German Joys

Americans with Odd German Names Teil Drei

Should we be worried that an American with a peculiar German name is a top adviser to the President of the United States?

“This is very much in accord with the president’s vision from the get-go,” said Karl Zinsmeister, a domestic policy adviser to Mr. Bush....

I think we should, given that his name means, roughly, "interest-rate-master."  The German word for compound interest, by the way, is Zinseszinsen: "interest-rate-interest-rate."  Ingenious, no?

Another American with an Odd German Name

Continuing from the previous installment, I give you Professor Aric Rindfleisch.  Not to be confused with Beef Supreme.

A Piece of the Rhineland in Missouri

The New York Times profiles Hermann, Missouri, a village founded by German immigrant wine-makers in the 1830s:

Hermann has called itself a Rhineland village, but that sells it short. Hermann is an 1850s Missouri River town playing the part of a Rhineland village, which is a lot more interesting. That allows the county courthouse to sit on a bluff and proclaim its presence to the river the way courthouses do in river towns, while squared-off red-brick houses with backyard grape arbors run up San Francisco-like hills on streets named Schiller and Mozart. ... 

Hermann also officially celebrates its German roots. On the third weekend of May, there’s Maifest, which focuses on dancing, parades and crafts. Octoberfest brings four weekends of wine tours, music and food, and in December, the town features a traditional German Christmas market....

Unlike the Ozarks several hours south, the Hermann hills have no water parks, music theaters, casinos or magic shows — just rambling woods cut by fields, white-fenced horse farms, brick farmhouses enveloped in ancient trees and wineries. And its residents like it that way.

Hermann is so charming and well-preserved that it's suffering the fate of all such places in the U.S.: it's gradually being bought up by lawyers and bankers from a nearby metropolis (St. Louis).

'Germans' Leaving Mexico in Droves

According to this page describing German dialects spoken in Kansas, the latest wave of immigration of German-speakers to Kansas is coming from...Mexico:

For over a decade, farm laborers and their families from Mennonite colonies in Chihuahua province in northern Mexico have been migrating into the market of southwestern Kansas. These people are Low German-speaking Old Colony Mennonites who immigrated to Canada from southern Russian in the late nineteenth century. After the First World War, they moved to new colonies in Mexico to avoid restrictions being placed on them by the Canadian authorities. Now as the economic conditions in Chihuahua deteriorate they are seeking better opportunities for their families.... The high demand in southwestern Kansas for agricultural labor is drawing them to Kansas.... The need for cheap labor in the feed lots is overwhelming and with the Spanish-speaking Mexicans that flock to this labor market come Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites as well.

Today ... we estimate that some 5,000 Mennonites from Mexico are living in the southwestern counties of Kansas. These are young families with children. At home the language of everyday use is Plautdietsch. The church congregations established by these new immigrants vary in their language use. In November 2003, we experienced a two-hour worship service at the Gospel Mennonite Church in Copeland, Kansas. All preaching was in Low German; hymn singing and Bible passages in literary German; one closing hymn was sung in English. In other congregations, the use of English for preaching has been reported. Schools operated by these Mennonites are conducted in English. All schools, whether Mennonite or public, must deal with large numbers of children requiring ESL classes as they enter the school system. It can be overwhelming for a teacher in first grade to be confronted with half of the class consisting of Low German-speaking children. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment also reports that fully one-third of its low income health contacts are with these Low German-speaking Mennonites in southwestern Kansas.