VISITING AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE

OCTOBER  2008

50th Donauschwaben Day

Adds New Flag Dedication

To Its Celebration

Submitted By Marie Spaan

    The sun shone brightly with beautiful blue skies overlooking Lenau Park (Donauschwaben's German-American Cultural Center, Olmsted Township. Ohio) and it's many participant as they gathered to celebrate the 50th Donauschwaben Day.

    The Blaskapelle under the direction of Band President Roger Radke was the background during [he dinner hours where goulash and sausage dinners were available and freshly baked "Krapfen" were the popular dessert of the day.

    Promptly at 2 p.m. the groups and honored guests lined up for the "Aufmarsch" and the colorful parade approached the outdoor memorial gar­den. The Blaskapelle, Banater Chore and officers look part in the memorial program with Father Michael Franz of St. Stephens Catholic Church and Pastor Horst Hoyer of Immanuel Lutheran Church conducting the reli­gious service.

    The outdoor activities were con­cluded when members of the Youth Group placed flowers at the site of the memorial.

    Cultural Center President Franz Rimpf opened the indoor segment of the program with a hearty welcome, and turned to podium over to the day’s hosts - Kultur Referent des Landesverbandes North America and Cultural Center Board Member Hilda Hornung and 1st Vice President of the Cultural Center Board, Ingrid Dorr. The American, German, Austrian and Donauschwaben anthems were sung and a moment of silence was held hon­oring the deceased members though the years.

    The introduction of guests included: Diana Thimmig, Honorary German Consulate of Cleveland, who just recently was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C; August Pust, Director Emeritus of Multicultural and International Relations for the State of Ohio, recent recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor; Father Michael Franz, Pastor Horst Hoyer, Dr. Joseph Wendel -German Radio host WCPN & WCSB; Cultural Center Ehren President Joseph Holzer and his wife Fanny; Donauschwaben Society President Tim Cornell and his wife Cindy; former Cultural Center President Robert Filippi and his wife Liz; and S.T.V. Bavaria Schuhplattler President Kenny Ott, who was instrumental in securing the new flag.

    One of the highlights of every Donauschwaben Day celebration has been the German School graduation and this year was no exception with eight students receiving their diplomas. Mrs. Edith Hebrank, German School Principal and Mrs. Renate Elber,

    German Teacher, made the presenta­tion speeches and announced the grad­uating students as Cultural Center President Franz Rimpf handed out the diplomas to the following: Claire Beargie, Brian Bilstein, Erik Fogwell, Mitchell Moran, Matt Schwarz, Joey Simonis, Patrice Sullivan and Andreas •Thellmann. A $100 scholarship award was presented to Andreas Thellmann for outstanding effort.

    A High School German Test con­ducted by the American Association of Teachers of German was given to our students and medals were awarded to the following students who scored higher than 90%: Nicholas Boros, Patricc Sullivan, Keve Pigniczky and Samuel Bocchicchio. Students who scored more than 70% on this test and did excellent work during the school year were also recognized.

    Congratulations to all of these stu­dents - the whole German community can be proud of their accomplishments". We hope to see more of these young people taking an active role in the activities of our many German groups.

    At this time on the program our flags and groups were lined up for the Flag Dedication (Fahnenweihe) and our hosts Hilda and Ingrid made the introductions. As the band led into a marching step the old flag was carried in by Robert Gutwein. Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Holzer and Mr. Franz Awender attended it. Mrs. Holzer was one of the original "Fahnenmutter" - the other was the late Mrs. Helen Awender.

    The old flag represented the original Donauschwaben Club and when it became worn to the point where repairs were noticeable - it was decided to have a new flag made.

    As Ingrid Dorr explained, since the "whole club" is based upon "we" not "I", the flag is the symbol of this thought, and the new flag was designed with this in mind.

    Thanks to Margot Maurer and her design expertise, as well as Ingrid and the committee who worked on this important project, the flag has turned out to be a beautiful and noteworthy representation of the Cleveland Donauschwaben Organization.

    The new flag, with proper fanfare, was brought in by the official Flag Bearer Tim Cornet! and Color Guard Robert Filippi. Accompanied by the new Fahnenmutter Margot Maurer and Liz Filippi.

    The Dedication Committee wanted to make sure that all the groups and people in the club were somehow included symbolically, so next in the parade were a group of people repre­senting the areas from which settlement regions our Donauschwaben came, namely: Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia with its provinces Southwest Hungarian Central Mountains, the Schwäbische Türkei (Dunantul), Sathmar, Slavonia, Syrmia, Batschka and the Banat..

    Following this group in the parade were the representatives (Presidents, etc.) from every group in the Donauschwaben organization, including the "TSV Bavaria" Schuhplattler.

    The ceremony continued with each "regional European person" touching the flag (with gloved hands) as it went by them. Each "group" leader hooked a Schleife on the flag (ribbon with the name of their group) to the flag as they were called up to approach it. Father Franz and Pastor Hoyer bestowed their bless­ings on the beautiful new addition, as well as, their future good wishes, and the flag then became the official new symbol of the Donauschwaben German-American Cultural Center of Greater Cleveland and their groups.

    Both old and new flags were parad­ed around the dance floor, pictures were taken and the flags were placed in the flag holders.

    The program continued with the Banater Choir performing under the direction of Andrea E. Ball singing "Glocken der Heimat".

    A very large and proud Kindergruppe, the young girls sporting their brand new Dirndl’s performed with a song and several dances under the leadership of Helga Schlothauer and Ingrid Dorr. The Jugendgruppe followed with several colorful dances under the leadership of Margot Maurer and Henry Ludwig. The size and pride of these groups who completed the program were a joy to behold and their proud parents and families were of course on hand to encourage and support them!

    We will be watching for the new flag to make its appearance at the many coming events in the club’s 50^th Anniversary Celebration the first of which will be the Gala Dinner Dance to be held Saturday, August 9^th, which incidentally will mark exactly 50 years (August 9^th, 1958) that the first Anniversary Dinner Dance was held.

Fahnenmütter Margot Maurer and Elisabeth Filippi

Franz Rimpf, Franziska Holzer, Josef Holzer, Elisabeth Filippi, Robert Filippi, Margot Maurer, Franz Awender, Ingrid Dorr, Pete Szeltner