A: Die Germania: A German-language Newspaper

      For centuries, Germans and German-Americans have been informed about Germany and the United States through German-language newspapers. The first German paper in the United States, the Philadelphia Zeitung, was published by Christopher Sauer at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1732. A few years later, in 1743, another German newspaper appeared in Philadelphia. As Germans followed the westward movement, the number of German newspapers in the United States grew. The revolution of 1848 caused the immigration of many Forty-eighters who had been journalists at home, and others who had received good educations in German universities and now sought employment in newspaper offices. This resulted in a constant rising level of German newspaper publications.| #2 | By 1856, there were seventy-six German papers published in the United States; twenty-six of them were dailies which circulated in the areas of Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Milwaukee, New Orleans and many other locations. By 1880, the number had climbed to 641 periodicals in German; eighty of these papers were dailies, 466 weeklies and 95 appeared less frequently.| #3 | The figure includes every conceivable paper and journal, from dailies and weeklies to publications devoted to lodges, music, trade, religions, and so forth.

      The political situation in Kansas in 1854 attracted many newspaper men to the territory, and newspapers were nearly established at once. On September 15, 1854, the first Kansas newspaper, the Kansas Weekly Herald, was published in Leavenworth. Only a few months later, on October 18, 1854, the Kansas Pioneer, the first Lawrence paper was published. It was closely followed by the second Lawrence paper, the Herald of Freedom on October 21, 1854.| #4 | Eleanor Turk has pointed out that newspapers played an important role in Kansas history, since they attracted settlers into the Territory and "brought them together into communities." Furthermore, they reported about the political turmoil of the area during the slavery debate and participated in election campaigns, and "in the dreadful Civil War that followed."| #5 | From 1865 to 1870, the number of newspapers in Kansas rose from thirty-seven to eighty.| #6 |

      The first German-language newspaper in Kansas was founded in 1857 in Atchison City and was called Kansas Zeitung. Interestingly, the paper was organized by the New England Emigrant Aid Company which subsidized Charles Kob, a German surgeon, to start this paper. The aim of the paper was to attract German settlers to Kansas, and, therefore, was "filled with a combination of enthusiastic descriptions of the Kansas paradise and political sentiments in support of the Free-Soil cause."| #7 | The paper was short-lived because at that point, few German settlers had arrived in the territory. According to Turk, "other attempts to establish German-language newspapers during the territorial period were equally unsuccessful."| #8 | German newspapers started to spring up after the Civil War when the number of German settlers in Kansas rose. From the 1880s to the early twentieth century, an average of fourteen German newspapers existed in Kansas, a great number of which served the Mennonite communities in the state.| #9 |

      The first German newspaper in Lawrence was started in 1868 by John Haeberlein. It was a weekly paper called Die Freie Presse. Haeberlein only published the paper in Lawrence for seven months, from January to September 1868. He then moved to Leavenworth and continued it there as a daily paper for twenty years. The rising number of Germans in Lawrence, nevertheless, demanded a German-language paper in the Lawrence area, and led to the establishment of Die Germania, a weekly German paper which provided news for German families for forty-one years.

      Thursday was Germania day for many German families in Lawrence and Eudora who found the German-language paper in their mailboxes once a week. The first issue appeared on September 1, 1877 and was printed by Gottlieb Oehrle. The Oehrle family had come to Lawrence from Ohio in 1858. During Quantrill's Raid, Gottlieb's father was killed and the family moved away. A few years later, the boy entered the German Methodist Orphans Home in Berea, Ohio.| #10 | In 1877, Gottlieb Oehrle came back to Lawrence and started publishing Die Germania. The paper was subtitled , Gewidmet den Interessen des deutschen Publikums von Lawrence und Umgebung (Dedicated to the interests of the German readership of Lawrence and surrounding areas). The paper consisted of four pages sized 22 X 30 inches. In 1879, it was enlarged to 28 X 40 inches. In general, the first page contained mixed news about the United States, Kansas and Germany. It also included railroad schedules, prices in Lawrence and advertisements of local German merchants. On the second page, the reader found important news from Germany, such as scandals of the aristocratic families, and news from other European countries, such as Italy, Luxembourg, or England. The third page was dedicated to news from all German states. Information divided into columns reported about all areas in Germany. It also contained a serialized novel. The last page included local news. Here one could find ads by local merchants; death, marriage and birth notices; and want-ads as well as short notices. It is not quite clear where Oehrle got his national and international news. It seems that he copied them from other German-language papers in the United States. Although the wire service of the New York Associated Press was accessiable for papers since the 1880s, the service cost $ 250 a year.| #11 | It is very probable that Oehrle did not have the money for the service. During Oehrle's years, the circulation of the paper never exceeded 250 copies per week.| #12 | Furthermore, the office sold subscriptions to German-language magazines in the United States, such as the Der Deutsche Hausschatz, or the Deutsche Romanbibliothek.

      In 1889, Edward Gruen who had been a printer for Oehrle since 1888, took over the paper and changed its name to Lawrence Germania. The content was mainly the same as in previous years. Besides the paper, Gruen offered printing services in German and English to his costumers. From 1889 to 1891, the paper's circulation exceeded 500 copies per week. After 1891, the distribution dropped again to 400 copies.| #13 |

      In 1902, the paper changed hands again. According to Theresa Thueringer, a group of leading German families formed a corporation known as the Germania Publishing Company to buy the paper. Henry Albach was treasurer and secretary of the company and from 1902 until its demise in 1918, the names of Henry and Bertha Albach became closely connected with the Lawrence Germania, also known as the German Independent.

      The Albach family had been one of Lawrence's early German families. Henry Albach's father, Philip, was one of many revolutionary Forty-eighters who had left Germany after the 1848 Revolution. Philip fled to the United States to escape retribution. In 1857, when Germany granted amnesty to all political refugees, he returned to Germany and married his fiancee Wilhelmina. The Albachs returned to the United States with the intention of travelling overland to California. But instead, the couple settled in newly founded Lawrence, where Philip opened a wagon-making and blacksmith store on Massachusetts Street. Henry Albach was born in September 1863, only two weeks after Quantrill's Raid had destroyed his parent's home and business. Henry was sickly as a child and, therefore, his parents decided to send him back to Germany to stay with relatives since the couple had already lost their first three children to the extreme climatic conditions of the Kansas prairie. Henry stayed in Germany until he was ten years old. He returned to the United States and completed his education in Kansas. In 1886, he earned a law degree from the University of Kansas but never practiced as a lawyer. Instead, he entered his father's business and travelled as a salesman for several years. After Henry's marriage to Bertha Koch in 1893, the young wife asked him to spend more time at home. Therefore, he and a friend opened a dry-good store on Massachusetts Street known as Albach and Prehm. The business failed because of strong competition but Albach and Prehm never filed bankruptcy and spent the next twenty years paying off their debts. From 1904 to 1909, Henry Albach was chief clerk of the Fraternal Aid Association, a life insurance company in Lawrence.| #14 |

      Before he quit his job as a clerk, he had been acquainted with the Lawrence Germania because he had been secretary and treasurer of the Germania Publishing Company since 1902. His wife Bertha was the editor of the paper from 1902 until Henry took over in 1909. One year later, Henry bought a second paper, the Democrat which he also published along with the Lawrence Germania once a week.| #15 | After 1902, the Lawrence Germania expanded to a eight page paper. Six of its pages were printed by a German Publishing Company in St. Louis, Missouri. They contained feature articles, literature and general news about the United States, Germany and Europe. The last two pages were left blank for local news. On these pages, Albach printed news of the German-American activities in Douglas County. Although the paper expanded, the coverage of the news did not necessarily increase. Instead, the paper was filled with a large amount of advertising for German and English businesses, and the entertainment section was enlarged. On the first page, the reader still found information on the United States and Germany. The second page was filled with advice Fuer Farm und Garten (for farm and garden), Fuer die Kueche (for the kitchen), or Heilkunde (therapeutics). A novel, a cultural page and a cartoon page filled the next three pages. Local news and ads in English and German were together on the last pages. Before Albach bought The Democrat, he used the presses of The Lawrence Gazette, one of three daily papers in Lawrence, to print German-American news. In 1909, the Lawrence Germania was moved to the press of The Democrat.| #16 |

      In the 1880s, technical innovations in the printing process changed journalism. The typewriter became part of the equipment of every newspaperman and the Linotype came into general use. Large papers could affort to purchase these devices which ensured better and quicker printing. Smaller papers, on the other hand, usually did not have the capital to keep up, and set their type by hand.| #17 | The Lawrence Germania certainly lacked a large amounts of money and was, therefore, printed on a handpress. The major sources of income for all three editors were subscription money, advertising and printing jobs.

      The paper never tried to compete with other Lawrence papers. First of all, it was a weekly paper which did not have enough space to cover every story about the United States or Kansas. The Lawrence Germania left the coverage of daily news to the daily papers. Secondly, it was directed at a very specific readership. It fed its German-American readers a large amount of news from Germany, other German-American communities and local news.

      Although the circulation of the Lawrence Germania rose with the Albachs as editors, already in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the paper started complaining about the declining interest in it. On May 18, 1889, an article reported about the "death" of Die Tribuene, a German-language paper in Topeka. The author further states that,

"Hier in Lawrence mit ueber 1000 deutschen Familien geben wir immer noch die Lawrence Germania heraus, aber unsere Liste der Leser wird mit jedem Todesfall eines Deutsch-Amerikanischen Buergers kleiner und ist nur eine Frage der Zeit, ja einer kurzen Zeit, wanwir Die Germania aufgeben muessen. Bedauernswert ist es, dass unsere deutsch lesenden Familien ihre Lokalzeitung in der Muttersprache vernachlaessigen. Tatsache ist es nicht allein in Lawrence und Leavenworth aber auch im ganzen Lande."| #18 |

       A declining readership was one problem, another was a lack of German-speaking journalists. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, German-language papers had trouble finding competent talent for their editorial staffs, since many first generation German-Americans were getting old, and second-generation German-Americans had lost their ability to write an idiomatic German. Therefore, larger papers recruited editors directly from Germany.| #19 | The Lawrence Germania was lucky to find the Albachs as their editors at a time when German-language papers struggled for staff and readers. While German papers already faced hard times because of declining readership numbers and the lack of German-speaking journalists, World War I caused the death of many German-language papers. At the outbreak of the war in 1914, the news service in St.Louis began to fill the Lawrence Germania with news about the war in Europe. Albach apologized for German actions, but also hoped that the struggle would be localized between Austria and Serbia. As the war continued and war stories from the British and French point of view dominated the English papers, Albach felt an obligation to present the German side of the story. Furthermore, he started criticizing President Wilson for his attacks on "those who sympathized with Germany, while tolerating in silence those who sided with Britain." Albach tried to excuse Germany for using submarines to break the blockades set up by British ships to control trade on sea, and openly expressed his disagreement with the United States government for allowing such violation of international law.| #20 | The war and its coverage in the German papers led to a short revival of the German-language press. German-Americans were concerned about friends and family at home and were dissatisfied with the presentation of Germans and Germany in the English-speaking press. According to Carl Wittke, "Americans of German ancestry were cut to the quick when their fathers and relatives were described as "Huns" and "barbarous".| #21 | The Lawrence Germania witnessed a sharp increase in circulation from 500 to 1500because it offered a counter view to the anti-German news of most of the English papers.| #22 |

      The first major crises in German-American relations occurred when a German submarine torpedoed the British ship Lusitania and over 100 Americans lost their lives.| #23 | Albach apologized again for German war actions and deplored the loss of lives. On the other hand, he contended that Great Britain was as guilty as Germany for carrying war material on an unarmed ship. He was pleased with president Wilson's efforts to stay out of the war, and encouraged the view among his readers that the United States should stay neutral.

      In 1916, as the war in Europe progressed, Albach was torn between his German-American consciousness and his allegiance to the Democratic party. On the one hand, he criticized Wilson's preparedness plan which involved raising an army, building warships and manufacturing other war materials; on the other hand, he supported Wilson's presidential campaign.| #24 | In an article an October 6, 1916 called Wie soll man stimmen?, Albach clearly voiced his Democratic party views and urged his German-American readers to give their vote to Wilson who Albach thought was more likely to keep the United States out of war.| #25 |

      Albach's hopes faltered when the United States declared war on Germany in 1917. Nevertheless, Albach was in a more favorable position than many other German-language papers which had been pro-German and suddenly had to change their tone completely. Although Albach had voiced his criticism of the Wilson administration, he nevertheless was a Democrat and supported the Democratic Party. As stated by Theresa Thueringer, "the six pages sent from St. Louis initially contained the same amount of war news as they always had, but that news was less partisan in its support for Germany and more neutral in reporting battles won and lost."| #26 |

      In June and October 1917, Congress passed the Espionage and Trading with the Enemy Acts which prohibited criticism of the United States government or its allies, and required that foreign-language papers must provide "exact translations of all matters relating to the war "which had "to be submitted to the local postmaster until such time as the government was sufficiently convinced of the loyalty of the foreign-language paper to issue a permit exempting it henceforth from the cumberstone and expensive process of filing English translations."| #27 | In March 1918, Albach had to go to the post office twice to sign an oath that his paper did not contain any articles about the government in Washington.| #28 |

      In an article on March 1, 1918, Albach complained to his readers that he must keep his mouth closed and, therefore, changed the content of the paper to its prewar form. Local news, novels and cartoons became the center of the paper once more. On December 18, 1917, he made one more effort to convince Lawrence residents of German-American loyalty. In a reply to the organization of the "American Defense Society", an organization of citizens to detect German spies with the headquarters in New York, he stated,

If there be any German or American spies in our little city of Lawrence, it will hardly be necessary for these grandstand patriots to introduce any secret inquisitional methods for we have enough loyal citizens with German blood still coursing through their veins who would consider it an honor and a privilege to report such to the proper authorities.| #29 |

From the beginning of the war until now, Albach has held that everything against Germany has been exaggerated or is wrong and for everything Germany had done he has offered an excuse. The Journal World will leave it to the government authorities to watch Mr. Albach, but with many others it has become very tired of the sort of unpatriotic insinuations ... that constantly fill his pages.| #30 |

B: The Role of the Lawrence Germania in Lawrence

      The Lawrence Germania was certainly an unusual paper for its time. Its life span of forty-one years was not exceeded even by many of the larger foreign-language papers in the United States. Its survival strategy lay in the content and management of the paper. The establishment of the paper was no major task because Oehrle had found a large readership among the first-generation Germans who settled in Lawrence in the 1880s. After Gottlieb Oehrle found a more lucrative job as a steamship agent, he sold the paper to his printer Edward Gruen. Although the German readership started to decline in the 1890s, Gruen managed to survive by undertaking various printing jobs.

      At the turn of the century, the paper faced a crisis that might have led to its demise, had it not been for the Albach family. Henry Albach was a very unusual man. Although he was a second-generation German-American, his education in Germany tied him to the German language and values as if he had been a first generation German-American. He, therefore, was perfect for the job, and might have been the only one who could have done it. He had the language skills which faded away in German homes in the process of integration, and the interest to keep a separate German identity alive.

      The Lawrence Germania was never a forum for political discussion by its editors. Therefore, the paper captured a larger readership. In Lawrence, the German-Americans differed in political attitudes. Most of them were Republicans, but there were also Democrats and Independents among them. To serve everybody, the editors decided that it would be the best to keep the Lawrence Germania as an independent paper which did not collide with differing political interests. Even Albach, a whole-hearted Democrat, tried to be as neutral as possible in his editorials, and left most of his political convictions to the pages of the Democrat.

      The paper focused mainly on informing its readers about news from Germany and the United States which concerned the lives of its readers as German-Americans. In his book, The German Americans, LaVern Rippley states that "some papers found their usefulness by feeding readers large doses of news from abroad. Their appeal lay in quieting the homesickness of those who had said goodbye to the Fatherland."| #32 | One can doubt that Lawrence Germans suffered from much homesickness because many had lived in the United States even before moving to Lawrence, and by the turn of the century, many families had resided in the town for decades. But they certainly must have had an interest in the lives of friends and relatives, and memories of the life back in Germany. Carl Schurz has defined the purpose of the German-American press as fourfold. According to him, German-language newspapers in the United States intended

1) to explain America to the German immigrant
2) to promote cooperation among the Germans in America
3) to inform the Germans living in the United States about Germany
4) to teach German immigrants about the "open-handed" generosity of the United States.| #33 |

      The Lawrence Germania included all these goals in its pages during the first twenty years of its existence. It then changed slowly to emphasizes news about Germany, German culture and local news. Under Albach as editor, the serial novel became longer, the catoon section and the cultural sections each took up one whole page, and local news about the German-American communities in Douglas County and Lawrence expanded over two pages. Along with other German-language newspapers in the country, the Lawrence Germania had the dual task of preserving German language and culture, on the one hand, and of Americanizing its readers on the other. As an agent of Americanization, it helped its readers to adjust to a new environment. Articles about American history, laws or customs introduced newcomers to the traditions and customs of American society.| #34 |

      At the outbreak of World War I in Europe, the Lawrence Germania tried to justify and explain German actions and urged the United States to stay neutral. The Lawrence Germania started to carry more English articles to reach American readers. When the United States entered the war, the paper functioned as an adviser to German-American families on how to behave in the difficult situation. Albach ensured his readers that it was no offense to be German, but that they now must be loyal to their adopted home. Albach was certainly in a better situation than most of his German collegeauges who had been pro-German from 1914 and 1917, and then had to change their attitudes about the United States and the war quickly. However, his support for the Democratic ticket in 1916 did not save him from becoming the object of nativist criticism. His pro-German articles before the United States entered the war had hurt his image. The Journal World, as a Republican paper, took advantage of Albach's difficult situation and publicly accused him of being pro-German. The controversy over Albach's position scared many German-American families in Lawrence who thought that Albach was too outspoken. They did not accept him as a spokesman for the German-community. The fear of being denounced as pro-German forced many families to cancel their subscription for the paper. Since many first generation-Germans had died and second generation Germans rejected their German backgrounds, Albach was left alone and caught in between two generations, to fight a battle for honor and loyalty. Albach gave in to the pressures and ceased publication of the Lawrence Germania. However, the democratic principles which he had inherited from his father as an 1848 revolutionist lived on in Albach's Democrat until 1943.

C: The St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church

      From colonial times until today, the Unites States has been looked upon as a refuge from religious persecution. People of diverse religious backgrounds such as Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and so forth, have entered North America to practice their religious beliefs in freedom and without restrictions. Among the many who sought a place where they could practice their religions in peace were many Germans. A treaty at the end of the Thirty-Years' War in 1648 in Germany, outlawed the presence of pietist sects, and tolerated only members of the Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed Church within Germany's borders. Therefore, each German state established the religions of their ruling houses as state religions, and these pressures for religious conformity led to the mass migration of other religious groups to North America.

      German Lutherans in the United States date back to the colonial time when the first Lutherans settled along the east coast in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. In 1741, Heinrich Melchior Muehlenberg, the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the United States arrived in the New World. Muehlenberg, together with six other ministers, established the first Lutheran Synod of America and united all Lutheran Churches of Pennsylvania in 1748. Soon other colonies followed and also established Lutheran Synods, such as the New York and New Jersey Synod in 1773, or the North Carolina Synod in 1803. In 1820, a union of several state synods created the "General Synod". With the exploration and settlement of other parts of the country, Lutheranism spread through the United States. After the Civil War, the "General Synod" split again into four Lutheran bodies. The largest of these organization is the "Synodical Conference", also known as the "Missourians" which dates back to 1838. According to Albert Faust, "this conference was almost entirely German in its membership, and championed the preservation of the German language in the pulpits".| #35 | In 1847, the Lutherans of the Midwest united into the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States and aided the development of other programs in adjoining states.| #36 |

      German Lutherans can be found in Lawrence as early as 1866. In his Kurzgefasste Geschichte des Kansas Distrikts, M. K. Vetter claims that during that year, Reverend C.F. Lieve, general missionary of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States visited the northeastern part of Kansas. During this time, he founded the Lutheran communities of Lawrence and Eudora. One year later, in 1867, both towns shared Reverend Spitzmann as their pastor and the Kansas Daily Tribune advertised regular German Lutheran services on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. in Lawrence and 2:30 p.m. in Eudora. In 1869, Reverend Spitzmann left both churches which were than served by neighboring pastors now and then. The history further claims that "both congregations were lost to us."| #37 |

      Although the first attempt to establish a German Lutheran Church failed, a second Lutheran church was founded in the 1870s. This church, called the St. Paul's Lutheran Church, was not connected to the Missouri Synod as the first one, but seemed to have been independent. Until the church built its own building in 1889, the worship services were conducted in Turner Hall. Although the city directories list the church under the location on the northwest corner of Rhode Island and Warren (Ninth) Street, the Douglas County Atlas shows it clearly at the same spot as Turner Hall. Furthermore, tax records indicate that Turner Hall was exempt from taxes during the years 1870 to 1907, although they paid taxes from 1868-9 and after 1907. The only explanation for that is that the hall was declared to be a church during these years since church properties were exempt from taxes in the United States. The lot where the city directories claim the German Lutheran Church should have been belonged to the Hale family until the end of the nineteenth century, and was at no time exempt from taxes. Therefore, one can surmise that St. Paul's church met in Turner Hall on Sunday mornings.

      In 1879, the German St. Paul's Lutheran Church entered the "Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Kansas and Adjacent states" which had been founded in 1868 for a short period of time. At this time, the Church was served by Reverend Treptow, who applied for membership at the April convention. According to the History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Kansas, "he was admitted upon strength of his own statement and without letter".| #38 | At the October convention in the same year, the congregation was admitted. During that time, the members started to collect money to erect their church. In 1880, Reverend Treptow was charged with misappropriating building funds and, therefore, deposed from the ministry. The congregation later withdrew from the synod.| #39 |

      During the 1890s, the congregation had raised enough money to build their own structure on the 800 block of Illinois Street, later 835 Illinois Street. In March 1889, Die Germania reported that Pastor Rehn, pastor of the church at that time, had asked the Turnverein for financial support, which was granted to him.| #40 | Furthermore, collections among townspeople were taken up and, according to Diane Davis, "84 People contributed to the church-building fund".| #41 | Only one month later, in June 1889, the paper reported that the church had been completed and dedicated: Die evangelische Gemeinde weihte heute ihre neue Kirche ein. The paper also reported that the occasion was visited by a number of Lutheran pastors from other locations in Douglas County. Pastor Silbermann from the Lutheran Church in Eudora, Pastor Maul from the English Lutheran Church in Willow Springs, and Pastor Loesch from the English Lutheran Church of Lawrence were present.| #42 | The little church was a one room wooden building without a basement. A double entrance door led into the room which was lit by eight stained windows on the north and south side of the church.

      The little church was not very wealthy, During the period between 1884 until 1949, it only employed eleven full-time ministers. At other times, pastors were shared with other congregations such as the St.Paul's Church in Eudora or the Deer Creek Church. The church offered Sunday school services on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and the worship service on Sundays at 11:00 a.m.. In 1907, the church built a parsonage for their pastors next to their church at 831 Illinois Street.

      Until 1920, the services were conducted in German, although the English language became increasingly important as the children grew up. Louise Albert Mueller recalls that at Christmas the service would combine both languages when songs in English as well as German were sung and "the little children spoke their Christmas piece in German or English".| #43 | Even if German was still

The German St. Paul's Lutheran Church at 831 Illinois Street, Lawrence, Kansas.

      Spoken at home, parents realized that their children grew up very much influenced by English and that it was important for them to get their religious instructions in English. Louise Albert further remembered how her "mother asked us [the children] if we had prepared ourselves before going to the communion service. She would say it in German Hast Du Dich bereit [gemacht]? ... Mother gave me Stark's prayer book in the English language when I was a young girl and I had it rebound and value it very much".| #44 | According to Diane Davis, the use of German persisted at least partially until World War II. English was first introduced in 1913. Between then and 1942, German and English alternated every other Sunday. For the remaining six years of the church life, services were conducted exclusevly in English.| #45 |

      The Albert family was closely connected to the German Lutheran Church. William Albert was treasurer of the Church for nineteen years, and his daughter Lena held this office for twenty-eight years. His other daughter Clara was the organist at the church. Furthermore, the family took care of the preparation of the services as Louise writes that, "the communion service was always taken care of by us [the Albert Family], the silver polished, linens washed and bread prepared for communion."| #46 | Additionally, the family's home on 731 Alabama Street served as parsonage for the pastor until the church had enough money to built its own in 1907.

      Once a year in the fall, the church celebrated the Mission Festival which involved a dinner and other social activities. Guest speakers offered services in the morning and afternoon and the congregation was joined by other congregations from Richland, Stull, and Eudora for the celebration. Social activities included a women's club (Frauenverein) which annually prepared a bazaar to sell and auction off handicrafts to raise money for mission work. The climax of the year was the annual Christmas celebration. A Christmas tree was set up in the church and decorated with ornaments made of cotton, wood and cloth as well as candles. Children recited pieces in German and English and the congregation sang Christmas carols together in both languages.

      In 1925, the name St. Paul's German Lutheran Church was changed to St. Paul's Evangelical Church. On August 21, 1949, the church closed its doors due to the small membership which had been around 100 in earlier years. From May 1921 to December 1947, the membership had declined from 92 to 10. Two years later in 1949, the Albert family and the Ganz family were the only ones left. Many of the members had passed away and others had gone to other churches which offered more activities and services to their members. The last two members of the church, Lena Albert and Mrs. Jacob Ganz, transfered their membership to the Eudora St. Paul's Church. The property was sold to the Omestead Brothers who sold it to Dr. Gorton and his wife one year later in 1950.| #47 |

D: The German Methodist Episcopal Church

      The majority of German Protestants were raised under the Lutheran faith in their home states. Germans first encountered with Methodism after they crossed the ocean. The increasing numbers of German immigrants had alarmed the Methodist church in the late eighteenth century. Francis Asbury, one of Wesley's most important missionaries, felt the "acute need" to send Methodist missionaries to German settlements.| #48 | Therfore, Methodists began to include Germans into their ministry.

      In 1835, the Methodist Church found William Nast who began to introduce Methodism to Germasn in a more intellectually sophisticated and successful way. Nast was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1807. He received his education in German schools and then entered a theological seminar of the Lutheran Church. In 1828, he emigrated to the United States. Dissatisfied with the Lutheran faith, Nast attended a camp-meeting of the Methodist Church and converted to Methodism in 1835. He saw his mission in preaching the gospel to his countrymen in German. Therefore, he was sent as a missionary to the Germans of Cincinnati. There he started the first German Methodist Church and translated the General Rules of the Methodist Episcopal Church into German. From Cincinnati, the movement spread quickly into surrounding areas. By the late 1840s, German Methodist could be found in New York and Texas as well as in between. In 1838, Nast began to publish the first German Methodist newspaper called Der Christliche Apologete.| #49 |

      In doctrine, church policy and procedure, the German Methodist Church was indistinquishable from the English-speaking church. German Methodists had adopted the same hierarchy as their English brothers. According to Carl Wittke, "licensed exhorts" were on the bottom of the scale of the preaching hierarchy. Their authority derived from the supervising minister, and their appointment depended on recommendations from the local classis. "Exhorters were required to serve a probationary period, after which, upon examination by a conference of ministers in the district, they could be admitted to "full connexion." Meanwhile they could preach but not administer the sacraments." Next in line was the local preacher who was headed by the circuit rider.| #50 | The Methodist Church conducted quarterly and annual meetings in local, district and general conferences. In these meetings, the members discussed and exchanged all kinds of businesses. The general conference was the law-making body of the church.

      In 1858, Karl Stueckmann was the first German Methodist preacher to enter the Kansas Territory. He set out from Leavenworth on his pony to preach to German farmers and settlements in the area.| #51 | He was one of many circuit riders who spent most of his days on horseback spreading the gospel. Besides their preaching, circuit riders usually offered printed material and subscriptions for such church publications, such as the Methodist Magazine, the Ladies Repository, and also Nast's Der Christliche Apologete.| #52 | The riders received little pay. Their annual income rarely exeeded one hundred dollars a year.| #53 |

      The first German Methodist presence in Lawrence can be traced back to June 1859, when six German Methodists settled in Lawrence. All of them came from Berea, Ohio, one of the centers of German Methodism. Since Lawrence's congregation was so small, Lawrence was placed into one circuit with other settlements in the area. From 1858 to 1861, Lawrence shared a circuit with Leroy, Howane and Tecumseh, from 1862 to 1875, it was connected to Franklin and Baldwin City, from 1880 to 1881 with Topeka, and from 1892 to 1893 with Eudora and Captains Creek. From 1893 until it was disbanded in 1918, Lawrence was by itself.| #54 | The circuits were served by one circuit rider who rode back and forth to be with all congregations.

      In December 1862, the Lawrence German Methodist Episcopal Church bought the old Turner Hall which was located on the southwest corner of New York Street and Berkeley Street (Tenth Street). The members of the Turnverein sold their building because most of them had volunteered to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War. The old wooden structure was purchased by the church for $ 500.00. The early purchase was probably made possible because the German Methodists received financial support from the American Methodists. In 1872, the German Methodists bought the lot across from their location on the southeast corner of New York and Berkeley Street (Tenth Street) from Frederick Bromelsick, one of their members, and built their brick and stone structure which is still standing today. Originally, the structure had a steeple and a belfry which were not rebuilt after the church was remodeled. In 1896, the property at 1045 New Jersey Street was also purchased for the preacher's home.| #55 |

The German Methodist Episcopal Church at 1001 New York Street

      The membership of this church was always much lower than the membership of the Lutheran Church because more Germans were Lutherans than Methodist. In 1859, the church started out with six members. By 1880, the number had increased to twenty-five. In the early twentieth century, the membership had climbed to 70 and fluctuated between 65 and 75.| #56 |

      Until the early 1900s the services were conducted primarily in German, but soon after that both German and English were used in sermons and scipure. According to Edith Howard:

"there came a time when some in the congregation, namely children of immigrants and those Germans who adapted without difficulty to the English language. Therefore, the pastors began to use both languages in the service. One method was that the sermon being delivered in German, followed by the same sermon given in the English tongue in sermonette form. The scripture was quoted in both languages." | #57 |

      In 1895, the church organized a Frauenverein (Ladies Aid Society). The club was formed to meet church connected expenses. The congregation often found it difficult to raise money to pay the minister's salary. Therefore, the women met once a week at a member's house to make quilts and other handcrafts which were sold in an annual bazaar. The money was also used for the upkeep of the parsonage or for the support of foreign missions. According to Edith Howard, the average attendance was from twelve to eighteen women.| #60 |

      During the period from 1859 to 1918, thirty pastors served the church at an average of little under two years each. Nearly all of them were natives of Germany who had converted to Methodism after they came to the United States.| #61 | They were trained for their jobs by the West German Kansas-Nebraska Conference which sent them to the location of their service.

      Four times a year, a Quarterly Conference was held where Lawrence's elected church delegates came together with other officials from the area to exchange news on Sunday school services, church attendance, and financial matters. The meetings also served to control the churches since they examined whether or not the congregations followed the rules of the Methodist Church. Certain disciplinary requirements were imposed upon all members of the church, and they were set down in detail in a book of discipline and regulations. Methodists regarded theater, dancing, card playing and ballet as un-Christian and ,therefore, they were strictly opposed to these activities. These views collided with the general atmosphere most Germans had grown up in. Furthermore, most German immigrants regarded Sundays as a day for pleasure and recreation, at least after they had fulfilled their church responsibilities in the mornings. In the United States, many of them found it difficult to adjust to the American celebration of Sundays which were "quite as tombs". In 1856, William Nast published a paper in which he outlined the proper way to celebrate the Sabbath. "He advertised getting up early and praying for the preacher so that his message might bring a blessing to the congregation. He warned against discussing politics, business, pleasure, or any worldly matter on Sunday, and urged good Methodists to refrain from even thinking worldly thoughts on the Sabbath."| #62 | Carl Wittke interpreted the fact that most German Methodists accepted the church regulations as "the most striking evidence of their wholehearted acceptance" of the Methodist teaching.| #63 |

      The Lawrence congregation must have followed the strict rules of the General Church. The 1892-92 minutes of the Eudora, Deer Creek and Lawrence Circuit report several incidents of "misbehavior" among members. At the German Methodist Church Quarterly meeting in February 1893, two members of the Eudora congregation were singled out and their behavior was openly discussed. Both members had missed the Sunday service without excuse. The discussion was carried on until the May meeting when the minister could finally report that " Brother Laple promised the minister to come to church and Father Kohler is to be asked what relationship he should assume toward the church".| #64 | One year later, the behavior of another church member was sharply criticized when the minister declared: "Fred Bartz joined the Deutsche Turnverein (Note - a beer drinking club)."| #65 | German Methodists believed in total abstinence and denounced German beer drinking customs. It is therefore, not surprising that among the members of the German Methodist church, none were members of the Lawrence Turnverein whose activities conflicted with the Methodist beliefs. At the time when America became involved in World War I, the German Methodist Church discontinued its services, and sold the building one year later to the Kansas Seventh Day Adventists Conference Association.

E: The Role of the Churches in Lawrence

      Because the Germans who entered Lawrence came from different parts of Germany and the United States, the German religious landscape was very diverse. German Catholics as well as Jews settled in Lawrence along with a great number of Protestants. But only German Lutherans and Methodists established separate German language churches in town. Other believers had no choice since their numbers were relatively small, and they became members of English-speaking congregations. But even a greater number of German Protestants did not attend the ethnic churches but were members of the English Lutheran Church or the First Methodist Church in town. These churches were bigger and had more services to offer their members which went beyond the struggle of survival. Since many Germans were businessmen, they probably thought it wiser to attend English-speaking services along with American business-partners and customers to secure and preserve connections needed in business life. Others decided that they immigrated to the United States to become American citizens and, therefore, should attend English services. German parents realized that since their children grew up in the New World, their religious education should be in English.

      Nevertheless, the German speaking churches played important roles in the lives of those who attended. Interestingly, both churches were connected to specific families. The German Methodist Episcopal Church was closely linked to the Bromelsick family, and the German Lutheran Church and its development was influenced by the Albert family. The Methodist Church had purchased their second location from the Bromelsicks who were deeply involved in church activities. August Bromelsick was trustee, Sunday school teacher and representative of the church at quarterly circuit meetings for a number of years. Frederika Bromelsick was an active member of the Frauenverein.

      Church activities and affairs of the German Lutheran Church were influenced by the Albert family. William Albert was treasurer of the church for nineteen years, his daughter Lena held the office for twenty-eight years, and a second daughter, Clara, was the church's organist for a number of years. At the time when the church was sold, Mrs. William Albert literally became the church since she was one out of the two members left. The family involvement became quite apparent by looking at the location of the church. Until 1889, the church did not have a building, but met in Turner Hall. When the congregation collected enough money, the church building was erected on Illinois Street, only two blocks from the Alberts' residence on the west side of town away from the locations of other German centers.

      Both churches differed in organization and ideology. The Methodist Church was tied to a close network of the general German Methodist Church in the United States. They followed the rules and regulations set forth by an authority, and followed the hierarchical code of the Methodist Church. The advantage of a network was that the German Methodist Church of Lawrence was financially supported by the Synod and, therefore, had the chance to purchase and build a building at a very early time to serve the needs of the congregation. Methodist preachers were assigned to the church by the authorities and not picked by the members themselves, which saved time and disagreements. Sharing circuit riders with congregations in the area also meant that the church had a regular exchange with others, but also demanded uniformity. The church, therefore, seems more static and inflexible in ideas and ideology.

      The Lutherans, on the other hand, enjoyed independence and freedom of ideology since they were not bound into a network. They were generally tied to the religious beliefs of the Lutheran Church to be classified as a Lutheran Church, but since they were not bound into a formal church network, they had greater flexibility to adapt to certain situations. One area of conflict which was faced by the church in the dealing with German immigrants was that most German families enjoyed their beer and the activities of the Turnverein, an organization usually not favorably looked upon by church administrations. But realizing that in a small town, the number of Germans was very limited, the church relaxed its views on Sunday laws and about drinking to meet the needs of its congregation. Members of the German Lutheran Church could also be members of the Turnverein without facing major conflicts. Traditionally, Turners and churchgoers were two different sets of people. In a small town like Lawrence, such distinctions became less clear.

      Furthermore, German Freidenker (Freethinkers) realized that life in a town where church life was the center of many families, was not easy. In a town where the second question was, "What church do you go to?" there was not much room for rebellious ideas, especially not if you wanted to maintain a successful business in town. Being a member of a church signaled to others the respectability of a family. The German Lutheran Church in Lawrence recognized these pressures, and tolerated the doings of the Turnverein to secure its own congregation. Since Lutherans and Turners worked for the same end, namely the preservation of German culture and language, cooperation could be expected. If the Lutheran Church would allow German immigrants to spent their Sunday afternoons in beer gardens and at card tables, then those immigrants were more willing to spend their Sunday mornings in the church's pews. In a small town, compromises were unavoidable.

      The Methodist Church, on the other hand, opposed the doings of the Turnverein, because it did not have the flexibility to do otherwise. It lacked the chance for adjustment to the needs, and, therefore, was much smaller and faced a harder struggle for survival.

      Both churches, nevertheless, were places to hold on to tradition and the German language. There, Germans met and exchanged news among people of the same ethnic background who shared similar values. As John Bodnar has pointed out, "immigrants participated in church communities not simply because they were drawn to particular forms of belief or ideology but because these communities continued to provide forms of mutual assistance... . In a strange land it was especially satisfying to listen to the gossip and information of congregations where newcomers knew most everyone by sight".| #66 | Furthermore, the practice of religious rites such as baptism, communion or marriage, gave a sense of security, and maybe lessened homesickness. Youth clubs and Frauenvereine, engaged in benevolent work and also provided support and friendship in times of trouble.

      Nevertheless, both churches had different goals. The German Lutheran Church aimed to preserve German language and identity. It can, therefore, be seen as a vehicle for promoting German consciousness. The Methodist Church saw itself as instrument for the Americanization of its members. Lutherans were able to hold German language services for a longer period of time than the Methodists. The Methodist Church had abandoned its German services as soon as it was unnecessary, and children and church members demanded English services. William Nast himself, the father of German Methodism in the United States, understood the role of the church to help Germans become good citizens. According to Carl Wittke, Nast "was genually interested in the Americanization of the immigrant and always contended that preaching Methodism to the Germans would make them better citizens and help them to become Americanized".| #67 |

      At the outbreak of World War I, the German Methodist Church saw its mission succeeded and was willing to be absorbed into the American Methodist Church. This did not cause too many problems because all along, the German Methodist Church had followed the Methodist ideology. The Lutheran Church, on the other hand, had to show its flexibility again by changing language and name, but managed to survive for thirty more years before it closed its doors.

Abstract | Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Conclusion | Appendix | Bibliography