The Society for German-American Studies will hold its 39th Annual Symposium in St. Louis, MO, 9-11 April 2015. The theme of their program this year is “The Heartlands – America’s Most German Region”
The Society for German-American Studies is an international professional organization dedicated to encouraging and advancing the scholarly study of the history, language, literature, and culture of the German element in the Americas. This includes coverage of the immigrants and their descendants from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and other German-speaking areas of Europe. Members of the Society include representatives from various academic disciplines who share a common interest in German-American Studies. The Conference Location and Hotel: Pear Tree Union Station, 2211 Market St., St. Louis, MO 63103. Phone: (314) 241-3200.
Location: Our conference is in the Pear Tree Inn Union Station, 2211 Market St., St. Louis, MO 63013. Phone: (314) 241-3200.
LUNCHEON & BANQUET: Our Luncheon/Business meeting will be held beginning at 12:30 Saturday at Bixby’s in the Missouri Historical Museum in Forest Park; bus transportation will be provided for those without cars. For those more interested in the St. Louis Art Museum, there will also be a bus dropoff there, and you may lunch on your own at the Art Museum Café. Both venues have free admission, and free parking for those driving. Our Society Banquet will be catered Saturday evening at the Pear Tree Inn, beginning at 7:00.
REGISTRATION: The conference registration fee is $65 per person before 30 March; $70 thereafter or on site. This covers the Thursday night reception, all sessions, and conference materials. One-day pre-registration for either Friday or Saturday is $35. Please send your check and e-mail address to: Prof. Walter Kamphoefner/SGAS Department of History, Texas A&M University, 4236 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4236 USA MEMBERSHIP: Membership in the Society for German-American Studies is required in order to attend the symposium. If you are not a member, please fill out the membership form at the end, and enclose the proper amount required for dues payment. Symposium Registration Form or email waltkamp@tamu.edu or to contact SGAS http://sgas.org/contact-us/
Preliminary Draft Program and Schedule as of 3/19/15 and subject to changes
Thursday, 9 April 2015
1:00-4:00 p.m.: SGAS Executive Committee Meeting: Board Room
4:00-5:30 p.m.: Registration
Friday, 10 April 2015
8:00-9:00 a. m.: Continuing Registration
8:30- 9:00 a.m.: Plenary Session, Ballroom Welcome: Bill Roba, SGAS President, Presiding
Concurrent Sessions Follow
9:00-10:30 a.m., Lewis & Clark Room: The Impact of the German Exile Generation
Chair: Kristen Anderson, Webster University, MO
- “German-speaking Refugees in an Afro-American Setting — Afro-American Poets in a German Setting” Guy Stern, Holocaust Memorial Ctr., Farmington Hills, MI
- “The Exile Experience of Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht’s Silent Collaborator“Paula Hanssen, Webster University, MO
- “Commemorating Hans Trefousse: Refugee Historian, Carl Schurz Biographer, and Much More” Walter Kamphoefner, Texas A&M University
Friday, 9:00-10:30 a.m., Lindbergh Room: German-American Literary Interactions
Chair: Cora Lee Kluge, Max Kade Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- “A New View of the Start of Sealsfield’s Career” Steven Rowan, University of Missouri-St. Louis
- “German Romantic Idealism in North America: The Reception of Bettina von Arnim, 1785-1859” Barbara Becker-Cantarino, Ohio State University
- “Gesetze der Serie: Versuche zur Poetik des Geheimnisromans bei Börnstein‘s ”St. Louis” und andere” Matthias Goeritz, Washington University, MO
Friday, 9:00-10:30 a.m., Room 214: German-American Dialect Survivals
Chair: Achim Kopp, Mercer University, GA
- “The Survival of Obersächsisch in Perry County, Missouri after 175 Years: The Last Generation of Fluent Speakers” William D. Keel, University of Kansas
- “The Texas German Dialect Project in 2015” Marc Pierce, University of Texas
- “ ‘Mir rede ka richtiges Dietsch’: Metalinguistic Moments in Speaker Narratives from Iowa and Texas” Karen Roesch, Indiana U.-Purdue U.-Indianapolis
Friday, 10:30-11:00 a.m.: Break
Friday, 11:00-12:30, Lewis & Clark Room: German-American Interactions in the Postwar Era
Chair: Matthew R. Lange, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
- “A Place to Belong: German Immigration to America in the 1950s” Erika Weidemann, Texas A&M University
- “Documenting German Immigration in the Twentieth Century: The Max Kade Institute’s German Immigrant Oral History Project” Antje Petty, University of Wisconsin-Madison [apetty@wisc.edu]
- “Philanthropy and Democracy: The Rockefeller Foundation in West Germany after 1945” Karl-H. Fuessl, Technical University of Berlin
Friday, 11:00-12:30, Lindbergh Room: The Legacy of Alexander von Humboldt
Chair: Ingo Schwarz, Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
- “The Faustian Quest for Unity in Science and Art: Humboldt and Frederic Edwin Church” Frank Baron, University of Kansas
- “Alexander von Humboldt’s Interest in the Scientific Exploration of the American West” Sandra Rebok, Huntington Library, CA
- “Recognition and Mapping of Humboldt’s Travel Locations by using Internet Technology” Detlev Doherr, Technical University of Offenburg
Friday, 11:00-12:30, Room 214: German-American Cultural Traces
Chair: Claudia Grossmann, Indiana U.-Purdue U.-Indianapolis
- “Das Deutsche Haus of Indianapolis, a German-American Landmark” William Selm, Fellow, IUPUI Max Kade German-American Center, Indianapolis
- “The German Roots of Wartburg College in Iowa” Charles Birnstiel & Donald Meyer, Wartburg College, IA
- “Anthropological Perspectives on German Regional Cultures and Contemporary Ethnic Heritage Expression”La Raw Maran, U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Emeritus
Friday, 12:30-2:00: Lunch on your own
Friday, 2:00-3:30 p.m., Lewis & Clark Room: Germans for a Free Missouri: History and Memory
Chair: Steven Rowan, University of Missouri-St. Louis
- “German Immigrant Abolitionists: Fighting for a Free Missouri” Sidney Norton, St. Louis University
- “Saviors of the Union: St. Louis Germans and the Memory of Camp Jackson” Zachary Garrison, University of Cincinnati
- “Holding Out for A Hero: Franz Sigel, Peter Osterhaus, and German-Americans During the Civil War” Paul Fessler, Dordt College, IA
Friday, 2:00-3:30 p.m., Lindbergh Room: Loyalty Issues in Two World Wars
Chair: Petra DeWitt, Missouri University of Science & Technology, Rolla
- “The Home Front in Wisconsin during WW I” LaVern J. Rippley, St. Olaf College
- “Hugo Munsterberg, German-Americans and the Defense of Imperial Germany” Gregory R. Zieren, Austin Peay State University, TN
- “The War Is For Everyone: Farming as a Proxy for Citizenship in World War II” Steven Reschly, Truman State University, MO
Friday, 2:00-3:30 p.m., Room 214: Interactions in the Realm of Art and Culture
Chair: Baerbel Such, Ohio University
- “German-Jewish Patrons of the Arts, Bibliophiles, and Collectors in the Kaiserreich (and Beyond)” Gaby Divay, University of Manitoba
- “Politics and Paintings: The German and Austrian Art Exhibits during the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904” Paul M. Lutzeler, Washington University, MO
- “Negotiating Culture During War: The 1917-1918 Season of the Musikverein von Milwaukee”
- Miriam Wendling, University of Hamburg
Friday, 3:30-4:00 p.m.: Break
Friday, 4:00-5:30 p.m., Lewis & Clark Room: Germans and Civil War Era Politics
Chair: Frank Baron, University of Kansas
- “John Brown’s Life and Significance as Seen by Friedrich Kapp” Cora Lee Kluge, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- “Temperance and Lincoln’s German Friends” Frank Friday, University of Louisville
- “Lincoln and the Bloody Seventh of Chicago: Ethnic Politics in the Leadup to 1860” Ray Lohne, Columbia College Chicago
Friday, 4:00-5:30 p.m., Lindbergh Room: German-American Entrepreneurship
Chair: Paul Fessler, Dordt College, IA
- “Constructions of Risk in Revolutionary America: A Transatlantic Perspective” Elizabeth Engel, German Historical Institute, DC
- “Forging Bonds of Trade and Trust: Networks of Transport, Capital, and Communication in the German Atlantic World” Benjamin Schwantes, German Historical Institute, DC
- “Family Business as Immigrant Business: German-American Immigrant Entrepreneurs, 1850-1930” Uwe Spiekermann, German Historical Institute, DC
Friday, 4:00-5:30 p.m., Room 214: American Images in German-Language Literature
Chair: Gaby Divay, University of Manitoba
- “Literarische Kanadabilder” Myka Burke, University of Leipzig
- “The Image of America in Friedrich Torberg’s Poetry” Michael Rice, Middle Tennessee State University
- “The Image of New York City in Alfred Gong’s Poetry” Baerbel Such, Ohio University
Saturday, 11 April 2015
Saturday, 8:30-10:00 a.m., Lewis & Clark Room: Ethnic and Family History Resources in St. Louis Archives
Chair: Walter Kamphoefner, Texas A&M University
- “Sources for German American Research in the St. Louis County Library and the Eden Theological Seminary Archives, “ Scott Holl, Eden Seminary Archives, MO
- “Resources for German-American Studies at the Concordia Historical Institute” Daniel Harmelink, Concordia Historical Institute, MO
- “Gott und Gemeinde: German Catholic Parish and Family History Resources at the Archdiocese of St. Louis Archives” Rena Schergen, Archdiocese of St. Louis
Saturday, 8:30-10:00 a.m., Room 214: The Spectrum of German-American Leadership
Chair: Uwe Spiekermann, German Historical Institute
- “Johann Tellkampf, Transnational German Jurist” James R. Maxeiner, University of Baltimore
- “More than Beer: the Diverse Investments of Adolphus Busch” Todd Barnett, University of Missouri-Columbia
- “From Shoemaker to Editor: Gottlieb A. Hoehn and the Socialist Party of St. Louis” Petra DeWitt, Missouri Univ. of Science & Technology
Saturday, 8:30-10:00 a.m., Room 208: Germans in Eighteenth Century America
Chair: Benjamin Schwantes, German Historical Institute, DC
- “Constructing Family Networks in Colonial Louisiana: Evidence from 18th Century Parish Records” Andreas Hübner, University of Kassel
- “New York Palatine Patriots and Loyalists in the Revolutionary War” Chester Neumann, Independent Scholar, Kansas City, MO
- “The German Societies of Pennsylvania and Maryland: Two Perspectives on German-Language Immigrants” Randall Donaldson, Loyola University, MD
10:00-10-30 a.m.: Break
Saturday, 10:30-12:00 a.m., Lewis & Clark Room: Ethnic Cultural Landscapes over Two Centuries
Chair: Michael Conzen, University of Chicago, Emeritus
- “The Creation of the Pennsylvania-German Cultural Landscape in Central Ohio, 1790-1850” Timothy G. Anderson, Ohio University
- “Place and Belonging in Wisconsin’s ‘Holyland’” Beth Schlemper, University of Toledo
- “Lineage Continuity and Residential Stability of German Immigrant Farmers and Their Descendants in the Wisconsin Holyland” Erin Hastings & Norman Sullivan, Marquette University
Saturday, 10:30-12:00 a.m., Room 214: Immigrant Legacies in Missouri
Chair: Todd Barnett, University of Missouri-Columbia
- “The Legacy of the Giessen Emigration Society” Dorris Keeven-Franke, Independent Scholar, Missouri
- “Later Followers of the Giessen Emigration Society from the Coburg Area” Edward Wicklein, Independent Scholar, Missour
- “Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung: Reflections on a German-American and Anglo-American Heritage Robert Frizzell, University of Arkansas-Ft. Smith
Saturday, 10:30-12:00 a.m., Room 208: Transatlantic Perspectives on Moravians
Chair: Barbara Becker-Cantarino, Ohio State University
- “Alexander von Humboldt’s Visit to the Moravian Settlement in Sarepta (near Volgograd) in 1829” Ingo Schwarz, Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
- “The Moravian Star: Its Origin and History” William E. Petig, Stanford University
- “Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Moravian Missions to the Indians: Dilemmas and Successes” Rowena McClinton, Southern Illinois Univ.-Edwardsville
Saturday Afternoon excursion to Missouri History Museum and St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park
Saturday Night: Banquet, Details to follow.
Missouri Germans Consortium 