1974 Gemutlichkeit - German Festival

Sun, 11/24/2024 - 5:19pm

When: 1974

This recording was conducted in 1974 as part of the I Remember When television series produced by the Ann Arbor Public Library.

Transcript

• [00:00:11] TED TROST: Friends, we're speaking from the meeting room of the German Recreation Club, at the German picnic grounds, where today a German festival is going on. We're very pleased to be able to talk with several people who are very much involved in the German community here in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw county, and are largely involved in these exciting days that have been going on Friday or rather Saturday and Sunday of this week. First, I'd like to introduce Albert Duckek.
• [00:00:38] ALBERT DUCKEK: Duckek.
• [00:00:40] TED TROST: Happens to be in charge of the German Recreation Park.
• [00:00:45] ALBERT DUCKEK: Correct.
• [00:00:45] TED TROST: I'd like to speak also with George Sautter, who is the president of the Schwaben Verein, the German Schwabian club, I guess you would say. We're also speaking with Mr. Hans Rauer, who is in charge of the Greater Beneficial Union and we'll hear a little about that later on. Awfully nice to be here. I should say to you that if you hear any rumbling or music, we're having a wonderful time because right above us, are some dancers and a band. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk with these gentlemen with beautiful background music, and we're going to have a chat together about the German community in Ann Arbor. Tell me, is the park used only in the summertime?
• [00:01:31] ALBERT DUCKEK: Mostly, but we have our Christmas parties out here or New Year's parties right here.
• [00:01:36] TED TROST: You have a Christmas tree and everything, and really?
• [00:01:38] ALBERT DUCKEK: Yes. In fact, it's in there.
• [00:01:41] TED TROST: You have one that lasts? That's great.
• [00:01:47] ALBERT DUCKEK: We use it though, if somebody got a special birthday, like forty or fifty anniversary or something like that, we have these out here for the members only, mostly.
• [00:01:57] TED TROST: I see.
• [00:01:59] ALBERT DUCKEK: The members can invite their friends, something like that. But we try to keep this private, we don't rent it out very. Don't try to rent it unless there is a friend or somebody involved in it.
• [00:02:12] TED TROST: There is a close connection between the recreation park and the Schwaben Verein, right Mr. Sautter?
• [00:02:17] GEORGE SAUTTER: Yes. There's quite a few members of the Schwaben Verein, [INAUDIBLE] park verein. This are the Schwaben Verein and the park verein over there [OVERLAPPING] recreation verein.
• [00:02:33] ALBERT DUCKEK: German park, the way I call it.
• [00:02:35] TED TROST: I like the way you mix German and English. That's good.
• [00:02:39] ALBERT DUCKEK: Just make it simple, call it German Park. It's too long a name.
• [00:02:43] GEORGE SAUTTER: And there's a lot of members of the German Park belong to the Schwaben Verein. They have belonged to the Schwaben Verein before they started the park verein.
• [00:02:57] TED TROST: I see.
• [00:03:00] GEORGE SAUTTER: We did work together, of course, for years, and always got along real good and we had our picnics out here for a number of years. Lately, by we're on the more or less don't have any summer picnics and out here anymore.
• [00:03:20] TED TROST: Then we have, of course over here, Hans Rauer, who handles some of the business aspects of the insurance program that we will talk about.
• [00:03:29] HANS RAUER: Right.
• [00:03:29] TED TROST: That's great. Gentlemen, awfully glad to have you with us, and let's jump right in. That'll be the start and then I'll say if these guys have to go. I've certainly enjoyed talking with you, and we really appreciate the contribution that you have made and that the German community has made to Ann Arbor at the time of this Sesquicentennial.
• [00:03:52] ALBERT DUCKEK: A friend of ours had TB and at that time, there was no Social Security or any kind of sick benefit or anything around at all. He had that insurance, and he got for forty weeks, twelve dollar a week sick benefit. With that sick benefit, he came out here to Ann Arbor to a friend of ours, and he got well on that in that period and went back to work, and he is still alive and running his business in Detroit.
• [00:04:29] GEORGE SAUTTER: Yes.
• [00:04:29] ALBERT DUCKEK: [INAUDIBLE] was Branch 40 in Detroit and then these fellows where he belonged to, they sent the fellow out here to organize us.
• [00:04:40] TED TROST: I see.
• [00:04:42] ALBERT DUCKEK: We were organized at Branch 370, Ann Arbor from the Workmen's Death or Workmen's Death Benefit Fund or Arbeiter Kraken und Sterbekasse, that's the German name. It was organized in the 70s, 1870s already by people [INAUDIBLE] minded people, who've immigrated to the United States. Well, then we had this group here, more or less a sick benefit group and then the prohibition ended. Then we felt we should have some picnics and stuff like that. In the meantime, by the way, then we started the shuhplattler group. The Bavarian dancer and then [INAUDIBLE] we had that group. Here was prohibition, so we went down to Toledo, to the Schweitzer Halle, and there was a Bavarian dance group. We visited because they could have 3.5% beer and we went down there.
• [00:05:51] TED TROST: Well, that's keeping the social emphasis alive.
• [00:05:54] ALBERT DUCKEK: Then finally, the prohibition ended. Then we thought, well, my gosh we could have something in Ann Arbor.
• [00:06:00] TED TROST: Sure.
• [00:06:01] ALBERT DUCKEK: Then Schwaben Verein had 50th anniversary.
• [00:06:07] GEORGE SAUTTER: Thirty eight
• [00:06:07] ALBERT DUCKEK: Nineteen thirty, no.
• [00:06:10] GEORGE SAUTTER: It was in 1938.
• [00:06:13] ALBERT DUCKEK: Yeah, 1938. Then we had Hanselmann's Grove out off Waters Road. We cleared off a space in the woods and celebrated the Schwabisch fifty anniversary out there. By the way, I was first of all, I belonged to the Schwaben Verein since 1923.
• [00:06:35] TED TROST: 1923?
• [00:06:37] ALBERT DUCKEK: I came in the summer of 23 in the fall [INAUDIBLE] and I don't know why you want all that story.
• [00:06:46] TED TROST: I didn't know [INAUDIBLE].
• [00:06:48] ALBERT DUCKEK: Yes. Well, it was another location, we were a friend of ours, Adolph Vetter. You know Adolph Vetter?
• [00:06:54] GEORGE SAUTTER: Of course.
• [00:06:55] ALBERT DUCKEK: John Hanselmann, he had a farm out there. Then we cleared out a section of woods in there and took up temporary benches and temporary dance floor and had the celebration. But naturally, we had to carry all our wood with pails from the farm. There was no water there, so then we looked around for a place of our own, and we looked around two or three years then we found this place here. We have to give Adolph Vetter credit for that because he really found me.
• [00:07:26] TED TROST: When did you move out here or when did you close?
• [00:07:29] ALBERT DUCKEK: We we made a down payment on it and I guess in December '38, in 1938. Then July 1939, we had our first German picnic out here. We opened it to the public.
• [00:07:46] TED TROST: Did you have a big crowd? Do you remember that?
• [00:07:48] ALBERT DUCKEK: Yes. A good attendance at that time, but we didn't have hardly anything. We didn't have any well yet, we had one road to get in. You were here when we built that little bridge down there.
• [00:08:01] GEORGE SAUTTER: Yes.
• [00:08:04] TED TROST: Well, what do you use the funds that come from this? Lots and lots of people come here, Germans and non-Germans. What do you use the money for that you get from the festival?
• [00:08:15] ALBERT DUCKEK: Well.
• [00:08:15] GEORGE SAUTTER: This year, for today it's being divided between the three associations. It depends how much each works according to that way it gets.
• [00:08:28] ALBERT DUCKEK: You divide the profit.
• [00:08:29] GEORGE SAUTTER: You're dividing the profit.
• [00:08:30] ALBERT DUCKEK: According to the hours put in.
• [00:08:34] GEORGE SAUTTER: Naturally, each one can do over the money what they want to do after, the after part of it.
• [00:08:40] ALBERT DUCKEK: We didn't have any problems dividing our money because we didn't have any. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:08:48] TED TROST: Hans Rauer, you're the youngest member of the group that we have here. How did you happen to become interested in the Schwaben Verein? When did you join?
• [00:08:57] HANS RAUER: Well, I joined the Schwaben Verein, I believe in 1970.
• [00:09:06] TED TROST: 1970? That's not too long ago.
• [00:09:11] HANS RAUER: I, actually, came in contact with the three organizations in 1956. We founded a soccer team, and they didn't have a home. The German Recreation Park, after a year of struggling along on university spaces, they agreed that they would take down the trees and build them a soccer field, and that happened in 1957. My first association with any of the organizations was with the German Recreation Park in '56, '57. But then when I came back from the army, by that time, the ball team was more or less [OVERLAPPING]
• [00:10:05] GEORGE SAUTTER: Abolished.
• [00:10:06] TED TROST: Abolished.
• [00:10:06] HANS RAUER: It was coming to an end. Players were getting older, and natural attrition took care of that interest.
• [00:10:16] TED TROST: Well, now you were born in Germany.
• [00:10:17] HANS RAUER: I was born in Germany.
• [00:10:18] TED TROST: Then you came to this country, what year?
• [00:10:20] HANS RAUER: 1956.
• [00:10:22] TED TROST: Now, what I'd like to ask you is, does the Ann Arbor Community, the Schwaben group and the German picnic remind you a little of the old country?
• [00:10:31] HANS RAUER: It reminds me very much.
• [00:10:32] TED TROST: Very much.
• [00:10:33] HANS RAUER: This is what.
• [00:10:34] TED TROST: You're succeeding.
• [00:10:35] HANS RAUER: That is one of the major purposes for me joining the Schwaben Verein and the GBU. The customs, the traditions, the good times, Christmas parties, the German language and heritage.
• [00:10:53] TED TROST: Do you still speak German in the home?
• [00:10:55] HANS RAUER: We speak German at home, as well as English, in times when you have, out of politeness, no choice.
• [00:11:01] TED TROST: But that's good. Well, Mr. Sautter, how many members are there now in the club?
• [00:11:07] GEORGE SAUTTER: Approximate about 110.
• [00:11:13] TED TROST: 110, that's pretty good. Are the women involved at all?
• [00:11:16] GEORGE SAUTTER: Well, not directly. Women are only involved to the extent that they get a benefit, that the man gets a benefit.
• [00:11:24] TED TROST: This is in case of the insurance policy, I bet the women are involved in doing something.
• [00:11:28] GEORGE SAUTTER: They are on all the social activities in five days of the week, like cooking and every other meeting. The third Tuesday of the month, the women are invited too. The first Tuesday of the month, only the man, but on the third Tuesday of the month the women are invited too, they are at the meeting.
• [00:11:48] TED TROST: Well, now, after this is over, I'm looking forward to going upstairs and getting something to eat. Now, what can I expect in German food?
• [00:11:56] GEORGE SAUTTER: Bratwurst and Bockwurst.
• [00:12:00] TED TROST: What's the difference between those two? One is veal?
• [00:12:03] GEORGE SAUTTER: Veal and pork.
• [00:12:04] TED TROST: Bockwurst is what?
• [00:12:05] GEORGE SAUTTER: Veal and pork, I guess that's about it.
• [00:12:08] TED TROST: That's it. That's extremely interesting. Would you say now that the primary emphasis of the group is social?
• [00:12:17] GEORGE SAUTTER: Social.
• [00:12:18] TED TROST: Chance to get together. I bet there's good close friends that you have among all of you here.
• [00:12:25] HANS RAUER: Some are members of all organizations, some are members of two, and, of course, there are ones some that are members of just one of the organizations.
• [00:12:36] TED TROST: I'm wondering if you could give me a definition of a word that they've used a lot upstairs. It's really hard to define, but I'm with experts here. How do you define gemutlichkeit?
• [00:12:47] HANS RAUER: I define a simple, good time.
• [00:12:50] TED TROST: Just a simple, good time?
• [00:12:51] HANS RAUER: Right. Now, you can leave the simple off, but a good time, that is my interpretation of gemutlichkeit now. You can read a lot more into it, but it comes down. If everybody has a good time, you have gemutlichkeit.
• [00:13:04] TED TROST: How about you?
• [00:13:07] GEORGE SAUTTER: Well, that is just well nice, socially get together and having fun and enjoying whatever you're doing, mostly drinking [LAUGHTER] goes with it.
• [00:13:20] TED TROST: It's all right when you're among friends, I guess, how about you?
• [00:13:23] ALBERT DUCKEK: Well, I really call gemutlichkeit more the Bavarian style when you sit on a table and have a sitter or so harmonic go and singing along and drinking beer at the same time and have a good time with each other, that's what I call gemutlichkeit.
• [00:13:44] TED TROST: Ann Arbor was founded by a number, but Germans were predominant in the founding of Ann Arbor, I guess a number of those families have stayed. Do still the majority of Germans live in the west side of the city, as far as you know?
• [00:13:58] GEORGE SAUTTER: I think so, yes. I think there's still more some on the west side. Actually, in Ann Arbor, have changed very much in the last 30 years. There's a big influx of older German out the city people, and the proportion of German actually has gone back as far as I understand that's real.
• [00:14:20] TED TROST: Families are moving away?
• [00:14:22] GEORGE SAUTTER: Families are moving away, and families are coming in. From the rest of the state and from the whole United States.
• [00:14:31] HANS RAUER: Thank you.
• [00:14:32] TED TROST: Can anyone, in our group here, remember the first German festival, that was in when you just came out and opened that first picnic that you talked about. What was it like, did you have music, dancing, I'm sure you had food and beer, probably?
• [00:14:49] ALBERT DUCKEK: Yes. Because we didn't have a well, so we had to drink beer. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:14:52] GEORGE SAUTTER: Beer was always around, can't have no festival without beer. Not if you're Germans.
• [00:15:03] ALBERT DUCKEK: It was Wengers band, we had at that time. That was the west side band from Ann Arbor.
• [00:15:09] TED TROST: The west side band?
• [00:15:10] GEORGE SAUTTER: [OVERLAPPING] Wengers band.
• [00:15:12] ALBERT DUCKEK: W- E - N - G - E - R and then S, Wengers Band.
• [00:15:23] TED TROST: I suppose most of the German community were members either of Bethlehem Church here in Ann Arbor or Zion, right?
• [00:15:31] GEORGE SAUTTER: Most were the Lutheran.
• [00:15:33] TED TROST: Somebody told me that, I know Hochdeutsch. But they say that Schwabisch is a little different; is that right?
• [00:15:43] GEORGE SAUTTER: Different from Hochdeutsch? Yes.
• [00:15:46] HANS RAUER: It is quite different if you have never heard it before and only used to Hochdeutsch.
• [00:15:59] TED TROST: That's what we learn in the schools.
• [00:16:00] HANS RAUER: Even the Schwabisch people learn Hochdeutsch in school. But the moment the lesson is over, teacher leaves the school, they revert back to Schwabisch and it's almost like two different languages.
• [00:16:16] TED TROST: Somebody said, I guess, it's a little like Pennsylvania Dutch.
• [00:16:21] HANS RAUER: I don't know Pennsylvania Dutch, but it would be the same differences if you try to understand the Texas slur up here in Michigan.
• [00:16:30] TED TROST: I see.
• [00:16:32] HANS RAUER: I don't want to compare one with the other, but you have to pay more attention to somebody that is speaking Schwabisch if he's not from Swabia.
• [00:16:50] ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, the band is going to play one more number and then we'll have the Schwaebischer Maennerchor. So the Schwaebischer Maennerchor will get themselves together as soon as this piece is done, we'll have you up here. Thank you. [BACKGROUND] [OVERLAPPING]
• [00:21:03] [MUSIC] [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC]