From Evangelische Dreieinigkeitskirche to King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church—The History of a Milwaukee Place of Worship
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Volume 25 No 3 • Fall 2016 From Evangelische Dreieinigkeitskirche to King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church—The History of a Milwaukee Place of Worship Antje Petty Photo courtesy Alan Magayne-Roshak Alan courtesy Photo Evangelische Dreieinigkeitskirche Milwaukee: stained glass window with inscription in memory of Christoph Baumgaertner n the corner of 4th Street elegantly curved balcony, visitors are and Meinecke, in the heart surrounded by tall, colorful, stained- of Milwaukee’s Harambee- glass windows that depict biblical INSIDE OBronzeville neighborhood, two figures and scenes. Many windows • Upcoming Events cream-colored brick structures stand feature bible verses and personal out: an old church and an adjacent dedications in the German language, • Second Annual MKI Oktober old school building. This is the home recalling an earlier time in the build- Fest of the King Solomon Missionary ing’s history. On the outside, above • The Bennett Law, the Germania, Baptist Church. On Sundays the the entryway, one can still see the and the Körner Pamphlet church comes alive with exuber- name of the original church chiseled • Friends Profile: Charlotte ant services. On other days, there in sandstone: Ev[angelische] Drei- Bleistein may be public meetings addressing einigkeitskirche. challenges in the neighborhood, This church was built in the performances by the KSMBC choir, early 1890s for the Evangelische or bible study classes. Sitting in century-old wooden pews under an Continued on page 4 DIRECTOR’S CORNER Greetings, Friends and Readers! he fall semester is now well port, IA, which was very successful. for information on these and other underway, and the biggest Also that month I traveled to Holmes events. update to share is, of course, County, OH, to give a presenta- Good progress continues on our Tthe retirement of our dear colleague, tion on Pennsylvania Dutch at the ongoing research projects. In con- Cora Lee Kluge. Cora Lee’s half-cen- annual meeting of the Amish and nection with the German Immi- tury of service to our University, the Mennonite Heritage Center. Almost grant Oral History Project, Antje German Department, MKI, and the 400 people attended, most of them has interviewed more first-gener- broader field of German-American Amish and Mennonite speakers of ation immigrants who came from studies has touched literally thou- the language. Most of our outreach German-speaking Europe. On the sands of students and colleagues. work this fall has been in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania Dutch Documentation Fortunately, Cora Lee is keeping her which has taken us to the Milwau- Project front, German Ph.D. student office in the University Club in order kee metro area and as far north as Joel Stark successfully defended his to continue her research and contrib- Boulder Junction in Vilas County. dissertation on the Reading Adler ute her time and expertise to MKI This fall, the UW–Madison Speakers newspaper in May and is complet- in other ways. In addition, as our Bureau (speakers.wisc.edu) rolled out ing his revisions, while I continue Friends know, we are deeply grateful the Faculty Hometown Engagement to work with colleagues in the UW to all our gifted volunteers, includ- Project, which aims to showcase the Medical School, nurses, doctors, and ing JoAnn Tiedemann and Charles impact UW–Madison has across the midwives to improve the delivery of James, for helping us out! Badger State. MKI’s outreach mission health care to Wisconsin Amish and As usual, MKI has been a hive is very much in line with this exciting Mennonite families. of activity this semester. I am very and important project. Thank you, our Friends, for all you grateful to Hope Hague for her Here in Madison we have been do on behalf of MKI. Our second hard work in so many areas that pleased to sponsor three guest lec- annual Oktoberfest at the University are crucial to the smooth operation tures, the first by our friend and Club was another great success (and of the Institute. Kevin Kurdylo has colleague who leads the German a lot of fun). A huge shout-out to continued his good work to build program at UW–Whitewater, Matt Fran Luebke, John Pustejovsky, and and maintain our library and archive, Lange, who spoke last month on Pamela Tesch, who worked hard with an important component of which is the topic of “Hermann Ahlwardt’s Antje and Hope to make everything the ongoing development of our web- Antisemitic Campaign in the United happen. We could not do our work site. Since we redesigned our virtual States, 1895–97.” This month, Vikto- without your support, and for that we portal last year, the feedback about rija Bilic from UW–Milwaukee deliv- are deeply grateful. Warmest regards it from patrons around the world ered a lecture on “Translation and the to all for a healthy and happy holiday has been very positive—thanks to German-American Experience: His- season! Kevin and Antje Petty for their hard torical Letter Collections.” And, look- Mark work! Both Antje and I have been ing toward the holiday season, we are on the road quite a bit this fall with excited to welcome MKI Friend Bill public presentations and workshops, Petig from Stanford University and a a few highlights of which are worth native of Watertown, whose topic is mentioning. In October Antje led a “The History of the Moravian Star.” genealogy workshop at the German Check the Events page (mki.wisc. American Heritage Center in Daven- edu/events/all-events) on our website 2 Calendar of Upcoming Events Join us for these upcoming Max Kade Institute programs — all free and open to the public. For details check http://mki.wisc.edu/events/all-events DECEMBER 14, 6pm Lecture: “The History of the Moravian Star” William E. Petig, Department of German Studies, Stanford University UW–Madison, Union South Stars have been part of Advent and Christmas celebrations from the earliest days of Christianity, but one star has become a ubiquitous decoration in Europe and America: the multi-point Moravian star. Petig’s presentation will trace the history of this ornament from its early beginnings in a Moravian Church school in Saxony to its many manifestations today. FEBRUARY 15, 7pm Lecture: “The German Harmonica and African-American Blues” Reception follows. Herbert Quelle, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany / Chicago UW–Madison, Pyle Center Auditorium For about a century, the German harmonica or mouth organ was one of the most popular musical instruments in the United States. About one billion harmonicas were imported from Germany between the 1870s and 1980s. Cheap and portable, it was the pocket-sized companion of European immigrants, and—once introduced to the American South—it became the instrument of choice for many African American musicians. They developed a totally new way of playing it, ‘bending’ the harmonica’s notes to fit their traditional musical scale, and making the little instrument an integral part of the emerging and increasingly popular ‘blues.’ MARCH 30 – APRIL 1 Conference: “People of Faith, Voices of Tradition: Germanic Heritage Languages among Christians and Jews” UW–Madison University Club and Pyle Center Of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, more than half are likely to no longer be spoken actively by the turn of the next century. In almost every case, these languages are spoken by groups of people, often indigenous, who are minorities in the larger societies in which they live. There is, however, a small group of minority languages that are not endangered and which in fact are enjoying robust vitality. In North America there are four such languages, which are spoken in conservative Christian and Jewish religious communities: Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish and Old Order Mennonites); Mennonite Low German (Old Colony Mennonites); Hutterite German (Hutterites); and Yiddish (Haredi Jews). This symposium will bring together an international group of researchers specializing in these languages with Amish, Mennonite, Hutterite, and Haredi community members to explore sociolinguistic aspects of the social-spiritual identities of these faith groups. • On Thursday evening, March 30, the symposium will open with a panel discussion of community members moderated by MKI Director Mark Louden, followed by a reception. (University Club) • Friday morning and afternoon and Saturday morning will feature 45-minute presentations by the invited speakers. (Pyle Center) • On Friday evening, we will have a reading of literary works in the four languages that evoke the themes of the symposium. English translations will be projected onto a screen for the benefit of the attendees. (Pyle Center) 3 Continued from page 1 Dreieinigkeitskirche (Trinity Evangelical Church), which had been founded in 1862 by German- speaking immigrants. This group had separated itself from more traditional “Old Lutheran” and “Evangelical Lutheran” churches during a time when “quarrel and strife were ripe among the (German) Protestants in Milwaukee, and sectarianism flourished.”1 As was common practice in many Protestant churches in Wisconsin, German was the language used by the Dreieinigkeitskirche well into the twentieth century. Its parishioners were first and second generation immigrants from German-speaking Europe, who lived in the surrounding neighborhoods and worked for the most part as laborers, tradesmen, teachers, or merchants. According to Bobby Tanzilo’s Petty Antje Photo: Evangelische Dreieinigkeitskirche Milwaukee—King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church “OnMilwaukee” article from April 24, 2014,2 the congregation had erected German or English. [Dedicated by the family John W. a building on the same site in 1870, Goetzinger] which was torn down to make room Gestiftet von Frau F. Mueller im John Goetzinger was born in for the current structure. Only the Andenken an den verst. Gatten H. Wisconsin in 1862. His father was cornerstone with the year “1870” was Mueller. Geb. 15. Aug.