51st Annual German-American Steuben Parade
Saturday, September 20th, 2008 - Noon
Fifth Avenue, New York City

Every year in September, German-Americans from all over the US come together in New York City to celebrate their heritage, the achievements of German settlers in the US, as well as the enduring friendship between the two countries. Led by three Grand Marshals - Hollywood Star Ralf Möller, New York Stock Exchange CEO Duncan Niederauer, and “Candy Bomber” and Berlin Airlift veteran Col. Gail Halverson - the Parade will bring hundreds of music and dance groups to world-famous Fifth Avenue. There will be Trachten groups and carnival masks, historic groups, as well as marksmen. After the Parade, the crowd moves into Central Park for the Annual German-American Friendship Party, where New Yorkers get as close as it gets to a real Oktoberfest without actually flying to Munich.

By Cynthia Elyce Rubin
The earliest German immigrants arrived in America with a rich cultural heritage that was expressed in the folk arts and popular culture of their homeland.

Crafts that had played an important role in the daily lives of the immigrants before they left Germany—pottery, painted and decorated furniture, and textiles—continued to be made in the new communities they established in America.

Other art forms, such as colorful fraktur writing and cake or cookie molds, reflect the importance of religion and ritual in the hearts and homes of early German immigrants.

In popular culture, everyday artifacts such as  Victorian advertising trade cards and the postcard are commentary on the continuing vitality of German ingenuity and innovation on American soil.

Germanic culture in America survived because young America changed values but it also preserved values.  American cultural roots, celebrated today for their complexity and richness, demonstrate a continuing vitality of German historical forms that reflect America’s cultural values up to this day.

Coordinated by regional German-American societies with the support of the German Embassy, the festive program served to celebrate and honor America’s German heritage. Guided tours of the newly discovered James Fort, the unveiling of a new National Park Service historic marker at the Jamestown Glasshouse by the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Klaus Scharioth, lectures, a German banquet, a concert with early German music and a commemorative church service marked the weekend.

“The 400th anniversary of Jamestown. That means 400 years of America, 400 years of German-American friendship, and a unique, 400-year-old shared history,” Ambassador Scharioth said before more than 200 German-Americans as he unveiled the historic marker at the Jamestown Glasshouse on April 19.

More at http://www.germany.info/relaunch/culture/new/cul_German_400_Jamestown_01_04_2008.html

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