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The Week in Germany: Culture

July 28, 2006

American Oktoberfest: Cincinnati, Ohio

According to the 2000 census, more than four in 10 Ohioans claim German ancestry. But go to Cincinnati, known to the German-American community as Zincinnati, and the proportion rises to one half. Along with Milwaukee and St. Louis, Cincinnati forms part of the “German triangle” of German-Americana.

The sister city Cincinnati, home to the largest U.S. Oktoberfest, is Munich.

What began in 1788 with the arrival of Major Benjamin Steitz (Stites) and Matthias Denmann and continued with the Danube Swabian immigration of the 1950's, flourishes today as a vibrant pride in German-American heritage. Cincinnati boasts more than 20 German-American societies, a bilingual school, a German language newspaper, a sprawling May festival, and the largest Oktoberfest outside of Munich, Cincinnati’s sister city.

The “elbow” formed by the Miami and Erie Canal, nicknamed the “Rhine,” now forms the Central Parkway, the spine of the city that splits the city in half. The area known today as “over-the-Rhine” was once the German district.

Of all the buildings in Over-the-Rhine, the one that expresses the German-American love for culture and learning and the arts is the Germania building, with a statue of a women who embodies Germany, with books, a globe, and a palette at her feet. During the Anti-German sentiment of World War I, she was renamed “Columbia” and draped with a black cape.
But the most impressive embodiment of German culture in Cincinnati, is by far, its annual Oktoberfest, where 80,500 bratwurst, 64,000 sauerkraut balls, 56,000 sausages, and 24,000 potato pancakes are consumed each year.

Links:

Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati

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