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German Society of Pennsylvania Foreign Relief Committee records
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Held at: German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library [Contact Us]611 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19123
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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The German Society of Pennsylvania in the era of the First World War
The German Society of Pennsylvania (GSP), founded in 1764, traditionally offered assistance to recently arrived German immigrants in the Philadelphia area, as well as charitable aid to needy residents of German origin who had been in the country for a longer time. In the course of its history, especially as German immigration sharply declined in the early 20th century, the Society also developed as a cultural organization. Since 1817 it had its own library, with a diverse collection of German-language (as well as English-language) books that continued to grow each year, and it had also (in 1867) established an archive devoted to the mission of documenting German-American history and culture. Moreover, the Society became known for hosting concerts, lectures, and other events that highlighted aspects of German culture, and the role played by German Americans in American history and cultural life.
In the period leading up to the First World War the organizational identity of the GSP had a particular slant toward German-American cultural activities, under the leadership of its then president, Charles Hexamer. From 1900 to 1916 Hexamer served simultaneously as president of the GSP and of the National German-American Alliance (NGAA), a separate organization that he had founded in 1899 with the mission of promoting German-language culture in American life. GSP board members took up positions within the Alliance, and the two organizations became closely linked [1]. Both organizations sponsored the erection in Philadelphia of notable monuments honoring German-American heritage, including one to Peter Muhlenberg, a revolutionary war general and U.S. representative who twice served as president of the German Society.
The outbreak of the war in Europe in August 1914, and the growing swell of anti-German sentiment in the United States as the war progressed, posed a quandary for members of the German Society as it did for many other German Americans who felt attachments to their lands of origin and to German-speaking culture. While some individual GSP leaders, including Hexamer and Board member John B. Mayer (who became president of the GSP in 1917), were publicly vocal in criticizing anti-German opinions and challenging the widespread sympathy for England, the Society as an organization generally avoided taking any political stance [2], although one could note that the GSP annual report for 1916 unabashedly reveals the political opinions of the GSP leaders: writing on behalf of the Board of Directors, the secretary, F. H. Harjes, in his introductory letter to the membership, spares no rhetorical flourishes in expressing belief in the rightness of the German cause, and sympathy for the suffering of German soldiers in defense of the "fatherland" [3].
If not the GSP formally as an organization, many leaders and members of the GSP, and of its Women's Auxiliary, played a significant role in humanitarian efforts in behalf of Germany and Austria, under the banner of a new organization known as the Hilfsfond (Relief Fund), and a related women's organization, Frauenhilfsfond, which were both founded in August 1914 shortly after the beginning of the war. Working together with the NGAA, these organizations provided aid for the wounded, as well as widows and children of soldiers killed in the war. After the entry of the United States into the war in April 1917, the Hilfsfond and the Frauenhilfsfond aided German and Austrian prisoners of war interned in the United States. Later, in the early 1920s, the Hilfsfond raised money for humanitarian aid to Central Europe, with a special focus on the feeding of desitute children in Germany; beginning in January 1921, this work was carried on in cooperation with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Quaker relief organization.
The establishment of the GSP Foreign Relief Committee, 1919
While the war relief efforts of the Hilfsfond and Frauenhilfsfond were not formally identified with the GSP, the Society did play a supportive, behind-the-scenes role, mainly in that its building, at 524 N. Marshall Street [4], served as a venue for meetings and preparations for fundraising events and such. This supportive role is highlighted unobtrusively in the GSP annual reports during the early war years, in the context of the report from the House Committee, which was responsible for building-related matters: in the report for 1914, for example, the House Committee reports that the GSP building "became the centre for collections for the wounded German and Austrian-Hungarian soldiers and their widows and orphans" [5].
In the postwar period, in contrast, the GSP resolved to take up a formal role in the charitable efforts to relieve the suffering caused by the war in the old homelands of its members. At a meeting of the GSP Board of Directors on 30 June 1919, just after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Max Heinrici, chair of the Press Committee, and historian of the Society, made a proposal to form a committee to lead fundraising efforts for humanitarian aid to the German-speaking lands. The committee was to consist of both male members of the Society, and female members of the GSP Women's Auxiliary. Members of what became known as the Foreign Relief Committee [6] were named at the next meeting of the Board, on 28 July, and are also listed in the Society's annual report for 1919: Louis H. Schmidt, chair; Carl P. Berger (served as treasurer); Franz Ehrlich, Jr.; Herman Heyl; Pastor Georg von Bosse; Frederick W. Haussmann; Fritz H. Hering; A. Raymond Raff [7]; Henry Lierz; John C. Kimmerle; Adolph Pemsel; and Adolph Farenwald. John B. Mayer, as president of the GSP, was an ex-officio member.
Immediately afterwards the GSP Women's Auxiliary also formed a Foreign Relief Committee, to work together with the male committee; the names of the members were communicated to the GSP Board meeting on 25 August 1919, and they are listed in the Women's Auxiliary's report in the GSP annual report for 1919: Antonie Ehrlich, chair; Emma Heyl, vice-chair; Johanna Knueppel, secretary; Mary Paulus, treasurer; and Henriette Keller, vice-treasurer [8].
The activities of the GSP Foreign Relief Committee, 1919-1922
Max Heinrici recounts that the report that Jane Addams made to the American Friends Service Committee about the conditions in Germany, which she apparently presented in person in Philadelphia, on the occasion of a meeting held at the Quaker meeting house at 15th and Cherry Streets, sometime in July 1919, just after her return, provided an additional spur to the Foreign Relief Committee to begin its work [9]. The report, co-written by Alice Hamilton, describes the dire living conditions observed by a small delegation of Quakers in their travels around Germany that same month, related to malnutrition and disease, with a special focus on children. It conveys experiences related by residents, as well as statistics pertaining to health conditions, especially the food supply, and explicitly characterizes the current horrendous conditions as the aftermath of the Allies' blockade during the war.
The Foreign Relief Committee apparently sponsored its own printing of Addams's report, with a special prefatory page describing the Committee and its work. Copies were probably distributed under cover of a letter appealing for contributions [10]. The Committee states in the appeal letter that the funds it collected would be distributed through the AFSC, and that food and clothing would also be accepted at the hall of the German Society, and packed there for shipping directly to Berlin, for further distribution in Germany and Austria. The Women's Auxiliary report for 1919 notes that the AFSC assumed the costs of sending the contributions to and distributing them in Germany and Austria.
Heinrici also tells of an appeal, written by him, that was sent to German-language newspapers all over the country. The GSP itself contributed $5,000, approved at the meeting of its Board of Directors on 5 November 1919 [11].
The final report by the Committee's treasurer, Carl P. Berger, submitted to the Society's Board and dated 27 September 1922, shows that from 6 October 1919 to 17 August 1922 the Foreign Relief Committee collected a total of $12,006, with the major portion of the funds going to the AFSC ($9,775); a smaller portion to the United Relief Committee of Philadelphia ($1,350), a separate relief effort that was led by Berger; a payment of $225 (equivalent of 10,000 Marks) to Walther Johannssen, a judge in Hamburg, for further distribution there [12]; and other smaller amounts, of under $200, to various specific German localities and projects, including $100 toward the new convalescent or recreational home (Erholungsheim) for children that was established in the Solling region in Lower Saxony, near the town of Dassel, a project that the Hilfsfond also supported.
The parallel committee formed by the Women's Auxiliary of the GSP made separate reports on its own activities. The women's committee collected money, as well as clothing and shoes. From money donated, or raised at events, it purchased cloth and yarn, and the women then met once a week to knit and sew together. In 1919 the committee report shows that the result of the first months of its activities, from October to December of that year, was a delivery to the AFSC of 2,803 items of clothing; over 3,000 yards of flannel, cloth, or sheeting; 225 blankets; and 145 comforters. In 1920 and 1921 the committee reports larger deliveries of similar composition (3 to 4 thousand items of clothing or pairs of shoes; 4,000 yards or more of cloth; hundreds of blankets) that it estimates to be worth $10,000 in each year.
Reports for the two Foreign Relief Committees (the men's and the women's) are included, respectively, in the general GSP sections and in the Women's Auxiliary sections of the GSP annual reports for 1919 to 1921. In the reports for 1922 to 1926 the Women's Auxiliary continues to deliver a report on 'foreign relief work' (Auslandshilfe), but without reference to the Foreign Relief Committee as such.
The GSP annual report for 1922 does not make any reference to the Foreign Relief Committee or to Berger's final treasurer's report. A paragraph in the letter to the membership discusses the continuing need in Central Europe and appeals for donations, but makes reference only to the Women's Auxiliary and the Hilfsfond. It appears that the Committee was at any rate relatively inactive by 1922. A report made by Berger to the meeting of the GSP Board of Directors on 27 September 1921 [13] shows that at that time $11,909 had already been collected, most of it by the end of 1920, with only $66 received from January to September 1921. Only $97 of the final total remained to be accounted for, by collections from that point on.
Berger states in his final report that the Committee had ceased to exist by decision of the GSP Board of Directors but does not give the date of the decision. The last reference to the Committee that could be found in the minutes of the Board is under the meeting of 13 April 1922, at which time two payments of $50 each were approved for specific purposes in two localities in Germany. It is noted in the minutes that the Foreign Relief Committee did not have enough available funds to cover the disbursements, and that the Board members contributed a supplementary amount of $20.
Footnotes
[1] Birte Pfleger, Ethnicity matters: a history of the German Society of Pennsylvania (Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute, 2006), p. 37.
[2] Pfleger, p. 39-40.
[3] Pfleger, p. 39, 41. Harje's remarks are found in the GSP annual report on p. 7. Like most of the report, Harje's letter is in German; the condensed English summary (p. 21-22) does not include any direct references to the war.
[4] The address was also referred to as the northwest corner of Marshall and Spring Garden Streets. The Society is housed in the same building today, but the address is now known as 611 Spring Garden Street.
[5] GSP annual report for 1914, p. 27; Pfleger, p. 38. The quotation is from the condensed English summary. The German version, which Pfleger highlights, has a less neutral phrasing, stating that the Society had become (in Pfleger's translation): "the central location for all efforts in the interest of the German cause and the alleviation of suffering in Germany and Austria-Hungary due to the war" (p. 21). In the introductory letter to the membership (p. 8; also in German), the same formulation is incorporated almost verbatim. Pfleger concludes that the GSP "by its own reckoning ... played an instrumental role in organizing aid for Germany." However, the remarks are made only in the specific context of the report of the House Committee, and not as a forthright statement of the organization's overall self-perception or aims. Yet it is also worth noting that Max Heinrici, writing retrospectively in his unpublished history of the Society for this period (see footnote 9), similarly elevates the Society's role as a venue for war relief work.
[6] The English name Foreign Relief Committee appears in the GSP printing of Jane Addams's report (Folder 1), and is used by the Women's Auxiliary in its section of the GSP annual reports for 1919 to 1921. The general GSP sections of the same reports refer in German to the "Ausschuss für die Unterstützung der Notleidenden in Deutschland," and in English summaries, less formally, to a committee on "relief," or "relief work" for "famine stricken," or "starving people," in Central Europe.
[7] The Board minutes note that Raff declined membership, but he is listed as a member of the committee in the GSP annual report for 1919, and on letterhead used by the treasurer in 1920 (see payment authorization letters, Folder 13; and one treasurer's report, Folder 18).
[8] The position of vice-treasurer, filled by Henriette Keller, is listed in the annual report although not in the minutes.
[9] Heinrici's account of the GSP Foreign Relief Committee is contained in his history of the GSP for the years 1915 to 1935, an unpublished manuscript with the title: "Die ereignisreichen zwanzig Jahre 1915-1935 der Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft von Pennsylvanien" (Ms. Coll. 46; see section entitled "Hilfswerk für die Heimat"). The influence of Jane Addams's report is also mentioned in the GSP Women's Auxiliary report in the GSP annual report for 1919 (p. 20).
[10] See Folder 1. The minutes of the GSP Board of Directors meeting of 27 October 1919 note the cost of printing the report: $137, to be paid to Allen, Lane and Scott. The extant appeal letter is in the form of a typescript that may have been only a draft. The added prefatory page also gives information about how to make contributions.
[11] In the treasurer's final report the total of GSP contributions (from several funds) is given as $4,320. A separate contribution of $1,100 from the Women's Auxiliary (Frauen Hilfsverein) is also listed.
[12] See Series II (Correspondence) for materials related to the distributions that Johannssen made on behalf of the Committee. According to Max Heinrici's account, Johannssen was a nephew of Louis H. Schmidt, the chair of the Foreign Relief Committee.
[13] Contained in the minutes of the Board of Directors for that meeting.
This collection contains the records of the German Society of Pennsylvania's Foreign Relief Committee, which from late 1919 through 1922 led fundraising efforts to aid the populations of Germany and Austria, especially children, who were suffering from malnutrition and vulnerability to disease in the wake of the First World War. The collection contains correspondence, appeals, reports, financial records, and ephemera.
The Committee was comprised of an all-male committee of the Society, and a female committee made up of members of the Women's Auxiliary of the Society. Both component committees relied mainly on the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to distribute the money, as well as clothing and other items that were collected. Included are two special printings of AFSC reports commissioned by the Foreign Relief Committee (a pamphlet and a leaflet). These items (Folders 1 and 2), with added pages that describe the GSP joint committee and its work, best reflect a unified men's and women's committee. Other records mostly show the two bodies working separately. Although reports from both the men's and the women's committee are found in the GSP annual reports for 1919 to 1921 (Folder 19), these reports reflect different work and are not significantly interrelated. The collection includes additional typescript reports and a volume of financial records by the treasurer of the men's committee, Carl P. Berger, and a volume of financial records related to the women's committee (both in Box 2). The latter, together with ephemera related to the Women's Auxiliary, reflect foreign relief work on the women's part that continued through 1925, although the Foreign Relief Committee no longer existed as a formal entity at that point.
The correspondence in the collection (Series II) is mostly related to the male committee's work. It includes correspondence from Walther Johannssen, a judge in Hamburg who acted as an intermediary there in the distribution of donations. Johannssen forwarded letters that he received from 78 different Hamburg charitable organizations, giving some glimpses into the living conditions. Other correspondence includes letters received from individuals in Germany appealing for help; these are mostly dated in 1922 and reflect economic distress caused by the inflation. Finally, there is correspondence of the treasurer, Carl P. Berger, including authorizations for payments and acknowledgements, reflecting distribution of funds, including a series of payments made to the American Friends Service Committee.
One item of correspondence is dated 1929, years after the Committee had ceased to exist. That item is a letter, with enclosures, addressed simply to the Foreign Relief Committee, from a German alliance of welfare organizations (Deutsche Liga der freien Wohlfahrtspflege) that at that time had erected a monument in its hall commemorating the various foreign relief efforts that had helped Germany in the postwar period. (Included is a separate letter from the German Red Cross; an oversize certificate honoring the Foreign Relief Committee, with a facsimile of the monument; and a newsclipping describing the dedication ceremony.)
Grouped with ephemera is one German pamphlet, Deutschlands Not: die Lage der Berufsstände, published by the German Red Cross around 1921, concerning the state of the professions in Germany in the wake of the war (Folder 17). Surviving envelopes show that copies of the pamphlet were mailed individually to male members of the GSP Foreign Relief Committee.
The collection also includes a copy of the final report of a separate fundraising effort with similar aims, the Philadelphia Business Men's Committee for the $3,000,000 Campaign, German Child Feeding of 1922 (Folder 12). That report is also by Carl Berger, who led the effort, and was submitted by him to the Society together with his final treasurer's report.
Note: The following organizations wrote letters to Walther Johannssen in September or early October 1919 in response to his newspaper advertisement about the distribution of flour from donors in America (i.e. the GSP Foreign Relief Committee). In parentheses following the names are the numbers that Johannssen assigned to the letters while sorting them, and according to which they are filed in Series II.A.1.
Altdorfer Anstalten, Erziehungs- und Pflebeanstalten für Schwachsinnige und Epileptische (5)
Altenhofs der Evangelisch-reformierten Gemeinde (91), only a notation
Anscharhöhe (37)
Anstalt für obdachlose Frauen, Mädchen und Kinder, Bundesstr. 23 (61)
Augusta-Victoria-Stiftung, Altona (29)
Otto Bahnson, pastor (50)
Behörde für öffentlichee Jugendfürsorge (94)
Blinden-Anstalt, Alexanderstr. 32 (42)
Blinden-Anstalt von 1830, Blinden-Asyl (85)
Borsteler Kinderheim (10)
Bund der Arbeiter-Invaliden und sonstiger Erwerbsunfähigen, Gross-Hamburg (76)
Deutsche Vereinigung für Säuglings- und Kleinkinderschutz (90)
Diakonissenheim Bethlehem (34)
Diakonissen- und Krankenanstalt "Bethesda" (71)
Eilbecker Gemeindehaus (82)
Frauen-Kolonie Prisdorf (51)
5. Warteschule (84), letter from wife of architect Julius Faulwasser
Gast- und Krankenhaus (2)
Gemeinde-Diakonisse in Eimsbüttel (32)
Graue Schwestern (15)
Graue Schwestern, Nölting-Stift (87)
Graue Schwestern n. d. hl. Elisabeth, St. Adolfstift (4)
Großmütter Verein, Stadtmissionarin Schwester Charlotte (41)
Hamburber Arbeiter-Kolonie (54)
Hammer Gemeindehaus (59)
Heilsarmee, Männer-Sozialabteilung-Hamburg (57)
Heim, Armenstr. 3 (39)
Hieronymus Knackerügge-Stiftung (21)
Hiob-Hospital (11)
Institut für Schiffs- und Tropenkrankheiten (35)
Katholischer Frauenbund Deutschlands, Zweigstelle Hamburg (89)
Katholische Gemeinde-Schule für Mädchen (12)
Kinderbewahr-Anstalt v. 1852 (44)
Knaben-[Anstalt], St. Pauli (64)
Kriegsmittagstisch für Künstler (letter from R. Johannes Meyer) (20)
Laeisz-Stift, Hagedornstr. 27 (80)
Magdalenen-Stift (86), with thank you letter dated in October 1919
Mariannenheim (46)
Marthahaus, Erziehungsanstalt, Krippe und Krankenstation (17)
Martha-Helenen-Heim (30)
Mg. B., Gruppe 8, Lokstedterweg 46-48 (69)
Milde Stiftung, Diakonissenheim Ebenezer (23)
Milde Stiftung, Krankenhaus und Diakonissenheim Ebenezer (93)
Missionsverein "Dienet einander" (3)
Neuer Eilbecker Bürger-Verein, Wohltätigkeitsausschuss (66)
Pestalozzi-Stift in Volksdorf bei Hamburg (38), only a notation
Rauhes Haus (81)
St. Ansgar-Stift (26)
St. Gertrud-Stift (60)
St. Josefstift Siechenhaus (8)
St. Pauli Krippe, Kielerstr. 7 (79)
St. Vinzenz-Verein (65)
Seefahrer-Armenhaus (40)
Siechenhaus Elim (83)
Siechenhaus Salem (19)
Staatliches Institut für Geburtshilfe (9)
Stiftskirche St. Georg (52)
Strand-Mission (45)
Taubstummen-Anstalt Hamburg, Bürgerweide 21 (70)
Verein der Blinden von Hamburg und umgegend (63)
Verein für Ferienkolonien von 1904 (18)
Verein für Gemeindepflege in Hammabrook (6)
Verein für Gemeindepflege in Fuhlsbüttel (75)
Verein für Krüppelfürsorge (74)
[--?---]scher Verein, written by Mrs. Lulu Matthiessen (88)
Wandsbek. Jugend- und Wohlfahrtsamt (53)
Warteschule, Heerenstr. 4 (36)
Warteschule, Sachsenstr. 13 (16)
Warteschule in Eimsbüttel (72)
Warteschule in Horn (67)
Weibliche Stadtmission St. Georg, beim Strohhaus 6 (77)
Weiblicher (Sieveking'scher) Verein für Armen- und Krankenpflege (92)
Weiblicher (Sieveking'scher) Verein für Armen- und Krankenpflege, St. Georg Abteilung (78)
Wöchnerinnen-Heim (58), address illegible
Wohltätiger Schulverein, Speisungskommission (55)
Wohltätiger Schulverein, Ferienkolonien (56)
Zufluchtstätte, Martinstr. 40 (22), letters from two different people
Organization
- American Friends Service Committee.
- Deutsche Liga der freien Wohlfahrtspflege.
- German Society of Pennsylvania.
Subject
- Charities
- German American women
- German Americans
- Reconstruction (1914-1939)--Germany
- Societies, etc
- Women
- World War, 1914-1918--Children
- World War, 1914-1918--Civilian relief
Place
- Publisher
- German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Violet Lutz
- Finding Aid Date
- 2013.06; rev. 2013.10
- Sponsor
- The processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from the Max Kade Foundation, as part of the grant project "Retrieval and Cataloging of the German-American Experience, 1918-1960."
- Access Restrictions
-
This collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
-
Copyright restrictions may apply. Please contact the German Society of Pennsylvania with requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote or reproduce the material.
Collection Inventory
Typescript, 1 leaf. Refers to the above publication of the report by Jane Addams and appeals for donations; possibly served as a cover letter for mailing the report
The correspondence found with the records is divided into four subseries: II. A. Hamburg correspondence, comprising the correspondence to the Committee from Walther Johannssen, a judge (Amtsrichter) in Hamburg, who acted there as its intermediary; II. B. Letters from various individuals or organizations in Germany appealing for help in 1922 during the period of inflation; II. C. Correspondence of the treasurer, Carl P. Berger, comprising internal communications as well as acknowledgement letters for donations received; and II. D. Other correspondence. Please see the individual scope notes for each subseries.
This subseries contains correspondence to the GSP Foreign Relief Committee from Walther Johannsen, a judge (Amtsrichter) in Hamburg, who acted there as an intermediary of the Committee. The bulk of the correspondence comprises letters addressed to Johannsen from organizations in Hamburg, which he then forwarded to the Committee, as documentation of the work he was doing on its behalf.
This subgrouping, which accounts for the bulk of the Hamburg correspondence, pertains to the donation of 100 sacks of flour in September/October 1919.
Folder 3 contains a letter from Johannssen addressed to Louis H. Schmidt, chair of the GSP Foreign Relief Committee, in November 1919, indicating that Johannssen was forwarding letters written to him in connection with his distribution of a shipment of 100 sacks of rye flour (Roggenmehl) that had been donated by the Committee and received by Johannssen in Hamburg, on the steamship Birchleaf.
Folders 4 to 9 contain 78 letters addressed to Johannssen and dated in September or October 1919. Johannssen had placed a newspaper advertisement announcing the availability of the flour and inviting applications. The letters he received are all from local charitable organizations (some related to churches). He indicates that he received a total of 100 letters and made a selection from among them as to which organizations would receive some of the flour and how much (he states that he distributed 95 sacks of flour in this way, reserving five sacks for particular needy families that he knew). All of the letters except one have pencilled numbers in the upper left, apparently related to his sorting. There are 77 such numbered application letters, with the pencilled numbers ranging from 2 to 94, and some numbers skipped. Each letter also has a second number written in the upper center in red, which, as Johannsen explains in his letter, indicates the number of sacks of flour he decided should be distributed to that organization. In most cases, the numbers are one-half, 1, 2 or 3. These 77 application letters are arranged in the order of the pencilled numbers by which they were sorted; this finding aid also includes an alphabetized list of the organizations (see above). The remaining letter in this subgrouping, which has been placed at the end, is addressed to Johannssen from the Hamburger Hilfsausschuß (Hamburg relief committee), in September 1919. Unlike the others, it is not written in response to the ad but, rather, is an acknowledgment of an expected distribution of 25 sacks of flour, of which the organization had already been informed, arranged by the Austrian consul-general August Kral. This letter, therefore, does not have any pencilled number related to sorting, but it is marked with the red number 25 in the upper center, indicating the amount of the distribution.
16 items. There were no letters numbered 1, 7, 13, or 14
15 items. There were no letters numbered 24, 25, 27, 28, 31, or 33. Two letters from the same organization were designated #22
16 items. There were no letters numbered 43, 47, 48, or 49
17 items. There were no letters numbered 62, 68, or 73
15 items. All of the application letters are dated in September, except one dated 1 October. Included with #86 is a thank you letter written from the same organization, after receiving the flour, dated 20 October
1 leaf. Letter to Johannssen, gratefully acknowledging the expected distribution of 25 sacks of flour, arranged through Austrian consul-general August Kral
This subgrouping (Folder 10) comprises three letters from Johannssen in 1920 regarding further monetary gifts that he received from the Committee, and reporting on their distribution.
This subgrouping (Folder 11) comprises thank-you letters written to Johannssen in May 1920 from three individuals who received monetary distributions from the Committee through him. Johannssen presumably forwarded these letters to the Committee, although no cover letter from him was found.
1 leaf. Letter to Johannssen, gratefully acknowledging the receipt of a check for 500 Marks from a donation of the GSP, for support of his family
1 leaf. Letter to Johannssen, gratefully acknowledging the receipt of a check for 500 Marks from a donation of the GSP, for support of herself and her five children
1 leaf. Letter to Johannssen, gratefully acknowledging the receipt of a check for 500 Marks from a donation of the GSP, for the care of needy children
This subgrouping (Folder 12) contains nine letters found with other correspondence of the GSP Foreign Relief Committee and believed to have been in its possession. Several are addressed to the German Society of Pennsylvania, and the remainder have more generalized greetings to 'German Americans' or 'Brothers and sisters.' The letters appeal for assistance and contain descriptions of the needs that exist. They are from various cities in Germany.
2 leaves, including enclosed letter from Pastor Georg Rusnok. Writes from Röhrchen, Naugard, Stettin
1 leaf. Writes from Wiesbaden
2 leaves. Writes from Bad-Liebenstein, Thuringia (Thüringen)
3 leaves. Letter from Farner addressed to Postmaster and forwarded to the GSP by the U.S. Post Office in Philadelphia. Farner writes from Bad Aibling
1 leaf. Writes from Oberbainbach
1 leaf. School director in Laudon
1 leaf. Writes from Buchholz
This subgrouping contains correspondence addressed to Carl P. Berger as treasurer of the GSP Foreign Relief Committee. It includes form letters from the Committee chair, Louis H. Schmidt, authorizing payments, with added and/or accompanying acknowledgement from recipients (Folder 13); letters from John B. Mayer, the president of the German Society of Pennsylvania, requesting that food drafts be sent to certain particularly needy applicants (Folder 14); and correspondence acknowledging receipt of donations (Folder 15).
6 items. In English and German. Concern requests for food drafts to be sent to individuals, mostly in either Franfurt am Main (Rödelheim district), Mayer's hometown, or in Vienna. Included is a receipt in the hand of Mayer's brother Ludwig Ph. Mayer
1 leaf. Acknowledges donation for Dr. Brauns Davos-Dorf Kurhausfonds; refers to children being taken in there
2 leaves. Signed by pastor J. [Julius] Wedekind
1 leaf
1 leaf. In English. Acknowledges donation to the Swiss Relief Fund for German Children
2 items, 3 leaves
Confirming the reception of a donation of 7500 M for the Relief Committee for Refugees and Sick.
This subgrouping contains letters not otherwise accounted for in the groupings above: thank-you letters received from various locations in Germany for donations in 1920-1921 (Folder 16); and a letter written to the Foreign Relief Committee in 1929 (some years after the Committee had ceased to exist), from a German alliance of social welfare organizations (Deutsche Liga der freien Wohlfahrtspflege), retrospectively honoring the foreign relief work that helped Germany after the war (Folder 17).
3 items. It is not clear to whom the letters were mailed. The children refer to food they were served. Two letters are written from Lüneburg, one of which is from a group of children; and one is from Herford, Westphalia (Westfalen). There is a reference to a feeding by Quakers (Quäkerspeisung) and another to the 'friends' from America
6 items. Typescripts, signed. Possibly copies. The first two, November and December 1919 are addressed to the GSP Board of Directors
Typescript, signed. 3 leaves. Includes donor lists
Typescript, 6 leaves. Prepared by Carl P. Berger, secretary. This report was submitted by Berger together with the final report of the GSP Foreign Relief Committee
3 items. Contain financial reports and descriptions of activities of the Foreign Relief Committee. See also the GSP annual reports for 1922 to 1926 for further activities of the Women's Auxiliary in the area of foreign relief (reports for this period are cataloged under the title Jahresberichte, call number GAC AE 50)
8 items. Includes, fliers, tickets, a postcard, and a pledge slip. Two items relate to lectures by, respectively: Marie Gallison, a representative of the Central Relief Committee of New York who had recently traveled in Germany and Austria (1921); and Gertrud Baer, a delegate from Germany to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (1922)
5 items. Includes tickets, fliers, and a program related to two events; the program is for the Frühlingsfest (Spring festival) in March 1924, for the benefit of needy students in Germany
Small brown leather bank book of the Philadelphia Trust Company; inscription on front cover: Carl P. Berger, Treasurer, Relief Committee. Contains handwritten notations of amounts of donations received
Receipt Stubs, Checks and Food Draft Receipts mailed to the Treasurer Carl P. Berger (1146 S. Penn Square Room 804-805, Philadelphia). Some checks mention these were contributions to the work of the American Friends Service Committees