Jasper German Club

Message from our President, Virgil Gress
A GREAT STRASSENFEST AND A BIG THANKS

Another great year at the Strassenfest. The weather was hot Thursday and Friday and Saturday we had rain. But we all hung in there and made this one of the best Strassenfest ever.

I want to thank Dan Wehr for the great job and the time he put into making this a very profitable year. Without his leadership, things would not go as smooth as they did. I also want to thank the following;

Food Stand
Thursday – Dave and Nancy Prechtel
Friday –Dave and Brenda Buehler
Saturday – Mike Jahn

Pastries
Thursday – Don & Eileen Scherle
Friday – Joe Wanninger
Saturday – Dave & Rita Blessinger

These are the folks that come early and stay late to keep everything running smoothly.

I also want to thank all the workers that worked in the heat and the rain because without you we could not make this happen.

Also want to thank the Ackermans (Rafe, Phyllis, and Mike) for pulling the float in the parade. The German Club Students were telling me how great a time they had riding the float and how nice the driver was.

The Strassenfest is a big job and it certainly goes much easier when we have a large crew.

The Club officers truly do appreciate all the volunteer work that does go into the making of a successful fest. We hope each and every one of you were able to attend out annual picnic, which is our reward to you for all your efforts. Matt Hilger, picnic chairman, has lined up super food and entertainment. Thanks again for a great Strassenfest and all the work you put into it.

Oktober Fest and Deutsch Country Days & Wine Country, Missouri October 20-21, 2007

Sign up now for a great Bus trip to the Lexenhaus Farm where German pioneer folkways and skills are performed as they did years ago. On the way home there will be 16 wineries that we will be sampling their wine and enjoying there hospitably. You don’ want to miss out on this great trip. So get your name in, there are about 10 spots open.

Congratulations to Matthias Hilger and his Committee for another successful Family Picnic. Committee members included Wolfgang Erhardt, Bob Fleck, Patti Goepfrich, Virgil and Judy Gress, Harry and Gabi Guensche, Dan and Kathy Gutgsell, Jim and Louise Gutgsell, and Jan Hulsman.

Please remember to return any empty beer bottles to Bob Sunderman or Matthias Hilger.

November Meeting
Annual Auction for Student Exchange
Thursday, November 15, 2007

Dan Hoffman has graciously agreed to conduct our annual Auction of donated items with 100% of the proceeds donated to support the Jasper High School German Student Exchange program. Everyone is encouraged to bring an item or two for this Auction. Please be generous! Items donated in previous years have included baked goods, crafts, furniture, homemade wine, German items, and Holiday items. Be creative – the more variety and quantity of items we have in the Auction, the more funds will be raised to support the Exchange Program. Come prepared to have some fun...and to bid! The Auction will be held at the Jasper VFW.

The December meeting will be on Thursday, December 6, 2007 and will be our Annual Christmas Party. The Christmas Party will be at the VFW. Fran Johnson will be creating a great meal for us again this year. Make plans to bring in the Christmas Season.

The January meeting will be on Thursday, January 17, 2007, at the VFW. As has become our custom, this meeting will be our annual beer and wine tasting/judging gathering. Members are encouraged to bring samples of their beer and wine making for the annual competition. Categories will be judged in Grape Wine, Non-Grape / Other Wines, and Beer. Let’s have a great turnout and let us know which beer or wine you feel is the best

The Jasper Deutscher Verein, Jasper Partnership Commission, and Sister Cities of Jasper, Inc. will celebrate German-American Day on Tuesday, October 9 th, with a dinner at the Schnitzelbank Restaurant. The dinner and program will honor the contributions made by German immigrants to the life and culture of the United States. The program will begin with opening remarks by Virgil Gress, president of the Deutscher Verein.

Matthias Hilger, president of the Jasper Partnership Commission, will present the German-American Heritage Award. The award will be presented to an individual or group who has contributed generously his/her or their time, talents or resources to maintaining, improving or building upon the German roots in Dubois County. The recognition is open to all individuals.

Sister Cities of Jasper and the Jasper Partnership Commission created the award in 1999. The Jasper Deutscher Verein is sponsoring the award. Past recipients are Mary Jo Meuser, Claude and Martina Eckert, Dave Buehler, Linus and Sally Lechner, Joe and Irene C. Eckerle, Dan and Linda Wehr, Leo and Lora Lou Eckerle, and the late Lowell and Joan Glendening.

Kristen Ruhe, Executive Director of the Dubois County Visitors Center & Tourism Commission, will be guest speaker. She will give a presentation on tourism in Dubois County and its ties to German heritage.

Dan Gutgsell, president of Sister Cities of Jasper, Inc. will have closing comments.

An essay contest open to all seniors in the four county school corporations is being held in conjunction with German-American Day on Tuesday, October 9th. There are three essay topics. The students may pick one of the three topics. They are “What does German heritage mean to me?”, “What can we, as the younger generation, do to help maintain and preserve our German heritage?”, and “Note local or family German names as they relate to the towns or villages that immigrants came from, the meaning of the family names, relationship to geographic location, occupation, etc.”.

A winner from each school corporation will be named from the essays submitted, and the four winners will attend the German-American Day Dinner and read their winning essays at the German-American Day Dinner. Each winner will be awarded a $250 scholarship.

The public is invited to attend the dinner and program. The social hour begins at 6p.m. with the program and German-style buffet at 6:30p.m. The cost is $10 a person for the buffet with a cash bar. Reservations are needed and can be made by calling Patti Goepfrich at 482-4821 by October 2 nd. A sign up sheet for the dinner will be available at the Family Picnic.

October 1 to 6 is celebrated in communities and German classes throughout the nation. It is an important week in German-American history: On October 1, 1608 the first Germans arrived in Jamestown, VA. On October 3, 1991 we remember the Day of German Unity, and on October 6, we commemorate the arrival, in 1683, of the First German group on the ship " Concord." Under the leadership of Franz Daniel Pastorius they founded the first German town in America, Germantown, PA.

Probably the least known of these commemorations is October3. the Day of German Unity (Tag der deutschen Einheit.). When the German Democratic Republic ( East Germany) acceded to the Federal Republic on this day in 1990, the national humiliation and the human tragedy of forty-five years of separation came to an end. (Einigkeit und Rechtund Freiheit fürdas deutsche Vaterland...) at last unity, justice and freedom.

Best-known of these commemorations is German-American Day. October6 is celebrated nation-wide with proclamations by the president, governors, and mayors. On the national level, every year a "Distinguished German-American" has been honored. This year IGHS has presented a State Award for a Distinguished Hoosier German-American, posthumously to Kurt Vonnegut. We will celebrate again at the City Market and there will be a great program at the Athenaeum.

Lesser known, yet equally important is October 1. While October 6 commemorates the first permanent settlement, Germantown, PA. individually Germans had arrived as early as 1608. This year the nation is celebrating the founding of Jamestown, VA. The first English settlers had arrived at Jamestown in 1607 and the first Germans arrived in 1608. In 2008 we will commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of these Germans in the New World at Jamestown, VA. Special events are planned in conjunction with the Annual Symposium of the Society for German-American Studies (SGAS) to be held April17-20, 2008, in Colonial Williamsburg. There will be excellent presentations and tours to the sites.

In 1997 the first German immigrants were honored with a historic marker, located on VA Route 31 ( Jamestown Road) near Williamsburg and the Jamestown Settlement Museum. Posted by Virginia's Dept. of Historic Resources it reads as follows: "The first Germans to land in Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in Virginia, arrived aboard the vessel Mary and Margaret about 1 October 1608. These Germans were glassmakers and carpenters. In 1620, German mineral specialists and saw-millwrights followed, to work and settle in the Virginia colony. These pioneers and skilled craftsmen were the forerunners of the many
millions of Germans who settled in America and became the single largest national group to populate the United States." It was placed there under the leadership of then President of the German Heritage Society of Greater Washington, D.C. Gary Grassl. Grassl researched and authored First Germans at Jamestown. A Commemoration, it depicts in detail how those first Germans arrived on Virginia's shores. The first English settlers to reach the coast in 1607 traveled on a ship under the able command of Captain Christopher Newport, while the first Germans reached Jamestown Colony aboard the vessel Mary and Margaret
during Newport's next trip in 1608. As Grassl tells it, "They (the settlers) consisted of up to five unnamed glass makers and three carpenters or house builders (Zimmermänner) - Adam, Franz and Samuel. They came in a group of about 70 new settlers, including several Polish makers of pitch and tar, soap ashes and potashes. Jamestown at that time consisted of nothing but a small wooden fort on a peninsula of the"James," a river, which flows into Chesapeake Bay near modern Norfolk, Va.".

We suggest that you mark April 17-20, 2008 on your calendar and join us in Williamsburg for this great event. We will keep you informed about
the upcoming program and tours via our website and this newsletter.

Norb Krapf and Monika Herzig will perform from their forthcoming jazz and poetry CD, Imagine – Indiana in Music and Words at the following venues:

Sun., Oct. 21, 2:00-3:00 p.m., The Artsgarden, Circle Center Mall, Washington St., Indy, Jazz and Poetry with Norbert Krapf and Monika Herzig

Thurs., Oct. 25, The Waldron, Bloomington, evening performance, Jazz and Poetry, Norbert Krapf and Monika Herzig, as part of a poetry event.

Friday, Oct. 26, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Earth House Coffee Shop, (Central United Methodist Church, New York and East Streets, Indy), Jazz and Poetry with Norbert Krapf and Monika Herzig

Fri., Nov. 30, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Earth House Coffee Shop, CD release party for Norbert Krapf and Monika Herzig’s Imagine - Indiana in Music and Words

Sun., Dec. 9, 2:00-4:00 p.m., Dubois County Museum, Jasper, IN, Norbert Krapf and Monika Herzig perform from Imagine – Indiana in Music and Words

If a member has an address change, please notify Rita Egler at P. O. Box 15, Jasper, IN 47547-0015 or call her at 634-9068.

If someone knows of a potential new club member and would like information about the Deutscher Verein forwarded, please contact Ruth Wibbels at 482-5403 or Rita Egler at 634-9068.

The Strassenfest Queen Pageant committee is trying to compile a list of names for the pageant winners to call when they need to borrow clothes for Strassenfest weekend. The clothing needed is for the queen and her runners up, Little Miss and Little Mister. There is talk of a new level called Jr. Miss for next year so that would involve the Middle School ages.

Your generosity in allowing your outfits to be borrowed would be greatly appreciated. It would make it so much easier for the committee and candidates to have a list of names and sizes instead of using the "jungle network" each year. The committee is also asking that if anyone is finished with their outfits, they will take them as donations and they do have a place to store them.

If you would like to help out the committee, please call Becky Hickman, 482 - 2540.

The following is a series of articles that appeared in The Dubois County Daily Herald in 1957. These articles also appear on the DeutscherVerein website. Enjoy!!!!

Many of the old citizens of Dubois county thought they were talking good German when in reality they were using an ingenious mixture of German and English.

When my grandfather, Blaise Hettich, my parents, Christian and Maria Rumbach and two elder brothers arrived in Jasper from Baden, Germany, they were cordially received by grandpa’s brother, Mathias Hettich and his good wife, Aunt Paula (Eckerle) Hettich, a native of Jasper. Wanting to be helpful in every way, Aunt Paula, referring to one of the big sea-chests in which they brought their clothes to America, said to my father:

“Geh, Christian, geh rous die SHED; hohl den HATCHET, und OPEN die BOX. Rehm rous die SUITS and HANG sie on die FENCE in the BACKYARD und gib ihnen am gute AIRING. By selle TIME is BREAKFAST READY.”

Dad was in a quandary what he was expected to do, for each of the capitalized words above were English and meant nothing to him. But he had his first lesson in English, and as the objects were pointed out to him, he understood and made them a part of his own vocabulary.

4 cups water
2 ½ cups chicken broth
4 tablespoons chicken soup base
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 large carrots, finely chopped
4 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup mayonnaise
8 ounces processed cheese food (eg. Velveeta)
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
½ cup shredded Swiss cheese
¼ cup dry potato flakes

In a large stock pot, combine water, chicken broth, chicken soup base, black pepper, carrots, diced potatoes, and onion. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat. Simmer 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. Add celery and red bell pepper, and simmer for 5 minutes. Gradually add mayonnaise to hot soup, whisking until smooth.

Reduce heat to medium low. Gradually stir in processed cheese, sharp Cheddar cheese, and Swiss cheese; continue stirring until cheese melts, about 5 minutes. Mix in potato flakes. Remove from heat, and let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der Gemut-lich-keit, Ein Prosit Ein Prosit, der Gemut-lich-keit, Eins Zwei, Drei…G’suffa

A toast, A toast, To happy times, A toast, A toast, To happy times, One, two three… drink up

A donor-advised endowment to benefit generations in ensuring that our German heritage is preserved and enriched in Jasper and Dubois County.

A designated endowment to provide support to Sister Cities of Jasper, Inc. to support the Jasper/Pfaffenweiler relationship.

A gift to the Jasper Deutscher Verein (German Club) German Heritage Endowment or to the Claude and Martina Eckert Sister Cities Endowment is a wonderful way to remember that special someone. A gift in honor of someone or in memory of someone may be given. The Dubois County Community Foundation will send a letter of acknowledgment to the individual being honored or to the family of someone being remembered. Send your gift along with the appropriate information to the Dubois County Community Foundation, P. O. Box 269, Jasper, IN 47547-0269. Envelopes are also available at the greeting table at each club meeting.

Enclosed is my gift of $___________. Please direct my gift to the __________________________________ Endowment (Please specify appropriate Endowment).

Deutscher Verein

Officers :

Directors :

Virgil Gress - President
vgress@fullnet.com
Al Bennett - Vice President
jbennett@psci.net
Rita Egler - Treasurer
gregler@fullnet.com
Ruth Wibbels - Secretary
wibbels@fullnet.com

Die Zeitung
Editor: Patti Goepfrich
Phone: 482-4821
e-mail: pmgoep@fullnet.com

Fr. John Boeglin
Dave Buehler
Bob Dilger
Raymie Eckerle
Dan Gutgsell
Jim Gutgsell
Matthias Hilger
Janet Kluemper
Linus Lechner
Danny Wehr