Latest
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LEST WE FORGET: PORTRAITS OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
LEST WE FORGET is a large-scale public art installation by UNESCO Artist for Peace Luigi Toscano, featuring larger-than-life photographic portraits of Holocaust survivors as they are today. Installed in open, everyday public spaces, the exhibit brings remembrance and education beyond museum walls, offering an open and barrier-free presentation accessible to all. The installation invites visitors…
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German Dignitaries visit Missouri
During the 1830s over 40,000 Germans would immigrate to Missouri, with the Philadelphia Society founded in 1836 that later became the City of Hermann, one of those that would make Missouri so German!
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Friedrich Hecker Event
Under the leadership and support of the German-American Heritage Society of St. Louis, a group of organizations and individuals began a bi-state project in 2019 that will officially conclude this September with two events to recognize and celebrate the life of Col. Friedrich K. Hecker, who is considered by many to be one of the…
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Gottfried Duden
Gottfried Duden’s book, the Report about Missouri was published in Germany in 1829. We do know that in the decade of the 1830s alone, over 120,000 Germans immigrated to the United States, and for whatever reason, one-third chose Missouri. What followed from those early emigrants affected Missouri’s history. The Germans that followed in the societies…
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Life of a German Emigrant Family
In 1832, the Krekel family settled in the far southwestern corner of St. Charles County, in the Femme Osage Township, next to the border of Warren County. This community was known as Dutzow, where a village had been founded by the “Baron” Johann Wilhelm Bock which was named after his former estate in Germany. Bock…
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German Abolitionist Emancipates Missouri’s Enslaved
In 1865, German-born Arnold Krekel, a Missouri State Representative from St. Charles, was elected President of Missouri’s Constitutional Convention. Missouri’s Constitution provided legal authority for the institution of slavery when it entered the Union in 1821. Thus, it required a duly elected body to amend its Constitution and to free those enslaved within its borders.
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Giessen Emigration Society
In 1834, the Giessen Emigration Society arrived. They would come from all parts of Germany, be all walks of life, and all religions. They would change Missouri, and work to end slavery.
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The German Abolitionists
Germans saw Missouri as the Land Where the Sun of Freedom shone. They would see the inequalities that the enslaved bore and work to end that.
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German settlement in Missouri
Gottfried Duden’s book A Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America inspired thousands to leave Germany for Missouri…
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Arnold Krekel, German Abolitionist
n January 11, 1865, Arnold Krekel, serving as the elected President of the Missouri Constitutional Convention signed Missouri’s Emancipation Proclamation thereby ending the enslavement of all African American’s in Missouri.
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Missouri’s Emancipation Proclamation
AN ORDINANCE ABOLISHING SLAVERY IN MISSOURI Be it ordained by People of the State of Missouri, in Convention assembled That hereafter, in this State, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…and all persons held to service or labor as slaves are hereby declared free.
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From Belecke
Missouri has a strong German heritage; many have ancestors that arrived in the 1800s and often find “crossing the pond” to find those relatives very difficult. This can be difficult for those still in the old country who wish to reach out and meet their relatives here as well. The traveling International Exhibit Utopia, began…
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Auswandererlied
The trilogy of novels by Rolf Schmidt comprises three works of facts and fiction. Since they are almost entirely based on historical sources, they have the feeling of factual reports. Excerpts from letters, documents and diaries are woven into the narratives.
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Descendants Project
Finding one’s family treasures is always an awesome discovery for family historians! As the Utopia project began, I felt that if so much could be learned from the papers of Friedrich Muench, how much more could be learned about the plans, dreams and lives of the Giessen Emigration Society members if all of the memories…
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Emigrants hope for a better future
One cannot go back. America is a melting pot for so many, as nearly all of our families were immigrants once. Once our own ancestors came here with their own dreams pinned with hope for a better future.
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Missouri Germans Consortium
Missouri Germans Consortium is a free online International association of everything German in Missouri, for those interested in the German heritage of Missouri. Our mission is to partner with organizations such as ours, preserve the culture, educate on the history, promote with programs and projects, while providing an open forum for the public to come…
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Coming to America
In the decade of the 1830s alone over 120,000 Germans immigrated to America, and one-third of those settled in Missouri. Those are the emigrants that made it. Thousands would not survive the journey at sea or the difficult overland trek westward. Nicholas Krekel: “In the fall of the year 1832 we sailed from Bremen. It…
Missouri Germans Consortium 
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