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ADOLF GUSTAV STEINMANN
By A. E. ZUCKER
Adolf Gustav Steinmann, German immigrant and long time Baltimore
citizen, began writing a family chronicle in 1879, the largest part of which
consists of an account of his own life in Europe. Unfortunately, he ends
this autobiography with the year 1871, when he emigrated at the age of
twenty. The brittle, yellowing pages, aside from telling the interesting story
of their author's life, present a typical case history of German immigration
during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, revealing the narrowness
of overcrowded life in Germany, the oppressive poverty, the apprentice
system among the trades, the irksomeness of forced military duty under
Prussian drill sergeants, but also the love of nature and especially of music
among the people. The following is a translation of this document.
My name is Adolf Gustav Steinmann. I was born on the 24th of May, 1851, in
Bodman, on Lake Constance in the grand duchy of Baden. My father was a border
guard who had five children, of whom two died quite young. He, Silvester Steinmann,
born November 28, 1809, married June 9, 1840, Rosa Wenk of Wallbach, district of
Saeckingen, Baden. She was born August 15, 1815, and died July 14, 1878. Their
children were: Karl Steinmann, born May 13, 1841; Johann Maximilian Steinmann,
born December 19, 1843; Maria Louisa Steinmann, born May 13, 1846, and died
May 24, 1847; Gustav Adolf Friedrich Steinmann, born December 19, 1849, and died
February 4, 1850, and Adolf Gustav Steinmann, born May 24, 1851. All were duly
entitled to citizenship in the village of Dillendorf, district Bondorf, grand duchy of
Baden, Germany.
Silvester Steinmann was born in Dillendorf of far from prosperous parents. His
father died early and the youth became the support of his mother. He worked as a
roofer and later learned the trade of the miller at which he worked until 1835 when
he received a post as border guard. He applied himself to this job with extreme
conscientiousness and skill until 1859 when he was pensioned. At that time he was
living in Arlen, the 24th post at which he had served. He removed to his home town,
after his health, undermined by long and arduous hours of labor, had been somewhat
restored. He occupied himself with farming and hunting, which latter was not very
profitable, even though he was a good shot and an experienced hunter. He remained
in Dillendorf till 1860, about 14 months. He then served as tax collector in Waiblingen
for four years. He traded posts with a man named Wolf who had a similar appoint-
ment in Horheim. His pay there amounted to 300 Gulden. In 1872 he became tax
collector in Lechlingen, at which place his wife died. The sorrow over her death
caused him to lose his mind and he had to be relieved of his post. He was a tall,
extremely powerful man of firm and honest character, stern in the fulfillment of his
duties. Equally stern he was in rearing his children, punishing the slightest faults
with great severity. In his service he was beset by endless worries and harassments,
and in his family there occurred numerous sicknesses and other misfortunes.
Rosa Wenk, the mother, had been born in Wallbach. Her father was fairly wealthy
but had many children. She was a good, hardworking woman and a devoted mother.
She was devout and her religion meant a great deal to her. In 1862 and 1863 she
suffered a long illness and was bedridden for two full years, even having to undergo
an operation. After years of suffering she died July 14, 1878.
Karl Steinmann, the oldest son, received a good education including instruction in
music, as he was planning to become a teacher. But he changed his mind and, at the
age of 16, he volunteered for the army as a member of the band. He continued in
this career for eleven years when poor health forced him to give it up. He then took
a position with a Catholic institute in Carlsruhe. He married Anna Smith of Mühl-
[29]
berg, daughter of a pensioned foreman. During his army days he was considered the
handsomest man in his regiment. Now he is a clerk and has a large family to support.
Johann Maximilian Steinmann (Max) after his 14th year was apprenticed to a
tailor, Herr Ruppel in Lechlingen, the village where eighteen years later mother died.
After finishing his apprenticeship he set out as a journeyman and worked for a long
time in Hamburg, from which city father had him forcibly brought home in order to
serve his required tour in the army. After his discharge from military duty he
remained with his parents and opened a tailoring shop in Horheim. After father's
retirement in 1874 Max was given the post of tax collector and he is still, in 1879,
unmarried.
Adolf Gustav Steinmann, the youngest of this family and the writer of this
chronicle, learned the trade of watchmaker. He was born 1851 in Bodman on Lake
Constance. My youth, so far as I can recall it, dates back to 1854, at which time
we were living in Ebingen. From there we moved to Moos on Lake Constance, where
I first attended school. In Moos we carried on some agriculture and father planted
the first tobacco in this region in association with the burgomaster. At the agricul-
tural fair my father won the second prize as cultivator of tobacco. In 1857 or 1858
my mother and I went to Constance on Lake Constance in order to visit my brother
Karl. There are few details of this trip that I can recall, except that from Constance
we went per steamboat to Meersburg where my father had been stationed in 1852-
1853. In Moos I attended the school of a certain Schlosser whose father was our
landlord. Here it was that while we boys were playing Max hit me on the head with
a bowling ball which caused a pretty deep wound on my forehead. In 1859 we moved
to Arlen and from there to father's home town, Dillendorf. This is a little village
surrounded by mountains and woods in the midst of the Black Forest. This region
has very rocky soil, but yields nevertheless considerable grain. Fruit trees were
scarce, but of wood there was abundant supply. The houses have roofs of either
straw or shingles. In Moos the lake had been our playground and here it was the
forest. If today I smell the resinous odor of pine trees then I am reminded of the
tall, beautiful evergreens of my childhood home. To gather branches of felled trees
and in general collect firewood for our family was my chief occupation. At times
I accompanied my father when he went hunting. From here we were transferred to
Waiblingen where I enjoyed the best schooling and broad education under a certain
teacher by the name of Auer, whose children were my playmates. From here I was
apprenticed to a Herr Moraller in Mühlberg near Carlsruhe. In 1866 I fell out with
Karl, with whom I was living, and father fetched me home to Horheim to finish my
apprenticeship under a Herr Walthe in Thiengen, an hour's walk from Horheim.
While my first master had been a generous man, the second was of a low sort who
forced me to do much of the housework and to take care of the children, all of which
he rewarded with very little food and many beatings. Hence I learned very little
of my trade and finished my apprenticeship in 1868 without very much knowledge.
In fall I set out on travels in order to try my luck in foreign parts. After wandering
about for six weeks I got my first job with my former teacher, Herr Moraller, and
later I worked for a watchmaker in Stockach. Two weeks later I went to Waiblingen
and from there home once more, where I remained for some months. In September,
1869, I set out once more and, after extensive travels and constant search for work
and further training in my trade, I secured a job in the clock factory in Neustadt
in the Black Forest. I had wandered on foot as a journeyman through Baden,
Switzerland, Wuerttemberg, and part of Bavaria. I remained in Neustadt a year
and a half and then found work in Lenzkirch, about half an hour's walk from
Neustadt, in a factory which produced only delicate regulators and "Parisian"
mantlepiece clocks. Here I worked for about six months until I had the opportunity
to go to Turin, Italy. A German, M. Willmann, who had a business in Turin invited
me to go there with him. I quickly picked up the Italian language and soon felt quite
at home. What attracted me particularly were the theaters; Turin, a city of 150 to
175,000 inhabitants, had fifteen theaters, which during the winter season were
crowded every single evening. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, 1870
to 1871, I was in Turin, almost twenty years old.
When the war came it was my firm intention to rush to the aid of my Fatherland,
but on the advice of my employer I did not do so. My pass was valid until 1871,
[30]
i. e., until after the conclusion of this great war, which ended favorably for Germany.
At the end of the war in March, 1871, the annual military draft was to take place,
which otherwise was always held in autumn; thus I could not manage to be present.
My father wrote in a letter I received March 20 that I was to be present at the draft
scheduled for March 21, which was of course impossible in view of the fact that this
would require a journey of three days. On April 5, 1871, on Palm Sunday morning
at six o'clock I left Turin, arriving in Novarra at noon where I visited my friend who
was working at my former job. I continued my journey on Monday by rail to Arona
and from there by steamer to Magadino on the long lake (Lago Maggiore). I pro-
ceeded on foot the better to see this region which is so very beautiful. Italy, which
even today I cannot forget, is unquestionably the most charming land I have ever
seen. They have there all sort of fruits and excellent wines which are enjoyed even
by the very poorest families. I should like to recommend to anyone who has a bit of
money to settle down in Italy if he wants to enjoy life.
It was my intention to cross the St. Gotthard Pass on foot, but just as I reached
the halfway mark of the climb I became faint and I was taken on a sleigh to the
hospice where by means of a good hot soup my powers were restored. From here
on I travelled by stage, having given up the idea of hiking. I crossed the Devil's
Bridge, saw Altdorf, with the castle of Gessler, the tyrant who came to subdue the
Swiss, and passed through Buerglen, the birthplace of William Tell, the liberator of
Switzerland.
Here Steinmann's account comes to an end just before his emigration to
Baltimore in 1871. He married Marie Neidhardt, a native of Baltimore,
born there November 14, 1854. He moved to York, Pennsylvania, in 1876,
but returned to Baltimore seven years later. He established himself as
jeweler and watchmaker with a shop at 125 West Camden Street, and
resided at 1238 Belmont Avenue until his death February 6, 1923, at the
age of seventy-two. He had three sons, Lewis, born 1877, George, born 1883,
and Karl, who became one of Baltimore's leading lawyers, born August 8,
1899. Adolf Steinmann became a leading member of the Liederkranz
Singing Society and later of the Germania Maennerchor when the two
groups joined in 1899. As could readily be surmised from the account of his
enjoyment of opera in Turin, Italy, music was the dominant interest in his
life and in this field he scored some delightful successes.
The flood of songs provided by the poets of the Romantic movement in
Germany during the early part of the nineteenth century led to the founding
of numerous male singing societies which cherished these works. Immigrants
to the United States brought with them this cultural heritage and the
German arriving in the seventies in Baltimore came into an environment
in which his native music was cultivated with great enthusiasm. As early
as 1836 there had been founded the Baltimore Liederkranz, a title that does
not refer to cheese but means a "circle devoted to songs." It consisted of a
group of men who met weekly to sing songs of the home land with occa-
sionally new composition from the pens of their members. Of course, after
their throats had become parched from vocal exertions the club settled
down to sociability with foaming refreshments. It may be that in addition
to the enjoyment of art the pleasure of a weekly "marital vacation" added
to the popularity of the male singing societies.
Toward the end of the century there flourished an astonishingly large
number of such singing societies comprising more than 500 members in
Baltimore and environs, with the following names: 1. Arion; 2. Harmonie;
3. Germania Maennerchor; 4. Frohsinn; 5. Arbeiter Maennerchor; 6 Locust
Point Maennerchor; 7. Arbeiter Liedertafel; 8. Thalia; 9. Mozart Maenner-
chor; 10. Eichenkranz; 11. Melodie; 12. Germania Quartette Club; 13. Metz-
ger Gesangverein; 14. Edelweiss. Some of these groups, interestingly enough,
[31]
were guild associations, as for example the Metzger (or Butchers) Singing
Society, while the Germania was composed of business men, not all of them
of German descent, for German music and Gemütlichkeit had a wide appeal.
The harmony engendered in these fourteen groups was not only musical
but expressed itself in collective action. The United Singers of Baltimore
joined in massive concerts, generally held in the concert hall of the Ger-
mania Maennerchor located at 410 and 412 West Lombard Street; the
adjoining club house, spacious and comfortably appointed, served as the
center for German hospitality, which was extended naturally enough to
prominent Germans or German Americans who visited Baltimore. Thus
Carl Schurz, ambassador, Civil War general, senator from Missouri, and
cabinet member, was honored in 1879 on the occasion of a visit to Baltimore.
At times the United Singers took part in memorial services organized by
various groups in the city; for example, in 1898 in ceremonies arranged to
honor the memory of Prince Bismarck, Chancellor of the German Empire,
or in 1901 to memorialize the martyred President, William McKinley. In
1902 the United States extended wide hospitality from coast to coast to
Prince Henry, brother of the German Kaiser, on the occasion of his official
visit to the United States; the United Singers did their bit by serenading
the royal visitor during his stop at Union Station while he was passing
through Baltimore. Though these singing societies were founded chiefly
for the purpose of fostering song and good fellowship they participated also
actively in various works of charity, such as concerts for the benefit of the
German Orphan Asylum or the Old People's Home.
Just as the sociable individual societies reached out for friendly union
within their city, so the united singers of the cities of the Eastern Seaboard
felt a desire to join with lovers of song in New York, Brooklyn, Camden,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Lancaster, Newark, Washington, Wilmington,
Wilkes Barre, and other points north and south. They united with a
membership of over 6,000 in the Northeastern Saengerbund of America and
held triennial conventions. In 1903, for example, this vast group met in
Baltimore for competitive contest and genial fellowship. Usually there were
two types of competitions, one between groups with a chorus of over 200
members and another with a membership under 200 singers. The prizes
were bronze busts of twice life size—for the larger group Mendelsohn and
for the smaller Haendel.
Two other types of competitions were organized before the grand reunion.
One was for the best poem to be set to music for which there arrived 57
entries; the judges, leading professors of literature from Johns Hopkins
University and other colleges, awarded the prize to the Reverend A. W.
Hildebrandt of Noblesville, New York. The other prize was for the best
musical composition for which there were 398 entries from all over the United
States and Germany; it was awarded by a panel of leading musical author-
ities to Mr. Louis Victor Saar of New York City. A special prize attracted
very wide notice—a gift from his majesty, the German Emperor, William II.
It was an exquisite work of the silversmiths art, a statuette two and a half
feet high, wrought in gold and silver, representing a medieval German
minstrel, said to have a value of $20,000.
A four-day program was initiated by a concert on Sunday afternoon,
June 14, in the Fifth Regiment Armory. There were orchestral and vocal
numbers selected from the works of Wagner, Beethoven, Mendelsohn,
Haendel, Victor Herbert, and Stephen Foster. As the finale, the Star
Spangled Banner was sung by the entire audience in German in the excellent
translation by the Baltimore poet, Eduard F. Leyh (1840-1901):
[32]
O sprich, kannst du seh'n bei der schwindenden Nacht,
Was wir freudig noch grüssten im Abendrotglanze:
Uns're Streifen und Sterne, die während der Schlacht
Im Winde geflattert, dort hoch auf der Schanze?
Der Racketen Gesaus und der Bomben Gebraus,
Verkünden durch's Dunkel: die Flagge hält aus!
O sprich! weht das Banner im Morgenlichtschein
Noch über den Helden, im Lande der Frei'n?
The forenoons of the following days were given over to rehearsals and in
the afternoons the various local and visiting organizations competed, each
with their special musical numbers. On Monday evening the high point
of the program was reached in a concert of orchestral and vocal music in
the course of which, after two Wagner numbers, the festival address was
delivered by the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.
"Teddy" complimented the appreciative audience on the accomplishments
of Germans in our various wars as well as in academic and civil life with
the rousing energy for which he was noted.
The other day I went out to the battle-field of Antietam, here in Maryland.
There the Memorial Church is the German Lutheran Church, which was founded in
1768, the settlement in the neighborhood of Antietam being originally exclusively a
German settlement. There is a list of its pastors, and curiously enough, a series of
memorial windows of men with German names—men who belonged to the Maryland
regiment recruited largely from that region for the Civil War, which Maryland
regiment was mainly composed of men of German extraction. In the Civil War it
would be difficult to paint in too strong colors what I may well-nigh call the all-
importance of the attitude of the American citizens of German birth and extraction
toward the cause of the Union and liberty, especially in what were then known as
the border states. It would have been out of question to have kept Missouri loyal
had it not been for the German element therein. So it was in Kentucky—and but
little less important was the part played by the Germans in Maryland.
Tuesday evening saw the competition for the Kaiser Prize between
choruses from four different cities. Wednesday forenoon was given over
to a parade to River View Park where a grand picnic was held which
closed with the awarding of the prizes. For the following day optional tours
were arranged to Gettysburg or to Annapolis for those who had sufficient
stamina left after three days of glorious festivity.
Parades were quite the fashion in those dear, dead days beyond recall.
A monster parade was organized by all Baltimore in 1880 to celebrate the
150th anniversary of the founding of the city. It consisted of ten divisions,
the third one comprised of marching groups of German singing societies,
45 in number, preceded by a tableau representing Apollo and the Muses.
Leading as number one in the procession was the Baltimore Liederkranz.
In the ninth division the brewers appeared, 32 in number and all of them
German, preceded by King Gambrinus with two pages and seventeen aids.
All the singing societies celebrated the carnival season, mardi gras or
Fasching with a masked ball. The ladies, particularly, prepared their
costumes with loving care, not only to win the prize, usually a gold watch,
but also to appear so deftly disguised that not even their husbands could
recognize them. At eleven o'clock the dancing would be interrupted by the
coy unmasking of the harem beauties or the mythological goddesses, and
all would sit down to a gay supper. Usually the best female comic mask
would also be awarded a prize after it had caused considerable merry
laughter. The guests finally went home in time to meet the milkman and
usually were so pleased with the festivity that a sequel party or Nachfeier
[33]
des Maskenballes became a regular feature, sometimes referred to as
Katerbummel. The price of admission to these latter parties was 25 cents
for the gentlemen and 10 cents for the ladies, "including the cost of drinks."
Tickets for the masked balls cost three dollars for gentlemen and one dollar
for the ladies.
Just as in the life of man the birthday is marked by a celebration and
the half-century date with especial force, so the societies had an annual
Stiftungsfest and a really memorable fiftieth jubilee. In 1886 the Lieder-
kranz had a Jubelfeier of its founding in 1836 which lasted three days with
reception at the Concordia Opera House, a concert and ball at the Academy
of Music, and a grand banquet. It appears from the program that one of
the most famous Baltimoreans of all time, Othmar Mergenthaler, served
on four committees: Music, House, Banquet, and Management. In 1906
the Germania Maennerchor had its golden jubilee with like festivities. To
show how our ancestors could celebrate in the good old days before calories
had been invented it may be of interest to present here the menu of the
festival dinner:
Hearts of celery
Spanish olives
Salted almonds
_______
Blue points on half shell
_______
Croute au pot en tasse
Mazzini salt sticks
Filet of salmon, aux fine herbs
_______
Larded filet of beef
French green peas
Potatoes à la chateau
_______
Sweet Bread à la vinaigrette
_______
Roast Carolina Turkey
Cranberry sauce
Stuffed lettuce salad
________
Westphalia ham
Brunswick asparagus
_________
Transparent ice cream
Germania Jubilee table piece
Fruit
________
Roquefort cheese
Crackers
_________
Café Noir
So much for the gastronomic part of the celebration. Regarding the concert
the music critic of the Baltimore News had the following to say:
[34]
Concert at the Lyric in Celebration of The
Germania Maennerchor's Fifty Years'
Existence.
The Germans are certainly endowed with healthy enthusiasm, and they understand
better than any other race how to make such a festival as was inaugurated by last
evening's concert of the Germania Maennerchor at the Lyric in every way successful.
The programme of the concert included male choruses, with and without accompani-
ment, mixed choruses with orchestra, female choruses with orchestra, soprani soli,
and an overture. There were also four speeches, each and all short and to the point—
full of good will, and controlled by good judgment.
The critic lists the program, consisting of numbers by Mozart, Wagner,
Hugo Wolf, and other composers. He concludes with the following para-
graph:
Altogether, the evening was delightful; not alone because of the artistic merit of
the performances, but also because of the genuine Gemuetlichkeit, which pervaded
stage and auditorium. May the Germania Maennerchor prosper and live to celebrate
a centennial which shall eclipse this golden jubilee in brilliancy.
Adolf Steinmann not only enjoyed these musical and social events whole-
heartedly, but he also contributed considerably to their success. The
fragmentary records of the heyday of these singing societies tell of many
of his activities and suggest that there were numerous others of which we
have no knowledge. He was president of the Liederkranz in 1894 and
frequently his name appears as member of the music or the amusement
committee. He was particularly active in negotiating in 1899 the union of
the Liederkranz (founded in 1836) with the Maennerchor (founded in
1856). With his magnificent bass voice he appeared on numerous programs
with solo, duett, or quartette numbers. On March 7, 1907, the Germania
Maennerchor held a competition for quartettes on which occasion Mr.
Steinmann's group won first prize. He had genuine histrionic talent also
and appeared in numerous comic numbers (e. g., Photograph und Bauer).
Mr. Louis Kurtz, to whom I am indebted for some memories, recalls that
Steinmann's humor was not of the slapstick variety, but it had like Charlie
Chaplin's, always a distinct quality of pathos. To illustrate how outstanding
Steinmann's bass voice was in the male chorus Mr. Kurtz tells the following:
in rehearsals the director, Theodore Hemberger, frequently called somewhat
caustically on different groups or individuals to render their parts alone,
but when he turned to Steinman he would say, "Majestät, wollen Sie auch
diesen Passus singen!" Steinman appeared frequently also in light operas;
his son, Karl, recalls that at the age of 67 he sang the comic rôle of the
burgomaster in Lortzing's Zar und Zimmerman. Adolf Steinmann is recalled
by contemporaries as a man of genuine lovable qualities and great popu-
larity in his circles. He deserves to be remembered as an outstanding
contributor to musical culture in Baltimore.
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