Moin-Moin

Legacy of 1848:

 

Euro-Atlantic Conference, 

March 30 - April 2, 2017 - Northfield, MN

The Legacy of 1848, Through Today

 

Transplanted Ideas & Values in America's Past and Present

 

In addition to immigration history, the program in Northfield, MN will feature topics

including transatlantic family history, health care, religion, Holocaust education, 

politics, and will feature a Luther exhibit: Childhood and School in Mansfeld.

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The "Forty-Eighters" were a relatively small number of individuals who left Germany in the late 1840s and early 1850s after fighting unsuccessfully with both pen and sword for liberty, democracy, and national unity. Many of these courageous men emigrated to the United States. A large number from the present-day state of Schleswig-Holstein chose Scott County, Iowa, on the Mississippi River, as their adopted home. After settling in America, these talented individuals provided an intellectual transfusion for their newly-founded German-American communities, while also influencing the political and social history of the United States during one of its most critical periods. 

 

Many of the Forty-Eighters left lasting marks in politics, education, business, journalism, the arts, and the military. Carl Schurz, perhaps the best-known of those who settled in America, achieved great success in no less than four of these areas. During his long and illustrious career, he was ambassador to Spain for President Lincoln, a general during the Civil War, a United States senator, and Secretary of the Interior under President Rutherford B. Hayes. Carl Schurz served as chief editor of the Detroit Post, editor and co-proprietor of the Westliche Post in St. Louis, editor-in-chief and one of the proprietors of the New York Evening Post, and editorial writer for Harper's Weekly. Noted for his high principles, moral conscience, and avoidance of political partisanship, Schurz, like many of his fellow Forty-Eighters, can teach us much in regard to dealing with the problems that currently confront us.

 

The legacy of Carl Schurz has become is especially timely today. With the steady increase of immigration to the United States and the ongoing refugee crisis in Germany, it has become ever more important to establish the proper framework for the absorption and integration of newcomers. Schurz's solution -assimilation while retaining the newcomers' ethnic heritage- is as valid today as it was when he articulated it in the nineteenth century. The fusion of ethnic identities and American / German values is of the greatest importance, and Carl Schurz's life is a worthy paradigm for all immigrants to emulate.

 

Sadly, most Europeans and Americans know little if anything of the extensive and extremely significant legacy of the Forty-Eighters. The overarching purpose of our conference from March 30 to April 2, 2017 in Northfield, MN, is to rectify this failing by inspiring teaching and research. In short, the "Legacy of 1848" Conference will attempt to highlight the continuing legacy of the democratic and moral values the Forty-Eighters brought to America.

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Please submit papers or proposals by 1 February 2016 to: 

 

Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann, Cincinnati: dhtolzmann@yahoo.com;  - www.donheinrichtolzmann.net/

 

or to : Dr. Joachim Reppmann, Northfield, MN / Flensburg

yogireppmann@gmail.com;  www.moin-moin.us

103 Orchard St N ; Northfield, MN, 55057  - H.: 507-664-1064

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-OR-

 

Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann, Cincinnati: dhtolzmann@yahoo.com;  - www.donheinrichtolzmann.net

 

or to : Dr. Joachim Reppmann, Northfield, MN / Flensburg

yogireppmann@gmail.com;  www.moin-moin.us

103 Orchard St N ; Northfield, MN, 55057  - H.: 507-664-1064