Guten Tag! We’d like to introduce GAC! He is a member of the German American Committee of St. Louis and is proud of his German-American heritage. He’s a bit of a show off! If you “follow” him he will be happy to share his heritage with you!
His ancestors read a book by a Geman named Gottfried Duden and came to Missouri during the 1830s and settled in Dutzow, the first German settlement in Missouri. He had a Great-Great-Great Great Uncle who was a member of the Philadelphia Settlement Society that settled in Hermann. He had another ancestor that traveled the Ozarks with Friedrich Muench and helped with his book on the “wine school” .
His Great-Great-Great -Grandfather was quite the abolitionist and hated slavery and he fought with Franz Hecker in the Civil War. He had another relative that helped smuggle a freedom seeker named Louisa Alexander and her daughter away from her enslaver and reach St. Louis and her husband Archer Alexander.
His Great-Great Grandfather helped rebuild the country after the war, and that would help establish schools and Universities like Lincoln University for the former enslaved. And later his Great-Great Uncle would be one to establish a Turnverein in St. Louis and help others that were still wanting to come to America after the turn-of-the-Century. Immigrants often make the best citizens.
His Great Grandfather would buy the most War Bonds and help fight in both The Great War and World War II. Many of his relatives fled to America at that time because of the horrible things that were going on in Germany at that time. He helped establish orphanages and other institutions and associations that helped families fleeing to America.
His Grandfather lived here in Missouri in the mid-1900s and felt the oppression and cultural differences that often caused his family to create institutions that reminded them of their heritage, and their history that was rapidly disappearing. While they were the largest ethnic group in the country, many were losing touch with that heritage.
GAC’s father helped create the German American Committee in St. Louis in 1983. At that time our nation was celebrating the Tricentennial of Germans coming to America! Back in 1683, GAC’s ancestor’s ancestors had come from Krelfeld and landed in Pennsylvania. The St. Louis German-American Community felt it important to save these traditions, and all of the heritage that his family had brought with them, creating new traditions in America!
GAC is fond of beer and pretzels but also enjoys a Sunday afternoon in the Wine Garden. He enjoys watching the Schuhplattler and the Jugendgruppe dance. He loves listening to the Mannerchor and the Dammenchor sing, and is looking forward to his friends in the Liederkranz celebrate their 150+3 Anniversary. He loves taking in events at the German Cultural Society’s Hall and at their park in Jefferson County called Donau Park. He doesn’t understand when someone tells him there’s nothing German in St. Louis anymore.
GAC has a son and daughter that are each married, and several grandchildren. His son has attended the German School of Greater St. Louis and has a son that visited Ludwigsburg with the St. Charles-Ludwigsburg Sister City International group with his cousin Charlie. His daughter has a husband who works with one of the many businesses from Germany that now make St. Louis home, and enjoy the many activities of the St. Louis- Stuttgart Sister City. Both of their families enjoy the many German American activities that go on around St. Louis.
GAC wants to make sure that his grandchildren are connected to their heritage as well. If you follow GAC, he would like to share with you the German-American Community of Greater (that means Jefferson and St. Charles Counties as well) St. Louis. Over 5M Americans today still call their ethnic heritage “German”! Please join us as we rediscover what our ancestors always knew! We are proud of our heritage! How German are you?
GAC-STL 