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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
Since 1907 no report of the doings of
the Society for the History of the Ger-
mans in Maryland has been published;
annually a meeting was held, officials
elected, and the hope expressed that
soon there might be something brought
forward to justify the printing. The
nestor and chief contributor in the So-
ciety's field, Louis P. Hennighausen,
was aging, others had passed away;
from time to time effort was made to
secure some one competent to take up
the work of delving into the past and
bringing forth into light such frag-
ments as would interestingly show the
contribution that those of German blood
and origin had made to the cultural and
economic development of our State and
nation, but all without avail.
Then came the World War which di-
verted the attention and energy of men,
ending in our own intervention and par-
ticipation.
Through the war years and for a long
time thereafter the Society remained in-
active.
Now that the world has returned to
reason and discovered that the Belgian-
German treaty and Wilson's fourteen
points were both alike "but scraps of
paper" we deem it meet to again resume
our labors.
And in this we call upon all of those
of German blood and origin to aid us.
For, as has been aptly said by Max Otto
von Klock in a recent number of the
Stauben News—
"Just as hundreds of thousands in the
land of our ancestors have been con-
verted to a higher conception of their
existence and their racial importance
by the realization that they are links in
the chain that binds the past to the
future, a realization brought about pri-
marily by a comprehension that their
own lives, the lives of their forebears,
the lives of their descendants are ele-
ments of the history of their race, in-
trinsic and indispensable elements with-
out which history could neither exist
nor be imagined, so should our own
racials over here realize that that which
the German-Americans have done in the
past, ought to be and is of the greatest
importance to them, just as their own
conduct now will be of importance to
their descendants; that, since they are
links in the chain it behooves them to
see to it that the connection and the
tradition be maintained in their full
strength, and that, if they keep the
memory of their ancestors green, their
own children will keep green again the
memory of their fathers and mothers.
That is the other side of what we call
the upkeep of the family history. Riehl
well says: 'Those who preserve faith-
fully the documents and facts bearing
on their own individual families, will
also preserve faithfully the history of
their race.'
"Let me say one more thing by way
of conclusion. Do not believe for one
moment that there is a single family
history that is bereft of features of real
interest. Whether your people were
peasants or workmen or professional
men, whether they were active or pas-
sive, there is not a single family whose
history is not worthy of being studied
and preserved. We draw consolation
and encouragement from joy as well as
from suffering and not the least prized
entries in the church registers are those
which show that a forebear, in spite
of adversity and trouble, is worthy of
the epitaph: 'I have fought a good fight
—I have finished the course. I have
kept the faith.'"
It is in this spirit that we issue this
report and hope to follow it up with
more in the future.
K. A. M. S.
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