April 20: The Met!

Metropolitan Museum of Art --
(our confirmation notice will come separately...expected around 3/22)

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE MAP AND EXHIBITS.

Your plans and recommendations are so welcome!

Ten Ways To Get The Most German Out Of Your Big Apple Experience

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE BUZZ FEED ARTICLE

Like German culture and German food, but don’t want to spend money on an overseas flight? No problem, just head to New York!  Here are 10 spots in the Big Apple that will give you German literature, history, architecture, and beer – everything Deutsch you could want! 

 

GermanyinUSA Brand Publisher      posted on July 18, 2014, at 1:19 p.m.

 

This post was created by a Community Brand Publisher, which means it is not sponsored and has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed's editorial staff. 

 

The German Embassy worked together with the German Book Office, which is headquartered in New York, to give you a taste of Germany while you are visiting NYC!

1.  Deutsches Haus at NYU

flickr.com

 

Located in the beautiful Washington Mews in Greenwich Village, Deutsches Haus is a part of New York University and is New York’s leading institution for culture and language of the German-speaking world. Since 1977, it has provided New Yorkers with a unique forum for cultural, intellectual, and artistic exchange with Germany, Austria, and Switzerland through its three pillars: the language program, the cultural program, and the kids program.

Keep an eye open for their events, which are particularly nice when they are held outside in the summer!

42 Washington Mews      New York, NY 10003

2.  Friedrich von Schiller Bust

centralpark-ny.com

This bronze portrait bust depicts German dramatist, poet, and historian Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805), and was the first sculpture installed in Central Park. A gift of New York’s German-American community, the bust was dedicated in November 1859, the centennial of Schiller’s birth, during a three-day festival in New York commemorating Schiller.

Sculpted by C.L. Richter, the piece is based on an earlier marble bust sculpted by German artist Heinrich Dannecker in 1805. In 1955 the bust was moved from its original location in Central park’s wooded Ramble to its present site on the Mall opposite the Bandshell, and its fragile brownstone pedestal was replaced with a more durable granite base. In 1992 the Central Park Conservancy adopted the Schiller Monument. 

Central Park, at the Mall near the Bandshell

3.  Brooklyn Bridge

Katharina Rapp

 

Called the “eighth wonder of the world” when it opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge of its day. German immigrant John Roebling designed the 3,460-foot-long bridge, which he claimed reflected “the perfect equilibrium of nature.” When Roebling died in an accident, his son Washington continued his work.

While the Brooklyn Bridge reflects the optimism and entrepreneurial spirit of the late 19th century, it also required individual tenacity and sacrifice. Washington Roebling supervised the project to completion despite fires, accidents, industrial corruption, and flagging popular support. Although work on the project crippled him, he lived to see the bridge praised for its grace and utility. The tall span with its Gothic arches still impresses tourists, artists, and writers alike.

4.  Wankel’s Hardware Store

Wankel’s Hardware Store opened on Third Avenue in 1896, when the neighborhood was still predominantly German. Established by Bernhart and Elizabeth Wankel, second generation German-Americans, it served primarily construction workers and tradesmen. At the time, the most popular item sold was a simple wooden bucket that laborers used to carry beer home from the area’s German breweries. Much has changed over the years, and today you won’t find any wooden beer buckets in the store’s inventory. However, Katherine Wankel, the great-granddaughter of Bernhart and Elizabeth, maintains this family operation. 

1573 Third Avenue      New York, NY 10128

5.  Goethe-Institut Library

Marco Polifka

The Goethe-Institut New York Library is one of the few German-language lending libraries in the United States. It has over 7,000 volumes, including books (one-quarter of which are in English), audio books, DVDs, CDs, newspapers, and magazines. Located on Spring Street and equipped with cozy sofas and chairs, it is a beautiful place to enjoy German literature and a great view of NoLita at the same time.

72 Spring Street, 11th Floor   New York, NY 10012, USA

6.  First German Baptist Church

daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com

 

The First German Baptist Church was organized in 1846 to serve the large number of German immigrant families living in “Klein Deutschland” (“Little Germany”). In 1866, Julius Boekell designed a fanciful Romanesque-style edifice for the congregation to meet in, with a gabled façade, two narrow towers, and many windows. Some sources state that the new church was opened in 1869. The German congregation merged or ceased to exist sometime after 1920. In 1926, the building became the Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church of St. Volodymyr, and three onion domes were added. In 1962, St. Volodymyr moved to the Upper West Side, and the building was acquired by Congregation Tifereth Israel (Glory of Israel), known as the “Town and Village Synagogue,” a Conservative congregation founded in 1949.

336 East 14th Street near First Avenue   New York, N.Y. 10003
72 Spring Street, 11th Floor   New York, NY 10012, USA

7.  Glaser’s Bake Shop

tfc.com

Opened by John Glaser in 1902, and now run by grandson Herb, the old-time German bakery specializes in pumping out Bavarian almond, cherry spritz, and gingerbread men; in short, Glaser’s is a holdout. The original white tile floors survive. Apothecary-style wood cabinets panel the darkish rectangular interior. It’s a real neighborhood joint: cash only, no delivery. Baked here is a colorful assortment of kids’ sugar cookies, wafer-thin chocolate, and cinnamon swirls, and chocolate chunk and chocolate pecan brownies, dense and coated beneath with a sugary glaze.

1670 First Ave.
New York, NY 10128

8.  Segments of the Berlin Wall in Paley Park

Alex Lopez

Nestled in a small Midtown plaza at 520 Madison Avenue is an unexpected piece of history. Five sections of the Berlin Wall, in total measuring 12 feet high and 20 feet long, have been on display here since 1990. Dazzling work by German artists Thierry Noir and Kiddy Citny cover the wall’s western-facing side. The eastern side, meanwhile, remains a blank slab of concrete—a reminder of the oppressive political regime in the former East Germany. 

At first glance, this artifact appears to be just another public mural; it goes largely unnoticed by the office workers who sit in the park on their lunch break.

East 53rd Street (between Madison & Fifth Aves.)   Manhattan, NY 10022

9.  Berlyn Restaurant

berlynrestaurant.com

 

Not very traditional, rather a modern take on German cuisine, this restaurant mixes it up with Brooklyn specialties. The German owners, Ursula and Jonas Hegewisch, have created a cozy and quirky atmosphere, partly owed to the Gartenzwerge (garden gnomes).

 Try the warm apple strudel, it’s amazing.

25 Lafayette Ave    Brooklyn, NY 11217

10.  Black Forest Brooklyn

blackforestbrooklyn.com

 

Fort Greene residents Ayana and Tobias Holler grew up in a small town in the rural Black Forest region of southwestern Germany, but their paths never crossed there. It was much later, when they had both moved to Brooklyn, that they met and fell in love. As a tribute to their love, to their Black Forest roots and their Brooklyn home, they now bring you Black Forest Brooklyn – an authentic German Indoor Biergarten and Kaffeehaus, located in a unique 1-story building at 733 Fulton Street, an exciting new addition to the Fort Greene bar and restaurant scene.

If you’re rooting for the German team, this is the place to watch the Word Cup! 

733 Fulton St   Brooklyn, NY 11217

Scenes from NYC's Steuben Day Parade

Energetic dancing:  Guys wearing Dirndl


2013:


"Nothing runs on time or smoother than this parade...I know what you're dealing with today...and you always  manag... just in time and you see all the happy people and all the costumes..I am always surprised about the variety that we have..."


Letztes Jahr im Fernsehen:

Berlin Artist Phil Collin's YOU ARE WHAT YOU BUY • Art Installation

This Unfortunate Thing Between Us-- in NYC
Newsweek      24 Sept. 2013      by Blake Gopnik

The only problem with the latest installation by the great Berlin-based artist Phil Collins is that it doesn’t come with an amazing Ginsu knife; it hasn’t got any “buy two get one free” deals; you don’t get a bonus zirconium ring, even if you call before 9 o’clock. Other than that, Collins’s take on home-shopping TV, recently unveiled at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York, is as gripping and strange as anything on offer in this autumn’s new season of art.

This Unfortunate Thing Between Us, consists of two camping trailers—what Collins and his fellow Brits call caravans—rolled into the gallery and kitted out with all the pleasures of an English vacation. They come with a supply of “crisps,” lime cordial, and, most especially, a flat-screen TV to while away rainy days by the British seaside.

Gallery-goers are invited to curl up and watch the custom programming Collins has prepared.

One of the caravans screens the first night’s hour-long program; the other presents the next day’s broadcast, during which three regular Germans take their place in one of the three experiences.

Over two nights in 2011, on primetime in Germany, Collins broadcast TUTBU TV, a custom-made shopping channel that had all the trappings of a normal one—fast-talking host, slim spokesmodel, a bank of telephone operators—except that what it sold was utterly original. As our sleek host puts it in the subtitled video of the broadcast screening in the caravans, “With the endless electric blankets, gardening tools, upholstery cleaners, and fake jewelry, one need of customers has sunk into the background: the need for experiences.”

That is, instead of selling consumer goods, TUTBU TV offered viewers a chance to participate in one of three experiences that the host claims to be Germans’ favorite fantasies:

“Interrogation! Porno! Death!” 

For the “low, low price of just 9.99 euros” you can buy the chance to be grilled by actors

• dressed as Stasi agents (“Reach for your phone now!”), 
• to perform in a costume-drama porn flick, or 
• to wake from a coma and berate the neglectful relatives standing by your deathbed.

Collins’s take on home-shopping TV is gripping and strange.

One of the caravans at Bonakdar screens the first night’s hourlong program, during which the three experiences are “sold” to the television audience. Actors do trial runs of the interrogation, the porn (a foursome), and the hospital scene, while a bank of operators takes customers’ calls.

Collins’s other caravan presents the next day’s broadcast, during which three regular Germans, chosen by Collins from among the hundreds who’ve called in, take their place in the same three fantasies.

• Gerd Radeke, a middle-aged man from Bremen, gets a grilling from the Stasi about his first love affairs and almost breaks down. 
• A bearded youth from Berlin (“I’ve always wanted to know how people had sex in earlier times”) chooses to play the part of a bewigged Jane Austen maid who pleasures her mistress while a strapping stable boy and a redcoat have sex nearby. 
• An elderly Berliner named Klaus Funke tells his assembled family—most are actors, but a few are clearly relatives, weeping real tears—what jerks they have been. 

 

Klaus Funke berates his assembled family—most are actors, but a few are clearly relatives, weeping real tears—from his deathbed.

One of the standard lines about art is that it’s less about the objects artists make than the experiences those objects provide and what they mean to their viewers. Collins seems to have taken that cliché at face value. His latest artwork seems like pure experience, divorced from consumable aesthetic goods. It’s also guaranteed to mean something to its viewers—in this case, those who’ve bought said experiences and the wider audience witnessing them.

But offering up experiences rather than objects doesn’t pull art out of the world of consumption, and I think that’s part of Collins’s point. As our smarmy host peddles his goods, we have to figure that he’s supposed to stand for an artist—even for Collins himself. And there’s no doubt we’re in the presence of art, rather than of straight commerce or entertainment, because Collins inserts so much artsy weirdness into the broadcast: fright wigs, goth makeup, other avant-garde details worthy of Mike Myers’s “Sprockets” routines. “Let’s find out together what teleshopping can do,” is TUTBU’s tagline, as though it’s exploring a new art medium, the way abstract painters were once told to explore the limits of acrylics.

So even as we art-world sophisticates enjoy the wit and circularity involved in Collins’s gallery installation, we are forced to recognize that we are no better than, or much different from, a couch potato in a cheap trailer, teleshopping for a garden hose.

TED: Béatrice Coron Cuts Language and Stories from Paper

Brilliant international artist -- and linguist!



"Everybody has a story to tell.
Everybody has to make a story to make sense of the world...
Imagination is the vehicle...
The destination is our minds, and how we can reconnect with the essential, and with the magic..
(That's what) storycutting is about."

I recommend a visit to her website  BÊATRICE CORON - HERE

What's your favorite Béatrice Coron piece?  Were you intrigued by her cape?  I fell in love with her Balloon World, and am fascinated that she thought to make sense, for instance, of the history of candy making.  I think that her public art just soars!  I'm thrilled to learn that she's working on screens and fencing for low income housing.

As one observer [White Tiger333] wrote, I believe, that I too "am gobsmacked by the artistry and enthralled by the Life Observation! The glass projects - wah!!  The love of languages - double wah!!"  

-- Danke, dass du mit dabei bist.

Peter Minuit aus Wesel (am Rhein, NRW) kauft Manhattan

Über Manhattans Kleindeutschland

About the Project

German Traces NYC is mobile, augmented reality experience designed to let learners explore German cultural heritage in New York City. The application makes use of archival documents, photographs, and multimedia narratives to bring to life to this significant thread of New York City and United States history.

A brief history of Germans in New York

In 1626, Peter Minuit—a native of the German town of Wesel am Rhein—purchased Manhattan Island for 60 guilders worth of trade goods. Since that purchase, German immigrants have been integral to the development of the city of New York.

Over 24,000 German immigrants called New York home in 1840—a sizeable community to be sure, but nothing compared to what the following 20 years would bring. Between 1840 and 1860, land shortages, unemployment, famine, as well as political and religious oppression sent more than a hundred thousand German immigrants across the Atlantic Ocean. At the end of those 20 years, there were over 200,000 German immigrants living in New York, most congregating in the area east of the Bowery and north of Division Street—or, what became known as Kleindeutschland.

It is important to note that until 1871, there was no unified Germany; most of these German immigrants would have been called Prussians, Bavarians, Hessians, Rhinelanders, Pomeranians, or Westphalians. The establishment and extension of the German Empire in the 1870s and 1880s, however, only brought more immigration, as tens of thousands more Germans found themselves dislocated and fleeing to New York.

By 1880, about one-third of the residents of New York—roughly 400,000 people—were classed as German-American. At the time, only Vienna and Berlin contained more German speakers than New York. During the same period, Kleindeutschland alone contained a German speaking population of 250,000, stretching from Division Street to 14th Street—making up the entirety of the neighborhoods now known as the East Village and the Lower East Side.
As New York entered the 20th century, the increasing socioeconomic pedigree of the German community, as well as the tragic General Slocum disaster, diffused Kleindeutschland’s population across the city—founding and expanding enclaves in areas like Yorkville in the Upper East Side, Ridgewood in Queens, or Bushwick in Brooklyn.
As the German community in New York exploded in size, it built churches, started businesses, founded hospitals, created clubs, propagated culture, erected monuments, and birthed dynasties. Over the years, however, the community assimilated and dispersed, but not before it left an indelible mark on the city. Since that time, New York has been built up and torn down, both by design and by tragedy, but if you look close enough, you can still find traces of the German immigrant experience hiding throughout the city’s corridors.

Credits

German Traces NYC and GeoStoryteller are a joint project between the Goethe-Institut New York and Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science. The project team includes:

Brigitte Doellgast, Goethe-Institut New York
Anthony Cocciolo, Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute
Debbie Rabina, Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

With Support From:
Katherine Borkowski, Research Assistant, Pratt Institute
Jeffrey Hiban, Graduate Research Assistant, Pratt Institute
Jessica Schneider, Graduate Research Assistant, Pratt Institute
Johanna Blakely-Bourgeois, Graduate Research Assistant (Alumna), Pratt Institute
Jill Goldstein, Assistant for Marketing, Goethe-Institut New York
Katherine Lorimer, Goethe-Institut New York

With Special Thanks to:
Robert Lyons (Voiceovers, English)
Jon Gilbert Leavitt (Original Music, "Spuren")
Miriam Ibrahim (Voiceovers, German)

We thank the many individuals and organizations that made this projects possible. Please visit the references and photo credits page for specific attributions.
Interested in this project? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and iTunes! Or you can email us atinfo@germantracesnyc.org.

Was alles können wir über NYC lernen?

Tompkins Square Riots    (Avenue A)

The tranquility of Tompkins Square Park is misleading. The Elms, many dating back to the 1870’s, the dog run, the playground and the grass typical to many urban parks, are but a thin mask to the turbulent events that took place on these grounds in the late 19^th century. 

Tompkins Square Park bares witness to a particularly difficult time in the lives of the German-Americans of Klein-Deutschland.

In 1874 a group of approximately seven thousand young working-class immigrants gathered in the park to protest the economic hardships and working conditions, protest that became known as the Tompkins Square Riot.  The protesters planned to march from Tompkins Square to City Hall in demand of a public works program that will provide employment and end evictions of unemployed.

The protesters assembled peacefully in the park for a licensed demonstration and were unaware that the permit given to them had been revoked.

They were working-class immigrants, many of them German, all unemployed and many not having eaten in days. They were met by at least fifteen hundred policemen, almost two-thirds of the city’s police force.

With horses and raised clubs, the officers charged without warning in what a local labor leader described as ‘an orgy of brutality’. The police arrested forty-four men for disorderly conduct, riotous conduct, incendiary speech, carrying concealed weapons, inciting to riot and assault.

This was a clash between uptown and downtown, between immigrants and established residents, between blue-collar workers and affluent residents, between socialists and capitalists.  Public response was split along class lines: the working class sympathized with the demonstrators and uptown residents supported police actions. There were xenophobic insinuations and the rioters were described as foreigners, chiefly German and Irish, communist and socialist.

The press of the time identified this as a threat to free speech and questioned the government’s right to regulate such gatherings.

Tompkins Square Park continued to serve as a place to voice dissent right up to 1990s when local residents protested the gentrification of the area and barring of the homeless.

1. What was one of the main issues that prompted the protest in Tompkins Square Park in 1874?
 Women's suffrage
 Slavery
 Unemployment


2. The __________ that protestors had obtained prior to the demonstration was revoked without their knowledge.
 Permit
 Weapons
 Supplies

3. How did the press perceive the police response to the public demonstration?
 A threat to free speech
 Completely justified
 The felt that there should have been more arrests

NYC's Yorkville und Jacob Rupert, Jr.

Schauen wir durch das Goethe-Institut "German Traces NYC" program eine Einführung zum Yorkville in Manhattan an.  Wo liegt Yorkville?  östlich vom Central Park um die 70-80-ige Strassen.

The link between baseball and beer reaches at least as far back as the early 20th century to Jacob Rupert Jr., owner of both a brewery and the New York Yankees. Ruppert wore many other hats throughout his lifetime as well, including National Guard colonel and United States Congressman. Perhaps most relevant today, he is also the namesake of Ruppert Park, which lies on land formerly occupied by his family’s brewery.

Born in New York City in 1867, Jacob Ruppert Jr. came from a family of Bavarian descent.  That very year, his father opened the Ruppert Brewing Company in Manhattan’s Yorkville neighborhood.

Jacob Ruppert Jr. left quite a mark on New York City’s history.  Serving in the National Guard, he quickly rose to the rank of colonel.  Upon leaving the army, Ruppert was elected to four consecutive terms as a representative for New York’s 15th congressional district.

After leaving congress in 1907, Ruppert came back to New York to help with the family business.  Shortly after his father’s death, Ruppert became president of the brewery and also served as president of the United States Brewing Association.

In 1915 Ruppert and a partner purchased the New York Yankees baseball team from its original owners.  He brought the team into the spotlight with the purchase of Babe Ruth’s contract from the Boston Red Sox in 1919 and built Yankee Stadium several years later. He remained president of the Yankees for 25 years until his death in 1939.

Nearly 100 years after it was founded, the Ruppert Brewery Company’s Yorkville location closed and was partially replaced with a new urban development called Ruppert Towers. In 1979, New York City’s Housing Preservation and Development Administration built Ruppert Park on the same site, next to the high rise.

In 1983 the city sold the site to a contracting firm on the condition that it would remain a park for 25 years, a period which ended in 2008. The following year, with the park threatened by the possibility of development, as well as drastic maintenance problems, the community surrounding the park came together and successfully campaigned for its preservation.  Today the park is a beloved feature of Jacob Ruppert Jr.’s Upper East Side neighborhood and reminder of Yorkville’s German heritage.

1. What was the Ruppert family business?
 Butchers
 Brewery owners
 Bakers

2. Which was not one of Jacob Ruppert Jr.’s occupations?
 New York Yankees owner
 United States Congressman
 Department Store Owner
 Brewer

3. What famous player’s contract did Ruppert buy from the Boston Red Sox?
 Babe Ruth
 Joe Dimaggio
 Jackie Robinson

Goethe-Institut Explores NYC: Puck Building

The German Traces NYC Project is a free download.  Your iPhone can be programed to show you a photo of a building "the way it was." The website can then be consulted to get a brief history of that building.  Here is one such entry, for a building oddly named Puck, at 295 Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan.

On a corner of the Puck Building sits a plump gilded statute of the structure’s namesake. Puck, from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is the mascot of one of New York’s best-known humor magazines in its day, Puck Magazine.

The magazine, a joint venture between illustrator Joseph Keppler and printer Adolph Schwarzmann, launched in 1876 as a German language periodical. Its quick success gave birth to an English language iteration within a year. Puck’s topical jabs and brutal satires won it booming circulation, which in turn allowed for the construction of the Puck Building.

Albert Wagner, a German-born architect, designed this building, which was built on the fringes of the era’s main publishing district. It was completed in 1885, and the magazine’s continued success prompted a further expansion in 1892. Inventive architectural thinking saved the Puck Building from possible demolition near the turn of the century when a planned extension of Lafayette Street threatened to cut right through its address. By trimming off about a third of the building and constructing a new western façade, the structure and its chubby mascot were preserved for future generations.

Puck Magazine was eventually purchased by a frequent subject of its satire, publishing magnate and Citizen Kane source material, William Randolph Hearst. Shortly after purchase, Hearst changed the magazine into a monthly publication, and then shut the magazine down all together in 1918.

In recent years, the building has been used for other graphic design and publishing ventures, commercial and retail space, both Pratt Institute and NYU rented space in the Puck building, and the building was used as the backdrop for movies and television shows such as When Harry Met Sally and Will & Grace.

1. What German-born architect designed the Puck Building?
 Robert Maynicke
 Albert Wagner
 Julius Boekell

2. What publishing magnate bought and later shut down Puck Magazine?
 Rupert Murdoch
 Joseph Keppler
 William Randolph Hearst

NYC's Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard St.

As the word “tenement” indicates, 97 Orchard Street was a multiple family dwelling. Like most, it earned its reputation for overcrowding, poverty, and exploiting the working-class. From its opening in 1863 until 1935, the estimated 7000 people who lived in the building put up with fairly deplorable conditions that improved only as the government began regulating housing.

Lucas and Wilhelmina Glockner, from the German states of Baden and Bavaria respectively, were the first landlords of 97 Orchard Street. Originally a tailor by trade, Lucas began his tenure as a landlord when he and two fellow tailors purchased the property of the Second Reformed Presbyterian Church on Orchard Street. The tailors subdivided the Church site into three lots, upon each of which a tenement was constructed; Glockner received the lot at 97 Orchard Street.

When the 97 Orchard Street opened in 1863, it contained no running water, no indoor toilets, and no source of light apart from the few rooms lucky enough to have windows. Residents wanting to use the bathroom had 3 to 6 outhouses available to them in the backyard. In order to navigate the dusky interior of the building, the inhabitants relied on what light they could create with kerosene or oil lamps. For those residents interested in water, it was available via a spigot in the backyard, conveniently located next to the outhouses.

Today, this building is occupied by the Tenement Museum, an institution that honors America’s immigrants, promotes tolerance, and provides perspective on the current political debates on immigration and public health. The Museum opened the first restored apartment in 1992, the 1878 home of the German-Jewish Gumpertz family. Sign up for one of the guided tours offered by the Museum to see this and other apartments and to learn more about the daily life of immigrants in Kleindeutschland.

In the success of the Glockner family and the squalor of the Gumpertz family, a vision of the class divisions that led to the end Kleindeutschland emerges. It’s a common narrative in the immigrant experience—bonds of nationality unraveling in the face of time and money.

1. Which was a common condition of tenement houses in the mid to late 1800s?
 Overcrowding
 No running water
 No indoor toilets
 All of the above

2. What year did this tenement house open?
 1872
 1863
 1887

3. What led to the improvement of conditions in tenement houses?
 The landlord’s voluntarily made improvements
 Government housing regulation

Carl Schurz (from Cologne) in NYC

On October 2, 1910, crowds gathered at what was then known as the East River Park to mark the 9^th annual German day celebration of the United German Societies of New York City. The day’s festivities included orchestral and choral music, demonstrations by members of the Turn Verein (Tumbling Club), and traditional German food. It was also the day that the park would be renamed and dedicated to honor German-American and statesman Carl Schurz.

Carl Schurz, a native of Cologne Germany, immigrated to the United States as a political refugee and soon became entrenched in the politics of his new home.  Schurz served as a general under Lincoln during the Civil War, a United States Senator, an ambassador and was eventually appointed Secretary of the Interior in 1877.  He was an inspired writer and many leading politicians of the day called upon him to speak on their behalf.

Schurz lived and worked throughout the country and did not settle in New York City until 1881. Here, he managed The Nation and the New York Evening Post and wrote for Harper’s Weekly. He also continued his political engagements.

On the occasion of Schurz’s death in 1906, President Grover Cleveland said; “I look upon the death of Mr. Schurz as a National affliction.  Though he had reached length of years and though his activity had waned, he was still a power and strong influence in the life and sentiment of his countrymen.” A sign of his enduring influence can be seen in the 1910 campaign to have the park renamed in his honor.

This site initially served as a strategic defense site during the Revolutionary War, complete with a fort to protect an important shipping passage called Hell Gate. The park later became home to Gracie Mansion, built by Archibald Gracie in 1799. The mansion has been the official home of the Mayor of New York since 1942, and prior to that was the first home of the Museum of the City of New York.

Today Carl Schurz Park provides views of the East River, the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse, the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, and Randall’s and Wards Islands.  The park is also home to free concerts, art shows, and other activities throughout the year.

1. In what war did Carl Schurz served as a United States General?
 The Revolutionary War
 World War I
 The Civil War

2. Which publication was Schurz not involved with?
 The Nation
 Puck Magazine
 Harper’s Weekly
 New York Evening Post

3. Which mansion and home of New York City Mayors is located in this park?
 Gracie Mansion
 Schurz Mansion
 Mayor’s Mansion 

NYC's Scheffel Hall on 3rd Avenue

On the wind of several successful ventures, restaurateur and German immigrant, Carl Goerwitz, got a bit ambitious. He took out a long-term lease on 190 3^rdAvenue, contracted architectural firm Weber & Drosser, and oversaw an overhaul of the building, complete with a new façade fashioned after the Friedrichsbau at Heidelberg Castle.

The finished product was Scheffel Hall, a restaurant and beer hall carrying the name of Joseph Victor von Scheffel, a German poet best known for the collection of songs, Gaudeamus, Lieder aus dem Engeren und Weiteren. Reinforcing the name, the building’s walls were ornamented with paneling and paintings that illustrated scenes and mottoes from Scheffel’s poems. Goerwitz took great care in designing the interior, purposefully evoking a timeworn rathskeller.

Perched on the northern stretches of Kleindeutschland, Scheffel Hall catered to the local German immigrant community. Beyond the German clientele, it was also well liked by the area’s politicians, artists, and writers—including O. Henry, who set his story, "The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss," there.

Goerwitz operated the business until 1904, at which point he sublet the business to an employee, who subsequently sold his stake to Allaire's restaurant and saloon next door. The Allaire family managed the business until 1928, when the building was sold to the German-American Athletic Club.

In 1936, the German-American Athletic Club brought in a new management team and the concept of community singing—which, in turn, brought a new audience. College students came in droves for the experience of carousing, drinking, and boisterously singing the night away.

With the 1979 introduction of the jazz club Fat Tuesday’s, the music echoing inside the walls became noticeably improved. The club hosted jazz greats like Stan Getz and Joe Turner, as well performances by Les Paul and rock icons like Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Jimmy Page.

1. What German castle served as the inspiration for the façade of this building?
 Neuschwanstein Castle
 Heidelberg Castle
 Nuremberg Castle

2. Which writer set his story, “The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss,” at Scheffel Hall?
 O. Henry
 Henry James
 Bob Dylan

Check your own answers, or use the German Traces NYC  (.org) Website.   -- Did you get both correct?

Der Bratwurstkönig von New York

Wed, Mar 21 · 03:45-04:15 (Deutsche Zeit) · PHOENIX -- Der Bratwurstkönig von New York

"German Soul Food" verkauft Rolf Babiel aus Hoyerswerda (Sachsen) an der Fifth Avenue - deutsches "Seelenessen". Seit 10 Jahren ist sein fahrbarer Stand eine Institution in New York - der pfiffige Sachse, ein wohlhabender Mann, der aus dem Stadtbild von Manhattan nicht mehr wegzudenken ist.

-->Wie haben ihn die Terroranschläge vom 11. September verändert?
-->Wie sieht er seine Zukunft mit Ehefrau Bernie aus Haiti und den drei Kindern? ,,SachsenSpiegel extra" war vorher da - und nachher: Der unbeschwerte Bratwurst-Mann ist nachdenklich geworden.

Doch auf ihren ,,Rolli" können sich die Stammkunden verlassen. Nach wie vor genießt er den Ansturm jeden Mittag und gibt den New Yorkern, was sie lieben: "Wartburg" oder "Mercedes" - deftige deutsche Wurst - "Combos" mit Zwiebeln, Bratkartoffeln und hausgemachter Currysauce.

Und ,,Rollis" unverwechselbaren "German touch" gibt's gratis dazu.


Für diese Geschichte danke ich Lutz Szemkus -Frau B