No description available.

Little scholarly research has been done on the function of Germanism among Mennonites who immigrated to Canada from Russia in the 1920's, and what has been done often relies on an oversimplified "desire for separation" to explain the phenomenon. At the same time, it has been argued that the enthusiasm for Nazi Germany among Mennonite immigrants in Canada is to be understood as part of a larger "Volks-German awakening". In fact, the Mennonite experience of brutal treatment during the Bolshevik Revolution, the economic conditions of the Great Depression, and assinflationist pressures from Canadian society put them in a naturally receptive position for the cultural, political and ethnic ideas associated with the "new Germany". The Mennonite ethno-religious culture which had emerged in Russia appeared to be breaking down, more rapidly in some areas than others; at the same time, distinctions between political and cultural Germanism were just beginning to be understood, as they were bound up in a single "package" which seemed to offer answers to the problems of fragmentation, instability and loss of identity. Germanism, and the German language in particular, functioned as an instrument of socio-religious integration for the Russlaender Brethren in the 30 years after their arrival in Canada. In the interwar years, Mennonite Germanism took on certain political, "Volkish", and nationalistic overtones; by the end of the Second World War, these elements had largely faded. In the postwar period Germanism becomes more clearly identifiable in its primary role as symbol and agent of the distinctive configuration of religious faith, sense of peoplehood, and way of life which had emerged in Imperial Russia. The Germanism which was expressed in the Canadian context was in large part a conservative response to the challenges posed by the forces of assimilation and acculturation, the effects of anti-Germanism brought on by two World Wars, and an inherent tendency of the Brethren to identify with North American "English" evangelicalism and to denigrate their cultural heritage because it was felt to detract from effective evangelism. A variety of sources have been used in writing this thesis, including church records, newspapers, personal papers, interviews, conference minutes and school committee minutes, as well as a wide range of secondary sources, including unpublished theses, dissertations and papers. In addition to outlining the contours of Brethren Germanism itself, efforts have been made to portray adequately the context in which Brethren Germanism was expressed, including that of the Brethren constituency as a whole, other "evangelical" groups, and the larger social and political currents of Canadian society. Extending the analysis into the decades after 1945 adds conclusive evidence that the Brethren Germanism of the 1930's was related more to Mennonite goals and aspirations than those of Nazi Germany, despite the presence of a significant (misguided) sympathy for the Hitler regime. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

“From Wilhelm to Hans: Ethnicity, Citizenship, and the German Community of Berlin/Kitchener, Ontario, 1871-1970s,” examines how the ethnic elite, a group of politicians, businessmen, professionals, and leaders of cultural organizations defined German ethnicity. It argues that claiming a place for Germans as loyal Canadian citizens was central to how the ethnic elite defined German ethnicity. The ethnic elite, however, did not define German ethnicity in isolation. Rather, German ethnic identity was arrived at through the interaction between the ethnic group and the host society. In forums such as public celebrations, newspaper debates, politics, and business, immigrants and established Canadians negotiated their respective identities and their relationship to one another. This relationship was shaped by factors such as the two World Wars, Canada’s relationship with Britain, and Canadians’ changing attitudes towards race and racism. German ethnicity, therefore, was not a static inheritance from the Old World. It was dynamic, continually being contested, negotiated, and redefined. Recently historians have looked to ethnic group identities to locate the origins of Canada’s multicultural identity. By studying German ethnicity through the lens of citizenship, however, this dissertation demonstrates that multicultural citizenship was not the inevitable result of immigration and ethnic diversity. To seek a place for Germans as Canadian citizens, the ethnic elite’s definition of German ethnicity was premised on the exclusion of others who did not fit the class, gender, or religious distinctions of Canadian citizenship. Furthermore, throughout the period under study, Anglo-Canadian critics challenged the place of Germans as Canadian citizens. At times, these critics were only a small minority, but there were others, such as the First World War, when the rights of Germans as Canadian citizens were challenged more broadly. Thus, the acceptance of Germans as Canadian citizens was always contingent and never fully settled. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This project explores the history of Germans in Canada: their experiences prior to, during, and after the Second World War. The primary focus of this project will be on the construction of the German Canadian identity in the years after the Second World War. I contend that German Canadian immigrants from the post-war years experienced discrimination and negativity which forced them to submerge their true identities. This submersion has left us with a weak German Canadian culture today-it is one based on the outdated notion of "oom-pa-pa" bands and Schuhplattler dancers. As this culture-and the people who perpetuate it-die off, we are left with a German Canadian culture and identity that is more and more Canadian. This project is primarily composed of a literature review and will use Erving GofFman's theory on stigma and spoiled identities. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Consideration of the significance of religious institutions in the experience of immigrant settlement is, at best, marginalized in immigration and church history literature. The limited amount of research that has been carried out is limited in time frame and/or by its lack of consideration of the wider social service functions of the church. It is rarely recognized that for new immigrants, churches can function as critical access routes to the host society or as protective cultural communities. Churches provide stability in unfamiliar territory through the creation of a sense of community, a sense of place and an extended family of support. This research seeks to understand how the church has served the German ethnic and immigrant community; how the church has aided cultural preservation as well as immigrant integration; and finally, how some churches have re-defined themselves in the face of member 'assimilation,' generational changes and neighbourhood transition. For some churches, their mission has been extended beyond their original German ethnic community to local neighbourhood residents, predominantly of Asian origin. Unstructured interviews with over twenty-five church leaders from ten German ethnic churches in Vancouver suggest that for many immigrants, the church provided stability and acted as a centre of social networks through which, for example, employment and housing were found. However, the position of the church in maintaining culture is significantly more complex; often dependent upon various factors including church age and the histories of immigrant congregations. This research demonstrates that churches have significant but generally unrecognized impacts on the immigrant settlement experience and that ethnic churches can, but do not necessarily, play supportive roles in maintaining culture. Churches that have recognized the social changes impacting their congregations have found new models of mission to integrate new immigrant communities.

No description available.

Consideration of the significance of religious institutions in the experience of immigrant settlement is, at best, marginalized in immigration and church history literature. The limited amount of research that has been carried out is limited in time frame and/or by its lack of consideration of the wider social service functions of the church. It is rarely recognized that for new immigrants, churches can function as critical access routes to the host society or as protective cultural communities. Churches provide stability in unfamiliar territory through the creation of a sense of community, a sense of place and an extended family of support. This research seeks to understand how the church has served the German ethnic and immigrant community; how the church has aided cultural preservation as well as immigrant integration; and finally, how some churches have re-defined themselves in the face of member 'assimilation,' generational changes and neighbourhood transition. For some churches, their mission has been extended beyond their original German ethnic community to local neighbourhood residents, predominantly of Asian origin. Unstructured interviews with over twenty-five church leaders from ten German ethnic churches in Vancouver suggest that for many immigrants, the church provided stability and acted as a centre of social networks through which, for example, employment and housing were found. However, the position of the church in maintaining culture is significantly more complex; often dependent upon various factors including church age and the histories of immigrant congregations. This research demonstrates that churches have significant but generally unrecognized impacts on the immigrant settlement experience and that ethnic churches can, but do not necessarily, play supportive roles in maintaining culture. Churches that have recognized the social changes impacting their congregations have found new models of mission to integrate new immigrant communities. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Les questions identitaires sont depuis des années au cœur des débats et des réflexions chez les Germano-Canadiens; les évènements du XXe siècle les ont poussés à constamment (re)définir leur identité face à la majorité (anglo-)canadienne. C’est notamment par le biais de médias ethniques qu’ils ont été en mesure de réfléchir à ces questions, sujettes aux débats les plus houleux. Le Kanada Kurier, un hebdomadaire germanophone du Canada, publié à l’échelle nationale pendant plus de cent ans, leur permettait notamment de s’exprimer sur cette question. Le mémoire s’interroge sur le discours identitaire produit par ce groupe et vise à mieux le décrire. Par une analyse de contenu des lettres de lecteurs de 1981, nous mettons en lumière les thèmes qui animent la communauté. Le corpus permet d’abord de voir la place importante qu’occupe la politique allemande, de constater la présence d’un discours identitaire duel, puisant ses références dans les contextes tant allemand que canadien, renforcé par des idéologies (politiques) communes chez certains germanophones du Canada et d’Europe. L’utilisation du concept de transnationalisme permet de soulever la question de la Heimat, sujet devenu éminemment politique après 1945, et illustre la complexité de la notion de patrie dans le cas allemand, surtout face aux revendications des « revanchistes » qui souhaitaient récupérer les territoires annexés par la Pologne et l’URSS après 1945. Au cœur de la majorité des lettres, nous apercevons le rapport complexe qu’entretiennent les Germano-Canadiens avec la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, véritable lieu de mémoire de la communauté. Finalement, le corpus montre surtout un journal dont le rôle aura été multiple et qu’on peut en définitive qualifier de journal diasporique. / German-Canadians have reflected on questions of identity for a number of years. Some events occurring during the 20th century have indeed forced them to constantly (re)define their particular identity vis-à-vis the (English-speaking) majority in Canada. Ethnic newspapers have been central to the community’s reflection on a number of those identity issues, including some very heated debates. The Kanada Kurier, a weekly German publication distributed across Canada for about a century, had been a forum for German-Canadians trying to define and express themselves. This thesis will thus interrogate and describe German-Canadian identity discourse as it came to be embodied in the Kurier. The identity discourse and the issues the community was concerned with will be highlighted via an analysis of the comments from the newspaper’s readers’ section published in 1981. First, the body of letters illuminates that German politics were central to German-Canadians’ dual identity; this identity being forged by references to the Canadian as well as the German context and reinforced by politics shared by Germans in Canada and Europe. Using the concept of transnationalism, the thesis will interrogate the Heimat, a highly political topic after 1945, and illustrate the complexity of the fatherland/motherland motif in the German case, especially in the context of demands from the Revanchists for territories taken over by Poland and the USSR after 1945. Central to most of the letters analysed is the difficult relationship Germans-Canadians continued to have with the events of World War II, which serves as one of the community’s lieu de mémoire. Finally, a deep analysis of the Kanada Kurier reveals a medium that was exploited in multiple ways and a newspaper that has definite diasporic qualities. / Identitätsfragen stehen seit Jahren im Mittelpunkt der Debatten und Überlegungen der Deutsch-Kanadier, die durch die Geschehnisse des 20. Jahrhunderts ständig gezwungen wurden, ihre Identität der (anglo-)kanadischen Mehrheit gegenüber neu zu bedenken und zu definieren. Vor allem durch ethnische Medien waren sie in der Lage, über diese heikle Frage zu reflektieren. Der Kanada Kurier, eine seit mehr als hundert Jahren im gesamten Kanada veröffentlichte deutschsprachige Wochenzeitung, ermöglichte ihnen, sich über diese Fragen zu äußern. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht den Identitätsdiskurs dieser Gemeinschaft. Anhand einer Inhaltsanalyse der Leserbriefe von 1981 soll dargestellt werden, was die Gruppe am meistens bewegt. Das Korpus zeigt erstens den wichtigen Platz auf, den die deutsche Politik einnimmt, zweitens beleuchtet er einen dualen Identitätsdiskurs, der sich teils auf den deutschen, teils auf den kanadischen Kontext bezieht, und der durch gemeinsame (politische) Ideologien bei den Deutschsprachigen in Kanada und in Europa verstärkt wurde. Das Konzept des Transnationalismus wirft die Heimatfrage auf, ein nach 1945 hoch diskutiertes politisches Thema, und veranschaulicht die komplexe Heimatvorstellung im Fall der Deutschsprachigen, besonders bezüglich der Forderung der „Revanchisten“, die die von Polen und der UdSSR annektierten Gebiete nach dem Kriegsende zurückerlangen wollten. Die Mehrheit der Leserbriefe verdeutlicht den komplexen Zusammenhang der Deutsch-Kanadier mit dem Ereignis des Zweiten Weltkrieges, der insofern als Erinnerungsort zu bezeichnen ist. Schließlich beleuchtet das Korpus die vielfältigen Rollen, welche die Wochenzeitung in der Gemeinschaft einnahm, und kann infolgedessen als eine Diasporazeitung bezeichnet werden.