Organization: German Society of Pennsylvania. / Place: Philadelphia (Pa.) - Philadelphia Area Archives Search Results

Extent:: 0.1 linear feet (1 box = 1 volume + 1 folder)
Abstract:: The collection comprises the minutes of the Concord Group, a small German-American social club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from its first meeting, on 23 December 1937, until 20 November 1945, mostly in the hand of secretary Karl Rugart and contained in a single notebook. The club mainly carried on a program of lectures and discussions, on topics in the arts, and business and industry, combined with social gatherings and special excursions. In 1943-1945 there are references to war relief efforts. Members included Captain Louis H. Schmidt and architect Eugene A. Stopper, both leaders of the German Society of Pennsylvania at the time; sculptor J. Otto Schweizer; jewelry businessman Franz Zirnkilton (Jr.); German professor Harry W. Pfund; physician John B. Ludy; A. Raymond Raff, the Collector of Customs at Philadelphia; and Lutheran pastor Kurt E. B. Molzahn, whose membership was rescinded by the group in August 1942.

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 0.1 linear feet (5 folders)
Abstract:: This collection contains the records of the German Associated Nationality Group, a committee of the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross that led a fundraising effort within the German-American community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during World War II, from 1943 to 1945, as part of the Red Cross War Fund campaign. Included are minutes of meetings (12 March to 12 May 1943); invitation letters to meetings (July 1943 to April 1944); two appeal letters (1944, 1945), including related Red Cross campaign ephemera; committee membership lists; lists of donors and donations; and two clippings from German-language newspapers.

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 6.25 linear feet (5 paige boxes)
Abstract:: The Women’s Auxiliary of the German Society of Pennsylvania was founded in 1900 to serve as an additional charitable arm of the Society, with particular emphasis on charity for families in distress in the Philadelphia area. Since its founding in 1764, the German Society had provided charitable assistance to German-speaking immigrants in the community, especially those newly arrived in the country. With German immigration on the decline in the early 20th century, the Women's Auxiliary assumed the greater portion of the Society's charitable work. After the First and Second World Wars the Auxiliary engaged in war relief to German speaking lands directly and in cooperation with Quaker relief agencies. As state and federal government undertook more and more welfare work in the city, the auxiliary charter was changed in the 1950s to provide scholarship aid to students who majored in German language study. The records include annual reports, charters, bylaws, minute books, treasurer’s...(see more)

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 0.5 linear feet (2 boxes + 1 oversize folder)
Abstract:: This collection contains the records of the German Society of Pennsylvania's Foreign Relief Committee, which from late 1919 through 1922 contributed humanitarian aid to the populations of Germany and Austria in the wake of the First World War. Most of the aid was distributed through the American Friends Service Committee. The collection contains correspondence, appeals, reports, financial records, and ephemera. The correspondence includes letters from 78 charitable organizations in Hamburg, Germany, that applied for distributions of donated sacks of flour in 1919; and nine letters written from various parts of Germany in 1922 during the period of inflation. The Foreign Relief Committee was comprised of an all-male committee of the Society and a committee of the Society's Women's Auxiliary, whose greatest contributions were in the form of knitted and sewn items produced by the members at weekly gatherings. Also included is a 1929 letter from the Deutsche Liga der freien...(see more)

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 0.83 linear feet (2 boxes)
Abstract:: The collection contains an unpublished manuscript by Max Heinrici, and several photographs of him in his later years. The manuscript (approximately 460 leaves) tells the history of the German Society of Pennsylvania from 1915 to 1935, and was intended as a continuation of an earlier history of the Society that Heinrici had published in 1917, co-authored by Oswald Seidensticker. It includes biographical sketches of prominent Society leaders, and lists of its officers and board of directors for the period. The text gives perspectives on the experiences of German Americans in the era of the First World War, and contains material on charitable relief work carried on by German Americans in Philadelphia to benefit Germany and Austria-Hungary during and after the war.

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 0.63 linear feet (2 boxes + 1 oversize folder)
Abstract:: This collection contains records of the National German-American Alliance (NGAA; Deutschamerikanischer Nationalbund), a federation of German-American organizations in the United States based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that existed from 1901 to 1918, for most of that time under the leadership of Charles J. Hexamer. The NGAA aimed to foster fellowship and common endeavors among German Americans, to advocate on issues affecting German-American life, and to support the preservation of German culture in the United States. The collection includes correspondence, reports, clippings, and printed ephemera. The bulk of the materials dates from 1910 to 1918, and pertains to the NGAA's efforts to erect two monuments to figures of German-American history: one in Germantown, Philadelphia, honoring the first German settlers and their leader, Francis Daniel Pastorius; and the other in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, dedicated to the revolutionary war general Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben....(see more)

Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]

Extent:: 14.0 linear feet
Abstract:: General Louis Wagner (1838-1914) was a Civil War veteran who served as Commander of Camp William Penn, and a Philadelphia city official. He served as Director of Public Works for the City of Philadelphia. The General Louis Wagner scrapbooks, circa 1873-1897, are mainly comprised of newspaper clippings relating to Philadelphia utilities. There are also clippings on Philadelphia politics, temperance, Girard College, the German Society of Philadelphia, and other subjects. Of special interest is a volume of autographs of army officers and other dignitaries at Ulysses S. Grant's reception in Philadelphia, December 1879.

Held at: Germantown Historical Society [Contact Us]

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