominent German who ap· the last decades taught (or still teach) peared on the faculty list of the univer­ at the University of Maryland: Ernest sity during the last half ce~tury is prob· Zueblin, Pearce Kintzing, Harry M. ably John C. Hemmeter. He was born Stein, Harvey G. Beck, Harry Adler (all in Baltimore in 1863, of parents who in Clinical Medicine), Alfred Ullman emigrated to America from Germany in (Surgery), Eduard Uhlenhut (Anat­ 1848. He spent several years of his omy), Jose L. Hirsch (Pathology), T. F. youth in Wiesbad{m, Germany; later he Leitz (Gastro-Enterology), M. R. Kahn attended Baltimore schools and gradu· and H. K. Fleck (Ophthalmology), ated from the Medical School of the Frank D. Saenger (Rhino-Laryngol­ University of Maryland in 1884. In ogy), James A. Nydegger (Tropical 1903 he was appointed professor of Medicine), Melvin Rosenthal (Derma· Physiology in both the Medical and tology), Harry J. Deuel (Physiology), Dental Faculty. His medical practice Frank W. Hachtel (Bacteriology), John was mostly limited to diseases of the Ruhriih (Pediatrics). stomach and intestines; he was prob· A few words should be dedicated to ably the first to use Roentgen rays for the nam.e of Frank C. Bressler ( 1855- studying the size and location of the 1935). He did not belong to the teach­ stomach. His articles were published in ing staff of the University. He gradu­ American, German, English and French ated from the University and later, as journals and brought him international professor of children's diseases, taught reputation and recognition. His various at the Baltimore College of Physicians publications are too many to be enu· and Surgeons; besides he practiced merated in this connection; only three of medicine in Baltimore. When he died his main works may be mentioned here: he left to the University a fund with "Diseases of the Stomach" ( 1897), "Dis­ which the Frank Bressler Research eases of the Intestines" (1902), and Laboratory was established, providing "Manual of Practical Physiology" teaching and research facilities for the (1912). His professional articles add departments of Anatomy, Histology, Em­ up to the respectable sum of one hun­ bryology and Pharmacology. Frank dred and seventy. In his later years his Bressler's father, who originated from range of interest broadened into a com· Frankenthal in Bavaria, had come to

5 the United States before the Civil War. Much more remarkable is the part of The son was born in New York, but the Maryland Germans in the develop­ spent part of his youth in his father's ment of the Department of Pharmacy. home town. Frank Bressler's gift en­ When the department was revived in abled the University to start research 1856, two of the three newly engaged work on a broader scale; the building teachers were of German stock: Lewis which now houses the research division, H. Steiner and Charles Frick. The lat· the Bressler Building, preserves the ter' s name was mentioned in connection name of the founder. with the Medical School; 1856 he be­ In the annals of the Department of came also professor of Materia Medica Dentistry the absence of German names in the School of Pharmacy. Lewis H. is almost conspicuous. One of these ex­ Steiner (1827-1892) was appointed ceptions is John C. Uhler, who in 1900 professor of Chemistry. He was a de­ became professor of Prosthetic Den­ scendant from one of the oldest German tistry. We mentioned before that John families in Western Maryland. As pro­ Hemmeter taught also in the Depart· fessor of chemistry he taught at various ment of Dentistry; at the same time colleges; he was connected with the Edward Hoffmeister figures prominent­ University of Maryland during the ly as professor and member of the years 1856-61 and 1864-65. He was faculty council. The most outstanding equally well known in the field of sci­ teacher of German descent in the School ences and in politics. Through lectures, of Dentistry was Timothy Oliver Heat· articles and books as well as through wole. The name is an anglicized form his activity in numerous public offices of the German Hiitwohl. The Heatwoles he established a great reputation inside originated from Steeg, a little wine vil­ and outside of Maryland. On account lage a few miles west of Bacharach on of his broad cultural background and the Rhine. The first Heatwoles came to his organizational abilities he was se· Pennsylvania in colonial times, then to­ lected in 1886 as the first head of the wards the end of the eighteenth century newly founded Enoch Pratt Library in migrated southward and settled in Rock­ Baltimore. When, in 1661, he resigned ingham County, in the valley of Vir­ from the chair of Chemistry at the uni­ ginia, where they engaged mainly in versity, another German succeeded to 'agricultural pursuits. Timothy Oliver his post: Alfred M. Mayer. In 1872 Heatwole (born in 1865) rose to a pro· William Simon was elected director of fessional career; in 1895 he received the chemical laboratory; one year later the degree of doctor of dental surgery he became also professor of Theoretical at the . University of Maryland. Very Chemistry. William Simon was born in soon he was taken over into the teach­ Eberstadt, Hessia, in 1844, descending ing staff; in 1907 he was promoted to from a very old German family of full professorship of dental materia Lutheran clergymen. He graduated medica and therapeutics. From 1911 from the University of Giessen and in until 1924 he served as Dean of the 1870 accepted a position with the Balti­ School of Dentistry; from 1924 until more Chrome Works. At that time only his retirement in 1937 he was connected a few people in Maryland were familiar with the administration of the school. with the great changes which chemistry He always showed great interest in civic underwent in these years. In 1871 at affairs and served repeatedly in public the request of some students William offices (House of Delegates, City Coun­ Simon began on a very improvised basis cil, etc.). Altogether the number of courses and lectures on modern chem­ German names in the Department of istry. In a very primitive room in the Dentistry is comparatively small; be­ College of Pharmacy, for which he him­ sides these four (Uhler, Hemmeter, self provided desks, shelves, apparatus, Hoffmeister, Heatwole) there seem to reagents, etc., he began his work. It was have been no teachers of German ex­ the first place in Maryland devoted to traction who played a significant part practical laboratory instruction in in this department. chemistry-besides similar schools in

6 Charlottesville and New Orleans, the the Faculty of Pharmacy. We might only one in the South. First there were also mention as some of the most out­ only ten students, then the classes grew standing members of the School of and were joined by some of the most Pharmacy in recent years William H. prominent physicians and pharmacists Schultz, Walter H. Hartung, and espe­ in the city. The Trustees of the College, cially John C. Krantz, whose achieve­ recognizing William Simon's great ments in the field of anesthetics have value, created for him the chair of found widest recognition. Analytic Chemistry and provided him In the history of the University of with all the facilities he needed. He Maryland Law School we find many taught at the college for thirty years German names. When in 1813 a ( 1872-1902), published a standard Faculty of Law was added to the Faculty work, the "Manual of Chemistry" of Physics, the first professor of Law ( 1884), contributed to various chem­ chosen by the Board of Regents was ical and pharmaceutical journals and Df]:vid Hoffman (1784-1854), a mem· was equally successful in research and her of one of the oldest Baltimore Ger­ teaching. Down to the present time the man families. Surrounded by influences University grants annually to outstand­ of literary culture during his childhood ing students a "William Simon Me­ and youth, equipped with a fine educa­ morial Prize for Proficiency in Practical tion and thorough schooling, he rose Chemistry." Towards the end of the very quickly to prominence in the pro­ century the Dohmes (likewise of Ger­ fession of law in Baltimore. Although man descent) began to figure conspicu­ he appeared on the faculty list of the ously in the Department of Pharmacy; university as early as 1813, he actually for fifteen years two members of the did not start his courses in Law until Dohme family functioned as presidents 1823. From then on until 1836 he was of the college; Louis Dohme (1891-96) the most esteemed member of the Law and Charles E. Dohme (1896-1906). School. His collecti<>n of law books, Both were graduates of the college. We bought by the University of Maryland, do not need mention how prominently formed the beginning of the Law today the name of Dohme (in the name Library. He is said to have been a very of the firm Sharp and Dohme) ranges inspiring and lucid teacher. His scholar· in the pharmaceutical industry of the ly achievements, books and articles se­ United States. At the same time when cured for him honorary degrees from the Dohmes stepped into the picture, the Universities of Oxford and Got­ around the turn of the century, Charles tingen. He took an active part in Amer­ Schmidt held for many years the posi­ ican politics; in the William Harrison tion as professor of Pharmacy. During campaign he served as Presidential the last decades of the nineteenth cen­ Elector for the State of Maryland. His tury the name of Charles Gaspari be­ greatest merits lie in the realm of legal came increasingly noted in the field of education; his ideas in this field were pharmacy in. Baltimore. Caspari was far in advance of the practice of his the son of German immigrants who had time. His famous book, "Course of come to America in 1841. He started Legal Study" ( 1817), revealed his his career as owner of a drug store extraordinary knowledge of foreign lit­ and ended it as dean of the Department . erature; he deserves credit for empha­ of Pharmacy. He taught for many sizing social sciences as a necessary years, edited some pharmacological background f.or legal education. He publications and periodicals, published made vigorous efforts to raise the ethical college textbooks, and in 1904 was standards of the legal profession, and chiefly instrumental in effecting a closer his "Resolutions in Regard to Profes­ union of the Maryland College of Phar­ sional Deportment" •anticipated most of macy with the University of Maryland. the present canons of conduct of the For many years, in addition to his duties American Bar Association. While as professor of Theory and Practice of abroad on one of his numerous trips Pharmacy, he held the office of Dean of to Europe he published in the London

7 Times a series of articles on political, caliber was John G. Morris (1803- social and economic conditions in the 1895). Son of a German immigrant, United States. We shall refrain from he was· born in York, Pa., studied the­ enumerating the titles of his works, ex· ology at Dickinson and Princeton, and cept for two publications which have a accepted a call to the First English direct bearing on the school with which Lutheran Church at Baltimore in 1827. he was connected: "To the Trustees of His greatest merit was to lead the the University of Maryland in Relation Luthel'an Church out of the German­ to the Law Chair" (1826), and "In· American isolation into the larger troductory Lectures and Syllabus of a sphere of the American nation, to make Course of Lectures Delivered in the it an integral part of the American life University of Maryland" (1837). David and to open its door.s to everybody Hoffman is undoubtedly one of the whether he knew German or not. It most outstanding figures in the history was largely due to his gifts and abil­ of the university. ities that the experiment of bringing In the thirties the name of Charles F. together Lutheranism and the English Mayer was added to the faculty list of language turned out to be such a great the Law School. He was the son of success. John G. Morris' name comes Christian Mayer, a German immigrant up several times on the faculty list, in from Ulm; he played an active role in his capacity as dean and as teacher. the Whig Party and for many decades The faculty of Divinity never existed was one of the best known lawyers in except on paper; yet John G. Morris did Maryland. We know, however, nothing some teaching, not in theology but in about his qualities as a law professor. natural history, ope of his private hob­ In the second half of the nineteenth bies in which he had soon outgrown century we come across another Ger· the stage of an amateur. Unfortunately, man name: Tlwmas S. Baer, who held not many details about his academic a chair of Law of Real and Leasehold activity are related to us. He contrib­ Estates. In 1882 Edgar H. Cans was uted more to the university in the un­ appointed Professor of Criminal Law. official role as an informal advisor than For many years he was also member as a teacher. Many of the people whose of the Board of Regents of the L& w names appear on these early faculty School. Among more recent appoint· lists never taught at all; frequently the ments the name of Sylvan H. Lauch· professorship was an office without work heimer ought to be mentioned, whose or emolument. name was added to the faculty list in When in 1813 it was resolved that 1914. the School of Medicine should be ex­ In the year 1839, when the adminis­ panded into a full-fledged university, trative organization of the University plans were made for a College of Arts was revised, plans were made for a and Sciences. Actually the plan did not Department of Divinity. Among the materialize until 1831. By that time the teachers appointed to the Faculty of need for an "Academic or Literary De­ Theology there were two well-known partment" had become more and more German ministers of the city: Benjamin apparent. At the request and on behalf Kurtz and John Gottlieb Morris. Ben­ of the trustees of the University, Judge jamin Kurtz was a descendant of an William Frick, descendant of a German old ministers' clan whose members had immigrant, delivered a great public a great reputation in Western Maryland address in which he pointed out the and Pennsylvania since the days of the liberal scheme of education projected Revolution. One of them, Daniel Kurtz in the University of Maryland. He de­ (whose name appeared on the Univer· nounced the narrow policy which sity of Maryland faculty list of 1813), looked merely to the so-called practical was minister of Zion Church in Balti­ concerns of life, and he tried to show more, and when he became old, his that the development of a national char­ nephew, Benjamin Kurtz, was appointed acter would follow a national litera­ his assistant ( 1815) . A man of greater ture, that education in liberal arts was

8 by no means a luxury or impractical annals of the university. In the years and that it would have a very direct between 1907 and 1920, when St. John's bearing on the practical and political College in Annapolis represented the spheres. A farewell to the liberal arts Arts and Sciences College of the Uni· and sciences, he said, would mean a versity, we find two Germans on the farewell to the happiness of social life, faculty list as professors of German to the stability of free government. and French: F. ] . von Schwerdtner and "Then has our national existence no de· Adolf Schumacher. pendence on the intelligence and moral­ In the annals also of the College ity of the People.... The idea that our Park branch of the university, i. e., in free institutions are destined to develop the history of the old Maryland State the higher and loftier relations of hu­ College there appear quite a number of manity, and to exercise an influence German names. The very founding of hereafter on the rest of mankind, is the Maryland Agricultural College in VISIOnary. While throughout the en· 1856 took place, to be sure, indirectly lightened world the mind has indignant­ unaer the far·reaching influence of the ly burst the chains of protracted bond­ greatest German chemist of those days: age and the torrent of light and learn· Justus von Liebig. He had become the ing is fast covering the dark places, father ·of agricultural chemistry, he while our own example invokes the had just begun to build up the science communities of the world to deep re· of agriculture to an academic discip­ flection and solemn destinies, and the line-and in this spirit a group of dignity of human nature is represented Maryland farmers founded the school in in our institutions, when everywhere as College Pal'k. How consciously they of old where freedom unfurled her ban· linked their undertaking with the work ner, the liberal arts and classic letters of the great German scientist is proved are invoked to deck the Corinthian by the fact that throughout the sixty­ capital of civilization, we are content four years in which the college existed to weigh those high destinies in the scale as a separate unit, the name Liebig ap­ of interest and profit and our patriot· peared on the official seal of the college; ism is extinguished in selfishness." hence his name was carried on the first William Frick's address, still preserved page of every catalogue. in a few copies, is one of the finest In the very central division of the documents in the history of American College Park school, in the Department civilization, one of the most persuasive of Agriculture, there were numerous argumentations for the necessity of Jib. Germans or people of German descent. eral education. As early as in the fifties one George C. A few months after thii address had Schaeffer was professor of Agriculture. been delivered a "College Faculty" was In 1879 the services of a distinguished announced. Three Germans were on this agriculturist were secured, A. Otabow­ first roster of liberal arts teachers: ski, who came from the Royal Prussian George Frick, professor of Natural His· Institute of Agriculture in Wiesbaden. tory; Peter H. Cruse, professor of With the beginning of the twentieth Rhetoric and Belles Lettres; John Uhl· century the records of the College of horn, professor of Greek and German. Agriculture show increasingly the great The latter was minister of Zion Church, share which people of German descent and, according to many testimonials, an took in the development of this partie· unusually learned man as well as a ular division. Herman Beckenstrater most effective orator. made himself a name in the field of In the following decades there were pomology. P. W. Zimmerman, a botan­ only few Germans in the College of ist, for several years Dean of the Col­ Arts and Sciences. German language lege of Agriculture, specialized in the and literature was mostly taught by rooting of woody plants; he is today native Germans, and it is in this con· one of the most outstanding plant nection that the names of A. Freitag, physiologists in the country. ]. E. Metz­ George A. Wittke, Charles A. Wagner ger of Pennsylvania German stock,

9 well-known in the field of agricultural branch. From the old period (the last education as director of the Experiment decades of the nineteenth and the be­ Station, took a particular interest in the ginning of the twentieth century) we improvement of grains. l. B. Wentz' re­ know the names of E. ]. Henkle (Nat­ search centered on the breeding and ural History), F. von Brockdorff (An­ development of corn. F. M. Bomberger, cient and Modern Languages), Jf;illiam descending of a Western Maryland H. Zimmerman (Physics), H. G. Welty German family, was connected with the (Mathematics and Physics), H. M. college for many decades. He began in Strickler (Physical Culture). With the agricultural chemistry; later he switched beginning of the new era in 1920 quite to social and political science, and for a number of people of German stock many years acted as college librarian; took part in the striking growth which through the Agricultural Extension marks the last two decades. It is im­ Service he worked successfully for co­ possible to enumerate them all or to operative organizations among farmers, give an approximate complete list. particularly for the organization of Suffice it to mention a few whose marketing on the Del-Mar-Va Eastern names figure prominently in the history Shore. Albert L. Schrader's propagat­ of recent years: Charles G. Eichlin ing of fruit trees, especially his success­ (Physics), of Pennsylvania-German de­ ful experiments in lengthening the life scent, was one of the most popular of trees, gained him a great reputation teachers on the campus; S. S. Steinberg in this field. Frederick H. Leinbach's (Civil Engineering), Dean of the Col­ main ·achievements lie in the fie-ld of lege of Engineering, distinguished him­ animal husbandry; he improved the self in the fi eld of highway construc­ methods of breeding, feeding and tion; Harry R. Warfel, of old Penn­ handling of beef cattle, and in connec­ sylvania German stock, is well known tion with the Cattle Breeding Associ­ in the field of American literature; ation reorganized the shipment of cattle Wesley M. Gewehr, the head of the His­ on railroads. Charles P. Close, of an tory Department, is an authority in the old Michigan family, worked in the history of the Old South, the history of field of pomology; his great ambition the American frontier as well as in pres­ to produce a good early red apple was ent problems of the Near East; A. E. finally fulfilled through what is known Zucker, head of the Foreign Language today as the "Close Apple." William Department, has written on Henrik B. Kemp must be mentioned as an out­ Ibsen, on the history of the theatre, and standing teacher in agronomy and an on the lives of famous German-Amer­ authority in the field of agricultural icans; Reuben G. Steinmeyer, head of genetics. Eugene C. Auchter, whose the Department of Political Science, a grandparents emigrated from South­ very popular lecturer, did most of his western Germany before the Civil War, work in the field of international rela­ was for many years Dean of the Col­ tions; he is the son of a German immi­ lege of Horticulture; later he became grant who came from Minden in West­ prominent as chief of the Bureau- of phalia; in the Department of Educa­ Plant Industry, as administrator in the tion Henry H. Brechbill, descendant Research Division in the U. S. Depart­ from an old German-Swiss family of ment of Agriculture and as Director Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is in of Research of the Hawaiian Pineapple charge of the training of science and Institute in Honolulu. mathematics teacbers; Ray Ehrensber­ We find people of German extraction ger, whose forbears came from Bavaria, also in the other departments, in the was very instrumental in building up fields of natural sciences and humani­ the Speech Department in recent years; ties. These, to be sure, played only a Col. Robert E. Wysor, a descendant of secondary part in the early days of the Conrad Weiser, one of the most famous college, but after the reorganization of German immigrants of the eighteenth 1920 they became more and more the century, deserves credit for guiding the · main function of the College Park ROTC and the Department of Military

10 Science in the most critical years. And Vice,President of the Potomac Edison speaking of the ROTC, we should not Company in Hagerstown, took an active forget the old German "Regiments­ part in the administration throughout kapellmeister," the bandmaster, Otto his thirty-one years of service on the Siebeneichen, whose unforgettable ap· board of Regents, the last three ( 1940- pearance and impressive conducting be­ 43) as Chairman of the board. Thou­ long to the campus atmosphere as much sands of students will remember the as the Terrapin Monument or the Ross­ director of admission, William M. Hil­ borough Inn. legei.st, who was connected with the ad­ Not only in teaching, also in the ad­ ministration of the university from ministrative part of the university life 1912 until 1940. Likewise the present there are German names spread out registrar of the universlty, Miss Alma through more than a hundred years of H. Preinkert, and the present librarian, the existence of the institution. As early Carl W. Hintz, are of German descent. as 1826 we find the names ef William These short notes cannot be anything Frick and Henry Wilkens on the Board else but a brief survey of what men ·of Trustees; a few years later Solomon and women of German extraction have Etting, one of the earliest German Jews contributed to the growth of an institu­ of Baltimore, served as Chairman of the tion which in recent years has developed Committee of the Infirmary. Towards rapidly and is constantly progressing. the end of the century David Seibert of The old German scholar and gentle­ Clearspring, Maryland, became one of the trustees. In the Baltimore branch man, Judge William Frick, of Balti­ Harry Friedenwald participated in the more, if he would look at the university administration of the Medical School ; today, would certainly find that he did in College Park Samuel M. Shoe­ not speak or warn in vain when in 1831 maker's name -appeared on the list of he advocated a liberal education in that Regents for many years. Between 1928 famous address from which we quoted and 1936 George M. Shriver, Vice­ before: "Let education fail in its pur­ President of the Baltimore and Ohio poses and influence . . . and though we Railroad, was on the board. Since 1912, may still breathe the air, and speak the the son of a German immigrant from language of freedom, its spirit will have Hessia-Kassel, Henry Holzapfel, Jr., fled forever."

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bernard C. Steiner, History of Education in Who's Who in America. Maryland (Washington, 1894). Dictionary of American Biography. Eugene F. Cordell, History of the University of Maryland 1807-1907 (New York, 1907). Reports of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland. John c. Hemmeter (editor), The Centennial Celebration of the Founding of the Un.iver· Annual Catalogues of the University· of Mary­ sity of Maryland (Baltimore, 1908). land Medical School in Baltimore and the State College in College Park, Md. Bi·ographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland (Baltimore, 1879). Leland G. Worthington, "Forces Leading to the Establishment of the Maryland Agricul­ William Frick, An Address Preparatory to tural College,'' Unpublished University of Opening the Department of the Arts and Maryland M. A. Thesis, 1933. Sciences in the University of Maryland (Baltimore, 1831). The author is indebted for information otherwise not accessible to Professor T. 0. L. R. Grote (editor), Die Medirin der Gegen­ Heatwole, Baltimore, former Dean of the wart in Selbstdarstellungen (Leipzig, 1924), School of Dentistry, and to Dr. Harry J. Pat­ containing J. C. Hemmeter's autobiography, terson, College Park, former President of the pp. 1-62. Univel'!)ity of Maryland.

11 PROF. SAJ\IUEL BAJ(ER, M. D. PROFESSOR GEORGE WARNER MILTENBERGER, M . D. PROFBSSOR JOHN COHN HEMMETER, PH.D., M . D., LL.D.