The Germans who immigrated to Texas in the 1830s, 40s, and 50s brought with them many and varied cultural institutions which they had known and enjoyed in Europe. As soon as the initial hardships of the frontier could be overcome, they eagerly established singing societies in the Lidertafel tradition. These organizations were to have a profound impact on music in Texas from about 1850 to the time of World War I.

No description available.

Organized in the nineteenth century, the General Conference of German Baptists was primarily a North American denominational body that adopted the polity of the American Baptists to build religious communities of converts of German ethnic background. From 1851 to 1920, the General Conference of German Baptists resisted institutional unity with the larger English-speaking bodies. Instead, it developed an ethnic mission with the financial aid of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. With time the German church membership became more Americanized in language and habits. The external pressure to assimilate increased. Yet, the German Baptist leadership moved away from complete Americanization of the churches and sought to preserve the distinct Pietist theological basis and ethnic mission of the Conference. The General Conference of German Baptists embraced institutional independence beginning in 1920 with the dissolution of the Cooperative Agreement that bound the mission of the German Baptists, the ABHMS, and the Baptist Union of Western Canada.

No description available.

In the 1850s, many of Indiana's native-born Protestant population perceived the traditions and customs of German immigrants, specifically those concerning drinking alcoholic beverages and beer, as a threat to their "American way of life." They believed that the Germans' public drinking habits and behavior were the source of social problems causing instability and disorder prevalent in many of their communities. Although these problems were caused by Indiana's rapid industrialization and urbanization, older-stock Hoosiers blamed them on the readily identifiable immigrants. During the 1850s, temperance advocates in Indiana sought to force the German immigrants to conform to native-born Anglo-American culture to solve these problems of societal order and control. The temperance movement in Indiana was a fight to impose American cultural values on immigrants. Though temperance was a powerful social and political force in Indiana in the 1850s, it could not alter the tight-knit German Catholic community of Dubois County.The numerical strength of the German community and their strong opposition to assimilation hindered the temperance movement in Dubois County. The prominent role of the local Catholic Church and the Germans' common ethnic and cultural identity were two main factors in keeping temperance out of the county. Other significant factors were the permanent nature of the Germanimmigrants' settlement, the rural isolation of the county, the domination of the local Democratic party, and the prominence of beer in the German-Americans' culture.This study is historically important for several reasons. First, the reaction of this specific community to the antebellum temperance campaign provides a more complete understanding of how German immigrants in Indiana and the Midwest dealt with the problems of assimilation. Second, by focusing on a rural area, the German reaction to the issues of assimilation and temperance can be identified and examined independent of the urban problems of industrialization, overcrowding, and unemployment. Finally, it also constitutes the only known interpretation of the Indiana temperance movement from the perspective of those it most affected: the immigrants themselves. / Department of History

Preface -- Chapter I. Settlement and politics-- Chapter II. Early organization and secession -- Chapter III. German unionism and confederate service -- Chapter IV. Presidential reconstruction -- Chapter V. Congressional reconstruction -- Bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Neil Betten, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of History. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 9, 2003). Includes bibliographical references.

Opera is unique among forms of Western classical music and performing arts in that it has always been a popular and accessible form of “cultured” entertainment. As a city with one of the longest and richest histories of opera performance in Texas, San Antonio provides a significant opportunity to survey the relationship between this popular art form and discourses of identity, power, and difference across ethnic, class, and gender divisions. This paper has two aims. First, it investigates the history of opera reception in San Antonio in order to examine changes in the traditional values of its citizens over the past century, focusing on the influence of ethnic identity among German immigrants. Then, it looks at the scholarship on cultural performance in various contemporary situations analogous to that of San Antonio and constructs five key processes of identification that show how individuals contextualize themselves in shared histories and identities through their participation in cultural performance of opera. / text

Beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, a thriving German immigrant community could be found in the city of Indianapolis. The more liberal members of the German community established organizations which catered to their athletic, intellectual, and social needs. This community life was called Vereinsleben, from the German words for club/association (Verein) and life (Leben). Fitting homes were needed for the clubs. Thus, several structures central to the Vereinsleben of the liberal German community were constructed. The buildings were built to be recognized as the homes of these clubs and to provide all the necessary facilities. This thesis examines the history of the community as well as the individual clubs and uses the buildings as documents in that process. / Department of Architecture

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-64). Also available via the World Wide Web.