KUrierNewsletter of the Department of German StudiesThe University of Kansas, Lawrence, KSEditor: William Keel • Layout: Pam LeRow Vol. 6, 2018-2019

Delta Phi Alpha Initiates

Department Gets New NameNina Vyatkina

The Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures has changed its name to the Department of German Studies. The Kansas Board of Regents officially approved this change on Oc-tober 30. The new designation aligns the department’s name with our German Studies BA and MA degree names and re-flects  our interdisciplinary undergraduate curriculum, which encourages students to enhance their study of the language and cultures of German-speaking Europe by taking related courses in disciplines such as History and Political Science.

Commencement 2018Lorie A. Vanchena

The department held its annual Recognition Ceremony and Reception during Commencement weekend, on Saturday, May 12.

The ceremony began with the initiation ceremony for Gamma Pi, the University of Kansas chapter of the Delta Phi Alpha Na-tional German Honor Society. The following graduating seniors were inducted: Lauren Cassidy, Ellie Fehlig, Sarah Fisher, Ra-chel Forbach, Frank Kim, Matthew Hoskins, Irena Jasperson, Carley Johnson, Thomas Johnson, Korbin Painter, Rhett Redel,

Anneliese Reinert, Marlene Traub, and Holden Zimmerman. Professor Arienne Dwyer, an internationally renowned scholar in the field of Anthropological Linguistics, was initiated as our chapter’s first honorary member in over 50 years.

Thomas Johnson was honored for passing the Zertifikat B2 exam administered by the Goethe Institut. The exam requires advanced skills in German.

We proudly recognized seven German Studies graduates who had become new members of Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society: Lauren Cassidy, Rachel Forbach, Matthew Hoskins, Frank Kim, Michael Neises, Anneliese Reinert, and Holden Zimmerman. Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. Founded in 1776, ΦΒΚ embraces the principles of freedom of inquiry and liberty of thought and expression.

We then honored the academic achievements of our German Studies majors and minors.

Lauren Cassidy completed majors in German Studies and Global & International Studies. She earned certificates for the University Honors, Global Awareness, and Research Experi-ence Programs. Lauren is a member of the Phi Beta Delta In-ternational Scholars Honor Society. She earned departmental Honors in German Studies and graduated from the College

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with Distinction. Lauren spent a semester studying in Bonn and received the Drs. Dean T. and Elisabeth Collins scholar-ship and the Helga Vigliano German scholarship. She also received one of the department’s first German Studies Under-graduate Research Awards. She served as Co-President of the German Club and taught German for a semester at the Doug-las County Juvenile Detention Center. This year she is teaching English at two secondary schools in Austria through Fulbright Austria and the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research.  After her year of teaching abroad, Lauren plans to pursue graduate work in German Studies.

Ellie Fehlig completed a Bachelor of General Studies degree in Film & Media Studies, with minors in German Studies and Journalism. She participated in our Summer Language Insti-tute in Holzkirchen. Ellie, who earned the Global Awareness Program Certificate, served as the Multimedia Director at KJHK 90.7FM, our campus radio station. Ellie was going to take some time off to travel after graduation.

Sarah Fisher majored in Journalism, with a focus on Strategic Communication, and minored in German Studies and Lead-ership Studies. She earned Certificates for the Global Aware-ness and Service Learning Programs. Sarah graduated from the School of Journalism with distinction. She participated in

our Holzkirchen program and also spent a semester studying in South Africa. She served as Circle of Sisterhood Director of Ambassadors and Rock Chalk Revue Diversity and Inclusivity Coordinator. Sarah planned to begin her career in Berlin, in the field of advertising or marketing communications.

Rachel Forbach earned a degree in English, Creative Writing, earning departmental honors in English. Rachel minored in Ger-man Studies and earned the University Honors Program Certifi-cate. She graduated from the College with Highest Distinction. Her post-graduation plans included working in a greenhouse and for a lawn care company over the summer and then moving to Montana to work outdoors and begin her first novel.

Zach Frerichs majored in German Studies and earned a Cer-tificate for the Global Awareness Program. His senior capstone project, which he presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium, looked at recent scientific studies of the drug psi-locybin and its controversial use for treatment of depression and anxiety disorders. Zach participated in our Holzkirchen program. He planned to work for a year on a farm in Australia.

Caelan Graham, an Environmental Studies major and Ger-man Studies and Sociology minor, planned to graduate in De-cember with departmental honors in Environmental Studies. He earned Certificates for the Global Awareness, Sustainabil-ity, Service Learning, and Research Experience Programs. He spent a semester studying in Freiburg and received the Ben-jamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, Drs. Dean T. and Elisabeth Collins Germany Study Abroad Scholarship, Engel Scholarship, and Ruben Zadigan Undergraduate Scholarship in Environmental Studies: Research Initiatives.

Joseph Haug completed the German Studies major and earned Certificates for Global Awareness and Arts Engagement. He participated in the Holzkirchen program and received theKrehbiel and Helga Vigliano Scholarships. He presented his se-nior capstone project, a discussion of the legal ramifications of Germany’s decision to phrase out nuclear power, at the Under-graduate Research Symposium.

Irena Jasperson earned a degree in Music—Piano, Organ, Or-chestral Instruments, and also a minor in German Studies. She graduated from the School of Music with highest distinction and was the School of Music’s Banner Carrier for the Com-mencement ceremony. She completed the University Honors Program and Global Awareness Program certificates and par-ticipated in the Holzkirchen program. Irena worked as an in-tern with Kansas Public Radio. After graduation she was going to spend the summer working as Music Office Coordinator for the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine.

Carley Johnson, a German Studies major, studied in Bonn during her junior year. Her senior capstone project, which she

Lauren Cassidy with Nina Vyatkina

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presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium, exam-ined the response of the Central Council of Jews in Germany to antisemitism in Germany today. She served as president of the German Club. Carley planned to work in Switzerland and then pursue graduate work in German Studies, with a focus on German-Jewish literature and philosophy.

Thomas Johnson completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology—Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, in December 2018. He completed a German Studies major in May 2018. Thomas spent a semester studying in Marburg and earned the Global Awareness Program Certificate. He served as secretary and vice president of the German Club. He pre-sented his senior capstone project at the Undergraduate Re-search Symposium: “The Wadden Sea Coast: Conservation in an International Context.” Thomas received the George Gould Research Award in Entomology, a KU Field Station Research Award, and an Undergraduate Travel Award to present his re-search at the Annual Arthropod Genomics Symposium in Illi-nois in July. He planned to graduate in December and then take a semester off before pursuing a graduate degree.

Frank Kim majored in Linguistics and Psychology and mi-nored in German Studies. He completed certificates for the University Honors, Global Awareness, and Research Experi-ence Programs as well as the Mind & Brain Undergraduate Certificate. He participated in the Holzkirchen program. Frank presented his psychology project, “The Influence of Political Orientation and National Identification on the Perception of Historical Representations at the Brown vs. Board of Educa-tion Museum,” at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. In fall he began a Master’s Degree in Speech-Language Pathology at KU.

Lukas Lesslie earned a German Studies major and a Chemis-try minor, and he completed the Global Awareness Program Certificate. Luke presented his senior capstone project, “The European Refugee Crisis: The Dual Education System,” at the Undergraduate Research Symposium, for which he received an Outstanding Presentation Award. He participated in our Hol-zkirchen program. Luke planned to take some time off before exploring professional options.

Korbin Painter majored in German Studies and History. He wrote a senior honors thesis in History and was a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the History honor society. Korbin present-ed his senior capstone project, “Personal Narratives of Queer Refugees in Germany,” at the Undergraduate Research Sympo-sium. He earned certificates for the Global Awareness and Re-search Experience Programs. Korbin began the M.A. program in History at the University of Iowa in fall.

Rhett Redel earned a Bachelor of General Science degree in Film & Media Studies and minors in German Studies and Edu-

cation Studies. His post-graduation plans included working for the Park Hill School District in Kansas City and pursuing inde-pendent film projects and jobs within that industry.

Anneliese Reinert graduated with a major in Mathematics and minors in German Studies and Music. She completed the UKAN Teach Program in the School of Education and also cer-tificates for the University Honors and Global Awareness pro-grams. She graduated with highest distinction from the Col-lege. She held the position of section leader in the Marching Jayhawks—tenor saxophone. In fall she started teaching math at Buhler High School in Buhler, Kansas.

Marlene Traub majored in Psychology and minored in Speech-Language-Hearing and German Studies. She completed the Mind & Brain Undergraduate Certificate Program. She served as the Bid Day Coordinator and also Risk Management Chair for her sorority, and as group leader for the volunteer organiza-tion Natural Ties. Marlene moved to St. Louis to work for the St. Louis Teacher Residency as a middle school English teacher, and in fall began the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Washington University.

Holden Zimmerman majored in German Studies and History and minored in European Studies. She graduated with Depart-mental Honors in History and she earned Certificates for the Global Awareness and Research Experience programs. At the Undergraduate Research Symposium, she presented her His-tory thesis, “Defensive Humanitarianism: Swiss Internment Camps in WWI.” She spent a semester studying in Bonn. Hold-en is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the History honor society, and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Holden was awarded a fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service. She served as the German Club’s communications chair. Holden started the Master’s Degree in Museum Studies at KU in fall 2018. She worked at the National WWI Museum in Kansas City, first as an intern and then as a staff member.

Four students were unable to attend the Recognition Cer-emony. Matthew Hoskins majored in Business Administra-tion and minored in German Studies and Psychology. Fletcher Koch earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Industrial De-sign from the School of Architecture & Design and also a Ger-man Studies minor. Matthew Leibold completed his German Studies degree in December 2017. Michael Neises completed a double major in Computer Science and Math and a minor in German Studies.

Carley Johnson received the Award for Outstanding Service to the Department. Professor Linden commented: “Carley was an exceptional president and vice president of the KU German Club, keeping our weekly Stammtisch active and organizing monthly film screenings. Carley’s interest in German culture, history, and thought shines through in all of her endeavors.”

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Lauren Cassidy received the Award for Outstanding Senior Thesis. In “Moralization of the Crisis in Ukraine: Appraisal Analysis of German and Russian News,” Lauren compared stance expression in depictions of the Ukraine crisis in the Rus-sian and German press. Prof. Vyatkina commented: “Lauren fearlessly embraced a theoretical and methodological frame-work that was completely new to her (Linguistic Appraisal Theory), learned about it in record time, and skillfully and successfully applied it in her data analysis. Lauren surpassed expectations for an undergraduate researcher.”

This year we presented the Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement to two minors and two majors.

The Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement for the German Studies Minor went to Rachel Forbach and Anneliese Reinert. Rachel was recognized for the high quality of her written work, her proficiency in the German language, and her active participation in class meetings. Professor Meyertholen commented that Rachel “delivered insightful (and humorous) commentary and  was a  valuable teammate during group activities.”

Anneliese received the award for her outstanding knowledge of German and her essays in GERM 401, which were well written and reflected a high level of critical thinking. Professor Vyatkina remarked: “Anneliese served as an active facilitator of discussions, assisting her peers not only through her excellent command of German but also with her invariably friendly attitude.”

Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement for the Ger-man Studies Major was given to Thomas Johnson and Holden Zimmerman. Thomas’s poster at the Undergraduate Research Symposium showed the results of his senior capstone project, “Die Wichtigkeit des Wattenmeers: Umweltschutz, Identität und Wirtschaft” (The Importance of the Wadden Sea: Environ-mental Protection, Identity, and the Economy). His research was informed by his coursework and interest in ecology and biology. He read several scholarly articles and reports from the European Union, UNESCO, and the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat for his project. Dr. Vanchena commented: “Thomas engages his mind and exhibits a passion for learning.”

Holden’s capstone project, “Museen der Humanität: Sch-weizerische Nationalidentität und die Humanitiät” (Museums of Humanitarianism: Swiss National Identity and Humani-tarianism) explored the role Swiss museums play in defining and preserving the country’s national identity and its relation-ship to humanitarianism. This project was related to her se-nior thesis in History, which explored the “defensive humani-tarianism” that characterized Swiss POW camps during World War I. Holden conducted archival research in Switzerland and worked in three languages for her thesis. An abridged version of her thesis appeared in the Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities, and she presented her History project at the Dole Institute of Politics for a WWI Centennial Commemora-tion event. Dr. Vanchena observed: “Holden’s research paper for the capstone course reflected her outstanding German skills and an exceptionally high degree of critical thinking and analysis.”

2018 German Majors and Minors

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Max Kade Center 2018Lorie A. Vanchena, Director

2018 was an exciting year for the Max Kade Center. In January the MKC partnered with the Watkins Museum of History and Lawrence Opera Theater to re-create a late 19th- / early 20th-century Musikabend. This event was held in conjunction with the Watkin’s exhibit, “Community and Culture: The Lawrence Turnverein.” The program featured solo piano pieces and Ger-man and American songs from that era; it concluded with au-dience participation in a rousing rendition of “Home on the Range.” Professor Vanchena curated the program, which drew over 100 people. Guests were greeted in German by members of the KU German Club. Later that month Vanchena gave a gallery talk on the Lawrence Turnverein with Brittany Keegan, Curator and Collections Manager at the Watkins, for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

In April, the MKC hosted a talk on current affairs in Ger-many by Dr. Martin Buchwald, Minister Counselor and Direc-tor, German Information Center USA, German Embassy. Dur-ing his brief visit to KU, Dr. Buchwald, German Studies major Lauren Cassidy, and Professors Vyatkina and Vanchena en-joyed a tour of the Spencer Museum of Art’s exhibit Big Botany, led by curator Steve Goddard.

In fall the Max Kade Center hosted a welcome reception for German exchange students (graduate and undergraduate) spending the academic year at KU. German Studies faculty and students were pleased to welcome Charles (Charlie) Bankart, Associate Vice Provost for International Programs, and Rachel Sherman Johnson, Director, Campus Internationalization and Fellowship Programs, at this event. In September Vanchena met with a group of students and faculty from Hochschule RheinMain, University of Applied Sciences (Wiesbaden) at the Center; she presented a talk entitled “Martin Waldseemül-ler’s Map and the German-American Relationship”; the visitors then enjoyed a tour of the building and refreshments. The stu-dents were in Lawrence to complete a marketing project at the Lawrence Arts Center, which had been organized by Wendy Shoemaker, Senior Associate Director of the University Career Center, who has been collaborating with the Wiesbaden uni-versity for several years.

The Max Kade Center welcomed many guests in 2018. These included two experts on the Arme-nian Genocide who conducted research in the archives at the Dole Institute of Poli-tics: Michael Bobe-lian, award-winning author, lawyer, and journalist, and Julian Zarifian, Associate Professor in American History, University of Cergy-Pontoise. The Center also hosted

creative writer, essayist, and literary critic Paolo Valesio, Gi-useppe Ungaretti Professor Emeritus in Italian Literature at Columbia University. Fernando Nobre Cavalcante, Ph.D, Me-dia Studies, Faculdade 7 de Setembro, Brazil, visited KU dur-ing the summer to conduct research on Ernest Manheim at the MKC. We enjoyed a visit by Dhanashree Thorat, Postdoc-toral Researcher, Digital Humanities, KU Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities, who wanted to learn more about the WWI Immigrant Poetry Digital Humanities Project. Many KU faculty, staff, and students visited and toured the Max Kade Center, as did residents of Lawrence and the region. The School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures held its spring and fall Advisory Board meetings at the Center.

Professor Vanchena was named Director of the Max Kade Center in December and assumed that position on January 1, 2019. In the coming year she will be working with members of a newly convened Advisory Board and other partners across campus and in the broader community on initiatives related to collection management and utilization, teaching and scholar-ship, and public outreach.

Dr. Buchwald at Mad Kade Center

Guests from RheinMain University

Spring Advisory Board Meeting

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In this issue:Department Gets a New Name .......................1

Commencement 2018 ......................................1

Max Kade Center 2018 ...................................5

Faculty News ....................................................6

Eutin—Our Sister City in Germanyand “Sister Cities Lawrence” .........................8

Summer Language Institute in Eutin ............8

Deutsche Sommerschule Holzkirchen2018...................................................................9

KATG Schülerkongress 2018 .......................10

KATG Deutsches Wochenende 2018 ...........10

Faculty News

Ari Linden’s Linguistic Ruins: Karl Kraus and the Discourse of Modernity is currently forthcoming with Northwestern Uni-versity Press. Dr. Linden’s monograph critically engages with the seminal literary works of the Viennese satirist, journalist, and playwright Karl Kraus (1876–1936), reading this work alongside philosophy and critical theory. This optic, Linden argues, yields not only an image of Kraus as an irrepressible figure in the modernist tradition, but also a more robust image of German modernism itself. Combining close readings with intellectual history, Dr. Linden’s monograph shows how Kraus’s two major literary achievements—The Last Days of Mankind (1915-22) and The Third Walpurgis Night (1933/52)—and a lesser known drama (Cloudcuckooland) uniquely address the political catastrophes of the first third of Europe’s twentieth century: World War I, the transition from monarchy to de-mocracy, and the rise of National Socialism. Kraus’s central insight, for Dr. Linden, is that the medial representations of these events have produced less an informed audience than one increasingly unreceptive to violence on a mass scale. In the sec-ond part of the book, Linden explores this insight as he sees it inflected in the work of Søren Kierkegaard, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor Adorno. These dialogues, Dr. Linden argues, of-fer us a richer understanding of the oft-neglected relationship between satire and critical theory writ large.

Nina Vyatkina had a productive research year. The special is-sue Corpora in Language Learning and Teaching that she guest-edited with Alex Boulton (University of Lorraine, France) ap-peared in October 2017 in Language Learning & Technology, a highly ranked peer-reviewed journal (14th out of 181 Lin-guistics journals). Several of her papers intended for edited volumes are under review and in press. Furthermore, Dr. Vyat-kina gave 10 invited and peer-reviewed research presentations, including invited talks at international symposia in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy (October 2017) and at her Alma Mater, the

Pennsylvania State University (October 2018) as well as refer-eed talks in Bruges, Belgium, and Cambridge, UK (July 2018). Another highlight is Dr. Vyatkina’s participation as the German language project director on the highly competitive KU Open Language Resource Center grant that was funded in September 2018 by the US Department of Education. The Center’s primary mission will be the creation of open tech-nologies, materials, and practices for teaching lan-guages and their dissemi-nation across a range of educational contexts. The 2018-2022 grant activities will include workshops for teachers at community colleges, minority serving institutions, and K-12 schools in Kansas and neighboring regions.

With Joe Cunningham (2014 KU German PhD) in Bruges

In South Tyrol

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Andrea Meyertholen completed her first year in her new ca-pacity as Assistant Professor. In Spring 2018, she had the plea-sure of teaching two extraordinary groups of German students. During that semester she also contributed to the panel “Quick

Tricks of the German Pedagogical Trade” at the 2018 conference for the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA). Thanks to the generous support of the New Faculty General Re-search Fund (NFGRF), a grant offered by the KU Center for Re-search, Dr. Meyertholen traveled to Switzerland and Germany over the summer to conduct research in Zurich and Weimar for her current book project. Fall 2018 afforded her yet another opportunity to teach yet another great group of German stu-dents, in addition to leading an English-language seminar on fairy tales and fairy-tale adaptations for the university’s First-Year Experience program. Most recently, she accompanied her class, a cohort of highly engaged and articulate freshmen, to the

Spencer Museum of Art to experience first-hand the work of a local artist who reimagines classic fairy-tale figures as updated for our modern society. And to play with the Spencer’s collection of antique fairy-tale marionettes! In Sep-tember, Dr. Meyertholen traveled to Pittsburgh for the annual conference of the German Studies Asso-ciation (GSA), where she participated in a three-day seminar and presented her paper on feeling empathy

with zoo animals as depicted in German art and literature. Her latest article has been accepted for publication and is currently in press with Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies.

Lorie Vanchena re-ceived the Dean’s Award for Exception-al Student Mentoring from the College of Arts & Sciences Ex-cellence in Research Initiative, for her WWI Immigrant Poetry Digital Hu-manities Project. She presented a schol-arly talk, “Far from the Rhine: German Immigrant Poetry During WWI,” at the War, Literature, and

the Arts Conference held at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Col-orado Springs, CO in September. Vanchena and her research assistants, undergraduate Education major Ashley Yoder and data scientist Drew Crist, presented a talk entitled “WWI Im-migrant Poetry: A Digital Humanities Project” at the 2018 Digital Frontiers/Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities conference, held at KU in October.

Vanchena wrote a successful application for a C21 Course Transformation Grant from the Center for Teaching Excellence; the grant supported work with Graduate Research Consultant Trina Emler and Faculty Librarian Fran Devlin on developing materials for integrating research-related skills into the Ger-man Studies curriculum. The Planning Committee for the KU World War I Centennial Commemoration, which Vanchena chaired, concluded its 5-year initiative with an event at the Watkins Museum of History marking the anniversary of the Armistice on November 11. Vanchena started a 2-year term as member of the Center for Undergraduate Research Faculty Advisory Board, and she chairs the Friends of the Lied Board Education Committee

William Keel was the keynote speaker at the 42nd Annual Sym-posium of the Society for German-American Studies in India-napolis, Indiana in April. Keel’s talk entitled “Kaiser Bill or the Model-T Ford? The Demise of Varieties of Spoken German in the Aftermath of World War I” argued that social mobility and education contributed more to the death of German dialects in the United States than did the anti-German hysteria associated with the Great War. Keel continued this theme in talks at the 6th International Congress for the Dialectology of German at the University of Marburg, Germany, in September, and at an in-vited conference at the University of Texas in October, where he reported on the status of German settlement dialects in Kansas and Missouri. This was the 50th anniversary of a similar confer-ence held in Austin in 1968. The organizer of that conference, Glenn Gilbert, also attended. The counter example to the loss of spoken German in the U.S. is represented by the descendants

Kunstmuseum Basel

With Goethe and Schiller in Weimar

With Ashley Yoder in Colorado Springs

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of Swiss Baptists such as the Old Order Amish, some Menno-nites and the Hutterian Brethren, who live in rural isolation and continue to use German dialects in the family and for religious worship. Keel also discussed this topic in a radio interview on KCUR in Kansas City in December. In March, Keel’s chapter on German dialects in the United States was published in Handbu-ch der deutschen Sprachminderheiten in Übersee, edited by Al-brecht Pelwnia and Claudia Riehl (Tübingen: Narr). Keel also continued his series of courses for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute with three lectures on “German Settlements and Cul-ture in Kansas” at Washburn University in Topeka last winter.

Keel on right at Austin conference on “German in North America” last October.

Eutin—Our Sister City in Germany and “Sister Cities Lawrence”William D. Keel

2018 brought a number of changes to the Sister Cities or-ganization in Lawrence. William Keel was elected chair of the Lawrence Sister Cities Advisory Board at the beginning of the year. However, he and the board were immediately confronted by the decision of the City of Lawrence to reduce the number of city-appointed boards and commissions. Af-ter several weeks of negotiations between the officers of the advisory board and the city government, the idea was ap-proved to create a new civic organization “Sister Cities Law-rence” whose membership would elect a “Governing Board,” independent of city control. However, by including the mayor of Lawrence as “honorary chair” of the Governing Board, a close relationship with the city government as well as its financial support could be insured. Keel was elected to a three-year term as chair of the new Governing Board at the general meeting of the entire membership in late May. Fol-lowing a series of meetings, the new organization began su-pervising our sister-city exchanges in the summer of 2018.

This past year also saw a record number of high school students participating in the school exchange with Eutin.

Lawrence High School German instructor, Arne Scholz, accompanied 14 students from LHS and Free State High School to Eutin for the month of June. In September, 14 students from Eutin came to Lawrence for four weeks with their teacher/chaperone, Philipp Loose from the Carl Maria von Weber Gymnasium (high school). Cynthia Willingham, our receptionist for the KU School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, again did an outstanding job in gathering free KU items to give to each of the German guests in a special kind of Wundertüte or Schultüte—a bag of treats that Ger-man kids get on the first day of school. And, the KU Ger-man Club fielded a team for International Trivia Night, a scholarship fundraiser for our sister-cities exchanges, held at the Carnegie Library Building downtown on November 11. Dr. Meyertholen joined 7 KU German Club students for the competition. Although the German Club team did not place, thanks to their efforts, Sister Cities Lawrence raised several thousand dollars to assist needy high school stu-dents participating in our exchange programs with Eutin, Hiratsuka (Japan) and Iniades (Greece).

Looking ahead, we will be celebrating the 30th anni-versary of our sister-city relationship with Eutin in 2019. A delegation from Lawrence will visit Eutin the first weekend in June hosted by Friends of Lawrence now chaired by Dr. Stephan Klein. Eutin will send its delegation to Lawrence for several days around the beginning of October 2019.

Summer Language Institute in EutinEmily Wallace

Last summer, Dr. Emily Wallace headed the Summer Language Institute in Lawrence’s sister city of Eutin, accompanied by her husband, Dakota Wallace. Mr. Wallace is a 2012 graduate of the Masters Program in German at KU and currently teaches Ger-man at Lee’s Summit West High School in Missouri. The two led a group of 14 students for the 8-week program. While stay-ing with host families in Eutin, the students were immersed in

At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

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students and Dr. Keel then set off on a train trip to Cologne, where the group spent four nights, with visits to museums and medieval churches in Cologne and Bonn and a day exploring the charming wine village of Mayschoß in the Ahr River Valley. Next on the agenda was a four-day stay in Berlin with visits to the Bundestag, the Berlin Wall Memorial, the Holocaust Me-morial as well as several other historical museums. With the summer weather cooperating, a boat ride on the Spree River (eine Spreefahrt) through the heart of Berlin was a real treat. Returning to Holzkirchen on June 21, the students were greet-ed on the steps of the Rathaus by the mayor and a band playing both Bavarian and American marches, as well as representa-tives of the Friends of KU and the director of the Volkshoch-schule Holzkirchen where our classes are held.

With this summer’s gorgeous weather, the time in Ba-varia literally flew by with visits to the castles of King Ludwig Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee, a weekend hiking atop the Brauneck high above the Isar River Valley, tours of many beautiful churches, and several trips to Munich for its many cultural offerings punctuating the time spent in class. One of our visits to Munich again included a tour of the newly renovated memorial to the students of the Weiße Rose located in the main building of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Uni-versity in Munich. By opposing the Nazi dictatorship, these young students paid with their life. Other highlights while in Holzkirchen were the evenings spent learning Bavarian dances with the Holzkirchner Trachtenverein (folklore club) and testing the students’ marksmanship at the local Schützenverein (sharp-shooters club). As has long been a tradition, the farewell event was a buffet dinner for students, host families, city officials and teaching staff held at the Gasthof Alte Post, accompanied by the folk music of the Miesbacher Musikanten. Student presenta-tions and a photo review of the entire summer program pro-vided the entertainment. Among the 20 students in 2018 were 12 from KU and 8 from Arkansas.

the German language and culture. The Freunde von Lawrence (Friends of Lawrence) organization did a wonderful job of making the students feel right at home in their new surround-ings. The organization sponsored day trips to Lübeck, Kiel, and Hamburg. In Lübeck, the KU group was treated to a personal tour of all the famous city sites by Martin Vollertsen, former President of the Friends of Lawrence. Stephan Klein, current President of the organization accompanied the group to Kiel during Kieler Woche. And Torben Mothes helped them find their way around Berlin, where they spent a three-day week-end. Here, the students got to see all of the famous sites on a walking tour around the city, after which they spent an after-noon visiting the museums on Museum Island. The group also dined at the oldest restaurant in Berlin, Zur Letzten Instanz, which has been around since 1621.

After their 6-week stay in Eutin, the KU group set off on a 2-week journey to visit various major cities in Germany. Their first stop was Cologne, where they got a walking tour of the city from a local guide, including a tour of the world famous Cologne Cathedral. While staying in Cologne, the group also spent an evening in Düsseldorf, which was just a short train ride away. Next, they moved on to Koblenz, which is a beau-tiful city at the confluence of the Mosel and Rhine Rivers. In Koblenz, the students took a cable car trip across the Rhine to visit Ehrenbreitstein Fortress on the other side, which today houses a museum informing visitors all about its history. On their second day in Koblenz, the students took a cruise along the Rhine to the picturesque city of Bacharach. They spent the afternoon exploring the beautiful countryside before catching their return boat back to Koblenz. Next, the group traveled to Nuremberg. There they met a local guide, who showed them around the city. The students also toured the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds and visited the childhood home of the famous German artist Albrecht Dürer.

The last stop on the trip was Munich. Here, the group took a bus tour of the city and the surrounding countryside, spent a morning visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, toured the famous fairytale castle of Neuschwanstein, and went to the town square to watch the historic Glockenspiel on the city hall building. The group ended their trip with dinner at the iconic Hofbräuhaus. The student group and their instruc-tors had a wonderful summer in Germany, and the Depart-ment looks forward to continuing the tradition next year.

Deutsche Sommerschule Holzkirchen 2018William D. Keel

This past summer’s program began with two days of intensive orientation in Holzkirchen, including a scavenger hunt (Schnit-zeljagd) to explore the town, and an initial introduction to the Freunde der Universität Kansas (a local group that arranges host families and part of the extracurricular program). The 20

Beethoven and Sommerschule group in Bonn

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The 2018 Schülerkongress attracted some 175 high school students of German representing German programs from the following high schools: Olathe East, Olathe North, Olathe Northwest, Manhattan, Abilene, Newton, Lawrence High, and Junction City. KU’s German Department initiated the annual high school student competitions in 1965. At that time it was known as “KATG German Field Day” and was held at various universities in Kansas on a rotating basis, continuing under that name until the late 1980s when it was superseded by the Schül-erkongress and eventually found a more permanent home at KU.

KATG Deutsches Wochenende 2018William D. Keel

Emily Wallace and William Keel participated in this year’s KATG Deutsches Wochenende (German-language immer-sion weekend held for the teachers of German in Kansas) held the third weekend in September at Olathe East High School. This year’s event was again organized by Christine Hanks, who earned an M.A. in German at KU in the mid-1980s, and has taught in the Olathe schools for several decades. The main pro-gram was an intensive review of teaching German pronuncia-tion for foreign learners of German by expert Dr. Silvia Dah-men of the Herder Institute for the teaching of German as a foreign language at the University of Leipzig. At the KATG business meeting, KU’s Emily Wallace was elected vice-presi-dent for the coming year. The program concluded with a fan-tastic dinner at Grünauer’s Austrian restaurant in downtown Kansas City featuring a choice of Wiener Schnitzel, Ungarisches Rindsdulasch or Böhmisches Schwammerlgulasch as an entrée and Apfelstrudel or Topfenstrudel for dessert—guten Appetit!

KATG Schülerkongress 2018William D. Keel

For the 26th time since 1991, KU’s Department of German Studies played host to the annual competition for high school students of German in Kansas sponsored by the Kansas Association of Teachers of German on March 3. The 2018 Schülerkongress had as its theme “Deutsch lernen, Deutsch lieben, Deutsch leben.” The daylong activities included recitations of German poems and prose texts, a 70-question quiz on the culture of the German-speaking countries of Central Europe, and also a Schnitzeljagd (scavenger hunt) at the Spencer Art Museum to find German paintings and sculpture. Each school could also create a video and/or a poster based on this year’s theme, vying with the other schools for the top prize. Individual students also participated in an oral proficiency interview. Those with the top scores were awarded medals at the concluding assembly.

In addition, a number of other activities were offered dur-ing the day, including learning and performing German folk songs as well as learning and performing German folk dances. Students could also visit a game room to play German board games or converse in German with exchange students from Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Sprachprofis) and earn Kongress-Euro (play money) to purchase German items in the Tante-Emma-Laden (corner shop or Auntie Em’s Store) do-nated by the consulates of Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as the Chicago Goethe Institut. As always, KU faculty and students assisted by judging contests and working in the Tante-Emma-Laden.

Atop Brauneck Mountain with the Bavarian Alps in the background

A medal for top performance

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Abilene HS Students

Giving to the DepartmentSince 1887, when William Herbert Carruth became the first professor of German at KU and was joined in the 1890s by Elmer Franklin Engel and Alberta Lincoln Corbin, KU’s tradition of German studies has offered students at all levels the opportunity to learn one of the world’s great languages and to study the literature and culture of Central Europe. Under J. Anthony “Toni” Burzle’s tenure as department chair in the 1950s and 1960s, the department was in the forefront of establishing opportunities for our students to study language and culture in Germany. Our programs in German at KU, however, rely very much on the generosity of our former students. For many of you, a summer, semester, or year in Germany during your KU years was the highlight of your studies. This experience has been and continues to be a truly life-changing event for so many of our students. Each year study abroad becomes more and more ex-pensive. It is imperative that we support our students and enable them to study abroad. Norm Fahrer, attended both of our summer institutes as a KU undergraduate (Holzkirchen in 1965 and Eutin in 1966). Before he died, Norm contributed $150,000 to establish an endowed scholarship fund, in memory of his father who had taught German at Bethany College in Lindsborg, for KU students to participate in the summer program in Holzkirchen. Carl Krehbiel was so transformed by his experience as an undergradutate in Holzkirchen in 1968 that he established an endowed scholarship fund in 2011. The nearly two million dollar principal generates enough income to cover the program fee for all KU students participating in the Eutin and Holzkirchen programs. It is very gratifying to hear from former summer institute students. With your help we can continue to offer such high quality summer experiences in Germany for our future students. [With thanks to Prof. William Keel, who composed this historical narrative.]

Herzlichen Dank und beste Grüße! Nina Vyatkina, Chair

Ways to give to the department You can donate online with a credit card by going to http://www.kuendowment.org/depts/german/dept Online giving is se-cure, speedy, and simple. Click the area you would like to support and you will be redirected to the website of KU Endowment, the non-profit fundraising organization that supports KU. For information on other ways to give, please visit the KU Endow-ment web site. For information on other opportunities to assist the Department, please contact the Chair, Nina Vyatkina at Vyatkina@ku.edu or (785) 864-4803.