Reppmann CV

Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Joachim "Yogi" Reppmann, Historian

Personal

Born March 27, 1957, in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein.
Second son of Ingo Reppmann (civil servant) and Hildegard Reppmann née Rieck.
German address: Moltkestraße 6, 24937 Flensburg.
American address: 103 Orchard St. N., Northfield, MN 55057 (Tel.: +1-507-581-6734).
E-mail: yogireppmann@gmail.com - www.Moin-Moin.us

Education

1964 St. Nikolai Boys' School, Flensburg.
1968 Altes Gymnasium, Flensburg.
1976 Abitur — high school exam.
1976 Higher education: History, Eastern European History, Anglistik/American Studies, and Philosophy (Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel).
1977-83 Research project: America/Schleswig-Holstein: Language and Cultural Relationships (Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel).
1978 Three-month research trip in the Midwest with Dietrich (Dee) Eicker. (Financial support by Gov. Stoltenberg)
1981 Preliminary examination in Sociology and Pedagogy.
1982 Six-month research trip to the US with Dietrich (Dee) Eicker. (Financial support by Gov. Stoltenberg)
1983 Ruhr-University, Bochum.
1984 M.A. thesis topic: Transplanted Ideals: The Concept of Freedom and Democracy of the Schleswig-Holstein Forty-eighters — Origins and Effects, 1846-1856 (Ruhr-University, Bochum).
1986 Four-month archival research in the Midwest.
1993 Doctoral thesis: Freedom, Education and Well-being for All! — Forty-eighters from Schleswig-Holstein in the USA, 1847-1860 (Kiel University).

Employment

1985-86 Trebåtbyggeri, Risør, wooden boat building in Norway.
1987-90 Institute for Regional Research and Information, Flensburg: planned tours for St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, Continuing Education, U.S. Teachers of German.
1988:
- Institute for Regional Research and Information, Flensburg project: Cultural exchange between America's Midwest and Schleswig-Holstein with scholarly research of North German immigration to the U.S.
- Organization of group trips on both sides of the Atlantic, e.g. S-H in the USA.
- Wide-ranging lecture and public relations work.
- Foundation of the American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society (Jan. 1989), which within one year had over eight hundred members from thirty-nine U.S. states and Schleswig-Holstein.
- Family research and revival of Plattdeutsch (Low German) in Iowa.
1990 NDR television, Kiel: Research and coordination of the four-part documentary entitled The History of the GDR.
1990-93 Schleswig-Holstein Managing Director of the nonpartisan Europa-Union (goal of the Europa- Union, Germany: The United States of Europe).
1992 Visiting Assistant Professor at St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN (Winter term). Taught German 232, 251, and 340 (Sem. The New Germany in the New Europe).
1993-97 Assistant Professor at St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN. Taught German 231, 251, 350 (Sem. 1848 German Revolution); 233 (Interim-German Abroad); 298 (Introduction to the German Health Care System); German 231A and C; 340 (Sem. The History of the GDR); 233 (Interim-German Abroad); and 231, 265, 350 (Sem. Literature as Film).
1997-99 Assistant Professor at Carleton College, Northfield, MN.

Memberships

American / Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society (ASHHS) — Founder, 1989; President: 1999-2002, (Life Member).
German-American Heritage Museum, Washington, DC (GAHM Advisory Board).
German-American Heritage Center, Davenport, IA (GAHC Life Member)
Society for German-American Studies, (SGAS).
Rotary, (Northfield, MN).

Extracurricular Activities

1975 Founder of the German-Polish Society (Flensburg).
1976 Hitchhiking tour of North America.
1978 First US Research Trip with Dietrich (Dee) Eicke: Schleswig-Holstein in America.
1979-80 World tour with a carpenter 'auf der Walz' (traditional walking and working tour by apprenticeship carpenters).
1982-85:
- Founder and co-owner of Chameleon Press (Flensburg /Kiel).
- Freelance work for various newspapers in Germany, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Deutschland-Funk (German broadcasting company).
1983 Organization of excursion to Germany for forty-five "Schleswig-Holsteiners" from Iowa.
1984 Attempt to establish a sister-state relationship between Iowa and Schleswig-Holstein.
1975-84 Annual vacation work as truck driver or carpenter.
1988 Honorary citizen of Holstein, IA.
1988 Winning contestant on "Euro-Paare," a game show viewed by over seventeen million viewers throughout West Germany, East Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
1988-96 German Hausbarn Project, Manning, Iowa (Schleswig-Holstein Immigrant Museum).
1989 Honorary lifetime member of the American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society (ASHHS).
1990 Community Colleges, Iowa, three-week visit. The topic was Fall of the Berlin Wall (forty-one lectures and slide shows).
1991 First family reunion of the American/Schleswig-Holstein Meggers family in Iowa and Wisconsin: 430 Meggers from sixteen U.S. states and Germany.
1992 Four-week U.S. lecture tour (fifty-two lectures and slide shows) organized by community colleges with a topic of "Germany in Europe."
1994:
- Organization of the first visit of thirteen U.S. criminal justice students with police in Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark.
- Organization of the Hans Reimer Claussen Symposium in Davenport, IA.
1995 Panel discussion and slide show at the German Embassy, Washington, D.C. Exhibit on the training institutions in Schleswig-Holstein.
1995 Organization of a German group tour to Grand Island, Nebraska, and the Midwest to start a sister city relationship with Bad Segeberg.
1996 US-Students to Lithuania, Poland, Germany – Political Concept of the “Mare Balticum” (became most successful ‘Interim Course’, St. Olaf College, Northfield., MN.
1997
- Fifty-four students as the first U.S. football team to Northern Germany and Denmark.
- Friedrich Hedde 1848-1998 Symposium with the State Parliament Celebration
1998. St. Olaf College classical radio station visits the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival
1999:
- Only U.S.-Bossel team visits European Championship
- President of the American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society
- December, Video recording in NYC: Dr. Henry Kissinger about his closest friend, Dr. Gerhard Stoltenberg, Gov. of Schleswig-Holstein.
2001:
- Organized a Low German Conference in Grand Island, NE (Oct. 19-21, 2001)
- Police exchange MN and S-H
- Lecture tour in Germany for Karl Fink, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN: Goethe as a Visionary of Modern Media
- Ten slide shows on a cruise from New York to Nice, France: German-American Experience
2003 Founded de.us inc., INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS with Steven Bosacker, Chief of Staff, Gov. Ventura, an organization that finds, facilitates, and incubates new business connections between the Baltic Sea Region and America's Midwest.
2004 McNallySmith College of Music, St. Paul, MN: opens European campus in Lübeck, Germany. Satori-Stocketec, Neumünster, opens U.S. branch in Northfield, MN.
2005:
- Gillhoff Literature Prize
- With German newspaper chain donation drive for New Orleans: $160,000.
2006 January 28th Thank-You-Gala with four thousand readers and editor Jim Amoss (Times-Picayune, New Orleans) in Flensburg, Germany.
2007 U.S. visit of Dr. Hans Jürgen Ahrens, CEO of AOK, a large German sickness fund.
2008:
- Rededication of the 1848er memorial from 1898 in Davenport, IA
- U.S. visit of twenty-one CEOs (German health care)
- U.S. columns for fourteen daily German newspapers (since November)
2009:
- 1848er memorial for Theodor and Justus Olshausen in Kiel
- The Legacy of 1848 - Henry Finnern Conference (Denison, IA)
2010 Opening of German-American Heritage Museum, Washington, DC, Advisory Board.
2011 Nominating Erik Bettermann, CEO of Germany's International Broadcaster (Deutsche Welle), for Honorary Doctorate, Wartburg College, IA.
2012 Nominating US-Goethe expert, Professor Karl Fink, for highest Thuringia Award.
2013 :
- Forty-eighter and Friends, Co-producer of 30 minute video paid by Deutsche Welle TV.
- Organization of the international Legacy of 1848, through today Conference (Wartburg College, Waverly, IA)
- Founder of the Stoltenberg Institute for German-American Forty-eighter Studies.
2014 The Steuben Society of America presented its Erick Kurz Memorial Award for German-American History in New York for the research on the 1848 movement’s democratic impact in Germany, and the USA.
2015 Holocaust Box Car for Fagen Fighters WWII Museum, Granite Falls, MN.
2016 Low German Monument, Cole Camp, MO – keynote address.
2017 German-American Conference, Northfield, MN: Holocaust Education & The Legacy of 1848; world premiere, documentary: A Flensburg Perspective: Erna de Vries & The Holocaust Boxcar. German-American Friendship Award of the Federal Republic by Ambassador Peter Wittig.
2018 German biography of Eric Braeden by Wulf Buschardt (Hans-Joerg Gudegast - "Von Bredenbek nach Hollywood".)
2019 www.KeokukPeaceLetters.com (1931/2 & 2020: Rotary History Coming Alive).
2019, June 2nd, Rotary Keokuk Peace Letters Book party in Flensburg. 135 Rtns. from 21 countries in & around our private apartment.
2020-'22, together with Tony Conn, Sabee Schwachula over 200 Zoom Shows, "Nationalism, Then & Now, Rotary Peace Letters, 1931/2-2031".
2022, "Democracies Under Fire", Rotary Conference Program. (Teaser, 128 seconds.)
2022, Conference Exhibit: Peace Letters meet StarPeace.