President`s Message

OF DANK CHAPTER FOX VALLEY
Newsletter 2014-1
April 15 , 2014
PUBLISHER &
SENIOR EDITOR:
Esther Markwart
ADDITIONAL
CONTRIBUTORS:
Willi Gohs
Esther Markwart
Christa Garcia
PRINTING &
DISTRIBUTION:
Willi Gohs
OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE GERMAN AMERICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS FOX VALLEY CHAPTER
AKTUELLE NACHRICHTEN DER DANK GRUPPE FOX VALLEY
President’s Message
by Willi Gohs
Liebe Freunde und Mitglieder!
Dear Friends and Members!
reetings to all our readers!
Now that the cold weather is
(hopefully) over, we can look
forward to being outside more and
watching everything bloom during Spring. Maybe
it’s just me, but the winters seem to be getting
longer every year! We have two maple trees in the
back yard, and I have been collecting the sap from
them for a few days now. Within a week, I had
collected over 5 gallons of liquid (which is thin
enough to freeze at night). We are looking forward
to boiling it down and enjoying our own
homegrown maple syrup soon (if it works!).
We have already had our first planning meeting for
the second Hinckley Germanfest. This year we
have expanded it to two days, August 23 & 24.
Much of the grounds layout will remain the same,
but we are looking at having a few more activities
going on, including Hinckley Immanuel having a
church service in the morning. Chef Clemens may
also serve a surprise international dish in addition
to the same great brats we are all used to. You can
stay informed of new developments by monitoring
www.hinckleygermanfest.com/ Better yet, get
involved with your chapter and volunteer a shift at
the fest. Just click on the “Volunteer” tab. We
hope to see many of our chapter members at the
fest!
Have a great Easter holiday and happy Spring!
Still not a member of
DANK Fox Valley and interested in
joining?
Just go to our website,
www.foxvalleygermans.org, click on
“Membership”, fill out the form, print
it and send it with your check to the
address listed.
Zum Wohl und Besten des Vereins,
Membership also entitles you to
receive the
National newspaper
“German American Journal”.
Willi Gohs,President, DANK Chapter Fox Valley
~ The Fun-Loving Germans
Highlights
at
www.foxvalleygermans.org ~
President’s Message
Students from Germany
Fruit Bread / On a Personal Note / Chicago Fire Corner
Ostern Sonntag/May Celebrations/Upcoming Dates
Please remember to patronize our advertisers’ great products and services
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www.foxvalleygermans.org
Students from Germany
By Christa Gracia
What to do about, for, or with the students from Germany?
Why should German-Americans do anything about young Germans who stay in town for a year? Briefly, contacts with these
young Germans can not only be very interesting for your members, they can also grow into a productive focus for a club, and
give you good local PR. At the same time, this will even open the
eyes of the young Germans a little. But first, let’s find out why
Germans, whose university tuition is low, would even want to
come to the US to study. One reason for the continuing high attraction of this country is—partly due to our size— that the US
determines many of the directions in which the world moves (just
think of popular music!).
What are the numbers of Germans studying here?
Of the 17,000 students in the Federal Republic who planned to
attend universities abroad in the 2009/2010 school year, 8,760
young men and women headed to America. In spite of 9/11, the
large American universities continue to be attractive for advancing the careers of students from abroad. Their numbers were up
slightly from the 8,200 in 2008/9. The distribution of overall
university level study abroad by Germans (in 2007) was: United
Kingdom: 13%, Switzerland: 11%, USA: 10%, and France: 7%.
This did not include students who attended American high
schools.
In contrast to the university level, “Gymnasium” students attending high school in this country are essentially curious to check
out America and, possibly, adjust their accent in English; they
may expand their perspectives in the classes they attend, but they
are generally not advancing their academic careers very much
compared to a year in Germany. Today of course, this crossing of
borders is very common, just think of the many top level international scholars who, given thorough knowledge of other languages, move in their field freely from country to country.
How can a club develop activities with and for students from
Germany?
DANK Springfield has already started and, several times, made
contact through the teacher of German with a local school and
invited the students and host families to a social event. There
they introduced themselves and told about their home area and
their school. Any club can make such a contact through the German teacher or the Dean of students and ask for help in identifying students as they come to town. Your overall goal is to groom
these contacts to involve these students in your club activities
and to enrich your club life. How does the club benefit from its
outreach to young Germans? They can become your link to today’s Germany and make it easier to understand for your members. No matter for what purpose, though, such outreach needs to
be planned.
CURRENTS OF DANK CHAPTER FOX
One good start would be to designate one or two members who
can make the club interesting to these students and, in the case
of the high school students, also their host families, when inviting them to club activities. Since, however, young Germans—as
many now do in Germany—don’t feel comfortable with our
older members, you should find them a contact closer to their
own age who would then also host them for your event. It
would make sense to not only make such contacts routine, but
plan for their involvement beyond socializing.
This should advance in steps. When they attend a meeting and
meet some members, try to seat them with club members who
can speak with authority about this country and about our immigration history and make it interesting for them to come back.
Your designated contact person should stay in touch and bring
the young Germans back for more intense involvement. Later,
they may even find a club activity of their choice, such as singing or playing in an informal music group.
Depending on which organization sent them, visiting students
may actually have prepared a presentation about their home
area. With several students in town during the year, you can
make an entire evening of this. Such an evening of information
about today’s Germany should be advertized in the local papers
to attract your greater public. If the students have more material,
you can even offer several programs, each with a different focus.
Another variation is to expand the first “getting to know” social
event into a sequence of “telling each other our stories.” Begin
with members and visitors taking turns in telling theirs. Once
they realize how many of us are over here, Germans are generally quite interested to hear about the push and pull factors of
immigration and to learn from which German speaking area and
at which time they or their family came over. It can then be
quite impressive to mark the places of origin on a map and marvel at how spread out (or how concentrated) they are. Again,
you can invite the local press to such an event and also invite
potential new members. So, with planned contact with German
visitors, you can never lose.
How can a club make its activities interesting for young Germans?
Generally, such contacts are a great eye openers for the young
Germans. They are usually surprised to learn, how many people
with German roots live here and socialize in our clubs. It is,
however, possible that they are not very much used to socializing with the older generation. This is understandable, because
today’s Germany has even more of a youth culture than we do
and many young Germans feel awkward about it. For that reason, it may be productive to recruit young Americans to do the
outreach for you and get together with the young visitors.
Continued on page 3
CURRENTS OF DANK CHAPTER FOX VALLEY
Page 3
“On a Personal Note”
With this repeated local contact the Germans can go home with a
much more realistic picture, both about our club life and about
this country, especially because they found so many of “us”
here. Then it cannot be avoided to touch on the more recent push
factors that caused the post war immigration. Today’s Germans,
who learn only little about the history of the past 80 years, can
then go home with questions about it. This, however, may not be
a topic for your first meeting. Rather, make them want to come
back and then develop their interest in these issues!
When all this has worked for you, sit down and write it up for
your club newsletter. It is only fair that you help other clubs with
your techniques o developing contact to the young Germans in
town!
ecent and upcoming member birthdays and events include: (dates in parenthesis):
Fruit Bread
Yields – 2 Loaves
Ingredients
Bread Flour
2.5 lbs.
Water
24 oz
Salt
1 oz
Yeast, instant
1.25 oz
Sugar
1.5 oz
Non-fat milk solids
2 oz
Butter
1.5 oz
Fruit Filling & softened cream cheese As needed
Procedure
 Add all dry ingredients
 Add butter til resembles cornmeal.
 Add water and knead until done
 Spray bowl and place dough in bowl and let double in
size
 Flour hand and punch,dust bench with flour and scale
dough to 8 oz for each piece
 Roll dough into rectangle 6” x 12” and spread fruit filling
down middle of dough
 Cut ½ inch strips down either side of filling at an angle
 Braid the strips to cover the filling, strips may have to
be pulled.
 Give half a proof, apply egg wash and sprinkle with
Pearl sugar. Place in oven on baking stone at 400 degrees.
Done at internal temperature of 185 degrees.
March: Robert Mandel (6), Alyssa & Brooke Schleiphake (8),
Dennis Hahn (15), Jackie Rosch (17), Andrea Haupt (20), Sarah
Merrow-Roth (24)
April: Heidi Eisemon (4), Evelyn Rizzato (6)
May: Jerry Schliephake (10)
June: Carol Schliephake (2), Nicky Rizzato (8), David Hahn (15),
Terri Merrow (17), Willi Gohs (18)
Anniversaries:
Willi & Irmy Gohs (May 31)
Rolf & Ginger Dörfle (June 7)
HERZLICHEN GLÜCKWUNSCH TO ALL!
Chicago Fire Corner
The Chicago Fire season has started and
with a new coach after 4 games played the
Fire has a record of 0 wins 1 loss and 3 ties.
This will be a busy soccer summer as the
2104 World Cup will be played in Brazil
beginning June 12 and ending July 12.
Germany is the head of Group G and play
Ghana, Portugal and the U.S.A.! Some say this is the toughest
group of the tournament and is known as “The Group of
Death”, because really any team could advance from this
group. It will be very exciting for us to watch the Germany vs.
U.S.A. match, which will be played on June 26. I hope everyone will take the time to watch this game especially. For this
reason the MLS will not have regular season games for the
month of June but will resume play in July. We are planning
another DANK night with the Fire and hope you can join us.
Please contact me at [email protected] to let me know
if you would prefer August 2 or September 20. For further
information about the club check out their website below.
www.chicago-fire.com
j
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www.foxvalleygermans.org
CURRENTS OF DANK CHAPTER FOX
EASTER SUNDAY **** OSTERSONNTAG
aster Sunday this year is coming up on April 20th, which
is almost 3 weeks later then last year, but because the Easter date depends on the phases of the moon, it could fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25th. .
However the Easter weekend generally begins with Good Friday, which is when the religious activities begin. On this day
fish is the usual dish that is served.
Holy Saturday is the day where open air markets are visited and
arts and crafts items and sweet baked goods area purchased for
the Sunday’s celebrations. In Germany this day is also known as
Osterfeuer (Easter fire), where people bring their Christmas
trees and have a large bonfire that says good-bye to winter and
Hallo to spring!
On Easter Sunday the most well known tradition is the Easter
egg hunt, where the parents hide colored eggs around the yard
for their children to find. Along with Easter baskets having
sweet treats and presents, there is the traditional Easter dinner
where lamb, potatoes and fresh vegetables are commonly
served. Dessert, of course, can’t be forgotten with a lambshaped cake, Hazelnut Torte or the famous Black Forest Torte.
So everyone enjoy this time with your family and the prospects
of a beautiful spring.
MAY (MAI) CELEBRATIONS
ay celebrations include, May Day, Maypoles and Mother’s Day. There is a holiday that is celebrated before May
Day that is called Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht), which is
similar to Halloween in that it has to do with supernatural spirits.
The bonfires that are seen in todays celebration reflect those pagan origins and the human desire to drive away the winter cold
and welcome spring. Walpurgisnacht gets its name from Saint
Walburga, a woman born in what is now England in 710. Die
Heilige Walpurga traveled to Germany and became a nun at the
convent of Heidenheim in Wuerttenberg. Following her death in
778 (or779), she was made a Saint, with May 1 as her Saint Day.
ay 1st, erster Mai, is a national Holiday and an important
day. World wide this day is the celebration of Labor Day,
except in the United States. In 1889, a congress of world socialist parties was held in Paris. The attendees, sympathizing with
the striking worker in Chicago in 1886, voted to support the
United State labor movement’s demands for an 8-hour work
day. They selected May 1, 1890 as a day of commemoration for
the Chicago Strikers. In many countries around the world May 1
became an official Holiday called Labor Day—but not in the
United States, where that holiday is observed on the first Monday in September.
Maypole (Maibaum) is a tall wooden pole made from a
tree trunk (pine or birch) with colorful ribbons, flowers,
carved figures and various other decorations adorning it.
This Maypole on the first of May serves as a welcome to spring.
This Maypole is usually set up in the town’s public square,
which includes a small pine tree placed atop the Maypole. In
small towns virtually the entire population turns out for ceremonial raising of the Maypoles and the festivities that follow, traditional dances, music and folk costumes. This years Maifest in
Chicago will be celebrated the weekend of May 30-June 2nd.
Come see our great selection of European foods, wines,
beers & liquors at our 2 convenient locations!
444 Roosevelt Rd
Glen Ellyn, Il 60137
(630) 469- 6525
Tuesday -Friday
9:30am to 7:00pm
Saturday
9:30 am to 6:30pm
Sunday
10:00 am to 3:00pm
Closed Monday
&
925 Corporate Woods Pkwy.
Vernon Hills, IL 60061
(847) 913- 0304
-- Store hours vary by location -- Order Online @ www.bende.com
CURRENTS OF DANK CHAPTER FOX VALLEY
A reminder for all our readers to sign up for
electronic delivery of our newsletter. Our
newsletter is posted on our website a few
days earlier than the physical mailing and is
of much better “print” quality.
If you know someone who is interested in
our newsletter, please ask them to sign up
also. Just go to www.foxvalleygermans.org,
click and tell us through “send us a
message”.
Page 5
2013 UPCOMING DATES
March
17
29
30
31
St. Patrick’s Day
Good Friday*Karfreitag
East Saturday*Holy Sonnabend
Easter Sunday* Osternsonntag
April
1 Easter Monday * Ostermontag
22 Earth Day
May
12 Mother’s Day
27 Memorial Day
June
14 Flag Day
16 Father’s Day
20 First Day of Summer
Father’s Day ****Vatertag
“Milwaukee’s Original Haus Party” held at the Summerfest
Grounds in downtown Milwaukee, WI. German Fest occurs during the last full weekend in July from Friday, July 25th to Sunday, July 27th, 2014.
Since August 1981, German Fest has been celebrating German
culture and tradition, including all things German - food, travel,
history, music, and much more!
Some of the best German cuisine can be found at the German
Fest festival. Many well-known German restaurants and food
services from Southeast Wisconsin make the trip to provide attendees with great authentic German cuisine.
(from the www.germanfest.com website)
ather ‘s Day in Germany has different origin and is a
very different observance then the American version.
Germany’s Vatertag began in the Middle Ages as a religious honoring. Although as late as the 1700’s it was a
family day for honoring dad, somehow things went sour
and in the 19th Century the custom reappeared in Berlin as
a less refined and very alcoholic celebration on that same
date. Today Vatertag is considered to be closer to a “boys’
day out” and a pub tour with the guys, Maennerrunde,
rather than the more family-oriented Father’s Day in the
United States.
Schnitzel Platz Restaurant
Serving Authentic German Food & Drink
A Rustic Dining Room surrounded by Old World Handcrafted
Cuckoo Clocks & an extensive collection of German Steins
729 E. North Avenue - Glendale Hts., Illinois 60139
(1 mile west of I-355)
630-942-9900
Open
OpenSun
Sun-Thur
-Thur11am
11am- 9pm
- 9pm(closed
(closedTues)
Tues) FriFri- Sat
- Sat11am
11am- 10pm
- 10pm
Proudly Serving Weihenstephaner
Beer - The World’s Oldest Brewery
Live Entertainment
By Bob & Hank
Fri, Sat & Sun
Look for Season Specials
on our website:
www.schnitzelplatz.com
GERMAN AMERICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
DANK CHAPTER FOX VALLEY
2S904 Heritage Glen Ct.
Batavia, IL 60510-5100
Issue 2014-1
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DANK Fox Valley Information
www.foxvalleygermans.org
Wurst Kitchen Sausage Company
Featuring Traditional Handmade European Style Sausages,
Fresh Coldcuts, Imported Delicatessen & More!
Holiday Gift Boxes, Party Trays, Gift Certificates
2nd and Union Streets, Aurora
(630) 898-9242
SINCE 1895
12 W. Main Street, Plano
(630) 898-9242