German Society Newsletter, June 2003

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
The Society's "Exhibit", which has been on our agenda for nearly 10 years, was finally finished in time for the national convention of German American scholars on April 24. I am very proud of it and want all of our members to see it. It was shown again on May 16 at the student awards event and will be displayed at our annual picnic on June 1. We welcome your ideas for other locations to display the exhibit. I thank all who contributed their time and talent for the project (see page 3). The 10 foot panel is just the first of a series. Future panels will present the Society's history and programs, with the goal of making our story known. i also solicit your thoughts for future exhibits.
James D. Schaub, Ph.D., President

SOCIETY GRANTS $5000 TO AATG FOR H.S. ACADEMIC AWARDS

On May 16 high school students, their teachers and families convened in the Adlersaal of Zion Church to receive awards, including monetary prizes provided by our Society for excelling in the national German language examinations administered by the American Association of Teachers of German. Despite our current financial crunch, the Society granted $5,000 because of the importance of this project. When this program began 13 years ago, only about 35 students scored in the 90th percentile. Now, over 80 have done so. AATG attributes our program as a major element in the improvement by the students and also its own growth.

ANNUAL PICNIC SUNDAY JUNE 1 AT BLOB'S PARK: GET TICKETS NOW; NONE SOLD AT DOOR
Because the Society must commit a specific number to Blob's Park, which will provide food and drink based on those numbers, you must get your tickets in advance or make binding arrangements with the committee chairman. The deadline for mailing your checks is Saturday, May 24. After then, if you need extra tickets, call chairman Art Nieberding at 410-893-9542. Food and drink will be available 2-5 pm ; beer, soft drinks, wurst, burgers, hot dogs, sauerkraut, German potato salad, etc. Members are requested to bring a dessert. Entertainment by Das Meister Duet, two musicians who have the knack for getting you up to sing and dance and spreading the Gemütlichkeit. We have a guarantee that the Schnitzel-Bank song will be sung, and taught to any uniniated. Contests and prizes for the young and old.

All are invited to form a team to toss horseshoes, with an inscribed crystal stein to the winning team. It's not a men-only event and ladies & girls have performed well in the past. Many games and activities for children. Weare hoping to see some of the students, teachers and families from the AATG awards at he picnic. As in the past, members have brought their families and friends to make it a family reunion! Tickets $15; students $10; ages 7-12 $5; under 7 free.

PLAN TO ATTEND GERMAN FESTIVAL CARROLL PARK AUGUST 15, 16 & 17

For more local German-American happenings, check the web site of the Deutschamerikanischer Bürgerverein von Maryland: www.md-germans.org

Our society is not known for fundraisers, but with our investment losses and current paltry interest rates, we need to find sources of income to pay our bills and fund our academic and German heritage programs. To this end we ask our members to consider placing notices in our annual program to honor the memories of their forefathers (and "foremothers"), for the preservation of their German heritage. The printed programs will remain in our Society's archives for centuries and among the heirlooms of our own families long after we are gone. Art Nieberding, chairman of the banquet committee, urges all of us to start thinking about this. Advertising rates will appear in our next newsletter.

The Baltimore Choral Arts Society wil present Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on May 29 at 8 p.m. Ray Spranke, professor of music at the Peabody Institute, will deliver a pre-concert lecture 7:10 to 7:45. The Missa Solemnis is Beethoven at the height of his creative powers and is referred to as the " Mt. Everest of choral music."For tickets call 410-523-7070 or 800-750-0875. Our Society's office manager, Bärbel Otto, is a choral arts society member and will appear in the chorus. She holds an advanced degree in music.

to Virginia Phelan for her help in planning the German Heritage tour of Baltimore City .

to our directors, Merle Arp, Dan Brooke,, Linda Butt , Mohamed Esa , Harry Gruel , Maureen Helinski, Mike Nieberding , Christel van der Berg and Ted Potthast , who attended the student awards presentation to encourage the students in their studies.

to Maureen Helinski for her tireless work in setting up and maintaining our Society's website. Beginning with the last issue, our newsletter will be posted on the website for access by the world.

to the member of the OTTO FAMILY for their help in mailing the last issue of the newsletter. The Otto children and grandchildren, visiting from Germany, and Mrs. Otto's mother, seven in all, sat around the dining room table to affix stamps and labels and get it in the mail the same day the issue was printed. Pastor Siegfried H.J. Otto is a director and Bärbel Otto is our office manager.

to our president, Jim Schaub, for lugging the drinks and food which made our annual meeting such a success. And to Dan Brooke for taking attendance and assuming the role of sergeant at arms.

GERMAN SOCIETY REPRESENTED AT KICKERS' 50 YEAR PARTY

Our Society took a full page ad in the program of the Baltimore Kickers' Club for its 50th anniversary celebration. The event was held at Columbus Hall and was attended by nearly 500 persons, including many who are members of our Society. The event was a great success. Best wishes for many more years!

MARYLAND-DC CHAPTER OF AATG ELECTS 2003-2004 OFFICERS

The newly elected officers of the local American Association of Teacher of German are: President, Deborah McGee Mifflin; vice President, Carolyn Ostermann-Healey; Secretary, Haley Crittendon Gordon; and Treasurer, Shirley Santora. Dorothy Louks was appointed Testing Chair. Maureen Helinski serves as newsletter and website editor. Most are members of our Society. Check the AATG website at http://www.marylandnovadc.aatg.org/

The 8x10 foot exhibit which tells the short story of The German Society of Maryland made its debut on April 24 at the international convention of the Society for German American Studies at the Timonium, MD campus of Loyola College . The conventioneers, university professors and scholars form throughout the

United States

and

Germany

viewed the exhibit and learned of our Society. Copies of our newsletter and application forms were part of the exhibit. The attendees were favorably impressed. The next day the exhibit was moved to the dining room at Zion Church , but could not be shown due to space limits. President James Schaub was delighted with the final product, which he had commissioned and approved. The exhibit will travel to many locations in Maryland in order to tell the story of the Society and promote interest in our goals and projects. We plan to place it from time to time at universities and secondary schools where the German language is taught, to interest the students and teachers in our Society. President Schaub reported that the principal moving force in preparing the exhibit was Director Edwin O. Wenck, Esq., aided by Vice President Brigitte Fessenden , whom the president thanked for their hard work. He also credited other exhibit committee members, Richard Ackler, Harry Gruel , Ted Potthast and Katie Schaub. The exhibit was professionally put together by the staff of Prodisplay, Inc, of Glen Burnie , which provided technical and structural services and artistic execution. Special thanks to Patricia Wenck, Esq. for her work in finalizing the exhibit's text.

GARY BERG ELECTED DIRECTOR; FRITZSCHE, MRUCK, NIEMANN, OTTO & van der BERG REELECTED

Gary Berg of Bel Air, MD was elected as a new director. He has been active in the Society for several years. Gary operates a family graphic arts and printing firm and for the past two year has prepared and donated the program for our annual awards banquet. Gary has lived several years in

Germany

and his wife is a native of that country. Gary was chosen to replace Irma Tillman for a term expiring in 2004. Re-elected to terms expiring in 2005 were Christel van der Berg (who is our corporate secretary), Betty Niemann, Robert Fritzsche, Pastor H. J. Siegfried Otto and Prof. Dr. Armin Mruck . Bob Fritzschke is also president of the Arion Gesangverein. Dr. Mruck spends much time in

Germany

on the faculty of the univ. in Oldenberg.

100 members came to the annual meeting on April 25, from Baltimore City and the surrounding counties, but also from the Eastern Shore, Southern Maryland, Prince Georges, Frederick and Montgomery Counties. The Wastlers, long-time faithful members came all the way from Pennsylvania. The Wastlers operate a travel agency specializing in tours of

Germany

. Ten new members in attendance were introduced to the convocation. The meeting was more festive than usual and the crowd intermingled in friendly socializing.

The pre-meeting dinner was catered by Old World Delicatessen. President James Schaub, Ph.D. conducted the business meeting in less than one hour, in accordance with our tradition (i.e. that the president is deposed if it exceeds the hour limit). Committee reports were presented.

Irma Tillman and Edwin O. Wenck were made lifetime directors at the annual elections. They retain all voting rights of directors but are not required to attend directors' meetings. Irma has been a workhorse for our Society since 1987 when her husband, Don Tillman served as our president. Ed Wenck has been a director for nearly 20 years. He is an attorney, an artist, an historian and an ordained minister. Ed was responsible for the art work and text of the Society's new exhibit.

The Society extends its thanks to "Baltimore Brass", a quintet of distinguished young musicians who are active performers and musical educators. They enlivened our high school awards program in May by playing pieces from J. S. Bach and Mozart and some polkas, ending the medley with the ever-popular "Beer Barrel Polka". The Baltimore Brass is dedicated to the promotion and perpetuation of brass instruments in the context of chamber music. Jeremy Meeks, Trumpet; Brian Sanders, Trumpet; Kurt Wittstadt, French Horn, Karl Kolan, Trombone and Alex Muhleisen, Tuba. Founded in 2000, they have already received several regional awards. Their music was the highlight of the ceremony
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Emily George, a member who lives in Cumberland , wrote to recommend Warren 's German Restaurant on McMullen Highway in Cresaptown , MD. She sent along an article from the Cumberland Times which tells a most unusual story of a flag. The flag was presented in 1903 to the Männer-Gesangverein of a small village near Düsseldorf upon upon the 50th anniversary of the choir's founding in 1853. The choral group is still active, has 55 members and performs in 20 to 30 concerts per year. The flag accompanied the group on all of its concerts from 1903 to 1945. It disappeared in 1945 when the American soldiers arrived. For the past 40 years, the large woven flag hung in a frame on the wall of Warner's German Restaurant. A customer noticed it and helped the Warners trace its origin to the German choir, and the Warners wanted to return it to them. In secret negotiations, arrangements were made for two citizens of the town, one an old choir member who remembered the flag. to travel to Cresaptown on May 5 to pack it for its return to

Germany

. Tears came to the eyes of Josef Heines, the old choir member, when he took it from the wall. No other choir members were aware that the flag had been found. The Warners, Fred and Marian, went to

Germany

to attend the choir's concert on May 10. At the intermission, they surprised the audience and choir members by returning the flag to the choir, as a gift from

America

. The Warners also presented the village with the flag of the State of Maryland . So, when in Cresaptown, stop at Warner's German Restaurant and get the rest of the story.

GERMAN FOOD IN MARYLAND

Edward Gurbrod, a member, responded to our request to tell us about local restaurants which feature Germam items on the menu. He has two suggestions:

Gladchuck Pros Restaurant at 489 W. Patrick St. in Frederick , MD. The German menu is featured in October. He also recommends the Eichenkrantz Restaurant at 622 S. Faghley Street in Baltimore .

Both restaurants are small and intimate and both serve good sauerbraten. Norm Dreisch also wrote to recommend the Eichenkrantz. Norm travels there from his home in St. Michael's on the Eastern Shore .

MEMBERS...The Society mourns the death of our oldest member, Claire Stieff who died at age 102; and Klaus Wust, the author of our Society's history, "Pioneers in Service." Their obituaries will appear in the next newsletter.

More than 200 teachers, parents and students attended the high school awards presentation sponsored by our Society, the MD-DC Chapter of the AATG (Teachers of German) at Zion Church 's Adlersaal. Ms. Christiana Markert addressed the assembly on behalf of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Ms. Annina Luck brought greetings from the Embassy of Switzerland. (50% of the Swiss speak German.) Dorothy Loucks, testing chairperson and Janette Patterson , President of the local AATG, both members of our society, welcomed the group. Our president, Dr. James Schaub, gave a short inspirational speech to the students. Past president Michael Nieberding gave out the awards.

The names of the Maryland schools, their students receiving the awards and their (teachers) were:

Georgetown Prep, James Morrison, Luke Whalen, Simon Mandel (Marialuisse Collins)

Harford Christian School , Virginia Straw, Bryan Wuest, Sarah Swehla (Peggy Nickson)

Loyola H.S., Michael Raymond, Simon Gray, Matthew McKenna, Matther Lentz, Cullen Murr (John Innes)

McDonough School, Jeff Wildermuth, Adam Bulkley, Kimberly Nade, Jason Brown, Sara Atkinson, Meg Killion, Rena Kimura, Jamie Warlick, Irene Soybelman, Samantha Holland (William Lyon-Valden)

St. Paul 's School, Eliza Schwarcz, Owen Racugglia, Alexander Huggins, Matthew Morris, Michael Sameth, Nicole Byrnes, Johon Steele, Collin Brown (Richard Schellhas)

Woodrow Wilson H.S., Alexander Beskurnikov, Lucija Millonig, Susanna Aschley, Sirak Berhanae, Daniel Conk (Sally Cranston)

Anna Friedman of Baltimore City College was awarded a trip to

Germany

by the Federal Republic . D.C. schools whose students received awards were: German School of Washington, Gonzaga College H.S., National Cathedral School and Washington Waldorf
________________________________________________________________________________________

The Wye Oak, the 450-year-old tree which served as a symbol of Maryland was blown down and died this year. A fracas is brewing over a suggestion to use some of the lumber for a desk for the governor. Some members of our Society are intertwined with part of the history of the tree. Current member, Governor Robert Ehrlich, wants some of the wood used for the proposed desk. Former Governor Theodore R. "Teddy" McKeldin, another of our members, actually used a large fallen branch from the tree for a desk which was designed and manufactured for Maryland 's State House by a former director of the Society, Theodore J. Potthast, Sr. It was later seen in his office in City Hall. McKeldin served as mayor of Baltimore 1943-47 and again 1963-67, and as governor from 1951-59. He was a faithful member of our Society who always attended our annual banquet; and even during World War II when the banquet was suspended, he attended our annual meeting held in the hall at Zion Church .

Governor Robert Ehrlich addressed the annual meeting and banquet of our sister society, The Society for the History of the Germans in MD at the Preston Room on March 23, He issued a proclamation declaring the speaker at the event, Prof. Dr. William Keel, an honorary citizen of Maryland. The following day, in recognition of the convention in Baltimore of the Society for German American Studies, declared April 24 as SGAS Day in Maryland . The governor also bestowed civic honors on the SGAS president, Prof. Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzman.

The Heurich Mansion is an elegant building at 1921 Sunderland Place , at DuPont Circle in Washington . The Heurich's donated the mansion to the Washington Historical Society and is now set to buy it back for $5,500,000 through a non-profit corporation and lease it to the United German American Committee. UGAC is planning a major fundraiser to support the effort.

UGAC intends to create a German American heritage museum at the mansion. Our Society has been a long-time supporter of UGAC. Its vice-president, Prof. Dr. Volker Schmeissner, is a member of our Society.

PORTRAIT OF A MEMBER:

DIANE GEPPI AIKENS is a national celebrity. Diane is coach of the Loyola College women's lacrosse team, which recentely ended its season ranked #1 in the country. It lost to Princeton , which it defeated in the regular season, in the semi- finals of the post-season tournament, which went into the finals against Virginia , the only other team to beat Loyola this year. Diane was featured in the April 28 issue of Sports Illustrated, the nation's most popular sports magazine, which prompted many readers to write emotional letters inspired by her example. She appeared in a 10-minute sketch with Katie Couric on the "Today Show" on May 16, and was also featured on an ESPN network show. She was selected from 4,000 college coaches for the NCAA "Inspiration Award" for her leadership and inspiration to her team and school. In past years, Diane has taken her team to compete is places as far away as

Ireland

and

Australia

In February she was inducted into the lacrosse Hall of Fame for her athletic achievements when she was a student at Loyola. Diane was a classmate at Loyola with our treasurer and past president, Mike Nieberding (who tried out for the men's lacrosse team but didn't quite make it.)

She is proud of her German heritage which she derives from her mother, Katherine (nee Meyers) and her paternal grandmother, Margaret Potthast Geppi.

Diane is the mother of four young children. Over the past 8 years, she has had three brain surgeries and last Christmas was told that her brain cancer is inoperable.

The Sports Illustrated article portrayed her as a woman of indominable spirit. who lives every day as if it were her last. She has suffered stokes, has lost the use of her left arm and left leg and gets around in her wheel chair, attended to by her parents, John and Katherine Geppi who are also members of our Society. Yet she goes to daily practice and coaches at the team's game and fulfills her duties as Loyola's assistant athletic director. Because she could not talk on the phone to the hundreds who want to know her condition, her friends established a web site which gives daily updates. The web site has so far had more than 25,000 visits. (www.caringbridge.org/md/aikens)

When she learned of the inoperable cancer, she set two goals for herself: finish the lacrosse season and take her team to the national lacrosse championship tournament, and attend her son's graduation in May from Calvert Hall High School .

______________________________________________________________________________________

Adolf Cluss was the subject of a seminar at last month's symposium in Baltimore of the international Society for German American Studies. Cluss will also be the subject of an Exhibition Project to be presented in Washington in 2005, a cooperative project of The Goethe Institute Inter Nationales, the Historical Society of Washington, The Smithsonian Institution, the Charles Sumner School Museum and the Stadtarchiv of the German city of Heilbronn .

Cluss (1825-1905) was the architect for 80 major government buildings, churches and private buildings in Washington and Baltimore. He was born in Heilbronn and studied architecture in

Germany

. As a young man, he was an ardent socialist and revolutionary, and after the failed uprising of 1848, came to

America

. On February 8,1849 he married Marylander Rosa Schmidt at Baltimore 's Zion Church , where his father-in-law, a Bavarian, taught at the Zion School . Cluss was a friend of Karl Marx and exchanged over 100 letters with him (although Cluss was not a communist).

One of Cluss' important Baltimore buildings was the Concordia Music Hall , built in 1864-65, destroyed by fire in 1891. In 1890. Cluss was appointed as the Inspector of Public Buildings of the United Sates.

The project set for 2005 will ben entitled "Shaping a Capital City Worthy of a Republic". Working on the project will be the staffs of the Goethe Institute and the Charles Sumner School , and specialists from the Universities of Chicago, Wisconsin, Missouri , Illinois State and the University of Tubingen .

Charles Barber, who submitted a paper on H. L. Mencken at the April symposium of the Society for German American Studies, ended his remarks by stating that the "Bush administration", will fail to find weapons of mass destruction in

Iraq

, and will plant such weapons to justify the war. Some listeners were irate at such a speculative accusations. Mr. Barber did not attend the session. He asked Dr. Vern Ripley, a world-famous scholar, to read it for him. Before the reading, Dr. Ripley advised the attendees that he had only received the paper that morning, shortly before the session began. Although H. L. Mencken hated President Roosevelt, he did not attribute to him evil intentions in advance. The remarks were inappropriate at a lecture sponsored by an international learned society. SGAS should not let presenters use the symposium as a political platform.

Dean Krimmel was the tour guide for two motor coach trips through Baltimore City visiting German heritage sites on April 26. The tourists were amazed at Mr. Krimmel's depth of knowledge of Baltimore 's German heritage and were universally delighted with the tour. With Zion Church as the starting point, the bus drove to St. Alphonsus Church (completed 1845) where Deacon Hugh Mills took the group through the church, once known as "the German Cathedral", pointing out the numerous statues and pulpit carved in

Germany

, as well as the German stained-glass windows. The church exhibited the "southern gothic" German architecture. The next heritage site was the Institute of Notre Dame (founded 1837) on Aisquith Street , built by Bavarian nuns of the order of School Sisters of Notre Dame adjacent to the German St. James Church. Thence to the Wiessner Brewery (later the American Brewery) on Gay street, built in a rare style locally referred to as German-American gothic, and which was said to have held 100,000 barrels of beer on the premises.

While still in east Baltimore , the bus stopped at the 1845 Lloyd Street Synagogue, a classical bolding wit Greek columns, home to the German Jews who lived in the Lombard Street area. Mr. Krimmel pointed out that it was designed by the same architect who built the ornate St. Alphonsus church. Next was the Otterbein Church , the oldest existing church building in Baltimore , to serve a Reformed congregation, but which is now a Methodist church. At the next stop, Hansa House, Mr. Krimmel related the legends of its use as headquarters for a German spy operation in World War I, and explained its origin as headquarters of the North German Lloyd steamship line and named for the 23 medieval merchant cities of the Hanseatic League whose coats of arms hung on the building's exterior until recently taken inside.

The tour concluded at the H. L. Mencken House at 1514 Hollins Street on Union Square . Phil Hildebrand, a member of our society and vice president of the Friends of the Mencken House, Inc., led the tourists through the house and the rear garden which was Mencken's joy and where he himself laid the bricks for the walls and columns found in the yard. Limitations of time precluded stops at such other heritage sites as the John Stricker grave in Westminster cemetery, the site of the immigration piers at Locust Point and other points of interest.

MEMBERSHIP CHAIRMAN DAN BROOKE ASKS EACH MEMBER TO RECRUIT A NEW MEMBER TO PRESERVE OUR HERITAGE
_____________________________________________________________________

AMERICAN SCHNITZELBANK MYTH DEBUNKED BY KANSAS PROFESSOR

Speaking to the annual meeting of The Society for the History of Germans in Maryland in downtown Baltimore on Aprill 23, Dr. William Keel of the University of Kansas put to rest the myth that the Schnitzelbank song was invented in America by German immigrants. He traced the song to a version printed in central Germany in 1830, nearly 59 years before a printed version appeared in the USA . He also indicated that the song, in different forms, was actually found in the 1700's in Germany . It is found not only German, but was used in Holland , Czechoslovakia , Hungary and other central European countries.

In a slide show, he exhibited many charts collected from American cities, pointing out the variations and similarities in them. An interesting exhibit was the sheet music for a dance, "The Schnitzelbank Two-step."

Other fascinating details from Dr. Keel:

JIn the southwestern sections of Germany , Schnitzelbank clubs sprung up in the 1900's and are still to this day in existence.

JSecret Schnitzelbank societies even today come alive for the pre-lenten Karnival festivities, spreading versions of the song specially tailored to poke fun at politicians and other authority figures.

JThere are many restaurants and stores bearing the name "Schnitzelbank" in American towns and cities with heavy German immigrant populations.

JThe real meaning of Schnitzelbank is not the literal translation (a cutter's bench). It takes its name from the slang usage of the word "Schnitzel", namely a "cut-up", a joke or jokester, and "Bank" as a bench, podium or stage on which the jokester stands.

JIn Germany even today there are professional Schnitelbankers, people who, for a fee will write a Schnitelbank song especially adapted to the purpose of the paying patron.

DIRECTORS, OFFICERS WORK FREE

Recently the Baltimore Sun ran an expose' on large salaries paid to directors of non-profit organizations. Lest anyone think our Society engages in such shenanigans, let us point out that no director or officer receives any remuneration. All work for free. Our directors spend serious time on Society programs and pay a lot of money out of their own pockets. About $300 per year goes for meeting expenses. Our office manager is paid by the hour. Otherwise, all money paid by the Society goes for operating expenses and programs which promote the purposes of the Society.