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Start Over Subject German Americans Place Philadelphia (Pa.)

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Women's Auxiliary of the German Society of Pennsylvania (Frauen-Hilfsverein) records, 1900-2013 (inclusive)

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]

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Austro-American Relief Society records, 1916-1942 (inclusive)

Extent:
0.83 linear feet (5 boxes + 1 oversize folder)
Abstract:
Records of the Austro-American Relief Society of Philadelphia, Pa., mainly documenting its charitable work from 1916 to 1941, including fundraising in behalf of war relief for Austro-Hungarian and German civilians and prisoners of war during and after World War I. The collection includes financial records, membership and donor lists, inventories, correspondence, ephemera, and clippings.

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

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Deutscher Klub und Technischer Verein records, 1884-1939 (inclusive)

Extent:
0.9 linear feet (5 boxes)
Abstract:
Records of two Philadelphia societies, the Deutscher Klub (German Club), founded 1874, and the Technischer Verein von Philadelphia (Technical Society of Philadelphia), founded 1872. The Technischer Verein first became affiliated with the Deutscher Klub in 1896, and met at the latter society's clubhouse. In 1910 the two societies merged administratively; and in 1928 they finally published a newly revised constitution and by-laws for the combined organization, which was called Deutscher Klub und Technischer Verein. The collection includes Technischer Verein records from 1884 to 1926; Deutscher Klub minutes from 1888 to 1898; and minutes of the combined organization from 1922 to 1937, with one item dated 1939. Also included is ephemera dating from 1927 to 1933, inlcuding items from the Women's Auxiliary of the organization, and from the National Association of German-American Technologists, which from its beginnings in 1884 was closely aligned with the Technischer Verein von Philadelphia.

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

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German Society of Pennsylvania institutional records, 1764-1968 (bulk) 1764-1998 (inclusive)

Extent:
27.4 linear feet
Abstract:
The German Society of Pennsylvania, founded in Philadelphia in 1764, directed its early efforts to assisting new German immigrants, especially those forced into indentured servitude when they were unable to pay their sea fare. Throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries, the Society was very visible in the thriving German-American community in Philadelphia, boasting just over one thousand members at the peak of its growth, in the late 1870s. In the 20th century, the Society’s scope and prominence was affected by the two World Wars, which created suspicion and criticism of Germanic culture. That suspicion and government scrutiny played a role in the dwindling membership of the Society. In the post-World War II era the Society channeled its overseas relief activities through a Quaker-based aid society. In the second half of the century, the neighborhood was also changing, as it became predominantly African-American, rather than German, and more impoverished. But the Society pressed...(see more)

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

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Germania Männerchor records, 1877-1975 (bulk) 1877-c1975 (inclusive)

Extent:
1.5 linear feet (1oversized flat box)
Abstract:
The Germania Männerchor of Philadelphia is one of the oldest German-American singing societies (founded on February 21,1853). This collection comprises meeting minutes, a cashbook, and ephemera including programs, a photograph, and audio recordings of the Germania Männerchor on a vinyl record, with materials spanning from the year 1877 to circa 1975. The specific items include a volume of minutes and accounts spanning the years 1877 to 1887, a cashbook spanning the years 1888 to 1814, concert programs, a photograph of the members of the Germania Männerchor circa 1932, and audio recordings of the 75th anniversary concert on a vinyl record.

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

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Frederick W. Haussmann scrapbook, circa 1921-1925

Extent:
0.3 linear feet (1 volume/box + 6 folders)
Abstract:
Scrapbook kept by Frederick W. Haussmann, from approximately 1921 to 1925, related to his recreational and volunteer activities in Philadelphia, especially concerning the United Singers of Philadelphia (Vereinigte Sänger von Philadelphia), an umbrella organization of German-American choral societies, and the related regional group, Nordöstlicher Sängerbund, as well as the charitable organization Hilfsfond, which raised funds for humanitarian aid to Germany following the First World War. The volume also includes a section devoted to obituary clippings on German Americans in Haussmann's milieu.

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

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German Society of Pennsylvania Agentur records, 1854-1938 (bulk) 1847-1947 (inclusive)

Extent:
10.0 linear feet (52 boxes)
Abstract:
72 volumes of handwritten ledgers, indexes, logs, reports, and letter books, recording the efforts of the Agentur to help needy German immigrants and Philadelphia residents of German origin over a period of a hundred years. Valuable biographical information for local history, social history, labor history, immigration research, genealogy.

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

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German Society of Pennsylvania Foreign Relief Committee records, 1919-1925, 1929

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]

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Max Heinrici manuscript and photographs, circa 1936-1939

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]

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Henry Voelcker, Catherine Rabe, and Frederick Martin Rabe family papers, 1871, 1879

Extent:
0.2 linear feet
Abstract:
The collection consists of 12 letters written by Henry Voelcker, of Philadelphia, to his wife, Catherine Voelcker (later: Catherine Rabe), over several months during a trip to Germany, in 1879, along with a small notebook containing a draft of another letter. Henry and Catherine were both German immigrants, and the destination of Henry's trip was Durkheim, Germany, his hometown; he was very ill at the time and died shortly after his return to Philadelphia. The collection also includes a diary (partly resembling an autograph album) belonging to Frederick Martin Rabe, whom Catherine later married. Rabe, also a German immigrant and resident of Philadelphia, wrote the diary in 1871 when he was living in Lawrence, New South Wales, Australia.

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

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