Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 46

Repository:

German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library

Extent:

0.83 linear feet (2 boxes)

Language:

German

Preferred Citation:

Max Heinrici manuscript, "Die ereignisreichen zwanzig Jahre 1915-1935 der Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft," [folder number], Ms. Coll. 46, or Max Heinrici photographs, Ms. Coll. 46, Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library, German Society of Pennsylvania

Date:

circa 1936-1939

Creator:

Heinrici, Max

Form:

Manuscripts, German--20th century, Membership lists, and Photographs

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The collection contains an unpublished manuscript by Max Heinrici, and several photographs of him in his later years.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.

Born 19 January 1863 in Berlin, Germany, Max Heinrici emigrated to the United States in 1885; he became a naturalized American citizen in December 1914. Heinrici had pursued medical studies in Germany, but after his emigration became a journalist, writing for German-language newspapers; he became the editor of the Philadelphia Gazette-Demokrat, and later also a foreign correspondent for European newspapers.

Heinrici was also a researcher in German-American history. He was the editor of the anthology Das Buch der Deutschen in Amerika (The book of the Germans in America), published under the auspices of the National German-American Alliance, in 1909; and he was a co-author, with Oswald Seidensticker, of an updated history of the German Society of Pennsylvania published in 1917.

Heinrici was an active member of the German Society, serving on the board of directors in 1921 to 1922. He established the Society's Press Committee in 1919, which existed until 1922, with the purpose of countering anti-German sentiment in the press.

Heinrici was married to Cora Vera Heinrici, and they lived in Germantown, Pennsylvania, where Max Heinrici died on 11 July 1948.

References

Heinrici, Max. "Ehrung fuer Max Heinrici, anlaesslich des fuenzigjaehrigen Jubilaeums als deutschamerikanischer Journalist am 10. Februar 1935." In the current collection, Box 1, Folder 43.

Ward, Robert E. "Heinrici, Max" (p. 120), in: A bio-bibliography of German-American writers, 1670-1970. White Plains, N.Y.: Krauss International Publications, c1985.

The collection comprises an unpublished manuscript by Max Heinrici (approximately 460 leaves), accompanied by a preservation photocopy, and a few photographs of the author in his later years, probably from around the time he was last working on the manuscript.

The working title of the manuscript, "Die ereignisreichen zwanzig Jahre 1915-1935 der Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft" (The eventful twenty years 1915 to 1935 of the history of the German Society), suggests that Heinrici conceived of the work as a continuation of the history of the German Society of Pennsylvania that he had published in 1917 ( Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft von Pennsylvanien, 1764-1917; Philadelphia: Graf & Breuninger), co-authored by Oswald Seidensticker. The core of the latter work was an earlier published history of the Society, authored solely by Seidensticker, that had covered the history from the founding, in 1764, up to 1876. Heinrici had continued the narrative and updated the material to cover the years from 1876 to 1917.

Heinrici's present manuscript aims to cover the subsequent history of the German Society up to 1935 (overlapping a little with the previous book in terms of the years of the First World War). The manuscript is mostly in the form of typescripts of individually titled sections, the intended order of which is uncertain. The typescripts vary in appearance, and contain many handwritten emendations. There is no continuous pagination, although the pages are often numbered separately within any given section.