I’ve enjoyed translating and reflecting on addresses and sermons delivered by Pastors Herman Kilian and later Theodore Schmidt at the 75th, 100th and 125th anniversaries at St. Paul’s in Serbin. They encourage us to remember how sermon writing was different a century ago as well as to wonder what parishioners expected from a sermon. Today’s […]
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As the German communities moved from speaking German to speaking English, short plays were written to inject some humor into the situation. These short plays were acted out in schools, youth groups and churches. A popular play at that time was a dialogue between two farmers, one a German and the other American, about a
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Joseph Wilson’s article from 1977, The German Language in Texas Today from the Rice Institute Pamphlet, can be found on the Rice Fondren Library website at https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/63286. ]]>
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Joseph Wilson’s article from 1960, The Texas German of Lee and Fayette Counties, from the Rice Institute Pamphlet, can be found on the Rice Fondren Library website at https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/62831 ]]>
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First published in the Texas Wendish Heritage Society Newsletter, Vol II, No. 4 of July-September 1981. In Texas, as had been the case in Germany previously, the Wends used German as their more official language. Therefore it is not surprising that their grave inscriptions were also in German. Until about nine months ago, I believed
This article was first printed, with Dr Wilson’s permission and consent, for the Krause family history book, Shipwreck to Settlement, published in 1990 by Weldon Mersiovsky. The following descriptions of various aspects of the 1853 emigration were written at the time of the events or shortly thereafter. The source and original language, Wendish or German,
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This article was first printed, with Dr Wilson’s permission and consent, for the Krause family History, Shipwreck to Settlement, in 1990. The Wends or Sorbs of Germany are an originally Slavic group in what is now southern East Germany, in the area called Lusatia (Lausitz), around the cities of Bautzen and Cottbus. They were surrounded
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Originally published in Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, Vol LII, Number 1, 1987. In the area around Giddings (between Austin and Houston), Texas live the descendants of the Wendish settlers who immigrated to Texas in 1854 from what was the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and who founded the community of Serbin west of Giddings.(1) The Wendish
"Dragons" and Other Supernatural Tales of the Texas Wends by Charles Wukasch Read More »
Originally published in Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, Vol LV, Number 2, 1991. An interesting motif in Sorbian (Wendish) and German folklore is that of the Seventh Book of Moses, This is supposedly a magic book which Moses used for purposes of witchcraft. Interestingly, there was also the Sixth Book of Moses, but the motif is
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Copies of A Rock Against Alien Waves can be purchased at the Texas Wendish Heritage Society Museum, 1011 CR 212, Giddings, TX 78942 through its Executive Director, wendish@bluebon.net. This preface was written by Dr David Zersen. Preface In teaching students about heritage, I have often made the comment that there is no such thing as
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