MAX KADE CENTER FOR GERMAN-AMERICAN STUDIES NOVEMBER 1998 In Memoriam Professor John Anthony “Toni” Burzle On November 4, friends, col- At the end of his life he was a future wife, Muriel Wittmann. leagues, and students gathered for proud citizen of the United States, Their marriage in 1935 brought a memorial service honoring Pro- who proudly led fellow Kiwanis Toni to Canada, where he taught at fessor Toni Burzle, who died on Sep- members in singing a rousing cho- the University of Manitoba for ten tember 23 at the age of ninety. Wil- rus of “My Country, ’Tis of Thee.” years. liam Keel, Anita Herzfeld, Oscar In 1945 Toni accepted a posi- Haugh, Francis Heller, and Helmut tion as assistant professor of Ger- Huelsbergen and Ursula Arnold man at KU and within two years Huelsbergen spoke about the many became chairman of the depart- ways in which Toni Burzle touched ment. During the two decades of our lives at the University of Kan- his leadership he rebuilt the under- sas. We learned, for example, that graduate and graduate programs in Professor Burzle liked traditional German; strengthened the program German folk songs and played the in Russian; negotiated numerous guitar with the German Club at KU student exchanges for KU with uni- and in the summer institutes. At the versities in Germany and other Eu- end of his life, when he was hospi- ropean countries, and initiated sum- talized at Brandon Woods, one of mer language institutes for KU stu- his few pleasures was listening and dents to study foreign languages humming or singing along to re- while immersed in the foreign cul- cordings of these songs. At the ser- ture. vice Tom Schultz, graduate student Under the auspices of the State in German and librarian at the Max Department he directed the Foreign Kade Center, who played the guitar Born in Munich on May 20, Student Orientation Center at the and sang several of Professor 1908, Toni Burzle studied in University of Kansas from 1951 to Burzle’s favorites (“Am Brunnen Munich and Dijon and received a 1976. For years he was KU’s ad- vor dem Tore,” “Wem Gott will Ph.D. in German from the Univer- viser to the Fulbright program and rechte Gunst erweisen,” Du, du sity of Munich in 1932. There he served on the national screening liegst mir im Herzen,” and “Muss i taught courses in German for for- committee for Fulbright applica- denn”). eign students, one of whom was his tions to Germany. He was a con- Newsletter of the Max Kade Center Editor: Frank Baron; e-mail: [email protected] Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 Telephone: (785) 864-4803; Fax: (785) 864-4298 1 sultant for the Institute of Interna- Society for German-American would not now have a Foreign tional Education; the Council on Studies, stressed how much the so- Study Program. But the list is International Educational Ex- ciety owed to Toni, who played a much larger than that and would change; Inter Nationes; and the crucial role as the founding editor require a volume to enumerate. Now is not the time for me to Austro-American Institute of Edu- of the Yearbook of German-Ameri- express in any way the range of my can Studies. “At a critical stage in cation. From 1967 to 1972, Toni private and public debt to you for served as associate dean of the Col- the history of the society, he took the support that you have shown lege of Liberal Arts and Sciences on the challenge as editor of the new the Department of German, the and later as director of the Office of Yearbook. He placed this yearbook College, and—always in all mat- Foreign Studies, now the Office of on solid foundations, attracting a ters—the larger University. Oth- Study Abroad. He retired in 1976. worldwide readership, so that it has ers can speak more eloquently to Toni developed a friendship become the recognized flagship those achievements than can I, but with Max Kade, a German immi- publication in the field of let me say how much I appreciate grant whose cough remedy made German-American studies.” them personally and how much I him wealthy. A relationship with In recognition of his many ac- always shall. the Max Kade Foundation in the complishments in German-Ameri- Toni’s contributions to KU’s in- 1960s led to the establishment of a can educational and cultural rela- ternational programs and to Ger- distinguished visiting professorship tions, Toni was awarded the Grand man-American Studies were indeed for German in 1964, the addition of Cross of the Order of Merit by the monumental. I will cherish the valuable art works to the collections Federal Republic of Germany in memories of working together with in the Spencer Museum of Art, and 1967 and the Silver Medal by the Toni and with Helmut Huelsbergen the creation, together with his col- Alexander von Humboldt Founda- on the Yearbook of German-Ameri- league Erich Albrecht, of the Max tion in 1969. The Command and can Studies, as well as of our efforts Kade Center for German-American General Staff College at Fort to secure a permanent home for the Studies in 1968. Toni continued as Leavenworth conferred its Leaven- Max Kade Center. I know that Toni director of the center until 1989. worth Lamp Award on Toni in 1975 appreciated the richly deserved rec- Together with Albrecht, Toni or- for his pioneering efforts in making ognition he received during the ganized the first symposium on KU courses available to officers at dedication of the Max Kade Center German-American Literature and the fort. In 1985, the Society for in this room six years ago. Culture at the University of Kansas German-American Studies recog- Whenever I saw him in his last in 1976, a meeting that led to the nized his contributions as founding years, his first question was “How holding of annual symposia by the editor of the yearbook with a is enrollment in German?” or “How Society for German-American leather-bound edition of the Year- is enrollment for Holzkirchen?” He Studies. Toni was appointed first book during the annual symposium really never gave up. And that was editor of the Society’s Yearbook of held at the University of Nebraska. the secret of his success. German-American Studies in 1981. Toni’s lasting impact on KU, its In the five years of his editorship, programs and its students is William Keel the Society’s journal developed into summed up in the words expressed a recognized scholarly outlet for by the dean of the College of Lib- multidisciplinary research in the eral Arts and Sciences, Bob Cobb, field of German-American Studies. on the occasion of Toni’s retirement In his capacity as editor of the Year- in 1976: book, Toni also served on the ex- It is very difficult for me to con- ecutive board of the SGAS from template your retirement, . Your 1981 to 1985. contributions to the University When he learned of Toni’s have been monumental. I lose no occasion to assert that were it not death, Don Tolzmann of the Univer- for your tender administrations we sity of Cincinnati, president of the 2 Professor Burzle and Max Kade To appreciate how much Profes- The formula for Pertussin, the many, Austria, Switzerland, and on sor Burzle did for the University of cough remedy, which the young several U.S. campuses. The Max Kansas we must be aware of his Swabian had taken to the New Kadeheim in Munich still reserves success in persuading Max Kade to World from little Schwäbisch-Hall space for students from the Univer- support German studies and inter- on the Kocher at the turn of the cen- sity of Kansas studying at the Uni- national programs. Fortunately, in tury, had brought him fame and for- versity of Munich. a 1971 article we have Professor tune, and had enabled him to as- It remained one of the high- Burzle’s own words describing this semble one of the finest private col- lights of our trips to the east coast productive relationship. (Reprinted lections of graphic art in the world. that we could visit with the old from German-American Studies, Our friendship was maintained gentleman in his New York office, 1971, vol. 3, p. 3) through the years when he gave our listen to him recite poetry, and chat Museum of Art a copy of the splen with him about German literature The University of Kansas’s re- and the arts. lationship with the Max Kade foun- It was there that we met and dation, and our personal friendship became friends of Dr. Erich Markel, with the late Max Kade extends over then executive vice-president of the the past two decades. It began in Max Kade Foundation, and now its the fall of 1949 when my wife and I president. We found in Dr. Markel first visited Dr. Kade in his little the same wide interest in the hu- office near Battery Place in New manities and the arts, the same phil- York asking for, and receiving, aid anthropic spirit that had made Dr. for our first exchange scholarships Kade one of the great benefactors to Germany. of German-American education. I still remember our conversa- In 1970 the Max Kade founda- tion with the spry old gentleman; I tion gave our Museum of Art per- recall his agile mind, his quick wit, haps the most generous gift of its his energetic gestures, and his wide long association with the University knowledge in the sciences, the hu- of Kansas.