From Leonardo di Caprio to Sandra Bullock, from Henry Kissinger to Ruth Westheimer, an approximate of 42 million of today’s Americans have something in common: They have German roots.

At the premiere of the documentary “Making Their Mark”, at the German House, a capacity crowd showed great interest in German heritage, and the impact of immigrants to the American society. The documentary, produced by Todd Weinstein, Steve Zehentner and Peter Norman, narrated the success stories of three famous German families who “made their mark” on the history of New York and the United States. On the occasion of the screening, the descendants of the families were present, and later discussed their own German roots with Consul General Dr. Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth.

In “Making Their Mark” Kriss Roebling, the great-great-great grandson of Johann August Roebling, who designed the Brooklyn Bridge, talked about how Johann Roebling first wanted to become a farmer in Pennsylvania, but did not succeed and returned to his former occupation as a civil engineer. Kriss Roebling visited the hometown of the Roebling family, Mühlhausen, Germany, and found “for the first time a connection to my past and my German heritage.”

Paul Kurzman, who is a great-grandson of Isidor Straus, one of the founders of the largest department store in the world, Macy’s, talks about the philosophy behind the entrepreneurial skills of his ancestors. For the brothers Isidor, Nathan and Oscar Straus, the financial success was necessary but not sufficient. They decided to help assimilate the next wave of immigrants, by the establishment of the Educational Alliance, for instance.

And Henry Ziegler Steinway, the last living family member who works in the prestigious piano building company “Steinway & Sons,” mentions that building pianos around 1840 in Germany was no lucrative business because of the lack of customers who could afford a piano. “He thought that there has to be a better way,” Steinway says in the film about the reasons why Heinrich Steinweg, who originally comes from Seesen in Lower Saxony, set sails for America.

“Making Their Mark” is about the history of German immigrants and their influence on the society in the United States. The film tells facts, enriched by rare historic photographies and most modern video design. In his introductory speech, Dr. Heinrich Neumann, Consul for Press and Public Relations, encouraged other German-American Communities to create similar documentaries about their impact on the United States of today.

For the producer, Steve Zehentner, it was not easy to select the persons for the project. “We started with a list of maybe ten families, but quickly noticed that the time we wanted to give them to tell their story, wouldn’t do them justice. That’s why we decided to work with three families, although of each and every one of them, you could produce an entire documentary, ” he told the audience at the following panel discussion. Consul General Dr. Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth, invited Kriss Roebling and Paul Kurzman to share their views on German heritage. It became clear that both agreed on certain “German stereotypes” which contributed to the success of their ancestors. “I think the work ethics of John Roebling were really remarkable. For him things had to be as productive as possible, everything had to be happening on time and that helped him and his son to succeed,” believes Kriss Roebling, while Paul Kurzman added the story of his great grandfather, Isidor Straus, who when first living in Georgia accumulated some debt. When the person who had lent him the money asked how much he could pay him back, Isidor Straus answered: “100 percent of it.” “He had integrity and that was an enormous ingredient for the achievements of immigrants,” Kurzman pointed out. Another commonness was the financial success together with the willingness to contribute to charity, like building hospitals and schools: “The Straus family felt the importance of civic service. It was an absolute obligation to a country that had given them so much,” added Kurzman.

When Dr. Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth asked them to name the German part of their identity, Steve Zehentner, who has German grand-parents, answered: “I have never felt that I was German until I visited Germany and the town where my ancestors lived and saw all my cousins. But identity works in complex ways and is fluid, and appears, and disappears during the course of a lifetime.”

Past and present came together when Irving Straus, the grandson of Nathan Straus, rose to speak about his encounter with one of the most famous German immigrants, Albert Einstein: ”I was maybe ten years old, and I met Albert Einstein, and talked to him, and he listened to me, as if I had something really important to say. He was such a lovely person,” he remembers.

All these memories would not have been shared with an audience, if “Making Their Mark” had not been produced with the support of the Consulate General. Paul Kurzman thanked Dr. Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth with the words: “It’s your leadership that made this possible.”

June 16, 2008