Saengerfest
Encyclopedia
Saengerfest, also Sängerbund-Fest, Sängerfeste, or Sängerfest, meaning singer festival, is a competition of Sängerbunds, or singer groups, with prizes for the best group or groups. Participants number in the hundreds and thousands, and the fest is usually accompanied by a parade and other celebratory events. The sängerfest is most associated with the Germanic
culture, and the music selection is usually that of German composers. It's origins trace back to 19th Century Europe, popularized in part by university students who chose the art form to make political statements. A less politicized version of the tradition was brought to the North American
continent by European emigrants in the same century. In the early part of the 20th Century, sängerfest celebrations drew devotees in the tens of thousands, and included some United States Presidents among their audiences. Sängerbunds are still active in communities with Germanic heritage.
, Bavaria
, possibly in 1830, or as part of the Hambach Festival of 1832. However, the foundations were being laid earlier in Europe
. Composer Hans Georg Nägeli
, who died in 1836, helped form several sängerbunds in Switzerland
and was the basis for the Stuttgart
Liederkranz (male voice choir). Male-only choral celebrations with hundreds, even thousands, of vocalists were popular with the masses and often part of political events in the era following the 1819 Carlsbad Decrees
in Germany
. Composer Friedrich Silcher
used such large choirs to express political viewpoints as far back as 1824 when he and a group of Tübingen University students performed La Marseillaise
to commemorate the storming of the Bastille
. In 1827 at Plochingen, several male-voiced choirs combined for a regional sängerfest.
Gnadenfeld Church choir director Wilhelm Neufeld held a Mennonite
sängerfest in Rückenau in Molotschna
, Ukraine
on May 29, 1894.
. In 1836, Wohlseiffer founded the Baltimore Liederkranz, which became the first to accept women members (1838). In 1846, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
group and the Baltimore
, Maryland
group performed together at a public sängerfest. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac of 1891 listed numerous sängerbunds in the Brooklyn
, New York
area. On June 21, 1901, the Nord-Amerikanischer Sängerbund presented a sängerfest in Buffalo, New York
at the Pan-American Exposition
. A group in Buffalo hoped to help pay the expenses of the fest by forming the Buffalo Sängerfest Company, selling 1,600 shares of stock at $25 each.
Der deutsche Gesangverein (German Singing Association) was organized in Cincinnati, Ohio
in 1838. Sängerfest Hall, also known as Cincinnati Exposition Hall, was built by architects Hannaford, Samuel & Sons
in the Venetian Gothic
style. The hall served a variety of purposes until it was converted to a music hall in 1876. The Cincinnati Liedertafel and Gesang und Bildungsverein (Singing and Education) groups participated in the 1846 festival held by the United Singers of Cincinnati. Louisville
Liederkranz founder Fritz Volkmar invited all groups in 1849 to a sängerfest in Cincinnati. The first post-Civil War sängerfest in Columbus, Ohio
took place August 29 – September 1, 1865 at Schreiner's Hall and the Opera House. Each arriving sängerbund was escorted to the hall by the Eighteenth regiment of the United States Infantry. There were an estimated 400 singers entertaining 12,000 to 15,000 attendees. The closing day of the fest was full of pomp and circumstance with a parade and speeches.
Groups from Ohio
, Kentucky
, Maryland
and Indiana
created the Nord-Amerikanischer (North American) Sängerbund. By 1908, it was estimated that 250,000 German Americans
belonged to musical organizations, and 50,000 of those belonged to the Nord-Amerikanischer Sängerbund.
The first festival in Texas
was held in 1853 in New Braunfels
, and held annually until 1860 when conflicting loyalties about, and participation in, the War Between the States caused a 10-year gap in the events. The San Antonio Männergesang-Verein was formed in 1847, while the New Braunfels Gesangverein Germania formed in 1850, and the Austin Männerchor, formed in 1852. On July 4, 1853 in San Antonio, the San Antonio Männergesang-Verein sponsored an Independence Day
celebration that was also attended by the New Braunfels Gesangverein and the Austin Männerchor. The New Braunfels Gesangverein invited everyone to meet in New Braunfels October 16-17, 1853 for its first Texas Sängerfest. In 1854, the aggregate sängerbunds formed the Texas State Sängerbund. The San Antonio Beethoven Männerchor was organized in 1867 by Wilhelm Thielepape
, assistant conductor of the San Antonio Männergesang-Verein. After the surrender of the Confederacy
in 1865, Thielepape raised the Union flag over the Alamo
and passed out wine and songbooks.
The all-male Houston Sängerbund was founded Oct. 6, 1883 and chartered in 1890. It affiliated itself with Der Deutsch-Texanische Sängerbund (German-Texan Sängerbund). In 1887, founding member Carl C. Zeus served as principal of the organization's German-English school.
At their peak, the sängerfests were prestige events. President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland
and guests took a special train from Washington, D.C.
on July 4, 1888, to see a Baltimore event. Cleveland had friends who were members of the sängerbunds. President Howard Taft attended the July 1, 1912 event in Philadelphia. On June 15, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt
and Ambassador Herman Speck Von Sternberg attended a sängerfest of 6,000 individual singers at Baltimore's Armory Hall. All 9,000 seats were sold out. The President delivered an address praising the German culture and the sängerfest tradition. The Northeastern Sängerbund presented selections by composers Herman Spielter
, David Melamet, Carl Friedrich Zöllner
, E.S. Engelsberg, Felix Mendelssohn
and Richard Wagner
.
So popular were these sängerfests among the public, that when Newark, New Jersey
announced the 21st National Sängerfest to be held on July 1-4, 1906 in Olympic Park, 25,000 people showed up to hear the music, many arriving on chartered trains. Only a few thousand were able to get into the hall, and 2,000 of those were standing. 5,000 singers from more than a hundred sängerbunds representing forty cities from New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware competed for a $20,000 prize offered by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Park vendors offered souvenirs, refreshments, games and a carousel.
) in Ontario. In 1916, a convicted bigamist and deserter from the United States Army
named Max Lymer Louden aka Count Louden told an American district attorney an interesting story. Louden claimed he had been hired by a group of wealthy German Americans with a secret fund of $16,000,000 to take 150,000 German reservists, incognito as sängerbunds, across the Canada-United States border
for a coup d'état
of Canada
on bahalf of Kaiser Wilhelm II. If they drew suspicion, they were prepared to "sing at a moment's notice." It was his loyalty to America, he claimed, which caused him to desert the Kaiser's singing invasion force as he had also deserted the United States Army.
, which hosted its 49th Sängerfest in 2006 with the help of the Nordöstlicher Sängerbund. The 50th Sängerfest, hosted by the Washington Saengerbund
, took place 2009 Memorial Day Weekend in Washington, D.C.
The Houston Sängerbund continues to thrive, as do many sängerbunds in the states of Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin and other areas.
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
culture, and the music selection is usually that of German composers. It's origins trace back to 19th Century Europe, popularized in part by university students who chose the art form to make political statements. A less politicized version of the tradition was brought to the North American
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
continent by European emigrants in the same century. In the early part of the 20th Century, sängerfest celebrations drew devotees in the tens of thousands, and included some United States Presidents among their audiences. Sängerbunds are still active in communities with Germanic heritage.
Europe
It is thought that the sängerfest had its beginnings in HambachHambach
Hambach may refer to:* Hambach, a city in Germany* Hambach Castle, in Germany* Hambacher Fest, a German national democratic festival celebrated from 27 May to 30 May 1832 at Hambach Castle...
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, possibly in 1830, or as part of the Hambach Festival of 1832. However, the foundations were being laid earlier in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Composer Hans Georg Nägeli
Hans Georg Nägeli
Hans Georg Nägeli was a composer and music publisher.Nägeli was born in Wetzikon, Switzerland. He studied under his father as a child, and then opened a private music shop and publishing firm in the 1790s...
, who died in 1836, helped form several sängerbunds in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and was the basis for the Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
Liederkranz (male voice choir). Male-only choral celebrations with hundreds, even thousands, of vocalists were popular with the masses and often part of political events in the era following the 1819 Carlsbad Decrees
Carlsbad Decrees
The Carlsbad Decrees were a set of reactionary restrictions introduced in the states of the German Confederation by resolution of the Bundesversammlung on 20 September 1819 after a conference held in the spa town of Carlsbad, Bohemia...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Composer Friedrich Silcher
Friedrich Silcher
Phillipp Friedrich Silcher , was a German composer, mainly known for his lieder , and an important folksong collector.-Life:...
used such large choirs to express political viewpoints as far back as 1824 when he and a group of Tübingen University students performed La Marseillaise
La Marseillaise
"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song, originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" was written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795...
to commemorate the storming of the Bastille
Bastille
The Bastille was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. The Bastille was built in response to the English threat to the city of...
. In 1827 at Plochingen, several male-voiced choirs combined for a regional sängerfest.
Gnadenfeld Church choir director Wilhelm Neufeld held a Mennonite
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
sängerfest in Rückenau in Molotschna
Molotschna
Molotschna Colony was a Russian Mennonite settlement in what is now Zaporizhia Oblast in Ukraine. Today is called Molochansk with a population of under 10,000. The settlement is named after the Molochna River which forms its western boundary. Today the land mostly falls within the Tokmatskyi and...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
on May 29, 1894.
The United States
The Philadelphia Männerchor (1835–1962) founded by German immigrant Phillip Matthias Wohlseiffer was the first German-American singing society organized in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 1836, Wohlseiffer founded the Baltimore Liederkranz, which became the first to accept women members (1838). In 1846, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
group and the Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
group performed together at a public sängerfest. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac of 1891 listed numerous sängerbunds in the Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
area. On June 21, 1901, the Nord-Amerikanischer Sängerbund presented a sängerfest in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
at the Pan-American Exposition
Pan-American Exposition
The Pan-American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York, United States, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied of land on the western edge of what is present day Delaware Park, extending from Delaware Ave. to Elmwood Ave and northward to Great Arrow...
. A group in Buffalo hoped to help pay the expenses of the fest by forming the Buffalo Sängerfest Company, selling 1,600 shares of stock at $25 each.
Der deutsche Gesangverein (German Singing Association) was organized in Cincinnati, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
in 1838. Sängerfest Hall, also known as Cincinnati Exposition Hall, was built by architects Hannaford, Samuel & Sons
Samuel Hannaford
Samuel Hannaford was an American architect based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Some of the best known landmarks in the city, such as Music Hall and City Hall, were of his design...
in the Venetian Gothic
Venetian Gothic architecture
Venetian Gothic is a term given to an architectural style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architecture influences. The style originated in 14th century Venice with the confluence of Byzantine styles from Constantinople, Arab influences from Moorish Spain and early...
style. The hall served a variety of purposes until it was converted to a music hall in 1876. The Cincinnati Liedertafel and Gesang und Bildungsverein (Singing and Education) groups participated in the 1846 festival held by the United Singers of Cincinnati. Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
Liederkranz founder Fritz Volkmar invited all groups in 1849 to a sängerfest in Cincinnati. The first post-Civil War sängerfest in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
took place August 29 – September 1, 1865 at Schreiner's Hall and the Opera House. Each arriving sängerbund was escorted to the hall by the Eighteenth regiment of the United States Infantry. There were an estimated 400 singers entertaining 12,000 to 15,000 attendees. The closing day of the fest was full of pomp and circumstance with a parade and speeches.
Groups from Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
and Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
created the Nord-Amerikanischer (North American) Sängerbund. By 1908, it was estimated that 250,000 German Americans
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
belonged to musical organizations, and 50,000 of those belonged to the Nord-Amerikanischer Sängerbund.
The first festival in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
was held in 1853 in New Braunfels
New Braunfels, Texas
New Braunfels is a city in Comal and Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas that is a principal city of the metropolitan area. Braunfels means "brown rock" in German; the city is named for Braunfels, in Germany. The city's population was 57,740 as of the 2010 census, up 58% from the 2000...
, and held annually until 1860 when conflicting loyalties about, and participation in, the War Between the States caused a 10-year gap in the events. The San Antonio Männergesang-Verein was formed in 1847, while the New Braunfels Gesangverein Germania formed in 1850, and the Austin Männerchor, formed in 1852. On July 4, 1853 in San Antonio, the San Antonio Männergesang-Verein sponsored an Independence Day
Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
celebration that was also attended by the New Braunfels Gesangverein and the Austin Männerchor. The New Braunfels Gesangverein invited everyone to meet in New Braunfels October 16-17, 1853 for its first Texas Sängerfest. In 1854, the aggregate sängerbunds formed the Texas State Sängerbund. The San Antonio Beethoven Männerchor was organized in 1867 by Wilhelm Thielepape
Wilhelm Thielepape
Wilhelm Carl August Thielepape , was an architect, engineer, teacher, photographer, and lithographer. He was Mayor of San Antonio, Texas during part of the Reconstruction era, and later an attorney in Chicago, Illinois....
, assistant conductor of the San Antonio Männergesang-Verein. After the surrender of the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
in 1865, Thielepape raised the Union flag over the Alamo
Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo was a battle fought during the Texas Revolution.Alamo may also refer to:-Places:*Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas*Alamo, California*Alamo, Georgia*Alamo Township, Michigan*Alamo, Nevada*Alamo, New Mexico...
and passed out wine and songbooks.
The all-male Houston Sängerbund was founded Oct. 6, 1883 and chartered in 1890. It affiliated itself with Der Deutsch-Texanische Sängerbund (German-Texan Sängerbund). In 1887, founding member Carl C. Zeus served as principal of the organization's German-English school.
At their peak, the sängerfests were prestige events. President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
and guests took a special train from Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
on July 4, 1888, to see a Baltimore event. Cleveland had friends who were members of the sängerbunds. President Howard Taft attended the July 1, 1912 event in Philadelphia. On June 15, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
and Ambassador Herman Speck Von Sternberg attended a sängerfest of 6,000 individual singers at Baltimore's Armory Hall. All 9,000 seats were sold out. The President delivered an address praising the German culture and the sängerfest tradition. The Northeastern Sängerbund presented selections by composers Herman Spielter
Herman Spielter
Herman Spielter was an American composer born in Germany who came to the United States in 1880. He wrote cantatas and other works for choir as well as some chamber music.-External Links:...
, David Melamet, Carl Friedrich Zöllner
Carl Friedrich Zöllner
Carl Friedrich Zöllner was a German composer and choir director. He wrote organ variations on God Save the Queen and wrote several songs. His son was composer Heinrich Zöllner.-External links:*...
, E.S. Engelsberg, Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
and Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
.
So popular were these sängerfests among the public, that when Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
announced the 21st National Sängerfest to be held on July 1-4, 1906 in Olympic Park, 25,000 people showed up to hear the music, many arriving on chartered trains. Only a few thousand were able to get into the hall, and 2,000 of those were standing. 5,000 singers from more than a hundred sängerbunds representing forty cities from New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware competed for a $20,000 prize offered by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Park vendors offered souvenirs, refreshments, games and a carousel.
Canada
Similar festivals have also been held in Canada since 1862, with the most prominent of these being in Berlin (later KitchenerKitchener, Ontario
The City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census...
) in Ontario. In 1916, a convicted bigamist and deserter from the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
named Max Lymer Louden aka Count Louden told an American district attorney an interesting story. Louden claimed he had been hired by a group of wealthy German Americans with a secret fund of $16,000,000 to take 150,000 German reservists, incognito as sängerbunds, across the Canada-United States border
Canada-United States border
The Canada–United States border, officially known as the International Boundary, is the longest border in the world. The terrestrial boundary is 8,891 kilometers long, including 2,475 kilometres shared with Alaska...
for a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on bahalf of Kaiser Wilhelm II. If they drew suspicion, they were prepared to "sing at a moment's notice." It was his loyalty to America, he claimed, which caused him to desert the Kaiser's singing invasion force as he had also deserted the United States Army.
Current events
Although some local festivals were canceled or suspended during the years of World War I and World War II due to rising anti-German sentiment, the sängerfest tradition has largely survived, and many communities have sängerfests today. Many of these are in areas with a high German population, such as Lancaster, PennsylvaniaLancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
, which hosted its 49th Sängerfest in 2006 with the help of the Nordöstlicher Sängerbund. The 50th Sängerfest, hosted by the Washington Saengerbund
Washington Saengerbund
The is a German choral society founded in 1851 in Washington, D.C. About 50 active singers make up the mixed chorus, which forwards a tradition of preserving German music and German culture in the Washington Metropolitan Area with numerous concerts and musical performances during the year, often...
, took place 2009 Memorial Day Weekend in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
The Houston Sängerbund continues to thrive, as do many sängerbunds in the states of Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin and other areas.