European History Commons^™

Jürg Federspiel (1931), Rolf Kieser

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Federspiel, Jürg (1931-), Swiss novelist, poet, and short-story writer, was born in Winterthur, Zurich canton. His first book is a collection of short stories entitled Orangen und Tode (1961; Oranges and Deaths). This title signals the author's obsession with the principles of life and death, which, in his work, frequently take the form of an ardent, often violent dialogue between them. "I am a sensuous man," he maintains. "If there are no oranges anymore, I am for death. Mine."

Albert Béguin (1901-1957), Suzanne Nalbantian

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Béguin, Albert (1901-57), Swiss critic, translator, and editor, was born into a family of agnostic educators in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the Neuchâtel canton. In his formative years, Béguin was attracted to the nonorthodox spiritual quality of such Catholic writers as Charles Péguy and Paul Claudel. Although Béguin eventually became a socialist dedicated to humanitarian concerns, his critical works usually emphasize the mystical aspects of literature. Béguin received his license in literature at the University of Geneva, and in 1925 he moved to Paris, where he was exposed to the ideological ferment of the era but was personally unable to adopt …

Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921), Rolf Kieser

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Dürrenmatt, Friedrich (1921-), Swiss playwright, novelist, and essayist, was born in Konolfingen, canton Bern. He is Switzerland's most important playwright and one of the most accomplished dramatists in the succession of Bertolt Brecht. A student of philosophy and theology, Dürrenmatt experimented with short stories reminiscent of Franz Kafka. In 1947 he created his first theater scandal with the chaotic drama Es steht geschrieben (It Is Written), a combination of street ballad and religious comic strip. After the failure of Der Blinde (1948; The Blind Man), an allegorical drama in which the struggle between nihilism and faith ends with the victory …

Giuseppe Zoppi (1896-1952), Hermann W. Haller

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Zoppi, Giuseppe (1896-1952), Swiss poet, short-story writer, novelist, and essayist, was born in Broglio, canton Ticino. Zoppi left his beloved mountains at the age of 11 to enter a religious school near Ascona. He later studied at the University of Fribourg, graduating in 1920 with a thesis on the poetry of Francesco Chiesa. After teaching at gymnasiums in places such as Sankt Gallen, Lugano, and Locarno, Zoppi became professor of Italian literature at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1931.

Review: Commission Nationale Pour La Publication De Documents Diplomatiques Suisses, Documents Diplomatiques Suisses 1848-1945, Volume. 7 (1918-1920), Part 1 (November 11, 1918 To June 28, 1919). Bern: Benteli Verlag, 1979. Lxxviii And 964 Pp., Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

This is the first in a projected series of sixteen volumes of documents designed to illuminate the diplomatic history of Switzerland from the founding of the modern Swiss state in 1848 to the end of World War II, a scholarly enterprise of major proportions. The apparatus behind the enterprise is an elaborate and intricate one. A National Commission for the Publication of Swiss Diplomatic Documents (DDS), under the presidency of Jacques Freymond from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, comprising historians from every university of the country and representatives of the Swiss .Federal Archives, the Federal Department of …

In Memoriam Corinne Honegger-Baumann, Marianne Burkhard

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

At the age of 85, Corinne Honegger-Baumann died on March 14, 1981, in her home near Rapperswil/Switzerland. Though she had returned permanently from New York to Switzerland about ten years ago, she nevertheless continued to follow the activities of the SAHS, of which she was a life member, with keen interest. For decades, Mrs. Honegger resided with her husband, a successful Swiss businessman, in New York. It was during World War II, which wrought so many horrors upon innocent children, that she decided to become active in humanitarian concerns. In 1942, upon Mrs. Honegger's inspiration, H.C. Honegger established the Pestalozzi …

Letter From Eugenia W. Howard, Eugenia W. Howard

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Forgive me for writing a form letter to you. I feel I am justified in this case because I will deal with a subject which I hope interests all of us. For twenty years I have been researching the history of the small, original colonies of South Carolina. I was a lonesome person for most of that time because I could find very little information and very few people who cared about that tiny but fascinating part of history. Suddenly I am hearing that more and more people are active in this area of research, and I would like to …

Review: Steven M. Benjamin, Occasional Papers Of The Society For German American Studies, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

The bibliographies listed above provide the researcher with valuable tools as to their respective topics. Diffuse and at times little known material relating to German American language, folklore, biography, and the history of German settlements, groups, and congregations has been listed. Such an undertaking must obviously be selective and cannot fully escape a certain randomness. A topical arrangement of the titles would perhaps be preferable, with an alphabetical index of authors added for quick reference.

The Making Of New Basel, Dickinson County, Kansas: Selected Documents, Harvey E. Bross

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In the early 1850s began the "trek of a people" from the St. Gallen Rhine Valley to other lands but principally to the United States, because they lacked opportunity and believed in "freedom" and the "rights of the individual. " Many settled in Buffalo, New York, others in Wisconsin because of free land, and still others, of course, in other states. Some of our people from the Werdenberg area in Switzerland, went to a Swiss settlement twenty miles north of Marienfeld, Wisconsin, where land was cheap, but the timber had to be cleared before any crops could be planted.

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Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Swiss American News Notes

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Review: Marthi Pritzker-Ehrlich, Michael Schlatter Von St. Gallen (1716-1790), Eine Biographische Untersuchung Zur Schweizerischen Amerika-Auswandering Des 18. Jahrhunderts., Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

This work is important for the understanding of one facet of colonial Pennsylvania, the organization of the German Reformed Church. In years of research the author has analyzed widely dispersed German, Latin, Dutch, and English sources that highlight the career of Michael Schlatter, a leading German Reformed minister. She corrects omissions or concealments of authors such as Harbaugh, Good, and Hinke with tact and critical acumen. Accounts of Schlatter's role in general works as, for instance, S. Ahlstrom's survey of American religious history, need therefore revising since they are based on the studies of those authors. But Dr. Pritzker offers …

Stories And Experiences Of The Early Settlers Of Turkey Creek, Harvey E. Bross

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Turkey Creek was so named because of the abundance of wild turkeys. August Packard of east of Enterprise is said to have been out looking for timber to supply a new saw mill at Junction City. He came to Wainscott creek and saw a flock of turkeys and followed them up the creek. When he returned, his oxen had wandered off and had gotten stuck in the mud, at the mouth of the creek. This story was told so many times, that the creek was called Turkey Creek, and the new maps came out with the name on them. However, …

Hans Syz, Of Being And Meaning. New York: Philosophical Library, 1981., Christian D. Nokkentved

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In May 1916, Hans Syz, then a twenty-one year old medical student, experienced an intense revelation. The event, coming after years of struggle, granted him important insights. He tried to crystallize them in writing. The notes, all of the same month, were not made for publication, yet a German edition was eventually published in 1972 "without alteration and commentary" (preface); an English version, here under review, appeared nine years later. This slim book is significant both in historical perspective and in terms of current philosophical debate.

Review: Walter S.G. Kohn, Governments And Politics Of The German-Speaking Countries, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Walter S.G. Kohn, a professor of Political science at Illinois State University in Normal, wrote this book out of an interest in the diverse culture of Europe's German-speaking countries and in response to a perceived need to close a gap in the political science literature. He set himself the task of comparing the governments and politics of East and West Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein, "a group of nations that are both geographically and linguistically closely related, and yet have very different forms of government." Kohn begins by giving a sketch of the historical and constitutional growth of these five …

Review: Wilfred Martens, River Of Glass, Murray Communications

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Wilfred Martens' competent writing style makes River of Glass a very "readable'' novel. The language, the images, the structure, and the transitions lead the reader easily from one chapter into the next. An effective cyclical construction provides a comfortable framework as the story begins and ends with the promise of spring. The circle construction is used within chapters also. The Siberian prairie is seen almost cinematically as a frame that begins and ends the first chapter. The reader first is shown the vast Siberian night sky, then is drawn into the bedroom of sleepless, frightened, 14-year-old David, then out again …

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The Bridge

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The Bridge

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The Bridge

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The Bridge

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Deepest Roots - Finest Fruits, Johannes Knudsen

The Bridge

Roots and fruits have an affinity in the natural order of things. It cannot be denied, of course, that the technical skills of our day can create marvels in sterile isolation or hot-house splendor, almost without roots. Nor must it be ignored that quickly growing plants with frail surface contacts to water and nutrients can grow luscious fruits. I would rather eat a strawberry than an acorn. Thus it shall not be contended that finest fruits require deepest roots. But let not the logic of cause and effect stifle a theme. Roots and fruits are valuable and related factors of …

Danish Settlement In Fresno County, California: An Example Of Acculturation To A Foreign Environment. 1880-1920, Marianne T. Stecher

The Bridge

Danish settlers were first attracted to Fresno County, California, in the late 1870's. By 1920, at the close of the era of Danish immigration, 1,839 Danes, 1 % of the entire Danish population of the United States, lived in Fresno County. The idea of Mediterranean crops thriving on twenty acres of fertile soil was tempting to aspiring farmers. The possibility of confining farm work to such a small land area seemed more preferable than one-hundred and sixty acres of spreading wheat fields in the midwestern prairie. A prospering fruit farm or a vineyard in sunny California was a dream of …

My Brother Is Born, Holger O. Nielsen, Harald R. Jensen, Translator

The Bridge

The day was February 14, 1889, and dusk had just fallen. As one looked over the western Nebraska prairie, the whole world was a huge blanket of glittering snow. The bright beams from the full moon fell upon the white snow, almost making day out of the night. Even the harsh Nebraska landscape was now white and soft, as gentle as a fairyland.

Danish Immigrant Materials: The Archives At Grand View College, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

Will Rogers, who claimed partial Indian ancestry, used to like to point out that his ancestors met the Mayflower at the dock. Be that as it may, it is certain that the dock was not crowded. The fact is, as John F. Kennedy once wrote, that this is a nation of immigrants. The vast majority of us are descendants of immigrants. Therefore, the history of this country, particularly at the grassroots level, is a story enacted by the immigrant.

Scandinavian American Archives, J. R. Christianson

The Bridge

The problem of locating and preserving Danish American historical materials has been in the spotlight in recent years. It has been discussed frequently in The Bridge and the Newsletter of the Danish American Heritage Society. In cooperation with Grand View College, the society launched a major project, the Danish Immigrant Archival Listing (DIAL), under Thorvald Hansen's leadership in 1979. That project aims to locate all Danish American historical materials presently deposited in archives and elsewhere throughout the United States, Canada and Denmark.

Four Poems On Death By Nis Petersen, Otto M. Sorensen

The Bridge

Very litte of Nis Petersen's poetry has been translated into English, and yet he is regarded as one of Denmark's finest poets in this century. In the following I offer readers of The Bridge translations and interpretations of four poems that deal with death, a subject that concerned Petersen over a considerable period of time. The reader should be cautioned, however, not to deem the poems typical of the poet. Death is one of many themes that run through his work. I have reproduced the originals here from the poet's Samlede Digte. ed. Hans Brix, Gyldendal, 1951 .

The Danish Colonization Society Of 1879, Frederick Hale

The Bridge

The Danish Colonization Society of 1879 (Den danske Kolonisations-Forening af 1879) is one of several organizations which historians have generally ignored. An analysis of it, however, could illuminate further a number of matters pertinent to the general theme of Scandinavian emigration. Essentially, it was an association that intended to assist economically deprived Danes in securing a collective home overseas as well as passage to it at the least possible expense. The Society was short-lived, apparently disbanding a little more than a year after coming into being. Moreover, the only direct evidence of its activity is its truncated biweekly newspaper, Udvandrings-Tidende …

Reminiscences From A Long Life, Ane Helena Paulsen

The Bridge

My maiden name was Ane Helene Nielsen and I was born in Yestergaard, Lendum Sogn close to Frederickshavn on January 22, 1866. My father's name was Ole Christian Nielsen, Kirkerod, Skaerum Sogn. He died early of tuberculosis. I can scarcely remember him. My mother's name was Mariane Jensen. She was the daughter of Jens Nielsen, Sondergaard, Lendum Sogn, and his wife Johanne Marie Larsdatter of Vang, S4,ndergaard, Tirslev Sogn.

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 …

Book Review, Ejnar Farstrup

The Bridge

This well-written and fully documented description of the merging of four Lutheran church bodies springing from German, Swedish, Finnish and Danish ethnic backgrounds is not "popular reading." It is however a description, much needed, of a process in which the heritage of each group is recognized and accepted for what it is in its own right, but also with a keen awareness of the subtle changes wrought by the impact of living in an environment vastly different from the conditions previously known to the original immigrants.