{"id":4,"date":"2024-12-04T13:46:59","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T13:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/?p=4"},"modified":"2024-12-23T18:57:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T18:57:54","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"front-matter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/front-matter\/introduction\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction","rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n
\r\n\r\nOne day, I was speaking with one of our international students from Brazil and he shared that his motivation for learning German was his own family\u2019s heritage.\u00a0 He came from one of the Brazilian states that had a large German-speaking population, and grew up in a community which had, over centuries, maintained its German cultural identity.\u00a0 While I had some vague knowledge that there were German settlements in Brazil, I realized that the textbooks I used did not address the German diaspora and I myself had never been explicitly taught about these communities in my own education.\u00a0 In fact, aside from the occasional cultural inset about the German influence on American culture and the post-World War II emigration to the U.S., the textbooks I used did not mention the many and diverse German-speaking populations outside of German-speaking countries.\u00a0 Consequently, my courses focused solely on the German speakers in European countries where German was a national language \u2013 and overwhelmingly on Germany. I saw that my colleagues in Spanish regularly taught courses on Spanish-speakers and their unique cultures outside of Spanish-speaking countries and I wondered why there was this large cultural blind spot in German Studies. In part, it was likely an academic casualty of post-War national and political reorientation, along with coming to terms with the impact of German nationalism and the concept of national identities tied to ethnicity:\u00a0 What was to be gained by remembering the ethnic German populations in other countries? The conversation with my student prompted me to consider ways to add a broader understanding of German culture to my classes. Although the focus would largely be on populations that had historically lived in the regions or had emigrated there prior to the 20th century, the list of options also included former colonies such as Namibia.\u00a0 At the same time I was considering these things, I learned about the support offered by PALNI\u2019s PALSave\u202fOpen\u202fPedagogy\u202fAssignment initiative. This inspired me to integrate a cultural research project into a German language course and give students the opportunity to share their research as an Open Educational Resource (OER) on Pressbooks.\u00a0 I decided to do this in a mixed-level special topics course which covered both language instruction and culture. I called it \u201cThe German-Speaking World Today\u201d and as our main cultural project, students picked a German-speaking population outside of Germany or Austria (from the list below) and researched that community.\u00a0 The goal was for us as a class to learn about each community and also gain an understanding of what cultural institutions or practices helped either maintain the culture or led to its disappearance.\u00a0 The final poster presentations included the following information:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. Name of the country\/community<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Location (country, capital, other significant cities)<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Size of the German-speaking populations<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Geographic size comparison with the U.S.<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. How long has the group been there?<\/li>\r\n \t
  6. Why did they settle there?<\/li>\r\n \t
  7. What dialect do they speak? (What German-speaking region did they come from?)<\/li>\r\n \t
  8. Famous people from this German-speaking community<\/li>\r\n \t
  9. What \"cultural artefact\" supports and sustains this cultural group?<\/li>\r\n \t
  10. How is the culture maintained or not maintained? (Are there protests or laws against the group? Are they encouraged to assimilate?)<\/li>\r\n \t
  11. Sources<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
    \r\n
    \r\n\r\nStudents found open license images for their posters and presented their final products at Marian University\u2019s Showcase of Scholarship, an undergraduate research symposium.\u00a0 For the OER Pressbooks submission, they also recorded themselves on Yuja presenting the poster.\u00a0 The posters from the students who agreed to share their work publicly are included here. Since I had fewer students than German-speaking communities, this constitutes just a beginning.\u00a0 It is my hope that this Pressbooks site will grow organically as future students add to this resource, creating a comprehensive introductory resource about German-speaking communities around the world.\r\n
    \r\n
    \r\n\r\nOfficial Language<\/strong>:\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nGermany\r\nAustria\r\nSwitzerland\r\nLiechtenstein\r\nLuxemburg\r\nBelgium (Wallonia)\r\n\r\nGerman-speaking populations in Europe:<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nDenmark\r\nFrance (Alsace-Lothringen)\r\nBulgaria\r\nItaly (South Tyrol, Walser German)\r\nHungary\r\nPoland (Silesia)\r\nCzech Republic\r\nSpain\r\nNetherlands\r\nRomania:\u00a0 Transylvania (Siebenb\u00fcrgen), Banat & Bukovina (Buchenland\/Bukowina); Donau Swabian (Donauschwaben); Transylvania Landlers\r\nRussia:\u00a0 Siberia \u2013 The \u201cVolga Germans\u201d\r\n
    \r\n
    \r\n\r\n \r\n
    \r\n
    \r\n\r\nGermans in North America:\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nThe \u201cGerman Triangle\u201d (Midwest)\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nPennsylvania; \u201cGermantowns\u201d across the US\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nTexas (\u201cThe German Belt\u201d: New Braunfels, Frederiksburg, Boerne, Niederwald,\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nPflugerville, Brenham, Comfort, Schulenburg, Walburg, Weimar)\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nThe Amish & Mennonites, Moravians\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nCanada (Kitchener, Ontaria & British Columbia, Hutterites of Western Canada)\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n
    \r\n\r\nSouth & Central America<\/strong>:\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0 Brazil (Pomerode, Sinimbu, Espirito Santo, Blumenau, New Hamburg, Joinville, Gramado, Canela and Nova Petr\u00f3polis. S\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o do Sul\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Argentina (Buenos Aires, La Cumbrecita, Entre R\u00edos, Obera Misiones, Villa General Belgrano)\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paraguay (Nueva Germania, Colonia Independencia, Colonias Unidas, Chaco)\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Venezuela (Colonia Tovar)\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Peru (Oxapampa, Pozuso)\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chili (Frutillar, Dreizehnlinden; Valdivia, Puerto Varas, Puerto Montt, Temuco, Victoria, Valdivia, Osorno)\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mexico & Honduras\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bolivia (Eastern Bolivia near Santa Cruz)\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nAfrica<\/strong>:\r\nNamibia (Windhoek) & South Africa (Wartburg, Kirchdorf, Heidelberg, Cape Town, Kroondal)\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nNew Hanover\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n
    \r\n\r\nAsia<\/strong>:\r\nKyrgyzstan: Rot Front (Bergtal)\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nAustralia<\/strong>:<\/span><\/span>\r\n(<\/span>Hahndorf<\/span>, Adelaide hills, Barossa German; <\/span>Ntaria<\/span> (<\/span>Hermannsburg<\/span>)); Tobago<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nPacific<\/strong>:\r\n<\/span>Papua new Guinea<\/span> <\/span>(language \"<\/span>unser<\/span> Deutsch\")<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"
    \n
    \n

    One day, I was speaking with one of our international students from Brazil and he shared that his motivation for learning German was his own family\u2019s heritage.\u00a0 He came from one of the Brazilian states that had a large German-speaking population, and grew up in a community which had, over centuries, maintained its German cultural identity.\u00a0 While I had some vague knowledge that there were German settlements in Brazil, I realized that the textbooks I used did not address the German diaspora and I myself had never been explicitly taught about these communities in my own education.\u00a0 In fact, aside from the occasional cultural inset about the German influence on American culture and the post-World War II emigration to the U.S., the textbooks I used did not mention the many and diverse German-speaking populations outside of German-speaking countries.\u00a0 Consequently, my courses focused solely on the German speakers in European countries where German was a national language \u2013 and overwhelmingly on Germany. I saw that my colleagues in Spanish regularly taught courses on Spanish-speakers and their unique cultures outside of Spanish-speaking countries and I wondered why there was this large cultural blind spot in German Studies. In part, it was likely an academic casualty of post-War national and political reorientation, along with coming to terms with the impact of German nationalism and the concept of national identities tied to ethnicity:\u00a0 What was to be gained by remembering the ethnic German populations in other countries? The conversation with my student prompted me to consider ways to add a broader understanding of German culture to my classes. Although the focus would largely be on populations that had historically lived in the regions or had emigrated there prior to the 20th century, the list of options also included former colonies such as Namibia.\u00a0 At the same time I was considering these things, I learned about the support offered by PALNI\u2019s PALSave\u202fOpen\u202fPedagogy\u202fAssignment initiative. This inspired me to integrate a cultural research project into a German language course and give students the opportunity to share their research as an Open Educational Resource (OER) on Pressbooks.\u00a0 I decided to do this in a mixed-level special topics course which covered both language instruction and culture. I called it \u201cThe German-Speaking World Today\u201d and as our main cultural project, students picked a German-speaking population outside of Germany or Austria (from the list below) and researched that community.\u00a0 The goal was for us as a class to learn about each community and also gain an understanding of what cultural institutions or practices helped either maintain the culture or led to its disappearance.\u00a0 The final poster presentations included the following information:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Name of the country\/community<\/li>\n
    2. Location (country, capital, other significant cities)<\/li>\n
    3. Size of the German-speaking populations<\/li>\n
    4. Geographic size comparison with the U.S.<\/li>\n
    5. How long has the group been there?<\/li>\n
    6. Why did they settle there?<\/li>\n
    7. What dialect do they speak? (What German-speaking region did they come from?)<\/li>\n
    8. Famous people from this German-speaking community<\/li>\n
    9. What “cultural artefact” supports and sustains this cultural group?<\/li>\n
    10. How is the culture maintained or not maintained? (Are there protests or laws against the group? Are they encouraged to assimilate?)<\/li>\n
    11. Sources<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
      \n

      Students found open license images for their posters and presented their final products at Marian University\u2019s Showcase of Scholarship, an undergraduate research symposium.\u00a0 For the OER Pressbooks submission, they also recorded themselves on Yuja presenting the poster.\u00a0 The posters from the students who agreed to share their work publicly are included here. Since I had fewer students than German-speaking communities, this constitutes just a beginning.\u00a0 It is my hope that this Pressbooks site will grow organically as future students add to this resource, creating a comprehensive introductory resource about German-speaking communities around the world.<\/p>\n

      \n
      \n

      Official Language<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      Germany
      \nAustria
      \nSwitzerland
      \nLiechtenstein
      \nLuxemburg
      \nBelgium (Wallonia)<\/p>\n

      German-speaking populations in Europe:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n

      Denmark
      \nFrance (Alsace-Lothringen)
      \nBulgaria
      \nItaly (South Tyrol, Walser German)
      \nHungary
      \nPoland (Silesia)
      \nCzech Republic
      \nSpain
      \nNetherlands
      \nRomania:\u00a0 Transylvania (Siebenb\u00fcrgen), Banat & Bukovina (Buchenland\/Bukowina); Donau Swabian (Donauschwaben); Transylvania Landlers
      \nRussia:\u00a0 Siberia \u2013 The \u201cVolga Germans\u201d<\/p>\n

      \n
      \n

       <\/p>\n

      \n
      \n

      Germans in North America:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      The \u201cGerman Triangle\u201d (Midwest)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      Pennsylvania; \u201cGermantowns\u201d across the US<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      Texas (\u201cThe German Belt\u201d: New Braunfels, Frederiksburg, Boerne, Niederwald,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      Pflugerville, Brenham, Comfort, Schulenburg, Walburg, Weimar)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      The Amish & Mennonites, Moravians<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      Canada (Kitchener, Ontaria & British Columbia, Hutterites of Western Canada)<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n
      \n

      South & Central America<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      \u00a0\u00a0 Brazil (Pomerode, Sinimbu, Espirito Santo, Blumenau, New Hamburg, Joinville, Gramado, Canela and Nova Petr\u00f3polis. S\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o do Sul<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Argentina (Buenos Aires, La Cumbrecita, Entre R\u00edos, Obera Misiones, Villa General Belgrano)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paraguay (Nueva Germania, Colonia Independencia, Colonias Unidas, Chaco)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Venezuela (Colonia Tovar)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Peru (Oxapampa, Pozuso)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chili (Frutillar, Dreizehnlinden; Valdivia, Puerto Varas, Puerto Montt, Temuco, Victoria, Valdivia, Osorno)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mexico & Honduras<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bolivia (Eastern Bolivia near Santa Cruz)<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      Africa<\/strong>:
      \nNamibia (Windhoek) & South Africa (Wartburg, Kirchdorf, Heidelberg, Cape Town, Kroondal)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n

      New Hanover<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      \n
      \n

      Asia<\/strong>:
      \nKyrgyzstan: Rot Front (Bergtal)<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      Australia<\/strong>:<\/span><\/span>
      \n(<\/span>Hahndorf<\/span>, Adelaide hills, Barossa German; <\/span>Ntaria<\/span> (<\/span>Hermannsburg<\/span>)); Tobago<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      Pacific<\/strong>:
      \n<\/span>Papua new Guinea<\/span> <\/span>(language “<\/span>unser<\/span> Deutsch”)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"front-matter-type":[13],"contributor":[],"license":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/front-matter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4\/revisions\/52"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"front-matter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter-type?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/germanspeakingpopulations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}