Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
February 2022
Shellac record from 1926
Historical Context
The first German-American male singing societies were established in the mid-1830s, around 20 years after their counterparts in German cities. With the onset of German mass immigration since the 1840s, there arose a need to unite the numerically growing societies into regional associations and to hold recurring festivals. These ‘singer festivals’ have been held regularly every three years since 1882 and reached their peak in significance shortly before World War I, with the Northeastern Singing Association (including clubs from Maryland to Massachusetts) having up to 6,000 (active) participants. The accompanying ‘folk festivals’ attracted tens of thousands of visitors. Due to the war, the singer festival was canceled in 1918. Resumed in the 1920s, the triennial cycle was reinstated in 1950 after a twelve-year interruption. Even today, ‘singer festivals’ still take place in the USA, albeit on a significantly smaller scale.
Short Biography
The recording took place on June 22, 1926, during the 26th National Singing Festival in Philadelphia. The recording venue was the auditorium at the site of the World Expo, which was happening simultaneously in Philadelphia to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. The official publication, around 650 pages in length, also includes a brief description of this singing festival:
The concerts were given by local and visiting singers. Those who participated had been rehearsing for months, and the local organizations made every effort to make the occasion notable. Approximately 10,000 people heard this massed chorus of 3000 male voices under the direction of Emil F. Ulrich. On the night of June 21, the German Ambassador and the Minister of Austria were seated in places of honor on the stage.
What this mass choir from the Northeastern Singing Association sang almost a hundred years ago can still be heard today thanks to the recording on shellac records. If you want to experience it with your own ears, you can do so here! The digitized recording there is of a different song from the same recording session.
Significance of the object
The German ‘Sängerfeste’ served as a symbolic unification of people of different regional origins, each with their own distinct German dialects. The preservation and promotion of one’s mother tongue through song can be observed among various immigrant groups; for German-Americans, it was also part of the self-image of a specific ‘German innerness,’ which found its particular expression in ‘art songs’ and ‘folk songs.’ This self-image provided many German-Americans with a way to distinguish themselves from the supposedly ‘soul-less’ and ‘culture-less’ Anglo-American ‘pragmatism’ – clichés that have been components of German ideology far beyond the 19th and early 20th centuries. Preserving the ‘mother tongue’ can also mean remaining entrenched in its prejudices.
Do You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de