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Danube
Swabian
Literature,
Art and Cultural Collections
In
the USA
This
report was presented at the 2010 April Jahreshauptversammlung in
Chicago.
Forwarded by Annerose Görge, Chicago
Donauschwaben
The Danube Swabians were put on the world map in 2009 when Herta
Mueller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in Stockholm. Herta
Mueller was born in Nitzkydorf in the Romanian Banat, studied in
Timisoara and only immigrated to Germany in 1987.
Although she had written several books in German already in
Romania, most of her books have been written in Germany, some of them
together with other collaborators. Most
of her themes reflect the injustices, inhumanities and atrocities
endured by the German minority in communistic Romania. Her gifted talent
and extraordinary command of the German word and expression have been
rewarded with this outstanding and prestigious award. Some of her books
can be bought on the internet; the English version of Atemschaukel has
not been distributed yet for sale.
The historical significance of her works will be invaluable for
generations to come. It is,
after all, the written word, the artistic output of those connected to
the homeland and the collections of artifacts which remind us of the
culture which we now call Danubeswabian, that will remain for
generations to come, long after we are gone.
We are therefore recognizing and honoring the many contributors
in this field in the USA.
Quite a few academicians, like Michael Bresser, Jakob Steigerwald,
Franz Sawyer, John Michels, Charley Barber, Raymond Lohne, Dr. Brian
Landry and others have written and collected material about the Danube
Swabian immigrants into the United States. They have documented some of
their activities and interests here and have provided insight and
information for those interested in the subject.
The translation of Karl Springenschmidtʼs “Our Lost
Children: Jannissaries” and the “Genocide of the Ethnic Germans in
Yugoslavia” by the USA Landesverband and Stiftung, have provided
considerable insight and understanding of the post-war era history of
the Danube Swabians.
Many lay persons have authored books, most of them in English,
about their own or their relatives’ experiences in the concentrations
camps of Yugoslavia and have thus captured the history of that era of
the Danubeswabian experiences. Besides
many others, which we are not aware of, we recognize Elsa Walter with
“Barefoot in the Rubble”, Katherine Flotz with “A Pebble in my
Shoe”, Ingrid Andor with “Bread on my Motherʼs Table”, Eve
Koehler with “The Seven Susannahs”, Catherine Grosskopf with her
publications of poems and narratives, Hans Kopp with his book on the
Danube Swabians activities in the U.S.A., Luisa Lang Owen with
“Casualty of War”, Maria Horwath Tenz with “The Innocent Must
Pay”.
We know of some artists who have expressed the Danube-Swabian
theme in their paintings and works, among them Ferdinand Pleines,
Susanna Tschurtz, Elisabeth Walter, Diane Iverson, who is illustrating a
children’s book and Tina Leto a Professional Photographer.
An exciting addition to our collections in the U.S.A. has been
the recently released documentary by Ann Morrison, the “Forgotten
Genocide” in St. Louis. She has achieved, what we have been talking
about for years, and we wish to thank her for her great efforts.
We comment all those Ortsgruppen who have collected recipes and
published cook books, thereby keeping the precious Danubeswabian recipes
in circulation and for future generations.
Last, but not least, we thank our web master Dr. Thornton for
pulling all this together on the Landesverband web site. It is an
invaluable tool, dispersing many-faceted information not only for the
Landesverband members, but for the general, interested public. We
understand that each Ortsgruppe has a website and a newsletter, as well
as many Landsmannschaften, thereby keeping the members and public
informed and educated.
We encourage everyone to support the writers, artists and
collectors in their endeavor to keep the Danubeswabian Culture and
Tradition vibrant and alive, for future generations to come and to
utilize the materials they have provided for us.
Annerose Goerge
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