| |
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
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." A series of events on April 18 to 20 at Jamestown and Williamsburg, VA, will highlight the important presence of Germans at the birth of the American Nation. Guided tours of newly discovered James Fort, the unveiling of 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 German early music and a commemorative church service will mark the weekend. The German physician and botanist Johannes Fleischer, who arrived at Jamestown with the first ship in 1607, was the only non-British individual among the initial group of settlers. German glassmakers, who arrived a year later, erected the first glass furnaces at Jamestown and made the first "industrial type" product in English America. Other Germans conducted metallurgical experiments. Three German wainscot sawyers helped build a European-style house for Paramount Chief Powhatan and lived in the same village as Pocahontas. German copper coins traded with the natives kept the settlers alive in the crucial first years. Scholars will discuss the contributions Germans made to America on Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 19, at the Colonial Williamsburg Conference Center. Guided tours will leave the National Park Service Visitors Center on Jamestown Island in the afternoon of April 19; they will emphasize sites where Germans made contributions. Ambassador Scharioth will unveil a permanent historical display at the Jamestown Glasshouse at 4 p.m. on April 19, while glassblowers will demonstrate the actual making of glass similar to the glass made by the first German glassblowers. A banquet featuring German dishes will be held at the Colonial Williamsburg Conference Center on April 19 beginning with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. and followed by a welcome by Williamsburg Mayor Jeanne Zeidler, a keynote address by Ambassador Scharioth, and a lecture by historian John Humphrey on the topic "400 Years of Germans in America and Their Contributions to American Culture." The evening will conclude with a concert by the Countertop Quartet, a vocal ensemble, which will be joined by a period instrument ensemble. The performance will present a slice of the German vocal music history around the time of the Jamestown landing. The weekend of celebrations will close with a German-English service at King of Glory Lutheran Church in Williamsburg on Sunday, April 20, at 9:30 a.m. It will in particular commemorate Dr. Johannes Fleischer, Jr., the first Lutheran in English America. April 16, 2008 Links
|
|
 Culture & Life   Life
Newsletters
 Printer-Friendly
Page
Email This Article |
||
|
|||||
|
|||||
