report44Eberhard1732 .pdf

THEEUROPEANORIGINSOF

GERMAN

-AMERICANDIVERSITY

oth the official motto of the United

States, e pluribus unum ("One out of

many"), and the motto expressed in

the German national anthem, "Einigkeit und

Recht und Freiheit" ("Unity, Justice and

Freedom") betray the degree to which

diversity has been a given in the history of

both nations. Yet each has pursued the goal

of unifying its diverse elements differently.

The United States—the foremost

"Nation of Immigrants," to quote John F.

Kennedy's book title—has shaped its identi-

ty through a continuous process of assimila-

tion and integration involving some 140 different

nationalities, with the goal of forming a

political and socio-economic whole out of a

populace of different ethnic backgrounds

and religious creeds. The quest for unity in

German-speaking lands, on the other hand,

has been predicated largely on the maintenance

of a variety of diverse tribal affiliations,

reaching back into antiquity but

bound together by a common history, an

overarching ethno-linguistic culture, and

dynastic interests.

Given that today's German-speaking

culture area is only about one-twentieth the

size of the United States the uninitiated

might expect more cultural homogeneity

than diversity in German-speaking countries.

At close range, however, these lands

reveal a multitude of distinct cultural varieties

that in part reach back more than 1500

years to the settlement of certain areas by

individual tribes. Germanic tribesmen, early

Christian missionaries, knights and noblemen,

peasants and burghers, religious

reformers and writers—all helped shape the

composite which we know as German tradi-

tion today. Yet much of the common heritage

is ageless, since many customs, beliefs

and traditions are derived from the misty

past of pagan times and transcend both

present national borders and specific tribal

affiliations, fully justifying historian Friedrich

Meinecke's concept of a "deutsche

Kulturnation" [Germanic cultural unity]

which encompasses the German-speaking

countries and regions of central Europe

allowing diversity and commonality to coexist.

The industrial age, the concomitant

growth of cities, increased mobility, and

ease of communication have encouraged the

process of homogenization, of course.

Especially in the second half of the twenty-

eth century, the gradual urbanization of

even the smallest villages has been constantly

chiseling away at some of the most

tenacious of the individual tribal characteristics.

But despite the inevitable leveling

effect, much of the diversity has been

retained or is being preserved for generations

yet unborn.

This essay can, of course, treat only

some aspects of the variety within the concept

generally known as German culture

and civilization. We will focus accordingly

on tribal and geographic origins and linguis-

tic differences between German-speaking

regions. Along the way we will consider the

dynastic-political and religious influences at

work in various areas and look at customs

and traditions in various locales, consider-

ing particularly the question of how certain

folkways were transferred from the Old to

the New World.

European Origins________________

GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGINS

The year 1983, which marked the 300th

anniversary of German group immigration

to North America, generated a renewed

interest in what the 1990 United States

Census showed to be the largest ethnic element

of the country. Tracing the geographic

origins of that group is, however, not as sim-

ple as putting a finger on a present-day map.

One must take into account that borders

changed frequently, thus causing a fluctuat-

ing incongruence between ethno-linguistic

population groups and dynastic-political

territories. The former are characterized by

cohesiveness and a great degree of permanence

through common ancestry, language

(tribal dialect), behavioral patterns and traditions

in general, whether its members are

inhabitants of their own state or have been

annexed to another. Territorial configurations,

on the other hand, came about through

the exercise of power, princely marriage and

inheritance—hence the tendency toward

shifting borders. Another, often overlooked

point with regard to the geographic origins

of the German element in America is the

once formidable presence of millions of

Germans in the eastern and southeastern

countries of Europe.

Immigrants from the German-speaking

areas of Europe have been coming to

America since 1608, bringing with them not

just their trunks full of utensils and clothes,

but their dialects, their customs and traditions,

their values and beliefs. This "cultur-

al baggage" provided them with continuity

and a sense of stability which found expression

in the founding of German towns and

neighborhoods often based on the common

regional origin of the settlers. A second generation

of settlers from the same region usually

followed the first in a type of "chain

migration." In his essay, "When People

Migrate, They Carry Their Selves Along,"

the late Gunter Moltmann pointed out that

while immigrants of necessity adapted to

the lay of the land, the climate, and the

resources available, they did not give up

their customary ways.

Most people migrating from one

country to another do not shake off

their old clothes in a hurry and put

on new ones suited to their future

environment—at least not immediately

upon arrival.... Along with the

things necessary for their physical

existence, the immigrants' baggage

includes their cultural heritage, their

mother tongue, their ways of life,

their personal concepts, their value

systems and preconceived plans for

future, their hopes and expecta-

tions.¹

The immigrants' sense of identity in

the New World thus continued to mirror

their tribal and regional roots. Striking evidence

of the tendency of immigrants to congregate

and settle in areas where others

from their home territory in Europe had

established themselves can be found in J.

Richey's Directory of the German-

American Societies in the USA, 1988. Of the

more than 800 organizations listed, a significant

number show a tribal or regional orientation.

In fact, three of the approximately

ten most frequently occurring names refer

specifically to original tribal groups: the

Saxons, the Bavarians, and the Swabians.

A recent example of an attempt to preserve

the German cultural heritage can be

found in the first issue of the "Neues Blatt"

[Feb.1, 1997], the Newsletter of the Ostfriesen

Heritage Society in Iowa. The

"Goals of the Society" are:

1. To preserve the knowledge of the

emigrants, their names, customs,

foods and land of origin through

genealogy, celebrations, and language

classes.

—18—

___________________Reichmann

2. To use and enjoy the Platt language

for the two generations

which still speak this ancient

Friesen language of the low

coastal lands of Germany.

3. To preserve records of the language

through cassettes and

video of the Plattdeutsch theater

and music at our festivities.

4. To provide activities with Platt

Theater and German music.

5. To form an Ostfriesen Genealogical

Resource/Research Center

at the Wellsburg Library, for this

central pan of Iowa and all

whose ancestors first settled in

Grundy County and surrounding

areas.

6. To bring performing groups from

Ostfriesland, Germany, and for

our people to perform in Germany

and research their roots in

the land of the ancestors.

Dat Pommersche Blatt [Jan. 1997],

Newsletter of the Pommersche Verein Central

Wisconsin, states: "Our Verein [sic., i.e.,

society or organization] has chosen the

Jamunder Tracht for our Tracht (folk costume)."

In regard to language the newsletter

reports the following: "Since the formation

of our Verein, we have gathered and published

information about the German dialect

spoken by our forefathers. At our meetings

we attempt to state resolutions brought from

the floor in 'Platt'..."

The few examples mentioned here are

but a small number of the myriad manifestations

of the truth of Moltmann's observation.

In molding a new identity in their

adoptive homeland, German immigrants

drew upon the "cultural baggage" they had

brought with them. Practices and traditions

determined largely by tribal and linguistic

affiliations were a vital part of an immigrant's

identity, and each individual adjust-

ed to his or her new country by adapting

familiar ways to the strange land. In doing

so, German-speaking immigrants enriched

the American continent in a variety of ways,

ranging from the introduction of effective

agricultural practices and technical knowhow

—sausage-making and beer-brewing—

to Grimm's fairy tales. Today German

Christmas customs, festival planning,

kindergartens, music appreciation and phys-

ical education have all become part of the

American mainstream. Of course, much has

been adapted to suit the dominant

Anglophone culture with its tastes and

mores. Hohenschwanstein, the castle of the

Bavarian King Ludwig II, has now become

the castle of "Sleeping Beauty;" the

Christmas tree is trimmed with artificial

lights; and "Stille Nacht" and "O

Tannenbaum" are sung in English, as are

Martin Luther's hymns. And then there are

certain restrictions on the sale and the

strength of beer—a livable compromise

with the temperance spirit of the new

American homeland.

TRIBAL ORIGINS

Now let us reach way back to the tribal

origins of our German ancestors. During the

Volkerwanderung (migration of nations)

between the fourth and sixth centuries, cen-

tral Europe became the domain of the

Frisians, Saxons, Franconians, Alemanni,

Thuringians and Bavarians—to name but

the most powerful original Germanic tribes

or tribal groups. Through subsequent colonization

eastward beyond the Elbe and Oder

rivers in the ninth to the thirteenth centuries,

the new tribes of the Mecklenburgers,

Pommeranians, Brandenburgers, Silesians,

West- and East Prussians were formed.

Interaction with various natural phenomena,

from the North Sea and the Baltic to the

Alps, as well as the interplay of certain

—19—

European Origins________________

events in human history encouraged the

development of regional characteristics and

ways of life from within these tribal structures.

Dynastic-political influences: The unification

process toward a single "Germany"

was not without its bloody conflicts. An

early example is the decisive battle of 496

A.D. by which King Chlodwig established

Franconian superiority over the Alemanni,

who were pushed southward but still

retained a good part of today's Baden-Württemberg,

Alsace, the largest part of

Switzerland, western Austria with Liechtenstein

and the southwestern part of Bavaria.

In the eighteenth century Frederick the

Great of Prussia captured the province of

Silesia from Maria Theresia, the German

empress of the house of Habsburg. And in

1866, shortly after the American Civil War,

the Germans had their own North-South

conflict, which ended with the ouster of

Austria from the German Federation and

opened the road to building the second

German Empire according to Bismarck's

Prussian design [1871].

A good example for fluctuating incongruence

between ethno-linguistic population

groups and dynastic-political territories

in German history are the Bavarian

Swabians, or "Bayrisch-Schwaben." The

Bavarian crown acquired the sizable territo-

ry of Swabia from Wurttemberg for having

supported Napoleon! But dynastic territori-

al expansion did not inwardly change the

Swabians—the strongest tribal subgroup of

the Alemanni—and their Swabian dialect.

RELIGIOUS SCHISMS

With the onset of the Reformation

(1517) yet another significant force helped

fashion German diversity. Christian denominationalism

cut across tribal allegiances to

divide communities along different lines.

With the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 religious

and political leaders agreed on the

principle of cuius regio, eius religio, where-

by a prince had the right to determine the

faith of his subjects, that is, as long as it was

either Catholic, Protestant or Reformed; no

other sects were acceptable. The intertwin-

ing of religious and dynastic interests and

alliances with foreign powers, notably

France and Sweden, eventually led to the

Thirty Years War (1618-48), which took

some six million German lives, more than a

third of a population estimated at sixteen

million. The land was devastated, and the

nation fragmented into more than 300

essentially autonomous principalities. The

general lack of tolerance for religious

minorities which marked the era of the

Thirty Years' War continued well beyond

the Peace of Westphalia and the close of that

war. Even animosity and distrust between

Catholics and Protestants lasted well into

the twentieth century and strongly influenced

the makeup of Germany's cultural

landscape. In 1939, Germany was predominantly

Catholic (33%) in the south and in

the Rhineland with its archbishoprics of

Mainz, Cologne, Trier, and Protestant in the

north and east (64%). In Austria, always a

Catholic bastion, more than eighty-five percent

of the population was Catholic.

Switzerland, the land of Calvin and Zwingli,

was 55% Protestant and 43% Catholic in the

1960s. In each area the dominant religion

determines many of the common customs

and traditions. For instance, Catholic

Bavaria and portions of the Rhineland have

a significantly larger number of holidays

than the Protestant north, because of the

addition of certain feast days. Individuals

seeking a truly memorable celebration of

Karneval or Fasching would be well advised

to seek their entertainment in Cologne,

—20—

___________________Reichmann

Mainz, and Koblenz, or elsewhere in the

Rhineland or Bavaria rather than further

north.

COMMON LANGUAGE

—COMMON CULTURE

The gradual development of a common

language [Middle High German] in the

Middle Ages, especially through a blossom-

ing courtly literature, paved the way toward

a sense of a common culture despite often

bilingual Luxembourg, Alsace, and South

Tyrol—all with political identities separate

from Germany proper—we can still refer to

these lands with their transnational span as

the "deutsche Kulturnation." German-

Americans share its (non-politically

defined) cultural heritage.

Dialects and High German: Although

the German-speaking areas of Europe—

Figure 1: Designations for "Kartoffel" in the German dialects before 1945

Reprinted with Permission

great tribal differences and changing political

alliances. Ethno-linguistic and cultural

bonds have survived the demise of all three

German empires. Although today Germanspeaking

Central Europe also includes

Austria, Liechtenstein, most of Switzerland,

counting only Germany in the borders of

1937 (470,662 sq. km.), Austria (83,850 sq.

km.), Switzerland (all; 41,293 sq. km.),

Liechtenstein (157 sq. km.)—are but a fraction

of the territory of the United States

(9,363,353 sq. km.), the linguistic diversity

—21—

European Origins________________

of the German language is immensely

greater than the variants of American

English. Dialects abound. Regional and

often even local variants differ from each

other and from High German in pronunciation,

vocabulary and even grammar to an

extent that can make communication

increasingly difficult the farther apart any

two dialect areas are.

From the numerous language maps in

Werner Konig's dtv-Atlas zur deutschen

Sprache, we selected the one for "potato"

[fig. 1]. This basic food item with the High

German dictionary entry of "Kartoffel"

demonstrates how broad the dialect spectrum

of many German vocabulary items can

be.

The incredible range of dialectic variation

practically demands a lingua franca if

German speakers from diverse dialect

groups are going to be able to communicate

effectively. That linguistic middle ground is

High German [Hochdeutsch], the standard

language-equivalent to the "Queen's

English"—and the principal vehicle of the

media, of literature, religion, education and

commerce. Most German-speakers today

grow up "bilingual," with the dialect of their

region and with High German. If the foreigner

doesn't understand a dialect speaker,

the latter will usually shift to a High

German which, although often still colored

by regionalisms, more or less approximates

what is taught in school.

German-speaking areas outside the

Federal Republic and Austria even cultivate

tri-lingualism. Where the official language

is either French [western parts of

Switzerland, Alsace and Luxembourg], or

Italian [Southern Tyrol and southern

Switzerland], the local dialect as well as

High German are maintained concurrently.

Low German [Plattdeutsch], spoken in

the northern third of the German-speaking

area, has kept a closer relationship to the

Anglo-Saxon roots of the English language

than have Middle and Upper German. These

latter dialect groups, esp. Upper German,

experienced a still unexplained shifting of

consonants that didn't affect Anglo-Saxon

and Low German [see below].

It would do the dialects a great injus-

tice to look at them as "bad" or "corrupted"

German. The "low" of Low German is, after

all, a description of the landscape in the

low-lying coastal areas of the North, where

those dialects are spoken, rather than a judgment

of the relative worth of a specific variant

spoken. In America, more often than

not, the "Low" is erroneously interpreted as

second rate, "bad German." Indeed, the

northern dialects have seniority: They are

linked to the historic tribal substructure of

the German-speaking peoples who settled in

central Europe and in England [Anglo-

Saxons] during the Völkerwanderung

[migration of nations]. Each of the major

tribes—the Frisians, Saxons, Franks,

Thuringians, Alemanni and Bavarians—

developed its own dialect and even various

subdialects. When in the course of history

dynastic territorial actions altered the political

map, they seldom affected the ethno-linguistic

characteristics of the tribes. In the

southern part of the German-speaking area,

e.g., the Duchy of Swabia comprised what

is today Alsace, Baden-Württemberg, western

Bavaria, western Austria, Liechtenstein

and two-thirds of Switzerland. Even after

1500 years, the overarching Alemannic

bonds still make it possible for people in

these areas to communicate in their respective

subdialects. Eberhard Reichmann got a

lesson of this when he entered the teachers'

preparatory school at Ochsenhausen in

—22—

___________________Reichmann

1941. He noticed to his amazement that

among his class of twenty five—all from

Wurttemberg—there were twenty distinctly

different subdialects of Swabian, Low

Alemannic and Franconian spoken! But the

old ethno-linguistic Alemannic relationship

and its relative closeness with Southern and

Eastern Franconian minimized communication

difficulties when each spoke in his own

local or regional dialect.

The visitor to Augsburg—thirty-three

miles from Munich—will be surprised to

hear people there speak Swabian rather than

Bavarian. And in Nürnberg and Würzburg it is

Franconian you hear, not Bavarian. The

Alemanni in Alsace speak Alsatian, an

Alemannic subdialect, and French. While it

is a bit difficult for Austrians to accept the

linguistic designation "südbayerisch"

[Southern Bavarian] for their dialect groups, it

is indeed true that most of Austria was set-

tled by Bavarians long before the year 1000

A.D., hence the legitimacy of the designation.

It should be noted that political and

ethno-linguistic borders have not necessari-

ly coincided. In the course of history the lat-

ter have shown more permanence than the

former. The following linguistic map [fig. 2]

illustrates these inconsistencies. We invite

the reader to compare it with a modern

political map. The map is based on Theo

Figure 2: German Dialects around 1930

—23—

European Origins________________

van Dorp's design in Adolf Bach's

Geschichte der deutschen Sprache.³ It

affords an overview of the three large

dialect bands spanning German-speaking

Central Europe and also shows major subgroups

of dialects. From North to South

they are Niederdeutsch (Low German, often

referred to as Plattdeutsch), Mitteldeutsch

(Middle German), and Oberdeutsch (Upper

German, not to be confused with High

German).

A phenomenon called "Second or Old

High German Soundshift" [Zweite oder

Althochdeutsche Lautverschiebung] between

the fifth and ninth centuries created

the three big dialect bands. It affected especially

the consonants "p," "t," "k." In the

Upper German area they were shifted,

depending on position within a given word,

as follows: "p" to "pf," "f," "ff" [pipe =

Pfeife; hope = hoffe]; "t" to "s," "ss," "z,"

"tz" [what = was; hate = hasse; to = zu; cat =

Katz']; "k" to "ch" [make = mache].

Middle German participated to a somewhat

lesser degree: a Frankfurter likes his

"Appelwoi" [Apple wine], not "Apfelwei(

n)." The line separating Upper and

Middle German is also refered to as the

"Appel/Apfel" line. Low German (include-

ing Anglo-Saxon) was not affected by the

sound shift. Students with an English-language

background who have a hard time

pronouncing the "ch" as in "ich" might find

solace in the company of the Low German

speakers, for whom "ik" is the "right" form.

The line between Low and Middle German

is called the "maken/ machen" line. The

Low German band of this map shows less

differentiation than the Middle and Upper

bands, but Mecklenburg, West- and East

Pomerania, Brandenburg and East Prussia

certainly also have dialect variants of their

own. And along the Ruhr River you may

hear "Westfälisch," but fifty kilometers east

of there it shifts to "Ostfälisch," then "Elb-

Ostfälisch." Each "small" German-speaking

area is, in fact, a colorful dialect mosaic!

A multilingual example may help us

see the closeness and the differences

between an original "Plattdeutsch" text

from a poem by Theodor Storm [1817-

1888], and its quite literal equivalents in

English, High German, and the southwest

German dialect of "Schwäbisch":

Oever de stille Straaten geiht klar de

Klockenslag.

God Nacht, din Hart will slapen un

Morgen is ok een Dag.

Over the still Streets goes clear

the bells' peal.

Good night, thine heart wants to

sleep and tomorrow is also a day.

Über die s[ch]tillen S[ch]trassen

gent klar der Glockenschlag.

Gut' Nacht, dein Herz will schlafen

und morgen ist auch ein Tag.

Ieber de schtille Schtrassa gaht klar dr

Gloggaschlag.

Guad Nachd, dei Herz will schlafa

ond morga isch au a Dag.

For southern Germans, notably the

Bavarians, the Main River used to constitute

a "mental border"—similar to the Mason-

Dixon line of the United States. Whoever

lived north of it was summarily given the

slang name "Saupreiss," literally "pig Prussian."

But time mellows things. A Bavarian

friend of ours now has a little plaque with a

heart on it and an English/German text: "It

is nice to be a Preiss'/But it is nicer to be a

Bayer." German TV, one of the big leveling

agents, has occasional programs with "Plattdeutsch"

speakers appearing in the Alps and

Bavarians in Hamburg. It is humorous, of

course, to show dialects outside their normal

environment, but there is an education-

al aspect as well. Familiarity with other

—24—

___________________Reichmann

dialects may ultimately engender a healthy

respect for the "otherness" of dialects. Any

appreciation of the validity of dialects is still

in its infancy in the training of American

teachers of German and evokes a provocative

historical parallel. Academics in post-

fests held throughout the United States and

particularly in the Midwest. The many and

rich variations of garments from areas other

than Bavaria are rarely seen today.

A "Tracht" is a traditional garment typical

of a certain area. The word "Tracht" is

Figure 3: Man from Mühlenbachtal and young

woman from Kirnbachtal, both in the Black

Forest

war Germany frowned upon the use of

American English, which was considered an

inferior dialect.

GERMAN ETHNIC DRESS

Much to the amusement of Germanspeaking

visitors coming to America,

"Dirndl" and "Lederhosen," the stereotypical

"German" attire, only vaguely resemble

the traditional folk costumes or "Trachten"

worn in the Alpine regions of Bavaria and

Austria. Yet no matter how inauthentic, such

outfits add color to the increasingly popular

Oktoberfests, Germanfests and Strassen-

Figure 4: Bridegroom and bride from Eichen-

furst in the Spessart mountains, east of Frank-

furt am Main

related to the verb "tragen" [to wear].

Before the leveling effect of urbanization,

ethnic dress was always bound to a given

place, a specific social unit, and a local/

regional culture. Amish and Mennonite

dress reflects clothing styles of the Alsatian,

Southwest German and Swiss areas at the

time of these groups' emigration. For many

immigrant groups as with the Amish, dressing

in traditional garb is an outward expression

of belonging to a specific group or a

home area. Such dress requires a commitment

to a value system, shared by a specific

—25—

European Origins________________

community, and conformity to that system.

Traditional clothing provides an immigrant

community with an outward sign of its link

with a cherished heritage. It is not so much

a conscious attempt to flaunt one's ethnicity

as it is a mechanism for smoothing the transition

to a new and strange environment. In

its significance for the wearer, a true folk

costume or Tracht differs strikingly from the

folk-like imitations which tourist drag home

from their European travels.

Until the sixteenth century, farmers

and people of the lower classes usually wore

gray or brown-colored garments. Wearing

blue was allowed only on Sundays and holidays.

From the sixteenth century onward,

traditional country dress developed as part

of a system of order. Every trade had its distinctive

work clothes and Sunday dress.

Dresses, trousers, shirts, vests, and headpieces

worn for work differed from those

worn for festive occasions, and they differed

from region to region. The Black Forest

dress and the "Bollenhut," a black hat with

red balls [fig. 3] differ greatly from dress

and bonnet worn by the woman in the

Spessart [fig. 4].4

True folk costumes are sewn and fitted

for the wearer by specialized tailors or

seamstresses, who use only natural materials:

wool, linen, silk, silver, mother-ofpearl,

etc. Ethnic dress features handiwork,

such as embroidery, lace and handwoven

materials, and uses ornamental trim very

carefully, concentrating on the quality of

workmanship rather than the quantity of

decoration. There are different costumes for

work, visiting and special celebrations, and

each indicates the marital status and the role

of the wearer at a given function as well as

the family or clan to which the wearer

belongs.

By the middle of the nineteenth centu-

ry typical national/ethnic dress had begun to

disappear in many places. Where tradition

remained important, especially in rural parts

of Bavaria and Austria, the Black Forest,

Lower Saxony, Friesland, Schleswig, the

Harz Mountains, Hesse and Lusatia, people

continued to wear their traditional dress,

often passing a well-maintained costume on

to the next generation. For many wearers,

traditional garb is not something to be

admired only in museum cases; it is alive, it

is worn and enjoyed.5

Let us also consider the tradition of

wooden shoes.6 They are usually ascribed to

the Dutch with stereotypical exclusivity.

But wooden shoes have been known in

many variations in German-speaking areas

as well and all over Europe.

Figure 5: Shapes of wooden shoes from:

1. Steiermark

2. Steiermark, with leather uppers

3. Brandenburg

4. Brandenburg, with leather uppers

5. East Prussia (Memel Region)

—26—

___________________Reichmann

CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS

Attempts of the Christian Church to

suppress, displace, supplant or neutralize

Germanic cults devoted to the worship of

deities such as Wotan or Odin, were only

partially successful. Germanic peoples

assigned divine qualities to the forests,

believed to be the home of the gods, and rituals

were held in their "hains" [lit. "groves"

of worship]. Although the church was able

to destroy the "hains" and many outward

forms of Germanic religions, it could not

completely eradicate the beliefs of their

priests and worshipers.

It is generally believed that the

Christmas tree is of German origin. In the

pre-Christian era the oak was the sacred tree

for the Germanic peoples. Legend has it that

the missionary to the Germans, St.

Boniface, in order to stop sacrifices at their

sacred Donar Oak near Geismar, chopped

the tree down [725 A.D.]. He is said to have

replaced the oak with a fir tree adorned in

tribute to the newborn Christ. Ironically, the

evergreen tree has been ascribed magical

power by the Germanic peoples as a representation

of fertility. Today, the fir and its

next of kin enjoy the highest degree of popularity.

The Christmas tree custom has

spread across large parts of the world.

The church also placed Christ's birth at

the time of the winter solstice and fostered

as the bringer of gifts St. Nikolaus, the bishop

of Myra in Asia Minor, who died on

December 6, 343. Christian symbols and

earlier historical layers of Germanic mythological

figures began to meld.

Consequently, the old German God Wotan,

riding the wild skies with his retinue,

emerged out of the pre-Christian past.

To this day Nikolaus traditions vary as

widely from region to region as his guise

and name. He appears as St. Nikolaus

(mainly in Catholic areas), Klaus, Nickel,

Sünnerklas, Seneklos, Pelznickel, Knecht

Ruprecht, Weihnachtsmann and Christkindl

(in mostly Protestant areas). He is on foot or

astride a white horse, a reindeer, a mule, or

even a goat. More diverse than those of the

saintly Nikolaus are the many legends and

traditions surrounding his often-wild companions:

the Zwarte Pitt, Hans Muff,

Schimmelreiter, Krampus, Leutfresser,

Rumpelklas, Schmutzli. A religious myth

which had its source in a Semitic nation was

subsequently developed by a Mediterranean

people and finally superimposed on the

quite alien mythologies of the Northern

Europeans. The result is a wide array of

coexisting customs, Christian and

Germanic.7

Part of the modern American picture of

Christmas is that of a magnificent sleigh

pulled by eight reindeer carrying a bushybearded

Santa Claus. The eight reindeer

have only been in Santa's service since

1822, the year in which Clement Clarke

Moore, of Troy, N.Y., wrote his decidedly

secular '"Twas the night before Christmas..."

Moore's knowledge of popular

views of Christmas was based chiefly on the

St. Nikolaus customs brought to the area by

Dutch, German and Scandinavian immigrants.

In the German-speaking countries as

well as Holland and Belgium, December 6th is

the most distinctive children's festival of the

year. The shops are full of many-shaped

biscuits, gilt gingerbreads-sometimes representing

the saint-sugar images, toys and

other little gifts. On December 5, small children

place their shoes on a windowsill or in

front of the door. If they have a fireplace,

they will hang their stockings there. In the

—27—

European Origins________________

morning they will find little gifts, an orange,

an apple, and a small toy.

Forty years after Moore first published

his poem, the illustrator and political cartoonist

Thomas Nast created the American

image of Santa Claus, a combination of

with his parents at age six. In 1862 he joined

Harper's Weekly, primarily as a Civil War

correspondent and began to produce politically

acclaimed cartoons and war sketches.

He was asked by a publisher to illustrate a

book of holiday poems that included

Figure 6: Names of the giftgivers at the time of Nikolausfest

The underlined names are mostly those of the wild companions or scare figures. The Germanic origin

of these figures is evident although difficult to trace

Moore's "jolly old elf and the Pelznickel of

Nast's native Bavarian Palatinate. Nast, the

son of a Bavarian army bandsman, was born in

Landau, in 1840, and came to New York

Clement Moore's "A Visit from St.

Nicholas." Combining imagery from

Moore's verse and his childhood memories

of Christmas, Nast created a rotund, beard-

—28—

___________________Reichmann

ed, pipe-smoking figure in a woolly suit and

cap, carrying a large sack of toys.8

In many regions, including the United

States, the festivities originally attributed to

the gift-giving St. Nikolaus have been transferred

from December 6th to Christmas. The

giver of gifts is the "Weihnachtsmann"

[Santa Claus] or the "Christkind" [Christchild,

an angel]. The latter, misunderstood

by Anglophones, became "naturalized" as

"Kris Kringle." Christmas customs are perhaps

the nicest example for cultural transfer

and adaptation resulting in an American tradition

with a German touch.

CONCLUSIONS

Diversity has been a constant characteristic

of the "deutsche Kulturnation." For

better or for worse, in the course of history

it has exacted its price and bestowed its

rewards. Tribal diversity coupled with

dynastic ambitions resulted in a typically

decentralized nation state. The Third Reich

was an unfortunate exception to this historical

pattern.

While the great linguistic diversity

requires an extra effort in the process of

communication, the broad cultural spectrum

with its roots in the tribal origins of the

German-speaking peoples, their interactions,

and their acceptance or rejection of

foreign influences provide a wealth of

enrichment.

In like manner the history of the

German-Americans echoes the principle of

diversity. As the country's largest ethnic

group they have become an integral and

formative part of the American mainstream.

This makes them utterly unsuited for ethnopolitical

purposes minority-style. Any

attempt at "political" unity would be doomed

to failure.

"Political" identification with the

country of origin dwindles toward zero

when the immigrant is ready to accept the

privileges and responsibilities of American

citizenship. On the other hand, "ethno-cultural"

identification, such as German-

American, Austro-American, Swiss-American,

or Bavarian, Swabian, Pomeranian,

Volga-German, may last for generations and

in full harmony with the Pledge of

Allegiance.

In ethnically heterogeneous settings,

knowledge of the "old country's" language

and heritage diminishes rapidly with progressing

generational distance. "Roots"

awareness, usually coupled with interest in

the nearly 400 years of German-American

history on the local, regional and national

levels, may provide meaningful alternatives

which can encourage learning the language

of one's forebears and about the heritage of

their homeland.

With the obvious stress on High

German [Schriftdeutsch] in America's

German programs, in high school and college,

there is the tendency to exclude

dialects from the curriculum, especially

German-American dialects, and German

Americana altogether. This has its parallel

in Germany, where American English was,

and to some extent still is, frowned upon in

academic circles, and where American

Studies occupy only a marginal place. To

ignore German-American dialects and centuries

of German Americana is not only academically

untenable, it also ignores needs

and interests of millions of Americans of

German-speaking ancestry, and it misses

out on a great public relations potential.

Cooperation between educational institutions

and German-American heritage societies can

strengthen enrollments and enrich our

understanding of American history.

—29—

European Origins________________

German-Americans, like other ethnic

groups, have not been immune to the "melting

pot." If inter-marriages lead to mixed

ethnicity, personal preference may keep the

one or the other ethno-cultural identity

alive. Today, more often than in decades

past, one can hear: "Yes, I'm German, too,

and proud of it."

— Eberhard & Ruth Reichmann

Max Kade German-American Center

Indiana University-Purdue University

—30—

Moltmann, Gunter. Keynote Address, "When

People Migrate, They Carry Their Selves

Along," in: Eberhard Reichmann, LaVern J.

Ripley & Jorg Nagler, eds., Emigration and

Settlement Patterns of German Communities in

North America (Indianapolis: Max Kade

German American Center, 1999), xviii.

Konig, Werner. dtv-Atlas zur deutschen Sprache,

illustriert von Hans-Joachim Paul. (München:

Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1974; copyright

1994), 206.

Bach, Adolf. Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, 9.

Aufl. (Wiesbaden: VMA Verlag, n.d.), 102.

Helm, Rudolf. Deutsche Volkstrachten aus der

Sammlung des Germanischen Museums in

Nürnberg (Munchen: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag,

1932). Courtesy Germanisches Museum.

This section on "German Ethnic Dress" is indebted

to: "Traditional Costumes," in: FOCUS on

Germany. Special Monthly for the Allied

Forces in Germany, No.3 (1955), 11; Karen

Gottier's "To Dirndl or not to Dirndl?" in: The

German Folk Dancer, Vol. 1, No. 3. (The

North American Federation of German Folk

Dance Groups, May 1995); also to entries in

Oswald and Beitl [see Note 7 below].

Hansen, Wilhelm. Das deutsche Bauerntum. Seine

Geschichte und Kultur, Band 1. (Berlin: J.

Hermann Nierman-Verlag, 1938), 289.

Erich, Oswald A. & Richard Beitl. Wörterbuch der

deutschen Volkskunde, Kröners Taschenausgabe,

Bd. 127, Nachdruck der 3. Aufl. von

1974 (Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1996),

600 (Nikolaus map)—the indispensable work

for German folklorists.

Constable, George, ed. A Country Christmas.

(Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, Inc.,

1989), 156.

NOTES

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