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Heritage: Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the First Germans
in America in April 2008 at Jamestown and Williamsburg
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 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. Many of the assembled onlookers were dressed in traditional costumes such as Bavarian-style dirndl dresses. They cheered as the ambassador arrived to greet them, emerging via a sun-dappled woodland path into a clearing at the site, where they hoisted a colorful tapestry of large German society banners and sang both the German and the American national anthems in rousing and heartfelt fashion. At an adjacent reconstructed version of the glasshouse stocked with replicas of colonial bottles, drinking vessels and candlesticks in deep bubbly hues of blue, purple and green, glassblowers dressed in period costume deftly demonstrated the actual making of glass similar to that crafted by the first German glassblowers.
Ambassador Scharioth also spoke later that day at a banquet attended by some 275 people with a German-American connection 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. And he added that 2008 is a year of two other important German-American anniversaries: "the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift and also the implementation of the Marshall Plan." "The German people will always remember the American heroes who saved two million Berliners from the cold and hunger in 1948 and 1949. They brought everything to allow people to survive - from potatoes to a whole power plant," said Scharioth, as the assembled guests erupted in vigorous applause. 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."
Mayor Zeidler highlighted the importance of "America's historic triangle" composed of Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg. "Here on the campus of the College of William and Mary, on the city streets, in the homes, the taverns and the public buildings, the ideas and the ideals of the American Revolution were developed, they were debated and they were fought for. At each of these three sites we recognize the contributions and the sacrifices of all individuals that helped shape this nation's history, and German people were prominent among them," said Zeidler. "There were not only the German artisans at Jamestown, although they certainly were the earliest, there were the Hessian soldiers at Yorktown and the German professors at the College of William and Mary. One of those professors, Prof. Minnegerode, began a tradition here when he introduced the first German Christmas tree in Williamsburg in 1848. These of course are only some of the rich stories of this region, and the placard that was dedicated today at Jamestown will help teach others about this history and inspire many more to learn," she added. On a more personal note, Mayor Zeidler cited her own German ancestry, mirroring the tales exchanged by many German-Americans throughout the course of the weekend: "My father always told us that our ancestors were beekeepers who made their living by taking honey and wax out of the forest near Nuremberg. And several years ago, one of my sisters found an old woodcut in the Nuremberg Museum that was titled 'Zeidler the Beekeeper'. My great-grandparents, Michael and Marianne Zeidler, immigrated to Milwaukee in 1868 ... my grandfather was a barber and his oldest brother - I love this because of what we are celebrating today - owned a glass business." An informative presentation by John Humphrey, president of the Mid Atlantic Germanic Society, on "400 Years of Germans in America and their Contributions to American Culture" rounded out the evening. He referred to key German contributions to American development including the Pennsylvania or "Kentucky" rifle; the Conestoga Wagon; beer-brewing traditions; highly effective stoves to heat homes; classical and church music traditions; David Tannenberg organs; Steinway pianos; the engineering of John Augustus Roebling, creator of the Brooklyn Bridge; and modern architecture.
Also at the banquet, Ambassador Scharioth handed out official German-American Friendship Awards to seven men who are exemplary leaders in the German-American community. "I was deeply impressed and touched by how you did it," he said in reference to both the weekend's events and their ongoing efforts in actively celebrating America's German heritage. The evening concluded with a multi-course traditional German meal and music akin to that played during the colonial era. Among the artificats 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. A new bronzed plaque moreover has taken up a place of honor in the entrance hall of the Jamestown Visitors Center. Mounted next to several other plaques from various organizations, it cites the support of several donors including, among others, the German Embassy, the German Societies of Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia and the German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA. At a related event, Hamburg-born Margrit B. Krewson was meanwhile honored on April 17 in Washington as the 2007 Distinguished German-American of the Year by the latter organization. From 1980 until 1998, she served as the German/Dutch Area Specialist in the European Division of the Library of Congress. During her retirmement, she also spent an additional six years concluding the Library of Congress' acquisition of Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 world map. 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." One year earlier, on April 30, 2007, "I had the pleasure of participating in the event at which German Chancellor Angela Merkel ceremoniously turned over this extraordinary Waldseemüller map, which is viewed as the birth certificate of America, to the Library of Congress, where it occupies a special place of honor," he added. 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. April 21, 2008 Links
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