German Chicago

By 1900, one in four Chicagoans was either German born or had a German-born parent. No other ethnic group's thumbprint has been larger in helping establish Chicago as a major economic and cultural center nor has any group's influence been more erased by the passage and vicissitudes of time. Lost German Chicago traces the mosaic of German life through the tumultuous events of the Beer Riots, Haymarket Affair, Prohibition, and America's entry into two world wars. The book is a companion piece to the Lost German Chicago exhibition debuting in the newly created DANK-Haus German American Cultural Center museum, located in what is still known today as the "German town" of the north side of Chicago. Entrusted as the caretaker of many archives, artifacts, and historical documents from many now defunct German organizations, the DANK-Haus German American Cultural Center has been committed to preserving history, traditions, and contributions of Germans and German Americans for over 50 years.

German Chicago Revisited follows the photographic study which began in German Chicago: The Danube Swabians and the American Aid Societies. With this latest title in the Images of America series, historian and photographer Raymond Lohne crafts another volume about a group of American citizens who preserve their rich heritage with unwavering effort. This book will give readers a glimpse into the life of a close-knit and highly active community, revealing groups like the Kerneir Pleasure Club, the American Aid Society, and the Society of the Danube Swabians. The German musical life of the city is featured, as is the Karneval season and other year-round festivities and celebrations of the Deutsch-Americans of Chicago and its suburbs.

In German Chicago: The Danube Swabians and the American Aid Societies, historian Raymond Lohne presents the Germans who came to be called the Donauschwaben and their American counterparts. This amazing photographic collection of over 200 historic images has been gathered through the efforts of the author and survivors of the Expulsion, as well as numerous German-American societies and individuals throughout the nation.

In Dumont's words, the Frenchman sees himself "as being a man by nature, and a Frenchman by accident" while the German feels he is "a German in the first place, and a man through his being a German." Furthermore, while individualism in the French fashion stresses equality and centers in the sociopolitical domain, in Germany it focuses on the uniqueness, the irreplaceability of the individual subject and the duty to cultivate it by self-education (Bildung).

Co-published with the Waterloo Centre for German Studies For centuries, large numbers of German-speaking people have emigrated from settlements in Europe to other countries and continents. In German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss, more than forty international contributors describe and discuss aspects of the history, language, and culture of these migrant groups, individuals, and their descendants. Part I focuses on identity, with essays exploring the connections among language, politics, and the construction of histories—national, familial, and personal—in German-speaking diasporic communities around the world. Part II deals with migration, examining such issues as German migrants in postwar Britain, German refugees and forced migration, and the immigrant as a fictional character, among others. Part III examines the idea of loss in diasporic experience with essays on nationalization, language change or loss, and the reshaping of cultural identity. Essays are revised versions of papers presented at an international conference held at the University of Waterloo in August 2006, organized by the Waterloo Centre for German Studies, and reflect the multidisciplinarity and the global perspective of this field of study.

“A vivid & sensitive portrait of a small, tradition-bound community coming to terms with modernity under the most adverse of conditions.” —Observer Review Many scholars have tried to assess Adolf Hitler’s influence on the German people, usually focusing on university towns and industrial communities, most of them predominately Protestant or religiously mixed. This work by Walter Rinderle and Bernard Norling, however, deals with the impact of the Nazis on Oberschopfheim, a small, rural, overwhelmingly Catholic village in Baden-Wuerttemberg in southwestern Germany. This incisively written book raises fundamental questions about the nature of the Third Reich. The authors portray the Nazi regime as considerably less “totalitarian” than is commonly assumed, hardly an exemplar of the efficiency for which Germany is known, and neither revered nor condemned by most of its inhabitants. The authors suggest that Oberschopfheim merely accepted Nazi rule with the same resignation with which so many ordinary people have regarded their governments throughout history. Based on village and county records and on the direct testimony of Oberschopfheimers, this book will interest anyone concerned with contemporary Germany as a growing economic power and will appeal to the descendants of German immigrants to the United States because of its depiction of several generations of life in a German village. “An excellent study. Describes in rich detail the political, economic, and social structures of a village in southwestern Germany from the turn of the century to the present.” —Publishers Weekly “A lively, informative treatise that puts a human face on history.” —South Bend Tribune “This very readable story emphasizes continuities within change in German historical development during the twentieth century.” —American Historical Review