European Languages and Societies Commons^™

Front Matter

The Bridge

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The Transformation Of Chris Madsen In 1875-76: From Troubled Young Man In Denmark To Mature Wild West Hero In America, Frans 0rsted Andersen

The Bridge

In October 2018, I pub- lished a book about Chris Madsen with the title Et liv pa kanten. En biografisk fortcel- ling om Chris Madsen's utrolige liv (A life on the edge. A bi- ography about the incredible life of Chris Madsen). The second edition, which I cite in this article, was published in 2019. This book grew out of two separate projects: one aimed at publishing texts that can encourage boys and men to read more books (again), and another focused on Dan- ish emigration to the US in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Danish Doughboys: Danish American Soldiers In The Us Army And Navy In World War I, Bjarne S. Bendtsen

The Bridge

In the park justbelow Marselisborg Castle in Aarhus-the Queen's preferred summer residence-stands the official Danish monument for Danes killed in World War I. It is a beautiful and solemn monument, placed in a scenic setting in the park that stretches from the small castle down to the Bay of Aarhus, with a view of Mols and Helgenaes in the distance. But wasn't Denmark neutral in that war, you may ask? Why, then, a monument for the fallen in a war that the country did not participate in? It is a rather complicated story, which this article outlines by showing the …

Full Issue

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Editorial Statement

The Bridge

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Tycho Brahe: Science And Life In The Danish Renaissance, John Robert Christianson

The Bridge

Today, we are constantly using data; some even say that we live in an Age of Data. Most of us hardly realize that a Danish astronomer set the whole process in motion more than four hundred years ago. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) changed the world with his innovative approach to astronomy and observational data. My interest in him started with a college term paper and eventually led to writing and editing books and articles about his life and work in Renaissance Denmark. This research led me to develop new interpretations of his revolutionary approach to understanding the heavens and the natural …

Remembering Our Unsung Pioneer Ancestors, Jim Lewis

The Bridge

My great-grandparents, Niels Jensen Norgaard (1848-1920) and Karen Sorensen Norgaard (1852-1949) immigrated to America in 1869 and 1871, respectively. They had both been raised in the Aalborg area of northern Jutland. Niels left his family and a comfortable home at the age of twenty to travel alone to a new, yet unknown, destination. His immediate objective was Harlan, Iowa, where relatives had a farm. It was twelve hundred miles across unfamiliar land between New York City and Harlan, Iowa. Niels was alone in a strange land, didn't know the language, and had little money to sustain himself. He traveled on …

Niklaus Leuenberger: Predating Gandhi In 1653?, Hans Leuenberger

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The 1653 Peasant War can be subdivided in the following phases:

The beginning of the rebellion in the Entlebuch Valley, Canton

Lucerne. The massive popular revolt under the leadership of Niklaus

Leuenberger, chairman of the “League of Huttwil,” as of the

signing of the Oath of Huttwil [Bundesbrief] with the aim

of a renewal of the Oath of Rütli of 1291 [author’s remark],

through to the conclusion of the Murifeld Peace Treaty.

A History Of The Swiss In California, Richard Hacken

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In 1848, the same year that Switzerland’s political structure

took on its present constitutional form as a modern nation-state, a Swiss

settler-entrepreneur named John Sutter became aware of gold deposits

at his mill in Alta California. This led directly to the California Gold

Rush. Two years later, in 1850, the United States accepted the freshly

acquired and promising region now known as “California” into the

Union as a state. Swiss immigrants enhanced the development of California

from its very inception.

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The Bridge

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Militant Switzerland Vs. Switzerland, Island Of Peace, Alex Winiger

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Two monumental murals depict Switzerland during the

First World War: the votive painting in the Lower Ranft Chapel in

Flüeli-Ranft by Robert Durrer (1867-1934), Albert Hinter (1876-

1957) and Hans von Matt (1899-1985) from 1920-21, and the cycle

of Charles L’Eplattenier (1874-1946) in the Knights’ Hall of the Colombier

Castle from 1915-19, depicting the mobilization of Swiss

soldiers in 1914. They report in rich details how differently artists in

that country saw the war of 1914-18. Both were put into architectural

monuments built around 1500.

Full Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Review

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A Primer For Beginning Russian, Dasha Culic Nisula

Books Written by World Languages and Literatures Faculty

A two week introductory course to the teaching of Russian featuring lessons, exercises, and supplements.

Ernest Brog: Bringing Swiss Cheese To Star Valley, Wyoming, Alexandra Carlile, Adam Callister, Quinn Galbraith

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Star Valley is a small community on the western side of Wyoming,

today consisting of the towns Alpine, Afton, Thayne, and others.

The area, sometimes known as “Little Switzerland,” is a thriving

community with a newfound focus on tourism and other businesses

and services. Star Valley was originally settled by pioneers from the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1870s. At the time

the area was considered the frontier of settlement in the American

West, in which, according to one current Star Valley resident, “people

were just trying to eke out a living.” With harsh winters and …

Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Dwight Page

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Although a French national, John Calvin spent a large part

of his career as a pastor and a theologian in Switzerland. Specifically,

he resided in Geneva between 1541 and 1564 and transformed the city

into his beloved Protestant City of God, a safe haven for Protestant

refugees from all over Europe. Indeed, so thorough was the Reformation

in Geneva that the city became known as the Protestant Rome and

the center of the new Protestant faith. In the sixteenth century, at the

time of the Reformation, Geneva was truly the Mecca to which many

Protestants gravitated and to which many …

The History Of A Cemetery: An Italian Swiss Cultural Essay, Plinio Martini, Richard Hacken

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Years ago, there was no cemetery in my village. This absence,

which weighed heavily upon the people as a cruel stroke of

fate, was a result of our village having earlier been part of a neighboring

community, whose more favorable location—sunny and protected

from the north winds—had allowed it to prosper while our community

dwindled.3 After long discussions and arguments, the mountain pastures,

valley meadows and forests—formerly communal property—

were divided up into separate realms with precise boundaries: everything

was written down on parchment and sworn to in the name of

God.

Canton Ticino And The Italian Swiss Immigration To California, Tony Quinn

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The southernmost of Switzerland’s twenty-six cantons, the

Ticino, may speak Italian, sing Italian, eat Italian, drink Italian and rival

any Italian region in scenic beauty—but it isn’t Italy,” so writes author

Paul Hofmann1 describing the one Swiss canton where Italian is the

required language and the cultural tie is to Italy to the south, not to the

rest of Switzerland to the north.

Reports

Swiss American Historical Society Review

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End Matter

Swiss American Historical Society Review

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Back Cover

Swiss American Historical Society Review

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Contributors

The Bridge

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Table Of Contents

The Bridge

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Jacob A. Riis: The Ideal American Citizen, Flemming Just

The Bridge

At his death in 1914, Jacob A. Riis was one of the US's best-known and most admired citizens, who had been able to effect more social change than most of his peers. President Theodore Roosevelt had earlier declared Riis to be "the most useful citizen of New York," and now called him "the ideal American citizen." In one of many obituaries of Riis we read:

Denmark gave him to us, and if we gave Denmark millions in return, we could not pay her for what Riis did for us and for what Riis inspired us to do. He landed in …

Front Cover

The Bridge

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Front Matter

The Bridge

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Church Ships, Finn Bille, Krister Strandskov

The Bridge

Three ships hang in Fanefjord,

the church looks out to sea

and paintings in the ceiling

tell stories of the fall of man.

Language Shift And Maintenance Among Danish Immigrants In The Us, Karoline Kühl

The Bridge

The destination of most participants in the mass emigration from Denmark around the turn of the twentieth century was North America. In total about 400,000 to 450,000 Danes immigrated to the United States between 1820 and 2000, the majority between 1880 and 1920 (Grøngaard Jeppesen 2005, 265ff., 323). Danish immigration to the United States was, generally speaking, a story of socioeconomic success due to rapid assimilation based on both sociodemographic factors and attitudes. Between 1870 and 1940, when most Danish immigrants settled in the United States, the group included, to a larger degree than most other European groups, young, unmarried …

From The Eider River To The Great Plains: The Danish American Community And The 1920 Slesvig Plebiscites, Ryan J. Gesme

The Bridge

On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on the German Empire, officially entering the three-year-long conflict now known as the First World War. At the time the US entered the conflict many American-born citizens felt uneasy about the recent immigration of thousands of Europeans and the possibility of those new residents having divided loyalties between their homelands and adopted country. These fears proved to be largely unfounded, as millions of naturalized Americans took up the call to arms issued by the United States, even in the face of increasingly xenophobic laws and policies. This included the Danish American …

Eighty Years Since Ashland: The Untold Story Of The Transition From The Ashland Folk School To Circle Pines Center, 1928-1951, Christyl Burnett

The Bridge

This is a brief record of my journey to research the transition from the Ashland Folk School in Grant, Michigan to the Circle Pines Center in Delton, Michigan. This journey began as I became increasingly involved with the programming at Circle Pines, and more specifically the folk school portion of Circle Pines’ annual music festival, the Buttermilk Jamboree. I have been a neighbor to Circle Pines since 2001, so close that I can ride my bike there. Proximity has afforded me the opportunity to be involved with many aspects of life at Circle Pines. In 2018 Circle Pines celebrated eighty …

My Life As A Danish American Archive And Library (Daal) Intern, Chantal Powell

The Bridge

Scouring through archives provides a person with a glimpse into the details of the past not provided by just reading a history book. Homemade Christmas cards and PanAm airplane tickets, award ribbons and family pictures, newspaper clippings and handwritten letters are just a few of the details of people’s lives I got to go through and experience for myself at the Danish American Archive and Library (DAAL) in Blair, Nebraska.