November 2003 - Nr. 11
German Pioneers Day
October 14, 2003
Ken Seiling
Regional Chair
Liebe Freunde – Dear Friends
Seit zwei hundert Jahre, leben Deutsch sprechende Leute in der Region von Waterloo. Im diesen Kreis sind deutschsprachige Menschen, ob sie neu angekommen oder sich vor Jahren hier niedergelassen haben, ein wichtiger Teil unserer Geschichte und unseres Erfolges.
Thank you for inviting me here today to speak as part of the German pioneers day. As you know, this year marks the 150th anniversary of the County of Waterloo and the Region which succeeded it. In actual fact, the Region is simply the reconstituted County of 1853 with the three cities put back into it and some of the functions shifted. If you were to look around us today, you would still see a number of jurisdictions called counties which look remarkably like regions, a name that was applied in the reforming days of the 1970’s.
You have already heard a great deal about the German background of our County and Region so I do not propose to give you a detailed history. Rather I would like to speak more specifically about the German heritage of our community and how it provided one of the essential elements of what made our area so successful and how its influence has continued to be felt over the years. For those of you who would like to read more about the history of Waterloo County, I would suggest you read Geoff Hayes excellent history of the County written a few years ago or Elizabeth Bloomfield’s history of Waterloo Township, to name just two works. I would also like to acknowledge Geoff’s assistance in pulling together my comments today. His work over the past few years has given him a unique and broadly based insight into how our community has grown and developed.
The German heritage of Waterloo Region was and is an important and lasting part of our lives here. Unfortunately many too often take it for granted or simply do not recognize it . Those who have settled here from other parts of the world may have a different reaction to this enduring German presence. What difference does it make to them that German-speaking people, whether they came from Pennsylvania, Prussia, Switzerland or the Palatinate were among the first European settlers in this area? Does Waterloo’s German heritage still matter?
It should. The German heritage of this region is important for all of us to appreciate, for it marks a tradition of ethnic cooperation, tolerance and understanding that spans more than two centuries. Too few places in the world can make that claim.
As the public reaction to our Doors Open-Waterloo Region open house showed, many of our people are fascinated by their local history. That has not always been so. The original Waterloo County Court House, built on Weber Street in then Berlin, Canada West in 1852, was torn down with hardly a whimper in 1964. If only that building had survived a few more years until Canada’s centennial brought a new emphasis on heritage, it might still be here today. The practical and utilitarian spirit (part in fact of our Germanic heritage) which drove much of the County saw it simply as a building long in need of replacement for a new age.
For generations, the old court house formed the center of the County’s political, legal and cultural life. Most importantly, it stood as a symbol of democracy, a place where Germans, Scots, Englishmen, and many others came together to establish the basic institutions that we now consider essential to our daily life: local government, our schools, our courts, and welfare institutions, as well as our markets and roads. All of these evolved through a discussion (not always civil, but never violent) of like-minded people with names like Snider, Hespeler, Klotz and Schade, as well as Scott, Ferguson and McBride. So numerous and influential were the Germans of this area (and so accepted were they by others) that for decades, Waterloo County Council’s minutes were printed in German as well as English.
Our old court house is long gone, but we are lucky that we have retained some sense of these early years in Waterloo County. The Region’s own Joseph Schneider Haus-now a National Historic Site-was first built by the Schneider’s in the early 1800’s but its staff takes its visitors back to the year 1856. That’s a significant date in the life of the County. Just three years after the County’s founding, it was the year in which the Grand Trunk railway was completed through its borders. The stops at Breslau, Berlin, Petersburg and New Hamburg must have been familiar to the thousands of German-speaking immigrants who arrived in the 1850s and 1860s following those who had come earlier. Some of those who did get off the train during those years, with names like Ritz and Breithaupt, are still familiar to us today.
It would be wrong to think that these were the good old days in the county’s life for much needed to be done. The pioneer age was short-lived as many sought to build enduring institutions. One of them was Otto Klotz, who came to Preston in 1837 from Kiel, Germany. He first sat as a school trustee in 1839 and he served on Preston school boards for over half a century. His greatest achievement may have been in 1848 when he worked to establish a ‘free’ school in School Section 18. The ratepayers, not just the parents of the students, financed that school. Immediately school attendance in Preston rose fourfold. By the eve of Confederation, nearly all of the County’s schools were so financed. And yes, counties did play an active role in education in the 19th century.
Klotz’s efforts were important in another way, for he was instrumental in balancing the need of German language students (and there were a lot of them here in the 19th century and well into the twentieth) with the desire for more Canadian content in the textbooks. At once Klotz recognized that people of German descent could still call themselves Canadian.
As Waterloo County became known as the "Banner County" in the late 19th century, its German citizens continued to help set the political, economic and cultural tone of the area. Isaac Erb Bowman spoke on behalf of the County during the Debates over Confederation in 1865. In the 1870s and 1880s men like Isaac Groh, Otto Pressprich and Hugo Kranz sat on municipal councils or municipal boards of trade. Most were businessmen, but they also helped nurture an impressive German cultural identity through such organizations as the Concordia Club and the tradition of the Saengerfest, which continued from the 1870s to the eve of the First World War.
Today’s visitors to Doon Heritage Crossroads discover what Waterloo County may have been like in 1914, on the eve of a conflict that pitted Canada against Germany. Certainly the war threatened many of the institutions that had once made Waterloo County so distinctive. The story of the Kaiser’s Bust and the pressures that changed the name of the county town from Berlin to Kitchener are often told. For many it was a time in which the German presence in the area - once celebrated - was extinguished. I can remember my grandmother telling me about being in the last German speaking confirmation class in our church in 1917.
But Waterloo County’s German identity endured. With the work of prominent citizens like W.H. Breithaupt, David Pannebaker, librarian Mabel Dunham and a new organization Breithaupt founded in 1912, the Waterloo Historical Society, the County rediscovered its German-speaking pioneers. Mabel Dunham’s epic work, The Trail of the Conestoga was first published in 1924.
It introduced readers to the many German-speaking families who had struggled to carve out for themselves a peaceful life in the wilds of Upper Canada. Amidst prejudices and War (this time the War of 1812) Dunham’s story of Sam and Becky Bricker was an entertaining read and a powerful lesson. The book showed that German-speakers had long been loyal, even if the events of the world forced upon them difficult choices.
As the rest of Canada built monuments to remember its war dead, so too did Waterloo County. But the Pioneer Memorial Tower, dedicated in 1926, also reflected a renewed appreciation for a local German presence that was then over a century old. Not even a second World War, could extinguish the notion locally that one could be of German descent and still be a proud and loyal Canadian.
Even as the political and structural difficulties of Waterloo County became more persistent after 1945, the idea of Waterloo County as a center of German culture only deepened. The fascination with Pennsylvania-German Mennonites and Amish, their folk ways and culture, was spawned through the work of G. Elmore Reaman, whose work The Trail of the Black Walnut, met wide acclaim when it appeared in the 1950s. Edna Staebler’s articles about her Pennsylvania-German neighbors first appeared in Maclean’s magazine that same decade, and had a similar response, as did her cookbooks which extolled the recipes coming from local family kitchens. The centenary celebrations of the county in the early 1950’s were a proud reminder of the origins of this county.
At the same time, a wave of post-war German immigrants helped nurture the appreciation of German cultural institutions - German-language schools and clubs-that reminded older residents of the days of "Busy Berlin." And we should never forget those teams and players of German descent who so many have cheered for over the years. What better example than the Kraut Line - Bauer, Dumart and Schmidt - who starred for the Boston Bruins and who were formally recognized yesterday at the Kitchener Auditorium.
Waterloo Region, the reformed and restructured Waterloo County, now carries on where the original County started in 1853. But the German economic and cultural presence of Waterloo County continues still. It is found in each of our townships and our cities. It is found not only in our churches, schools, our factories, and markets, but also in our choral traditions, our sporting teams--and more recently in Oktoberfest and the Christkindl Market. That’s an impressive contribution - one from which we can all take a certain degree of pride - whether we come from Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, the Townships, Portugal, Newfoundland, India or China.
We do have cause to celebrate and remember.
Wir müssen alle zusammen in die Zukunft gehen aber wir dürfen so viel nicht vergessen.
Danke Schön. Thanks for letting me be a part of this day!
