Despite the laments of some nineteenth-century German immigrants that America was a land bereft of poetry and song, a "land without nightingales," the history of German American music is a rich one. This book explores the wide variety of forms of musical expression among German-speaking immigrants to America and their descendants from the eighteenth century to the present. Topics range from Moravian music in colonial America to musical life among twenty-first century Canadian Hutterites, from polka music to German singing societies, from Lutheran hymns to the songs of German-speaking Catholic and Jewish immigrants, and from the songs of German-speaking Swiss settlers to the music of immigrants from the Burgenland region of Austria. Underlying these diverse contributions is a common theme—the constant interplay between the German and American sides of the hyphen of "German-American" to be found in all these musical styles. A companion CD includes musical selections that complement and expand upon this theme. The contributors—historians, musicologists, folklorists, and scholars of German studies—include Philip V. Bohlman, Alan R. Burdette, Kathleen Neils Conzen, Otto Holzapfel, James P. Leary, Laurence Libin, Rudolf Pietsch, A. Gregg Roeber, Leo Schelbert, and Helmut Wulz.

Land without Nightingales: Music in the Making of German -America

Arts & Photography

Music

Max Kade Institute

Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie: A Nineteenth-Century Cookbook for German Immigrants to America

Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie is the reprint of a best-selling nineteenth-century German cookbook that was adapted for Germans living in America. As several German-language editions were published in Milwaukee, the recipes and other information evolved considerably, and the book was eventually translated into English with the title Practical Cookbook.     The result is a fascinating mix of recipes from Old and New Worlds, ranging from traditional German fare (see the Beef Rouladen) to very American dishes (try the version of Strawberry Shortcake) to frontier cuisine—how about some roasted beaver tails? In addition to such culinary delights, Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie offers a glimpse into life in a nineteenth-century immigrant household and how immigrants tried to preserve the old ways while adapting to a new environment. Features of the cookbook include advice on how to use such "new" ingredients as corn or equipment like the Dutch oven, and how to shop in America, grow a proper kitchen garden, preserve food, cook medicinal dishes, and entertain properly.     Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie offers authentic immigrant recipes in their cultural, social, and historical context. It is a delightful resource for epicures with a historical bent as well as for those who enjoy learning more about the day-to-day life of their ancestors. 

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Davidis, Henriette

Cooking Education & Reference

Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie is the reprint of a best-selling nineteenth-century German cookbook that was adapted for Germans living in America. As several German-language editions were published in Milwaukee, the recipes and other information evolved considerably, and the book was eventually translated into English with the title Practical Cookbook. The result is a fascinating mix of recipes from Old and New Worlds, ranging from traditional German fare (see the Beef Rouladen) to very American dishes (try the version of Strawberry Shortcake) to frontier cuisine—how about some roasted beaver tails? In addition to such culinary delights, Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie offers a glimpse into life in a nineteenth-century immigrant household and how immigrants tried to preserve the old ways while adapting to a new environment. Features of the cookbook include advice on how to use such "new" ingredients as corn or equipment like the Dutch oven, and how to shop in America, grow a proper kitchen garden, preserve food, cook medicinal dishes, and entertain properly. Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie offers authentic immigrant recipes in their cultural, social, and historical context. It is a delightful resource for epicures with a historical bent as well as for those who enjoy learning more about the day-to-day life of their ancestors.

Making comparisons is central to the study of immigration and ethnicity because these fields by their very nature examine patterns of contact and interaction among different groups. By adopting a comparative approach, historians can test traditional stereotypes about various immigrant populations, pointing out the defining characteristics of these groups and explaining why certain cultural patterns persist while others disappear. The essays in this volume include studies on the similarities and differences among German Catholics and other Catholic groups in America, the political activities of nineteenth-century German and Irish immigrants, and German-American responses to the differing policies of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Distributed for the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

German-American Immigration and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective

History

Americas

In 1852 Wisconsin established the Office of Emigration to attract European—mainly German-speaking—settlers to the state. Drawing on contemporary newspaper articles and privately published emigrant guides, as well as official publications of the emigration office, the authors document the office’s influence on the settlement history of early Wisconsin and assess that influence against the backdrop of state politics in the mid–nineteenth century. Complementing the text are rare and interesting photographs illustrating the work of the office and the people it served. This book is invaluable for genealogists interested in learning more about emigration, as well as for anyone interested in Wisconsin history and German American studies. Distributed for the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies.

The Wisconsin Office of Emigration 1852-1855 and Its Impact on German Immigration to the State

Strohschank, Johannes

Thiel, William G.

Back in print again, this is the story of the "Forty-Eighters," political refugees who fled German-speaking countries in the aftermath of the failed revolutions of 1848. Among their numbers were Carl Schurz, later to become a U.S. senator and advisor to presidents Lincoln and Hayes, and his wife Margarethe Schurz, who founded the kindergarten movement in the United States. Many Forty-Eighters settled in and enormously influenced the growth of Watertown, Wisconsin, which was at one time the second largest city in the state. By consulting source materials in English and German, Charles Wallman has skillfully unraveled the threads that tie the Forty-Eighters and their descendents to the history of Watertown. He chronicles not only the Forty-Eighters who subsequently became prominent in the German-American community of the United States but also those who never moved again and helped make their new hometown a thriving site of cultural and intellectual activity in the nineteenth century.

The German-Speaking 48ers: Builders of Watertown, Wisconsin

Wallman, Charles

Wisconsin German Land and Life

This volume, an innovative approach to immigration research, is the cooperative project of a group of German and American scholars. The focus is on migrants from farming communities along the Rhine who relocated to Wisconsin in the nineteenth century: from the Westerwald to Reeseville, from the Cologne area to Cross Plains, from the Eifel to the so-called Holyland in Fond du Lac and Calumet Counties, and from Rhine Hesse to Washington and Sheboygan Counties. Taking different approaches, the authors of the essays concentrate on the migrants' relationship to the land, and use, among other sources, official records on both sides of the Atlantic, such as census and family records, and land registers, plat maps, and land surveys. The broad picture presented here includes the migrants' situation in their original home, the migration process itself, and their experience in Wisconsin.Distributed for the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies

A boon for genealogical research and an interesting browse for the merely curious, this detailed dictionary is an English-language reference for more than 15,000 German family names, including variant spellings as well as the meaning and origin of each name. Some entries will provoke a chuckle, others a bit of embarrassment, still others a sense of wonder and pride. This Second Edition of an already popular resource has been expanded throughout and includes many corrections and enhancements. Distributed for the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Dictionary of German Names

Reference

Bahlow, Hans

Dictionaries & Thesauruses

A boon for genealogical research and an interesting browse for the merely curious, this detailed dictionary is an English-language reference for more than 15,000 German family names, including variant spellings as well as the meaning and origin of each name. Some entries will provoke a chuckle, others a bit of embarrassment, still others a sense of wonder and pride. This Second Edition of an already popular resource has been expanded throughout and includes many corrections and enhancements. Distributed for the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin?Madison

The unique perspective of the “other witnesses” included here—that of immigrant outsiders, foreigners who wrote primarily for a minority-language group in the United States—provides the reader with a new understanding of this important period of America’s growth and development. Included are works by Christian Essellen, Reinhold Solger, Mathilde Franziska Anneke, Theodor Kirchhoff, Udo Brachvogel, Robert Reitzel, Julius Gugler, Edna Fern, Lotte Leser, and others: plays, short stories, and poems, as well as selections from novels, essays, and memoirs. Some of the texts have never appeared in book form, and still others are published here for the first time. Introductory essays to each chapter provide background information and point the way for further research. The volume will be a welcome addition to the collections of institutional libraries, historians, and Germanists alike.

Other Witnesses: An Anthology of Literature of the German Americans, 1850–1914

Literature & Fiction

United States

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Books by Max Kade Institute

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Max Kade Institute publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Land without Nightingales: Music in the Making of German -America

Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie: A Nineteenth-Century Cookbook for German Immigrants to America

Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie: A Nineteenth-Century Cookbook for German Immigrants to America

German-American Immigration and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective

The Wisconsin Office of Emigration 1852-1855 and Its Impact on German Immigration to the State

The German-Speaking 48ers: Builders of Watertown, Wisconsin

Wisconsin German Land and Life

Dictionary of German Names

Dictionary of German Names

Other Witnesses: An Anthology of Literature of the German Americans, 1850–1914