Blending of the Waters - Blending of Traditions
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The sister cities of Newburgh and Beacon, situated across from each other on the Hudson River, came together on Flag Day, June 14, 2009 to celebrate their joint 300th Birthdays. On behalf of the Consulate General of New York, the Head of the Press and Public Relations Section Dr. Heinrich Neumann, participated in the ceremony on Newburgh's beautiful waterfront. Newburgh's Mayor Nick Valentine and Beacon's Mayor Steve Gold welcomed officials from the nations that founded both bay commu-nities as well as from the United Nations Office for Financing for Devel-opment. Vials of water representing the rivers of many nations were poured out from deck of the U.S.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sturgeon Bay into the Hudson River in a so called "blending of the waters" ceremony meant to symbolize the many nations that have contributed to the heri-tage of the Newburgh and Beacon Bay Communities. Surely, one of the highlights of the interesting program put together so aptly by Newburgh's historian Mary McTamaney was Eliza Benfer's moving recital of "My Hudson Valley Home".
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Heinrich Neumann reminded the approx. 300 participants gathered on the waterfront of the origin of the settlement by Palatine refugees from the Rhine valley. He said he could well imagine that the German settlers arriving in 1709 must have felt immediately at home when they saw this most pleasant spot later to be called Newburgh. Neumann explained that the Lutheran pastor Josua von Kocherthal and all the other people who followed him had had good reasons to leave their homeland and start a new life in the new world. The migration from the Palatinate had to a cer-tain extent been caused by French king Louis XIV's repeated military campaigns to extend his territory which had lead to considerable damage in Rhineland-Palantinate. The migration had been influenced by the res-toration of Catholicism as the official religion on the Palatinate, which brought severe suffering to the mainly Lutheran and Calvinist populations. In addition, the population had had to endure a terribly hard winter in 1708/09. Heavy flooding had seriously affected the vineyards and or-chards, thus destroying the livelihood of many.
Under these distressing conditions, the ever-present social burdens upon peasants must have made themselves felt in a particularly depressing way and had driven many people out of the country. 53 people arrived at the Quassaick Creek in spring 1709 to rebuild their lives in the chosen country of their dreams and hopes.
Shifting the focus to another important group of European settlers, namely the Dutch, Neumann mentioned the Dutch family of Johannes and Catherina Brett, who settled across the Hudson and built a farm, that later became the origin of Beacon. "Both, Mayor Gold and Mayor Valen-tine are sitting here in great harmony, so I assume," Neumann joked, "that German and Dutch families must have lived in good neighborhood, too." He pointed out that the relationship of Germans and Dutch had al-ways been one of great political like-mindedness, with both states belonging to the founding fathers of the European Union and being strong NATO partners. "But on a more private level we are also some kind of friendly rivals pulling each other's leg", he added.
Neumann then moved on to acknowledge the German contribution to the American success story at large, listing prominent examples from all ar-eas of life (architecture, business, sports, the arts). To emphasize his ar-gument he quoted former President Ronald Reagan: "Few people have blended so completely into the multicultural tapestry of American society and yet have made such singular economic, political, social, scientific, and cultural contributions to the growth and success of these United States as have Americans of German extraction."
Finally, Heinrich Neumann thanked all those who have been working so hard to preserve the German heritage, culture and language in New-burgh, Beacon and the entire Hudson valley. "This involvement is a valu-able part of the European-American relations and helps foster under-standing between all Europeans and Americans, " he summarized.
