Report34CunzTributep918

DIETER CUNZ HALL OF LANGUAGES

IN COLUMBUS, OHIO

Courtesy: Ohio State Monthly

The Dieter Cunz Hall of Languages is one of the newest buildings on the

Ohio State University campus. Located directly west of the William Oxley

Thompson Library, it was erected at a cost of $2,203,000. The four-story

structure is designed to house the East Asian, Classical, Romance, German

and Slavic language departments as well as the Linguistic and Comparative

Literature departments.

DIETER CUNZ

(1910-1969)

TRIBUTES AND MEMORIES

The sudden death of Dr. Dieter Cunz, Professor and Chairman of

the Department of German of Ohio State University, on February

17th, 1969, was a great shock for the members of the Society for the

History of the Germans in Maryland. It left an irreplaceable gap in

the ranks of the Society.

Dr. Cunz was born August 4, 1910, in Hoechstenbach, Germany.

He grew up and attended school in Wiesbaden. He studied at the

universities of Munich, Leipzig, Koenigsberg and Frankfurt. From

Frankfurt he received his Ph. D. in 1934 in the fields of German Liter-

ature and History.

A dedicated opponent of Hitler and his regime, he left his native

country in 1934 and lived in Switzerland as a free lance writer and

contributor to Swiss newspapers. In 1938 he emigrated to the United

States. After a year in New York City, he moved to Baltimore, where

he received a scholarship from the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation

for work in the archives and the library of the Society for the History

of the Germans in Maryland. In the same year he started his teaching

career at the University of Maryland at College Park, where he rose

within nine years from the rank of assistant instructor to professor.

He taught at this institution until 1957, when he joined the Ohio

State University as professor and chairman of its Department of

German.

Dr. Cunz was a devoted teacher, who enjoyed the respect and love

of his students. In 1961 the Arts College Student Council awarded

him its Good Teaching Award, and in 1964 he received the Alfred J.

Wright Award for "dedicated service to student activities and student

organizations."

Dr. Cunz was a specialist in the field of 18th century German

Literature, but his most important and lasting contribution to scholar-

[9 ]

ship was his work on the history of German immigration to the United

States. His book The Maryland Germans, A History (Princeton Uni-

versity Press, 1948) established him as one of the two or three leading

scholars in the field of immigration history both here and abroad. With

the last of his many books he returned again to the field of German

immigration history, a collection of literary portraits of famous German

immigrants, They Came from Germany (Dodd, Mead, and Co,, New

York, 1966) for young readers. He contributed close to a hundred

major articles and essays to periodicals and newspapers in this country

as well as in Germany, Switzerland and France. He was also the

co-author of German for Beginners, a textbook widely used in American

and Canadian colleges and universities.

These scholarly activities earned him the highest recognition both

here and abroad. He was on the board of directors of the Carl Schurz

Memorial Foundation (1961 to 1965) and an honorary member of the

Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland, whose secretary

he had been from 1944 to 1956 and whose publication The Report he

had edited for many years. In 1959 the government of the Federal

Republic of Germany bestowed upon him the Order of Merit, First

Class " in recognition of his efforts on behalf of the German language

instruction in the United States and his scholarly contributions in the

field of German-American immigration history." In 1965 the Ohio

State chapter of Phi Beta Kappa elected him to honorary membership.

Dr. Cunz was a member of the Modern Language Association of

America, the American Association of Teachers of German, the Ohio

Historical Society, the American Lessing Society and the Ohio College

Association. He often held administrative positions in these organi-

zations.

At the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Society for the

History of the Germans on March 17th, 1969, the Board passed the

resolution that the sincere expression of the Society's realization of

the great loss sustained be inscribed upon the minutes of the Executive

Committee.

* * *

His youth falls in the difficult years of World War I. His secondary

education—Gymnasium in Wiesbaden, 1920-1929—in the years of eco-

nomic depression and political unrest of the twenties. During his

university years the political sky grew " browner and browner " and

ever more menacingly which was depressing and painful to anyone

who like Dieter Cunz firmly believed in the democratic form of

government.

When in 1933 the Nazi curtain descended upon Germany Dieter

Cunz, whose political ideas were well known in university circles,

received a " grace period " to enable him to bring his doctoral studies

to completion. This he accomplished in 1934 and with it his stay in

Germany drew to a close. An uncertain future had to be faced.

The departure from his native Germany was a sad and agonizing

experience. Dieter Cunz was deeply attached to his family, particu-

[10]

larly to his mother, a very intelligent, hard working and deeply

religious person, he had deep roots in his beloved Rhineland. It was a

moving experience when, in 1953, Dieter Cunz drove me to Schierstein

near Wiesbaden where his father had been pastor for many years. On

this personally conducted tour I was introduced to many corners and

nooks in the parsonage, to the surrounding garden and to the adjacent

Rhine river. In the course of this visit Dieter Cunz related, in his

charming way, fond memories of his youth and adolescence deeply

embedded in his heart and mind.

The years of exile in Switzerland which followed were hard and

bitter. The dreadful events in Nazi Germany were a source of perma-

nent anxiety and depression. At the same time his own existence was

most precarious and in never-ending danger. As a foreigner he never

knew if the Swiss authorities would grant him the residence permit

which had to be renewed every six months. His financial position was

close to catastrophic. There was, for a German refugee, no hope at all

that he would be allowed to accept a job that could provide even a

minimum subsistence. He had to earn his living, and what meagre

living it was!, as a free lance writer, contributing to Swiss newspapers,

giving tutorial lessons to high school students who needed help in some

subjects, publishing occasionally a short story that just brought in

enough to pay for the next three meals. And still, he was undaunted.

Actually, some of his most playful and carefree works were the result

of these dark and insecure years, a collection of stories under the title

Um uns herum, fairy-tales from everyday life. They were read with

delight by adults and juveniles alike, and to him they meant regular

meals for about four months.

By the end of 1937 it was obvious that his hopes to find permanent

refuge in Switzerland would never materialize. And at this darkest

moment something like a miracle occurred. A very remote relative in

America, who had heard of Dieter's plight, came to his rescue and

provided him with the necessary papers to emigrate to America. He

arrived in New York in August 1938, financially just as insecure as

he had been the last 4 years in Switzerland, but at least knowing that

there was a place from which he could not be expelled, and the chance

of a job if he were lucky enough to find one in these difficult post-

depression years. He did practically anything that happened to come

along, he wrote occasional pieces for the New York Times Book Re-

view, he still reported on cultural happenings in the United States for

some Swiss newspapers. And this in addition to learning and perfecting

his English, spending long and patient hours in the reading room of

the New York Public Library, where he could read English books,

English periodicals without paying for it. It was already here, in the

friendly shelter of the New York Public Library, that his interest in

the interrelationship between the United States and Germany, in the

German emigration to the shores of the New World, developed.

What he read and studied there in order to improve his English

was, after all, his own story: the story of an exile who had had to leave

his native land, and who found a home, a friendly place on the other

side of the ocean. Whatever he did in the following years to the end

[11]

of his life, his great achievements as a scholar and a teacher he con-

sidered his paying back his debt to America, to the country which had

received him gladly and permitted him to develop his extraordinary

gifts.

AUGUSTUS

J. PRAHL

University of Maryland

* * *

The Germania Club of Baltimore celebrated its 100th anniversary

in 1940. About the end of 1938 I wrote to Henry L. Mencken, who was

a member of the Germania Club, to inquire whether he would be in-

clined to write a short history of this venerable organization. In his

reply Mencken said that he would rather not write such a history and

pointed out to me that this club represented only a very small part

of the history of the Germans in Baltimore and Maryland which should

soon be written by someone really competent. I gave this letter to

Karl A. M. Scholtz who was then the chairman of the executive com-

mittee of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland.

Mr. Scholtz and I lunched together regularly and on occasion I

had slightly criticised him for spending some of the income from the

Ferdinand Meyer legacy for prizes given to high school students as a

reward for German compositions. When I handed Mencken's letter

to him, I commented: " There is your project for spending Ferdinand

Meyer's legacy."

Somewhat later, Karl Scholtz informed me that Professor A. E.

Zucker of the University of Maryland in College Park had reported

to the executive committee meeting of the SHGM that a young Ger-

man instructor in his department would be able and willing to do the

necessary research for a comprehensive history of the Maryland Ger-

mans. Then I told Karl Scholtz that we could try out the ability of

this German instructor by letting him write the history of the Germania

Club first. This apparently appealed to Karl Scholtz and some weeks

later he told me that Dr. Dieter Cunz would write the history of the

Germania Club in time for the 100th anniversary and that the cost of

the research and printing would be covered by the Ferdinand Meyer

Fund.

Then this young teacher set to work. During the seven long years

of his research in Baltimore all of us who were involved in German

organizations and churches learned to know and appreciate this dedi-

cated scholar: Dieter Cunz. As Professor Zucker wrote in a tribute

in the Washington Journal last Spring: " The grant offered by the

Society was meagre and the age of Zwingli quite distant from that of

Mencken and Mergenthaler but Dr. Cunz accepted it gratefully. It

is simply admirable how fast and how thoroughly this European became

familiar with the history of the State of Maryland. And not alone with

Maryland. He saw everything within the framework of the history

of the State and of the Nation as a whole, never as isolated events."

That is how Dr. Dieter Cunz set out on his career as a historian

in the United States. For him the slim booklet commemorating the

[12 ]

centenary of the Germania Club was, as he told Klaus Wust some

years ago, his Gesellenstück. For us in Baltimore, in Maryland, the

coming of Dieter Cunz was the fulfillment of the vision the founders

of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland had long

ago: a history of the German element which would place its achieve-

ments squarely into the background of our State at large.

OTTO

H. FRANKE

Baltimore, Maryland

Dieter Cunz's contact with the National Carl Schurz Association

(originally the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation) goes back at least

as far as 1939, when the Society for the History of the Germans in

Maryland received a grant from the Oberlaender Trust of the Carl

Schurz Memorial Foundation to help finance his research for his pioneer

work, The Maryland Germans. Over the years there were other grants

because the Board of Directors was profoundly impressed by his

ability as a historian, and his enthusiasm for and understanding of the

broad field of Americana-Germanica. He was one of the first writers

to describe the German immigration in the context of the sociological

pattern of the country, appreciating the work of the " little " people

as well as the great, in the interaction of all elements of the population.

He did not distort the historical picture by treating his people as

though they lived and worked in a sociological vacuum.

It was Dieter Cunz and A. E. Zucker who first told me about the

Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation in Philadelphia while I was still

doing graduate work at the University of Maryland. Therefore, two

years later, when I began to work on the staff of the American-German

Review, naturally I turned to these two men for suggestions and

material. Dr. Cunz had already written nine articles for the magazine,

dealing mostly with early German settlers and craftsmen, and he wrote

another seven while I was active on the editorial staff. Always they

were informative and written in a readable style, evoking the atmo-

sphere of the times.

But besides the articles he himself wrote, there were several that he

inspired: I am thinking of one by Dr. Wolfgang Fleischhauer, and

several by Klaus Wust. In addition to these there was, of course, the

Bibliography Americana-Germanica which the American-German Re-

view printed annually from the list compiled by Dr. Cunz.

Dieter Cunz was a dedicated historian and was not happy when the

emphasis of our magazine shifted to the contemporary scene. I was

sorry about his feeling that we had deserted his field, but had the

impression in the last few months that he understood the reasons for

the shift in emphasis, even though he may not have agreed with it.

When Dr. Cunz came to Philadelphia he often telephoned me and

we would meet for lunch or dinner. He was interested in the develop-

ment of the magazine and the organization, and tried to help us reach

a wider group of people, for he was eager to document the contribution

[13]

the Germans made to our country. One of his special interests was

Charles Follen, on whom he wrote an article for us commemorating

the hundredth anniversary of his death. He had wanted to write an

account of the years in Switzerland before this firebrand came to the

U.S., but never had the opportunity to pursue the sources he had

uncovered years before.

The year when I had the closest and most continuous contact with

Dr. Cunz was just before the publication of his Maryland book. His

humor, kindness, thoughtfulness and his thorough scholarship were

never more in evidence than then, even though the pressure of dead-

lines was great. It was a real pleasure and a rich experience for me,

and was the basis of our friendship and understanding.

ALICE

H. FINCKH

National Carl Schurz Association

Philadelphia

* * *

I was introduced to Dieter Cunz shortly after his arrival in the

United States by my friend, Professor Ernst Feise of The Johns Hop-

kins University, who did so much to help scholars who left Germany

during the Hitler years. I saw Dr. Cunz very seldom, but we corre-

sponded rather frequently because of our common interest in the

history of immigration. Though trained in German literature and

culture in German universities, Cunz soon established a reputation in

the United States by his publications in the field of immigration. At

the time of his death he was chairman of the large department of

German at The Ohio State University.

During his period of service as a professor of German at the Uni-

versity of Maryland, Dr. Cunz edited the annual publications of the

Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland. The Society's

publication The Report runs back over more than three quarters of

a century. In the heyday of German immigration to the United States

there were a large number of German-American journals. To-day the

Maryland journal is the only one that has survived, and it is no

exaggeration to say that in these later years which were particularly

difficult for America's Deutschtum, much of the credit must be given

to Dr. Cunz.

In addition to his editorial labors and short articles, Dr. Cunz was

the author of three major works, The Maryland Germans: A History,

Egg Harbor City: New Germany in New Jersey, and the third, and

more popular, a collection of biographical essays on the careers of

leading German-Americans, They Came From Germany, the Stories

of Famous German Americans (New York, 1966).

The volume on the Maryland Germans was the product of long

and painstaking research in genealogical and church records, news-

papers, letters and other historical source material. The result is a

"case history" of a single state which could serve as a model for

studies of other states. It is entirely objective and while it does full

[ 14 ]

justice to the Germans it avoids the filio-pietistic exaggerations of

many of the earlier books on ethnic elements in the American popu-

lation.

The story of Egg Harbor deals with an experiment by a number

of Germans to build a model German community in New Jersey.

Here Germans were to transplant and enjoy the " gemütlich " social

life of the old country, with German schools, newspapers, singing

societies, lodges and Turnvereine. The United States once had scores

of immigrant Utopias, but only a few survived into the present century.

Egg Harbar was no exception. It developed, in the free atmosphere

of the United States, into just another American bilingual community.

Dr. Cunz will be remembered in the profession as a careful, thorough

scholar who made a significant contribution to the history of immigra-

tion. He was always ready to cooperate with other scholars. He was

generous in his judgments and unduly humble about his own achieve-

ments.

CARL WITTKE

Case Western Reserve

University

* * *

The first time I met Dieter Cunz was in December of 1947 in

Zurich, Switzerland, while I was studying as an independent student

at the University. Little did I realize the significance of this meeting

for my own future. Dr. A. E. Zucker, then Head of the Department

of Foreign Languages at the University of Maryland, recommended

that I get in touch with Dieter so that I might plan with him to fulfill

the requirements for a Ph. D. in Germanics.

It was a propitious meeting. Dieter not only helped me immedi-

ately in planning a course of study, he also proposed a topic for the

dissertation. In addition, as a friend, he helped to effect a smooth tran-

sition for me and my family from Zurich to College Park, even to the

extent of permitting me to use his apartment in his absence from the

campus.

The topic for my dissertation presented certain difficulties. Otto

von Corvin, although a forty-eighter, did not appear in his best light

as the author of Der Pfaffenspiegel, and copies of his other works were

hard to come by. A perusal of Die Geissler did little to convert me.

I demurred, but Dieter encouraged me to withhold judgment until

some of Corvin's other works had been reviewed. He still thought it

wise for me to limit myself to the examination of one man's life and

works rather than attempt a study of the effect America had had on

German literature! I learned my first lesson in research.

Actually, it turned out that Der Pfaffenspiegel was not so much a

scurrilous work as it was an attempt to discredit certain forces which

appeared to Corvin to uphold the established order and to oppose

social and political progress. It is doubtful that the book would have

been written had Corvin not had this conviction.

[ 15]

It was not always easy to please Dieter. He was an exacting

teacher. Some chapters had to be revised and other rewritten, always

for good cause. Each assertion required documentation. In the end,

Dieter's tutelage had its effect. The dissertation was completed in near

record time, and Otto von Corvin turned out to be not only a staunch

supporter of the Revolution of 1848-49, but even more significantly

for me, a forgotten friend of America. With Dieter's encouragement,

an article in the American-German Review (XX, No. 6) followed

the dissertation.

Somewhat later the article on Corvin was followed by a second

article. This one, somewhat further afield, was on the German Teacher

Exchange Program, a program conducted by the U. S. Office of Edu-

cation in cooperation with the Department of State. By this time my

own rediscovery of America through the eyes of Otto von Corvin had

led me to accept a position with the Government which gave me an

opportunity to arrange programs and activities designed to help

interpret America to German teachers visiting the United States on

the exchange program. Once started on this path, it was only a matter

of time before my interest in interpreting America grew to include

not only teachers from Germany, but also those from the developing

countries. This brought me to the International Cooperation Admin-

istration, later the Agency for International Development. And still

Dieter's example of research and publication inspired me. I wrote

additional articles on subjects germane to international educational

development.

Finally, using techniques of the master teacher, I undertook to

chronicle the epic immigration in the early 1850's of an unknown,

God-fearing German family. Although the story is not yet completed,

the continuing influence of Dieter Cunz will, I am sure, help me to

bring the work to a successful completion. The memory of Dieter

Cunz for me transcends that of both friend and teacher.

MYRON

H. VENT

Education and Human

Resources Division,

Agency for International

Development

* * *

In the introduction of The Maryland Germans Dieter Cunz called

his major work a " case history " of American immigration, " the story

of a special group under special circumstances," but expressed the hope

"that from this special case some broader conclusions may be drawn

for immigration history in general." His hope was amply fulfilled.

Not only did his "case study" spark a renewed preoccupation with

German immigration in a number of States, it also provided guidelines

for the study of linguistic and cultural transition and integration by

researches of two decades. Considering the present state of the art

[16]

when ethnic distinctions are no longer viewed as being necessarily

un-American and the history of immigrant groups has ceased to be

the exclusive domain of ethnic apologists or grateful descendants, we

begin to comprehend the pioneer work that was done by Dieter Cunz

in the 1940's.

Leafing again through the pages of The Maryland Germans during

the first days after his death when newspapers quickly demanded an

appropriate Nachruf and the still incomprehensible news began to

force itself upon my mind as an irrevocable fact, I found numerous

passages revealing the character of the mentor and friend he had been

over the years. Almost twenty years—ever since I hitchhiked as a

student from Bridgewater to College Park for my first visit at 7501

Rhode Island Avenue. There is some of his guarded humor in examples

he chose to illustrate certain points. There is ample evidence of his

dogged determination to clear the historical records of legendary

accessories. His occasional impatience with narrow-mindedness found

expression in citing the name of the owner of a significant 18th century

newspaper file who was hiding it from researchers. All through the

book, he succeeded in maintaing historical objectivity without pre-

senting colorless or uncritical series of events. The biographical sketches

within the text, from Augustin Herrman to H. L. Mencken, are master-

ful as are, by the way, the concise biographies of noted German

Americans which Dieter Cunz contributed to the Brockhaus. The

reader is left with no doubt that the author personally felt much more

akin to the intellectually alert Liberals among the Baltimore Germans

than to the prodding, simple farm folks of Western Maryland. Yet,

rarely had the settlers of the backwoods found such comprehening

treatment by a historian.

And a historian Dieter Cunz remained at heart. He was ever on

the alert for new material, a hint, an inkling of a source here or there—

his friends all received notes from time to time on penny postcards or

on the back of a used file card together with a word of encouragement

when a long announced manuscript had not yet materialized.

His published writings contain little direct reference to himself.

Only at a symposium of German-language teachers on " Articulation

from High School to College " shortly before his death did he speak

about himself, tongue in cheek, yes, but also well aware how incon-

venient his counsel was to all who sought shortcuts in life and quick

solutions:

". . . others who know me will say, ' An old curmudgeon like you

will see to it that all the Christmas spirit is thoroughly demolished.

You will keep us aware that there are more difficulties than there

are solutions.'"

Or this passage:

" I am sceptical by nature; I hold dim views about the solvability

of the problem that is under discussion; I am the eternal sourpuss

—flowers wilt when I enter the room and the milk of human

kindness curdles."

[ 17 ]

To which Professor George Metcalf replied: " All this I know very

well, and that is the very reason why I want you! " How true! With

the solicitous friend we lost our incorruptible critic whose counsel we

sought often and gladly. More than any verbose tributes, credit to

Dieter Cunz in footnotes of articles and monographs of years to come

will express what all of us owe him.

KLAUS WUST

Editor, The Report

[

18 ]