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Comments And Announcements, Lukas F. Burckhardt

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The Swiss General Strike of 1918

Lukas F. Burckhardt, Bern

Book Review: The New Switzerland Problems And Policies, Nicole Butz

Swiss American Historical Society Review

This volume, edited by Rolf Kieser and Kurt R. Spillmann, consists of twentyeight essays written by a group of Swiss scholars and officials. Originally intended as a new edition of the 1978 volume Modern Switzerland (edited by J. Murray Luck, Lukas F. Burckhardt, and Hans Haug), The New Switzerland nonetheless differs significantly in content and perspective from its earlier counterpart. As noted by the editors in the preface, the book does not attempt to provide its readers with a comprehensive account of Switzerland; rather, it seeks to inform a broad international audience through "a discussion of the present and future …

Memories From A Danish American Parsonage, Bodil S. Sorensen

The Bridge

Those of us who grew up in the Danish-American

colonies of the 30' s and 40' s experienced a life that has

now disappeared. It was a rich and unique life. It was a

time of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation immigrants adjusting

to the American culture and at the same time cherishing

their particular brand of Danish heritage.

Proposte D'Insegnamento Per Corsi Di Civiltà Italiana A Livello Universitario Negli Stati Uniti, Ilona Klein

Faculty Publications

In an effort to initiate a dialogue on the teaching of Italian culture, the author describes her classroom experiences. She indicates which topics are successfully used in her syllabi, and defines the role of the teacher as a "cultural translator" in courses of culture and civilization.

Goals And Objectives Of The Danish American Heritage Society

The Bridge

To promote an interest in Danish American contributions to American life.

To encourage research in the life and culture of Danish Americans. To serve as an agency for the publication of studies of Danish American contributions to American life.

To provide a means of communication and education for individuals interested in the activities of Danish Americans.

Identifying Danish-American Folklife, Gregory Hansen

The Bridge

Danish-American ethnicity has traditionally been studied by examining the literature, religion, social and educational institutions, and business enterprises of Danes in America. In general researchers have looked to Fine Arts and Culture to understand the Danish ethnic identity. But examining only Culture and Art yields an incomplete understanding of culture and art. Danish ethnic culture in America consists primarily of the non-elitist traditions and arts of individuals' everyday lives rather than the contributions of the elite, and the discipline of folklore can provide a more complete concept of Danish heritage. Folklife studies involve the stages of identifying, documenting, interpreting, and …

The Travels Abroad Of H. C. Andersen, Don Mowatt

The Bridge

A complete appreciation of Hans Christian Andersen has always been limited to Danish-speaking readers because so much of his private life is most clearly revealed in his letters, diaries, and travel books which remain largely untranslated into English. There is a handful of exceptions, the majority of which are mid-nineteenth century translations from England.

Danebod Fall Meeting, Elsie S. Hansen

The Bridge

In 1943 when Enok Mortensen and his family arrived in Tyler, Minnesota, to begin his pastorate at Danebod Lutheran Church, they were greeted by a severe blizzard which prevented them from moving into the parsonage for several days. The parsonage, located across from the church, had been redecorated, cleaned, insulated and made ready for their occupancy and soon they were comfortably ensconced. This was to be their home for almost 18 years.

Danebod Family Recreation Camps, Otto G. Hoiberg

The Bridge

"The family that plays together , stays together !" Implied conversely in this generalization , one finds at least a partial explanation of the troubled waters presently navigated by the family in America. Whereas in years gone by , much recreational activity was enjoyed jointly by the various members of a family , in this day and age each member tends to go his own way to satisfy his leisure time needs and desires. After the dinner hour , Dad has a bowling engagement , Mom goes to a meeting of her Study Club , Susie heads for a Girl …

Enok Mortensen And Askov, Hans Henningsen

The Bridge

The connection between Enok Mortensen and Askov Folk High School in Denmark came about accidentally, as it were, in the middle of the 1950s. The background was that rector Knud Hansen made some critical remarks, in an interview, about the United States and American foreign policy. This caused a great to-do in the press, so much so that the American ambassador decided to visit Askov Folk High School to judge for himself whether it were possible that Askov had "gone communist." Shortly thereafter Knud Hansen received an official invitation to spend three months in the United States. The visit, which …

Enok Mortensen As A Danish-American, Erling Duus

The Bridge

Many years ago, Enok Mortensen wrote about the impact of the first singing of Kristian 0stergaard' s "Bag B0lgende Have" 1at a meeting at Nysted Folk School. For the first time, Danish-Americans had a song which moved beyond nostalgia to affirmation. It filled a need which had become powerful. It gave expression to the fact that the kind of rich cultural and spiritually generative Danishness which came to flower in the Grundtvigian movement had become implanted in the spaciousness of the plains and the prairies, and was transformed in this liberating new environment. This article 2 was characteristic of the …

Table Talk, L. C. Laursen

The Bridge

Table Talk was prepared for the wedding of Margaret Hansen and Harvey Phillip of Enumclaw, Washington, at which L. C. Laursen was to have officiated. Laursen's sudden illness, an illness from which he did not recover, precluded him from delivering the talk. Table Talk comes from a Notebook Laursen presented to Margaret and Harvey Phillip, which was shown to Ruth and Ove Nielsen. They thought it deserved a wider readership and received permission from Betty Miller, daughter of L. C. Laursen, and Mr. and Mrs. Phillip to submit it for publication in The Bridge.

Danish-American Literature In Transition, Dorothy Burton Skardal

The Bridge

Danish-American literature was written by Danish immigrants in the United States mainly about and for members of their own group. Their lives were lived in constant psychological and cultural flux undergoing the pressures of assimilation; therefore their literature both grew out of and recorded multifaceted processes of transition. Today the literature Danish immigrants wrote is itself in transition: long unread or forgotten, it is now being rediscovered by Americans of Danish heritage. This brief introduction to the main Danish-American writers is meant to stimulate still more to reclaim their heritage preserved in Danish-language fiction and poetry.

Chapter V: Danish Religious Life In Chicago -- Trinity Church

The Bridge

When the Danes came to America, the Church of Denmark did not follow on their heels. The Danish Church believed that most Danish emigrants were dissenters, not supporters of the established Lutheran church. The Church viewed Danish immigration as too small to support churches, even in a city as large as Chicago. The few Danes in America might join Norwegian congregations, thereby maintaining ties with a similar form of Lutheranism. 1 The problem of not having churches to attend was somewhat unusual among immigrants. Catholic groups were welcomed by the international Catholic Church, wherever they settled. Such Protestants as the …

Conclusion: Chicago And The Evolution Of The Danish Community

The Bridge

As contemporaries and historians noted, the development of the ethnic American depended upon a unique blend of two cultures. This study has illustrated that fact, beginning with the sources of immigration. We found that immigration resulted from a complex interplay of European and American factors, which influenced not only the immigrant and his community, but the old culture as well. For example, the existence of plentiful American farmland led to an immigration to American farms. As American produce then rose in volume, more was exported to Europe, contributing to an agricultural crisis in Denmark. That in turn generated a new …

Chapter Iv: Danish Social Life In Chicago -- The Dania Club

The Bridge

Chapters IV and V assumes that one can use ethnic associations to trace the evolution of an ethnic community. This viewpoint has frequently been substantiated by historians studying such diverse ethnic groups as the Cleveland Slovaks, the Boston Irish and the Chicago Italians. 1 These historians recognized that ethnic societies took diverse forms, depending on their constituents and their goals. A thorough study of Danish institutions, then , would require an examination of social, religious, professional, political, national, cultural, charitable, fraternal, athletic, and mutual-benefit societies.

A Midsummer Day, Amy R. Thrall

The Bridge

"Where was Chris?; Why didn't he hurry?" He knew Greta was to be the overseer of the dinner. It was Midsummer's Day; she had to be in Linden by nine o'clock to organize the work in the kitchen. The four girls, up since dawn, harassed her with questions; too young to understand that "sol er oppe" meant "sun is up," signifying a blessing to the earth in bringing life to the crops and flowers. The sun doesn't set in Denmark on June 24th until eleven at night and rises at two in the morning. Having lived through the long and …

Marcus Lee Hansen: America's First Transethnic Historian, Moses Rischin

The Bridge

In a world in flux, the historian must strike a balance between change and tradition. The historian of American immigration and culture particularly sits poised on the knife's edge, seeking universal categories of analysis and understanding while immersing himself in a loving study of distinct peoples, places, and ways of life in disarray. He is the boomer engineer committed to democracy and equality, progress and growth, mobility and technology, science and medicine, individualism and freedom. But he is also the artist, priest, and guardian of culture, the admirer of fragile arts and crafts and tastes perfected over generations, of customs, …

The Partridge, Martin A. Hansen, Inga Wiehl, Translator

The Bridge

"Martin A. Hansen is considered one of the best and most influential Danish writers of the century. Despite his premature death in 1955 at the age of forty-six, he left a rich artistic legacy of novels, short stories, and travel descriptions as well as essays and books dealing with historical, cultural and philosophical themes.

'The Partridge' ('Agerhonen') is the title story of a collection of twelve short stories, all of which emphasize artistic expression as self-revelation. It is the means whereby the artist transforms the world and makes it new. The twelve stories are divided into three parts, childhood, adolescence …

Questioning Our Danish Heritage: The Evolution Of An Ethnic Identity, Otto N. Larsen

The Bridge

Here we are over one-hundred persons ranging in age from 9 to 90 gathered for the first Pacific Northwest Danish Cultural Conference. Given the title of my remarks, I had better start with a question: why are we here?

The general answer must be that we are here to re-kindle the experience of our heritage, to learn more about it, and to enjoy our common bond. It is often said that whenever Danes get together they have a good time, even if they are melancholy about it.

The Feilberg Letters: A Danish Family's Reflections On Canadian Prairie Life, Jorgen Dahlie

The Bridge

So wrote Aksel Sandemose, noted Danish-Norwegian writer and himself an immigrant to Canada in 1927. When he spoke of iron determination and perseverance, he might well have been describing the Ditlev and Julie Feilberg family, a small part of whose experiences in Canada are recounted in the excerpts which follow. Without making too extravagant a claim for the uniqueness of any one immigrant encounter with a new land, one is nonetheless forced to acknowledge that each individual or family brought with them their own special cultural and intellectual resources. A reading of the Feilberg letters reveals that this family had …

Heritage, Johannes Knudsen

The Bridge

The term "heritage" brings up associations of "heredity" and this again reminds us of genes and the genetic code. Heritage in this sense is terribly important. We are programmed by our genes. Our appearance and condition are pre-determined in many ways, ranging from the color of our eyes to the state of our health and the potential of our mind, and including negative as well as positive features. Genetic heritage can be a blessing and it can be a burden. It has the greatest significance for the individual, but is also an important corporate factor. Ethnic groups have genetic features …

Some Thoughts On Acculturation, Otto G. Hoiberg

The Bridge

Three years ago an important work entitled Flight to America - The Social Background of 300,000 Danish Emigrants was published by Kristian Hvidt(1), Head Librarian of the Danish Parliamentary Library in Copenhagen. Dr. Hvidt's painstaking demographic study of 58 handwritten volumes of data ralating to America-bound Danish emigrants between 1868 and 1914, together with computer analysis, revealed a wealth of interesting information relating to the age, sex, family status, occupation, motivation and other characteristics of the people concerned.

Danes Came To Central Wharton County In 1894 Bringing Church, Language, Culture, John L. Davis

The Bridge

The grass reached to the bottoms of the wagons when the first group of Danes came to central Wharton County, Texas, in 1894. Land had been bought by J. C. Evers, an agent for the Danish Folk Society, to be resold to immigrants. The Dansk Folkesamfund was interested in founding an agricultural settlement in which the Danish culture and language, and the Lutheran church, might be preserved. Like many people who came to Texas, the settlers were looking for a new place to live - a place they could farm and raise their children .