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February/March 2010
Your Just Desserts – Kitzingen Conditorei-Museum
by Kay Lawrence
Images Courtesy Kay Lawrence
A family find in the attic serves as the basis for a museum dedicated to the history of the German penchant for beautiful sweets.
Kitzingen am Main is a pleasant little city on the Main River in the German region of Franconia. Established more than one thousand years ago, it's a major wine-production
center that today has a population of about twenty thousand.
One of Kitzingen's claims to fame is that the first German wine regulatory law originated there in 1482. And tourists still travel to Kitzingen to taste the excellent local
wines. One of the oldest wine cellars in Germany is located in a Benedictine cloister there, which also houses the largest wooden wine barrel in Lower Franconia.
Kitzingen also boasts the Deutsches Fastnacht Museum (German Fasching, or Carnival, Museum), with a fascinating and colorful collection of more than forty-five hundred items
relating to the carnival season in Germany, including costumes, masks, and posters dating from the sixteenth century to the present.
However, if you love to eat sweets – and want to learn more about pastry-and-confection-making in this region – head to the Kitzingen Conditorei-Museum at
Marktstrasse 26 in the downtown pedestrian zone. (Conditorei – with a "c" – is sometimes a south German and Austrian spelling of Konditorei, meaning "pastry and confectionery
shop.") The museum is located within the historic "Poganietz-Haus," a tall, half-timbered house dating from the sixteenth century, one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Kitzingen.
This privately owned pastry-and-confectionery museum has an interesting history of its own. The building it occupies was originally constructed in 1579 to 1580 for a Kitzingen
businessman. In 1722, it was sold to a Lebküchner, or gingerbread baker. (Back then, the German professional guilds distinguished between the occupations of "gingerbread bakers," who sweetened their
spice cakes with honey, and "sugar bakers," who made cakes, pastries, and confections sweetened with sugar.) In 1831, Kitzingen's first Conditorei (pastry shop) was opened in the building, selling sweet baked goods and confections. And, in 1893, the house was purchased by the Poganietz family. The five-story building remained the site of a Conditorei
continuously from 1831 until 1937. In 1994, descendants of the first Poganietz owner began restoring the "Poganietz-Haus" to its original sixteenth-century beauty, a project that was completed two
years later…
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Behind the Passion: Back Stage at Oberammergau's Forty-first Passion Play
by Don Heimburger
For all the grandeur and spectacle of this once-a-decade undertaking yet another story takes place behind the scenes.
Say the words “Oberammergau Passion Play” to nearly any German or German-American and they conjure up visions of a large stage with forty or more actors, portraying
a week in the life of Jesus between Palm Sunday when He entered Jerusalem, was crucified on a cross, and was resurrected on Easter.
However, to the play's director, actors, chorus, staff, and the citizens of Oberammergau, these words can connote anything from memorizing scripts, to practicing lines, to making
costumes to setting stage lighting, or to providing food or beverages for the actors.
It may also mean making sure instruments are in shape and ready to play, to insuring public safety at the event, or even making sure the hair or beard of an actor is of the proper
length.
With the forty-first 2010 Passion Play in Oberammergau ready to gear up for its premiere on May 15, 2010 – and as many as half a million spectators expected from all over the
world – German Life went behind stage of this famous performance to report on some of the little-known aspects of this dramatic play.
Since the seventeenth century or 1634, the Passion Play has been performed by Oberammergau residents only. In 1680, the play was performed every ten years, and has remained an
integral part of village life to the present.
More than two thousand two hundred fifty citizens of Oberammergau are expected to participate in the 2010 play including nine hundred sixty-two men, eight hundred fifty women, four
hundred fifty children, one donkey, ten sheep and six doves. Residents who want to be in the play must have lived in town for at least twenty years. This year's play is expected to feature a ninety-year-old
actor and a newborn. There are also about one hundred chorus members who perform during the five-hour play. This year, the play's conductors are Markus Zwink and Michael Bocklet. The composer is Rochus
Dedler.
Amazingly, in 2000, some two thousand two hundred of the five thousand three hundred residents of the village were either onstage or backstage during the play. Should you be in
Oberammergau prior to the play, you will see hundreds of male residents sporting their beards and mustaches, which have been growing since Ash Wednesday, 2009.
There are thirty-six main roles in the play including Jesus, Mary, John, Judas, Peter, Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas, and others. In addition, there are one hundred twenty other speaking
roles, one hundred solo singers, an orchestra, and numerous soldiers and the people who make up the crowd scenes…
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Schmeckfest: South Dakota’s Taste of Germany
by Brenda Ruggiero
For a taste of German-American food culture, travel to South Dakota for a sampling of Schmeckfest goodness!
For over fifty years now, a Schmeckfest, or “festival of tasting” has taken place in Freeman, South Dakota. On four different evenings, one thousand guests assemble
to enjoy a wide variety of foods, demonstrations, displays, and a musical production.
A fund raiser for Freeman Academy, a private Christian school for students in grades five through twelve, this year’s event is scheduled for March 19, 20, 26, and 27. The
musical production will be Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Deb Beier, who is currently the president of the auxiliary, noted that she has been involved with the event for about thirty years, most of which she spent organizing all the props
for the musical production.
“Three years ago, I was asked by the president if I would consider being second vice president,” Beier said. “She caught me in a weak moment, and I said yes. You
then move up to vice president, then president, which is what I will be doing for this next Schmeckfest. Then in 2011, I will be working with publicity.”
This year, Beier’s duties include finding people to serve on committees, overseeing and setting up for demonstrations, checking on signs, tables, and chairs, and covering
anything else that comes up.
“I enjoy working on props, which also involves being backstage during the productions and changing sets,” Beier said. “During the last two to three weeks, I’m
there every night checking on what’s needed. Usually, you think you’re done, and then at the last minute they always come up with a few more props.”
Freeman’s Schmeckfest is a result of brainstorming by the members of the school’s women’s auxiliary. At that time, the school was known as Freeman Junior College and
Academy, and the auxiliary was responsible for helping to stock the school’s kitchen. On one “cookie baking day” in December of 1958, the ladies reportedly discussed how to celebrate the tenth
anniversary of the organization. The group’s president, Celia Lehmann Fliginger, suggested that they host a special dinner comprised of a “Mennonite smorgasbord” of traditional favorite dishes.
Since the community included three ethnic groups – Low Germans, Swiss, and Hutters – the event would allow people to sample dishes from each group.
At first, the rest of the committee members were skeptical, because they wondered how many people would be willing to pay for food that they already got at home. However, they
accepted the idea, and agreed to plan for about two hundred people.
In a booklet created by the auxiliary commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the event in 2008, Rita Fliginger Graber commented about her mother, Celia, describing the
ladies’ discussion over what to call the event…
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Blowing Off the Dust - The Ruhr District – European Capital of Culture 2010
by Anna Cramer
A deep-seated history of mining and industry left the Ruhr region polluted and discarded. Today the district celebrates its recognition for a cultural rebirth.
“The Ruhr no longer breathes dust, but the future” – these words by Swiss writer Adolf Muschg sum up best the transformation Germany’s largest industrial
area once seen as one of the most undesirable places to live in, has undergone in the past twenty to thirty years. Its new status of European Capital of Culture 2010 has added enormous momentum to the
development.
For the first time, it is not a city that gained the coveted title and the considerable financial means to go with it, though the official title still is “Essen for the Ruhr
District.” Instead, the next German ECC is a unit consisting of fifty-three cities in Europe’s most densely populated area – well on its way to becoming a “polycentrical metropolis”
through the magic of culture. In the words of Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, current president of the Goethe Institutes, the task is to re-shape “disused industrial sites into a newly extracted cultural topography
… as an exemplary cultural achievement in Europe.”
Some highlights of the fifty former industrial installations now turned into venues for art, culture, leisure sports, and entertainment are the coal-mine "Zollverein" in
Essen, formerly a state-of-the art production unit, now the fantastic Ruhr Museum and a cultural center for theater and design. It is already a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site by its own right. Oberhausen
proudly presents its former gasometer with spectacular views from its three-hundred-eighty-four-foot roof. And the change can be seen from miles away in the Emscher Landscape Park, covering an area of one
hundred seventy-four square miles.
This “Metropolitan Area Ruhr” cannot be found on any map, as it is just now in the process of emerging. “The gigantic residues of the industrial and the
unlimited possibilities of the post-industrial era” mark the “Ruhrpott,” the third largest urban conglomeration in Europe with its five and three-tenths million inhabitants from one hundred
seventy nations, as the organizers point out. Our rapidly changing western world has discovered the “visionary power of culture” – and realized its economic value. Creativity beats mere
productivity – and the EU and private sponsors unite to enable a once declining region to show its potential to attract modern businesses and even become a vibrant tourist destination…
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Best of the Wurst
What’s the “Wurst” That Could Happen?
by Sharon Hudgins
Vegetarians beware! Germany’s meaty meal staple has flavor, tradition, and a ravenous following to ensure its continued place on the plate.
If any one food is characteristic of Germany, surely it's the sausage. Known as Wurst in German (Würste, plural), the fame of Germany's sausages has spread far
beyond the borders of the federal republic, with frankfurters and bratwursts now ranking among the favorite sausages of millions of people around the world.
Germans are the world's biggest lovers of sausages, producing more than fifteen hundred different types and consuming nearly seventy pounds per person each year (half of all
the meat they eat). Sausages are so embedded in the culinary cultures that they've even inspired several proverbs and folk tales, such as "The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage" by the Brothers
Grimm.
Sausages show up on German tables at every type of meal, from breakfast to late-night snacks. They're cast in a starring role in appetizers, main dishes, sandwiches, and
sides. They serve as supporting actors in soups, stews, salads, omelets, casseroles, and savory pastries. And they're eaten everywhere, from home kitchens to fancy restaurants, from local festivals to urban
fast food stands.
Invented in ancient times, sausages were a practical way to preserve meat in an era before artificial refrigeration. And they continue to be a popular way to utilize every
edible part of the animal, from nose to tail. In many cases, sausages are made with offal (heads, hearts, livers, lungs, and other parts, not commonly eaten on their own), but some use more expensive muscle
meats, especially bacon, ham, or lean pork. If you're squeamish about what you eat, don't ask what went into that juicy sausage on your plate.
The meat is chopped or ground, coarsely or finely or to a texture in between, then mixed with other ingredients that also give the sausage its distinctive character. Most German
sausages are made with pork, but others contain beef, veal, lamb, poultry, fish, or game (especially venison and boar), sometimes alone, sometimes in combination with other meats. Fat, especially pork fat, is an
essential ingredient, and occasionally starches such as bread, cereal grains (oats, buckwheat, barley, rye), or potatoes are included to absorb the meat juices and plump up the sausages during cooking.
Seasonings are another distinguishing characteristic, often what separates the taste of one sausage from another. Herbs, spices, garlic, onions, mushrooms, truffles, green and
red peppers, lemon zest, pistachio nuts, cheese, even anchovies – you name it – are mixed with the sausage meat for additional flavor and color. The spices used in German sausages would fill a large
spice shelf: white and black pepper, caraway, coriander, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, cloves, allspice, mustard seeds, ginger, nutmeg, marjoram, mace, thyme, saffron, sage. And salt, sugar, nitrates, and nitrites
have all been used as preservatives in sausages for centuries…
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Getting to Know Cologne – From the Inside Out
by Alevtina Altenhof
Although the Dom is an omnipresent entity, there are far more cosmopolitan sights than spires in Cologne to catch the visitor’s eye.
The Cologne Cathedral – Cologne's most famous landmark – is what most have seen in almost all of the pictures depicting the city. In fact, this great city on the
Rhine is almost inconceivable without this massive construction's fragile outline dominating the city’s skyline. Just imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower or London without Big Ben. This imposing
structure is among the greatest masterpieces of Gothic architecture as well. With over six and a half million visitors coming to see the cathedral annually, the Dom is the most popular tourist attraction in
Germany today. It is more than an eternal Gothic construction, it is the most beloved landmark and a symbol of this marvelous city on the Rhine.
However, this is not the only unforgettable attraction in Cologne, which continues to draw people from the entire world, including Germans themselves. Even more, this great city
is still soaked in a history that dates as far back as two thousand years ago – when the Romans laid the first foundation stone there. At the same time, the Cologne of today is undisputedly a genuine
cosmopolitan city with its individual modern sense of flair. Nevertheless, its centuries-old history has been well preserved through the unique atmosphere in the city's old town.
This colorful mix of old and new, of cosmopolitan and provincial, has recently drawn my attention. And while most visitors to Cologne will make their way via plane in order to
descend into Cologne's sweet past, the German rail services deliver passengers, including me, to the foot of the cathedral.
To get the first real overview of the city, there are several attractive options. Either you can see the sights from the cable gondola across the river Rhine or from the Cologne
Television tower, which can be seen from just about anywhere in the city. However, you will be disappointed if you want to get the impression of the city from there, since its top platform is no longer open to
public.
Still, none of these options suited me. I wanted to see the city from the inside out, to explore the streets and touch the oldness. Therefore, I opted for a highly recommended
tour on foot.
My journey started at the Dom. Here, in front of the cathedral, the street artists and musicians offer entertainment free of charge. There is, of course, the expectation that
the appreciative public will contribute a few Euros to their enterprise. As soon as I stepped inside the Cathedral, the picture changed completely. I was immediately whisked to the tranquility of the past. You
have to see those incredible pillars, splendid wall and glass paintings, tombs, and sculptures that have accumulated here over the centuries. And you will be astonished by the enormous dimensions of this Gothic
architecture. In fact, standing inside gives you – along with an awe-inspiring view of the interior – an unforgettable feeling of weightlessness…
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Rottweil and Its Leaping Fasnet Fools
By Roy Ledbetter
The end of winter brings the time of Carnival and Fasching and Rottweil’s “Leaping Fools” embody one of the season’s oldest traditions.
Sitting high on rocky hills above the undulating curves of the placid Neckar River as it flows through the Black Forest, the former Imperial Free City of Rottweil is the home of one
of the most ancient celebrations in all of Germany. Mardi Gras is observed in many cultures as a wild party and a festive prelude to the rigors of Lent. New Orleans, St. Louis, and Mobile in the United States
celebrate Mardi Gras according to their well known French heritage. The Samba Schools of Rio de Janeiro produce lavish and frenetic Carnivale parades with endless lines of lavishly dressed dancers swaying
to the Samba beat. Even in other parts of Germany, in Mainz and Cologne and the valley of the Rhein, there are Fasching or Carnival parades with elaborate floats and festive parties. Wild and festive though these Carnival celebrations are, the Fasnet
(that is to say Fastnacht, eve of the Fast) celebration in Swabia in general and in Rottweil in particular are much more ancient and, some claim, preserve some elements reaching back to Roman and Celtic
celebrations in the Germania of yore.
Founded in 73 A.D. by the Romans during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, Rottweil is the oldest city in the German Federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg. As they built a highway
through the neighboring Kinzig Valley of the Black Forest, the Romans built a town called Arae Flaviae (Flavian Altars, named after Vespasian’s family) on the rocky outcroppings above the Neckar Valley.
In the Voelkerwanderung , the great barbarian migrations of the third and fourth centuries A.D., the Romans lost control of this region to the advancing Germanic tribes of the
Allemani and Suevi about 260 A.D. However, because of its very favorable position as a crossing point of trade routes, the site of Rottweil remained inhabited, becoming a ducal and then royal estate, that is
first documented as “Rotuvilla” in 771 A.D.
Favored by the Hohenstaufen emperors, who rebuilt the city in 1230, Rottweil became one of the seats of the most important Imperial courts of the Holy Roman Empire and thus a Free
Imperial City, independent from the surrounding countryside and answerable only to the Emperor himself. Its medieval walls and city towers, the stout burger houses with their bay windows all bear witness to the
flourishing of Rottweil during this time. Nearby Villingen and other places in the Neckar Valley were ruled by the Habsburgs as Vorderoesterreich, Hither Austria, and, in 1463, Rottweil entered into a
relationship with the Swiss Helvetic Confederation as a Zugewandte Ort, or “Related Town,” joining the Swiss in their struggle against the House of Burgundy…
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Hanoverians in India, 1782 to 1791
by Robert A. Selig
Although the Hanoverians only saw battle at Cuddalore, the men brought stories and images of a new and unusual culture back to share with those at home in Germany.
On 19 October 1781, Lord Cornwallis surrendered his battered forces to the joint Franco-American armies of General George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau. The rank and
file went into prisoner-of-war camps while Lord Cornwallis, released on parole, returned to England. Cornwallis' surrender convinced the House of Commons of the need to come to terms with the rebels, even if
its February 1782 declaration "to end offensive war" with her thirteen rebellious colonies on the mainland did not yet grant the rebels their independent state. Nor did it mean that fighting would end
in the many other theatres of operations in this global war: Britain rather shifted her priorities away from America's shores to potentially more valuable assets around the world. One of these areas was
India, where Britain had been in a struggle for supremacy with France since the early 1740s already. It was not coincidental therefore, that in March of 1782, just as Parliament decided to stop its offensive
operations in the New World, the first detachments of two regiments of Hanoverian Infantry, eventually amounting to about two thousand two hundred officers and men in the employ of the British East India
Company, set sail from England for Madras.
British exploration – and exploitation – of India dates back to year 1591, when, armed with a permit from Queen Elizabeth I, three ships set out from England for
India. On 31 December 1599, Elizabeth granted a Royal Charter to a group of merchants and traders around George, Earl of Cumberland, thereby creating the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading
with the East Indies, whose monopoly of trade extended across all areas and countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Its first major trading post or "factory" was
built in Surat in 1612, followed by Madras in 1639. By 1647, the Company had twenty-three factories, and, by the end of the century, was present in Bombay (1668) and Calcutta (1690) as well. Concurrently, King
Charles II had granted it most of those rights usually reserved to sovereign states, that is, the right to acquire territory, to mint money, to raise its own forces, to make war and peace and to form alliances,
and to exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction in its territory. This virtual independence from outside control led to conflict with the House of Commons, while the immense riches derived from the India trade
aroused the envy of France, Britain's competitor in Europe and around the globe…
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Language: Amerika und Wien in akademischer Verbundenheit?
Von Peter Pabisch
Das Magistratsamt für Kultur und Wissenschaft in Wien, genannt MA 7, steht unter der Leitung von Dr. Andreas Maiath-Pokorny. Sein Stellvertreter und Leiter für Wissenschafts- und
Forschungsförderung Universitätsprofessor Obersenatsrat Dr. Hubert Christian Ehalt veröffentlichte 2009 den „Wissenschaftsbericht der Stadt Wien 2008.“ Mit Hilfe seiner Koordinatorin Angelika Lantzberg und
einem Stab von Mitarbeiterinnen bietet Dr. Ehalt hier eine eindrucksvolle Übersicht, die seine Stadt Wien auf dem Gebiete von Wissenschaft und Kunst leistet. Bedenkt man, dass Wien mit seinen 1,8 Millionen
Bürgern und als Hauptstadt eines kleinen Staates von etwa acht Millionen Einwohnern viel anzubieten hat, so beeindruckt der Umfang seiner Erfolge als Großmacht in der Welt der Kultur und Wissenschaft. Dr. Ehalt
unterstreicht die Wichtigkeit von Wiens internationalen Beziehungen, wenn er die Wichtigkeit seines Amtes darstellt.
In diesem Zusammenhang unterstreicht er die besonderen Beziehungen, die Wien mit den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika aufrecht erhält. Der Begriff und das Thema „Wien um 1900“
wurde von amerikanischen Gelehrten geboren und nach Wien gebracht, wo man ihn seither stets eingesetzt hat. Viele vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg Exilierte, vormalige österreichische Gelehrte und Studenten, die jetzt
U.S.-Bürger sind – soweit sie noch leben – haben die Größe dieser Stadt in ihrer Forschung hervorgehoben, die Wiens wichtige Stellung für die moderne Weltkultur zeigt. Daher hat die Stadt viele von
ihnen seit dem Kriegsende wiederholt eingeladen, besonders seit der Ära des Bürgermeisters Dr. Helmut Zilk, einem Erziehungsfachmann, Fernseh- und Medienspezialisten und Gelehrten. Das wird weiterhin getan, um
Wiens Dankbarkeit diesen einst misshandelten und nun weltberühmten Mitbürgern zu zeigen...
America – Vienna: An Academic Relationship?
by Peter Pabisch
The Office of Culture and Research in Vienna is headed by Andreas Mailath-Pokorny. His second in charge and director for academic questions, Hubert Christian Ehalt, also a university
professor in Vienna, recently published a “Report on Research of the City of Vienna” about the year 2008. With the help of his staff coordinator, Angelika Lantzberg, and her assistants, Ehalt offers
a remarkable overview of all the academic research and cultural work in Vienna’s city government. Given the fact that Vienna has one and eight-tenths million inhabitants and is the capital of a small
country of eight million people, it impresses by the scope of achievements it offers as a major player in world culture and research. Explaining the office’s multiple tasks, Ehalt stresses the importance
of Vienna’s international relations.
Thereby he underlines the special relations Vienna maintains with the United States of America. The term and topic “Vienna Around 1900” was first coined by American
scholars in the late 1960s and exported to Vienna, which has made use of it ever since. Many exiled former Austrian scholars and students and now United States citizens, as far as they are still alive, have
emphasized the greatness of this city around 1900 in their research showing Vienna’s importance to modern world culture and scholarship. Thus, the city invited many of them (even repeatedly after World War
II), especially during the era of mayor Dr. Helmut Zilk, an educator, television and media expert and scholar himself, and since Zilk’s era, in order to show the gratitude of Vienna to the city’s
once maltreated and now world renowned fellows…
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At Home: The Cult of Currywurst
by Sharon Hudgins
What could be more German than Currywurst: chunks of sausage slathered with a sauce based on the same ingredients as Anglo-American tomato ketchup spiced up with English
Worcestershire sauce, Hungarian paprika, and Indian-inspired curry powder (by way of Britain), served with French fries on the side?
That simple question is guaranteed to start a heated debate at any bar in Berlin.
From its humble origin as a street food in the country's war-torn capital, Currywurst has risen to culinary cult status in Germany, even rating its own museum. That's
right: A museum devoted entirely to Currywurst opened in Berlin in 2009, on the dish's 60th birthday, with exhibits on everything you always wanted to know about Currywurst (but didn't know you wanted to ask).
Currywurst was invented in Berlin in 1949, when a woman named Herta Heuwer supposedly acquired some English curry powder (and possibly also Worcestershire sauce) from
soldiers stationed in the British sector of the occupied city. Experimenting in her home kitchen, she concocted a spicy tomato-based sauce as a topping for cooked sausages, which she sold at a street stand to
construction workers rebuilding the rubble-strewn metropolis.
Heuwer's Currywurst was such a success that she was soon able to open a small restaurant in the red-light district, which became a popular hangout for certain
celebrities. In 1951, early in her career as the queen of Currywurst, she was also clever enough to patent the secret recipe for her seductive sauce, which she called "Chillup," its name a
contraction of "chili" and "ketchup."
Currywurst went on to take the country by storm. All over Germany, street stands, festival stalls, and even restaurants now sell their own versions of this simple dish. More
than eight hundred million Currywursts are consumed annually in Germany – that's nearly ten sauce-covered sausages for every man, woman, child, and foreign tourist in the country…
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Bad Reichenhall – Where Salt Reigns Supreme
by Leah Larkin
In this city of spas and Mozart, salt’s “white gold” legacy still leaves its mark today.
If this is not paradise, what is? Soaking in warm, salty water surrounded by grandiose Alpine peaks, some with traces of snow atop. Slowly slithering from powerful water jets to
soothing massages. Standing under gentle showers and sprays. Gliding from pool to pool, then lounging in the sunshine while pondering the spectacular scenery. It was glorious – my visit to the Rupertus
Therme, a spa and fitness resort in Bad Reichenhall.
I first became acquainted with this pretty Bavarian spa town, located on the border with Austria, several years ago when bicycling on the Mozart Radweg, a two hundred fifty mile cycle
route in southern Germany and Austria. I was captivated and determined to return.
That first visit was hurried as there were miles to pedal. During my recent visit I took time to visit attractions, to take the waters, and to enjoy the relaxing Alpine ambience.
Bad Reichenhall is known for salt and treatments associated with saltwater. Salt from prehistoric oceans is hidden inside the Bavarian Alps, and has been mined from underground
springs in the area for centuries. Bad Reichenhall was an important salt mining center in the Middle Ages. Salt came to be known as “white gold” because it was paid for with gold and brought wealth
and fame to the region. About 1800, saltwater baths became popular for health reasons.
The town was destroyed by fire in 1834, but rebuilt in a style to capitalize on the healing properties of its waters with the development of Kur facilities. King Maximilian II of
Bavaria came to take the waters some one hundred fifty years ago and made the town his summer resort, enhancing its reputation as an elegant spa with high society. He stayed at the Hotel Axelmannstein, still the
city’s premier residence.
The story of salt is best experienced in the Old Salt Works, which has been in operation for some one hundred fifty years and still produces salt from brine. After the great fire,
King Ludwig I commissioned the building of the structure which houses the main pumping hall with immense water wheels and a spring works chapel. An hour-long tour of the salt works includes these, as well as a
trek though dark, damp, and spooky tunnels forty-six feet under the structure where brine springs flow through marble canals. The main spring shaft, still in use, dates to 1507, and the pump which forces the
brine to the surface, also still functioning, is from the mid-nineteenth century. The tour ends at a museum with fascinating exhibits on the history and production of salt…
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So That the Past Has a Future – The German Foundation for Monument Protection
In a country filled with antiquities, one organization attempts to save, reclaim, and restore those monuments that are in dire need.
Anyone walking through the streets of our cities and towns cannot help but notice historical buildings and sites. As traces of our past, they lend each place its unique
character, convey a sense of history, and are a part of our quality of life. In an age where the task-oriented sobriety of technology and science so profoundly shapes our society, it is precisely our cultural
heritage that gives us the chance to pause, reflect, and find ourselves.
Founded in 1985, the German Foundation for Monument Protection (Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz) has a twofold mission: to preserve endangered cultural monuments and to promote
the idea of monument protection so as to gain the support of as many people as possible. The Stiftung becomes active where no or insufficient state funds are available. Quick aid, without bureaucratic red tape,
is often needed to save endangered buildings of historic importance. So far the Stiftung has provided around three hundred ninety million euros nationwide. Contributions to the organization include proceeds from
the television lottery GlücksSpirale and donations from more than one hundred eighty thousand citizens.
The funds benefit a wide array of historical buildings, burgher houses, village, town and cloister churches, industrial monuments, as well as palaces, castles, stately homes,
parks, town walls, and archaeological sites.
After the enormous success achieved during the first decade following German unification, the work of saving historical buildings in eastern Germany has ground to a halt
however, mainly due to radical spending cuts on federal, state, and local government levels. In the west, the effects of structural damage caused by a lack of conservatory measures have long been apparent.
Concerned citizens seeking to counter the neglect and destruction are increasingly placing their hopes in the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz. The organization is currently receiving an unprecedented number of
appeals for its help. Unfortunately, the Stiftung has to reject nine out of ten submissions – due to a lack of funds.
The situation has become precarious for the precious cultural heritage created by the generations before us.
Generating enthusiasm amongst young people for cultural heritage is one of the key concerns of the Stiftung. All the effort invested in preserving historical sites today will
prove futile if our children do not continue with it tomorrow. One of the Stiftung’s goals is to show young people that monument preservation can be of interest for them as well. Involvement with monuments
opens up a space of creative freedom for young people where they can develop their talents, and this, in turn, raises the profile of and appreciation for cultural artifacts…
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FAMILIENFORSCHUNG - FAMILY RESEARCH
Biography of Reader’s Ancestor a Useful Template for Writing a Family History
by James M. Beidler
In a quarter century of researching, writing, and lecturing about family history, you can be sure I have had my full share of experiences with genealogists who are convinced that
their ancestors are the most interesting people in the world … but whose stories about those ancestors prove them to be anything but interesting.
So when I received a review copy of the book that German Life reader Douglass C. Horstman has written about his grandfather – Henry Horstman from the Westphalian
village of Hille – you can imagine that I was happy that the word “interesting” did not appear at all in his letter that accompanied the book.
Once I read the book, it reinforced my initial feeling that Horstman had the proper sense of how to write such a book: By using a sense of perspective to put the subject
ancestor firmly and squarely within the context of his time and place as part of the larger history.
“Beyond telling my grandfather’s story, I have attempted to describe life in a German-American community made up mostly of settlers from Hille and other villages in
Westphalia,” Horstman wrote in that letter. “Like my grandfather, many of them held dangerous jobs on the railroads and locomotive shops in upstate New York.”
The book is titled Twentieth Century Limited: How an Immigrant’s American Dream Was Derailed by Corruption, Greed, and Politics (iUniverse Inc., 174 pages, $16.95),
with the main title coming from the name of one of the New York Central Railroad’s luxury trains.
Horstman begins his book in his grandfather’s German hometown of Hille. He shows that Henry’s opportunities were limited by the prospect of Prussian military service
as well as his status as a younger son in a time and place when eldest sons were the ones to inherit property.
The author shows that Henry’s decision to emigrate was an example of “chain immigration,” since he was following the lead of many others from Hille, including
two of his uncles, who left the town for new opportunities in the area of Schenectady, New York…
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Calendar
February – March 2009
Please contact events directly to confirm dates, locations, and admission fees.
FEBRUARY
Frederick, MD
First Friday of the month: Der Stammtisch at Brewer’s Alley, 124 N. Market Street. Call 301-631-0127.
Indianapolis, IN
First Wednesday and first Saturday of the month: Docent-led tours of the Athenaeum at 401 East Michigan Street. Call 317-630-4569, ext. 1, or email athfound@sbcglobal.net .
MARCH
Frederick, MD
First Friday of the month: Der Stammtisch at Brewer’s Alley, 124 N. Market Street. Call 301-631-0127.
Indianapolis, IN
First Wednesday and first Saturday of the month: Docent-led tours of the Athenaeum at 401 East Michigan Street. Call 317-630-4569, ext. 1, or email athfound@sbcglobal.net .
Brenham,TX
March 5-6: 2010 Texas German Society State Convention. City of Brenham Firemen's Training Center - 1101 Highway 290 West. Call Al Fischer @979-251-8429 or email
krau41@mac.com
Freeman, SD
March 19 – 20, 26 – 27: 52nd Annual Schmeckfest. Call 605-925-4542, email schmeckfest@hotmail.com or visit www.schmeckfest.com.
Tomball, TX
March 26-28, 2010: 10th Anniversary German Heritage Festival und Fahrradreisen. Old Town near historical Depot Plaza, 201 S. Elm St.
Free Admission and no parking fees. Viel Musik und Spass! Herzlich Willkommen! Email gradsand@yahoo.com or visit www.tomballsistercity.org.
Pittsburgh, PA
March 27: Austrian American Cultural Society –- Austrian Ball/Debutante Ball. Grand Hall of the Priory. Visit
www.aacs-pit.org .
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