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Where it All Began - Celebrating 400 Years of Germans in America
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- Ambassador Scharioth unveils historic marker in Jamestown
- (© Christophe Avril, German Embassy)
Jamestown was the site of the first permanent English settlement in America and is generally considered "the birthplace of the United States". The first German settlers to boldly make their way to the New World also arrived at Jamestown, including the intellectually inquisitive physician and botanist Johannes Fleischer and several glassblowers who quickly set up shop and supplied the new outpost with glass made from local riverbank sand using the latest technology of the era.
A series of events were held in Jamestown and Williamsburg, Virginia, from April 18-20 2008 to commemorate their endeavors and the dawn of the German-American experience in the United States.
Coordinated by regional German-American societies with the support of the German Embassy, the festive program served to celebrate and honor America's German heritage. Guided tours of the newly discovered James Fort, the unveiling of a new National Park Service historic marker at the Jamestown Glasshouse by the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Klaus Scharioth, lectures, a German banquet, a concert with early German music and a commemorative church service marked the weekend.
"The 400th anniversary of Jamestown. That means 400 years of America, 400 years of German-American friendship, and a unique, 400-year-old shared history," Ambassador Scharioth said before more than 200 German-Americans as he unveiled the historic marker at the Jamestown Glasshouse on April 19.
Ambassador Scharioth also spoke later that day in Williamsburg. He highlighted the contributions of exceptional German-Americans over the centuries, from revolutionary war hero Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben to entrepreneur Johann Jakob Astor to ketchup tycoon Henry J. Heinz to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
He also cited pivotal cultural influences, such as the architecture of Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, as well as today's vibrant transatlantic academic exchange networks, noting that German remains the third most popular foreign language in the United States.
Jeanne Zeidler, the mayor of Williamsburg, and David Smith, deputy secretary of commerce and trade for the Commonwealth of Virginia, also spoke at both events.
"I thank you all for coming and getting the story right. We've heard so much from Jamestown about the hard-working English - I'm glad we're finally giving the Germans some credit, because without you we wouldn't have made it!" said Smith, adding that Virginia is still a place that attracts skilled workers like the early German settlers and is appealing to German businesses today. "The Germans have helped us a lot - we just got Volkswagen to move into the northern Virginia region."
Among the artifacts unearthed at the James Fort site, where excavations began in 1994, are coins such as a 1629 sechsling from the northern German city of Lübeck, the historic capital of the Hanseatic League commercial federation, and Rechenpfennige, which were "counting coins" used for trading purposes on so-called counting boards. German-made, salt-glazed stoneware dating back to circa 1680 has also been found at the site.
Ambassador Scharioth also mentioned the famous map: "It was the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, who in 1507 drew the Universalis cosmographia in St. Dié, Lorraine, which is now a part of France. Fascinated by the reports of the Italian discoverer Amerigo Vespucci – who was the first to assume that the then-newly discovered territories must be a continent – Waldseemüller drew it as a continent of its own and named it 'America' on his map – the first time ever the name 'America' appeared on a map."
As the evening drew to a close, it was clear that the ambassador and all the other assembled speakers and guests will occupy a special place of honor in each other's fond memories of a warm Virginia weekend that served to celebrate America's German heritage.
