German American Month – Exhibit and Lecture

Exhibit: 

Gemutlikeit, Schnitzelbank, and Kitsch: German American Caricature in Vintage Postcards, October 1-November 30, 2007

Archives & Rare Books Library, 8th Floor – Carl Blegen Library

8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Monday through Friday

Using postcards from the collection of University Archivist Kevin Grace, the heritage of German Americans is viewed from the early 1900s to the present.  Many of the 28 cards show a stereotyped view of this heritage – beer, sausage, pretzels, lederhosen, and dialect – and often these stereotypes were carried over from Germany and promoted by German Americans themselves.  They became a source of cultural identity.

But when is an image a straightforward rendering or a stereotype?  At what point does a graphic image shift from a faithful representation to an exaggerated caricature?  Caricature typically comes about at times of societal stress or fear resulting from basic access and competition for resources – political influence, religious influence, jobs and housing, or even what would be considered as tension over the social or moral order of a community.  Caricature and stereotype represent a cultural method to deal with the unfamiliar.  Included in this exhibition are several images used to “pigeonhole” a particular group, including family names, the consumption of alcohol, and, in one unusual card reflecting the anti-German sentiment of World War I, an attempt to quell the speaking of German using the threat of lynching.

And how do German Americans characterize themselves today?  As inheritors of certain language and linguistic patterns, or as creators of an ersatz heritage that includes the “chicken dance” and oompah music?  Or, as descendants of a significant immigrant group that requires scholarly investigation and interpretation?  The exhibit traces one aspect of the German American heritage.

Lecture:

The first 2007-2008 quarterly lecture in the Archives & Rare Books Library will focus on German American foodways and will feature Dan Glier of Glier’s Goetta, speaking about the history of this Cincinnati product and what it represents of the local German American heritage.

Friday, November 9, 3:00 pm in the Reading Room of the Archives & Rare Books Library.

Both the exhibit and the lecture are free and open to the public.

For more information please contact the Archives & Rare Books Library at 556-1959.