Z733 
 P417P3 
 
 Opening of the Bechstein germanic 
 library. Addresses,.. 
 
 Pennsylvania. University Libr ^v
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 'A 'N 'n>tj*s
 
 OPENING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Bechstein Germanic Library 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 March 21, 1896

 
 OPENING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Bechstein Germanic Library 
 
 ADDREvSSES 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 March 21, 1896
 
 PRESS OF AUSTIN C. LEEDS 
 817 FILBERT STREET 
 PHILADELPHIA
 
 SPEAKERS 
 
 PROVOST CHARLES C. HARRISON 
 
 Jos. G. ROSENGARTEN, ESQ., Chairman 
 
 HON. GEO. F. BAER, of Reading, Pa. 
 
 REV. DR. ADOLPH SPAETH, of Mt. Airy Theological Seminary 
 
 DR. GOTTLIEB KELLNER, of the " Philadelphia Demokrat " 
 
 DR. M. D. LEARNED, Professor of German in the University 
 
 HONORARY RECEPTION COMMITTEE 
 
 HON. CHARLES F. WARWICK, Chairman 
 
 Rev. Dr. G. D. Boardman Gregory B. Keen 
 
 Eugene Ellicott Rudolph Koradi 
 
 Herman Fischler Arno L,eonhardt 
 
 W. W. Frazier Carl Theodor Mayer 
 
 Dr. Albert Fricke Charles Meyer 
 
 Vice-Provost G. S. Fullerton Joseph Morwitz 
 
 Dr. Horace Howard Furness Hon. S. W. Pennypacker 
 
 Joseph S. Harris Julius F. Sasche 
 
 Professor John B. Hertzog John Clarke Sims 
 
 Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr. Hon. Mayer Sulzberger 
 
 Herman Jonas Gen. Louis Wagner 
 Edmund Wolsieffer 
 
 525752
 
 THE BECHSTEIN GERMANIC LIBRARY 
 
 The nucleus of the Bechstein collection consists of the 
 library of the late Professor Reinhold Bechstein, of the 
 University of Rostock. Professor Bechstein' s early asso- 
 ciations with his father, Ludwig Bechstein, for many years 
 the Librarian at Meiningen, gave him a peculiar schooling 
 in the art of collecting books, and his library bears marks 
 of this training. 
 
 The collection made by Professor Bechstein has been 
 supplemented by the purchase of other valuable works 
 relating to German, and contains, in its present enlarged 
 form, about 15,000 volumes and 3,000 pamphlets, classified 
 as follows : 
 
 1. Periodicals, Works of Reference, Collective Series 
 
 2. General Works relating to German Philology and 
 
 Literature 
 
 3. Histories of German Literature in general 
 
 4. German Antiquities, Culture and Folk-lore 
 
 5. German Language, Dialects, Metrics, and Names 
 
 6. Gothic, Norse, Old High German and Middle High 
 
 German Literature 
 
 7. German Literature from 1500 to 1750 
 
 8. Modern German Literature 
 
 The collection is rich in standard and critical editions of 
 German writers of all the periods, in great works of refer- 
 ence, in large library series, such as the Bibliothek des 
 Litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, and in rare old prints, 
 such as the Heussler Folio Edition of Hans Sachs, and con- 
 temporaneous prints of Luther's works, with the Reformer's 
 autograph. The literature of the classical period of the 
 eighteenth century is well represented, comprising the 
 Weimar edition of Goethe, Suphan's Herder, and others. 
 
 Two special features of the collection make it peculiarly 
 valuable as a working library, viz : 
 
 1 . A full series of periodicals relating to Germanic studies, 
 consisting of about fifty complete sets of reviews and publi- 
 cations of learned societies. 
 
 2. The unique Handapparat of Professor Bechstein, con- 
 taining about three thousand pamphlets treating of German 
 philology and literature.
 
 OF 
 
 PROVOST CHARLES C. HARRISON. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 It is my happy lot, this afternoon, not to make 
 an address, but to introduce the Chairman of the 
 meeting, Mr. Rosengarten, who will take charge of 
 the proceedings. But before doing so, I may be 
 allowed to say a few words. 
 
 We are indebted for the Bechstein Library of 
 Germanic languages and literature not only to the 
 liberality of the contributors ; but, it is reasonable 
 to say, to the interest and energy of Professor 
 Learned. After he had been called from Johns 
 Hopkins University to the Chair made vacant by 
 the death of Dr. Seiden sticker, and before he had 
 entered upon his duties, Professor Learned was upon 
 the alert to secure adequate library facilities. It 
 was his earnestness and interest which at the start 
 drove us to undertake the purchase of this library. 
 
 Of course the equipment of one Department will 
 throw upon us the duty and necessity of taking up 
 and supplying the needs of other Departments, for 
 we are weak at many points. We are all members 
 of the same body, and growth in one direction
 
 means growth in another, if there is a true pro- 
 portion to be maintained. It will not do to be strong 
 in Germanics and weak in Romance Philology, or in 
 English. This is evident of itself, but the need of 
 symmetrical development is seen to be a pressing 
 one when we consider that graduate students work 
 for their degree upon three subjects. We must also 
 face the practical fact that those who go from our 
 Graduate School to teach, do not always, and do not 
 often, find positions where they have charge of but 
 one subject. In the Colleges and Schools, two and 
 sometimes more subjects are put in the charge of a 
 single teacher, and he must have fit preparation for 
 the entire field of his work. We must, therefore, 
 look forward to the acquisition of new libraries on 
 special subjects, following the purchase of the 
 Bechstein collection. 
 
 It seems to me peculiarly appropriate that there 
 should be in Pennsylvania, and permanently housed 
 at the University of Pennsylvania, a great Library 
 relating to the German peoples. Of the thirteen 
 colonies, the State of Pennsylvania was the only 
 one where the knowledge of two languages was 
 necessary to understand the life and the history and 
 to take part in the affairs of the colony. At one 
 time, three-fifths of the population of Penns}4vania 
 were German. For seven years, the ancient lan- 
 guages were taught at the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania through the medium of German. We of 
 Pennsylvania are indebted to the Germans not only 
 for help in our agriculture, but we are indebted to 
 them for many of our industrial habits and pursuits; 
 for at the time of the first immigration, which, 
 indeed, was influenced by the direct invitation of
 
 William Penn, Germany was a farming coun- 
 try ; and we have profited by their aid not only in 
 these directions, but we are indebted to the Germans 
 for much of our early scholarship. These are 
 but few of many reasons, to which, doubtless, 
 reference will be made by those who are to speak 
 to-day, of the fitness of the proposed work at the 
 University of Pennsylvania in Germanics. 
 
 Bvery one of us must have observed within the 
 last few years the great interest which Universities 
 and Colleges are arousing in the public mind. More 
 and more are Universities becoming the object 
 of private benefaction ; and this is due to the fact 
 that more and more are communities beginning to 
 see that of all institutions, Universities are the most 
 permanent, excepting only the church. It is 
 curious and interesting to know that this Library 
 comes from the University of Rostock, which was 
 founded before America was discovered. This en- 
 during character of our Universities affords at the 
 same time the evidence of their necessity and the 
 absorbing purpose of those who work for them. 
 
 I wish, on behalf of the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania, to bid a most cordial welcome to our German- 
 American citizens. We ask you to take part with 
 us in the life and purposes of the University of 
 Pennsylvania ; and to help it to do its share in 
 directing and controlling the social energies of the 
 nation in which we are placed. 
 
 Can we appeal to any body of men who have 
 nobler traditions ? Is there any epoch in history 
 more stimulating than the re-creation of Prussia, 
 with education as its corner-stone, after the deso- 
 lating wars of Napoleon ? A movement started
 
 8 
 
 then which has been continued with ever fresh 
 impulses until this hour. Very earnestly do I ask 
 you to take part in this work of ours. 
 
 I wish now to introduce to you Mr. Joseph G. 
 Rosengarten, who is well known to all of us. For 
 many years he has been interested in our work, and 
 the least that I can say of him is that he was the 
 first contributor towards the purchase of the Bech- 
 stein Library. I very gladly ask him to preside 
 over the meeting to-day.
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 MR. J. G. ROSBNGARTBN. 
 
 It is very gratifying to mark the valuable 
 addition to the library of the University, presented 
 to it to-day. It is the indication of the growing 
 interest in its work by all of our citizens. Of 
 course, the Germans by birth and descent naturally 
 feel a pride in equipping the University with the 
 best apparatus of German literature. Years ago 
 when large numbers of Germans" came to Pennsyl- 
 vania, there was a good deal of anxiety as to the 
 best way of educating them in Bnglish, that 
 they might become good citizens. A Society to 
 establish schools to instruct Germans in Bnglish 
 was in active existence for some years. Then too, 
 not only was German taught in the old College, but 
 later in the new University there were complete 
 courses of instruction in German. The experiment 
 was not successful, but it led to the establishment 
 of what is to-day Franklin and Marshall College of 
 Lancaster, which was to do for our Pennsylvania 
 Germans what the College of Philadelphia and the 
 University of Pennsylvania had not been able to do. 
 Then the German Society of Philadelphia establish- 
 ed schools where newly-arrived Germans could 
 be taught Bnglish and these schools are still doing 
 their work very acceptably.
 
 IO 
 
 The University has always maintained its touch 
 with German literature through its succession of 
 excellent and able professors and instructors. The 
 late Professor Seidensticker wrote many useful 
 contributions to the better knowledge of the early 
 history of Germans settled in Pennsylvania, and 
 he also secured for his work at the University quite 
 a good collection of the best German authors. The 
 late Professor McElroy obtained for the University 
 an excellent classical library, collected by a German 
 Professor, and it is a valuable adjunct to the classic- 
 al studies in the University. The arrival of Pro- 
 fessor Learned was followed by the effort to secure 
 for his use a valuable Philological Library gathered 
 by a German scholar. Appeal was made to our 
 citizens of German birth and descent, and their 
 reply was a generous one, their help was supple- 
 mented by that of other friends of the University, 
 and the result is to-day this formal presentation. 
 It gives me great pleasure to accept the invitation 
 of the Provost and to introduce to you the speakers. 
 They are all representative men, Mr. Baer is 
 President of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and 
 Marshall College, that child of the University, and 
 he is a representative of the Pennsylvania German 
 element which is doing so much to advance educa- 
 tion and culture in the parts of the State settled and 
 still occupied by the descendents of German 
 emigrants. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Spaeth is the representative of that 
 Lutheran Church which has always been in touch 
 with the University, its Pastors have always had 
 seats in the Board of Trustees, and is himself an 
 organ of German learning and eloquence. Dr. Spaeth
 
 II 
 
 may well endorse the value and importance of 
 this German Philological Library for the work of 
 education. 
 
 Dr. Kellner represents the German press, one of 
 the powerful elements in maintaining the high 
 standard of our German citizens in everything 
 that relates to public interests and especially to 
 education. He will be followed by Professor Learned, 
 to whose suggestion is largely due this addition to 
 the tools of his trade, his apparatus for the in- 
 struction he gives in German, for that is no longer 
 merely elementary but it is carried on to a knowledge 
 of the wealth of the German language and litera- 
 ture, and its value and importance in philological 
 studies. 
 
 The occasion is one of great interest, marking 
 the renewal of the relation between the University 
 and the German stock of our city, and thus adding 
 one more to its claims on the support of the public 
 in its growing work.
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 HON. GEORGE F. BAER. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 The University of Pennsylvania is to be congratu- 
 lated on the wise judgment displayed in the 
 purchase of Professor Bechsteins' Library. It is 
 most fortunate in having good friends to provide the 
 required funds. The acquisition of so valuable a 
 collection of books, and the placing of them within 
 the reach of American scholars, is in itself a good 
 work and worthy to be commemorated. 
 
 The true significance, however, is in the fact that 
 it is an earnest on the part of this great and flourish- 
 ing University that the Germanic Department 
 shall be a real and active factor of its life, and not, 
 as is too often the case, a mere oramental, colorable 
 adjunct. 
 
 Germanic history, philosophy, literature and 
 science, are justly entitled to the first rank in the cul- 
 ture of the world. No one aspiring even to common- 
 place scholarship dare ignore them, and every real 
 scholar finds them so rich and instructive that their 
 loss to him would be incalculable. But when we come 
 to consider the stupendous work that devolves upon 
 American universities as the creators and leaders 
 of American thought, the acquisition of books re-
 
 cording the progress and development of man 
 without limitation as to race or language, becomes 
 specially important. The problems we are to solve 
 are essentially different from those of any other 
 nation. We represent neither unity of race, history, 
 policies nor traditions. 
 
 Comparative philology has demonstrated with 
 reasonable certainty that the Slavonic, Romanic and 
 Teutonic families are kindred ; that they are de- 
 scended from one common family, which in prehis- 
 toric times lived on the high table-lands of Asia; that 
 long years ago they migrated westward and south- 
 ward, and in the course of time developed into many 
 distinct peoples, creating new languages, habits 
 and traditions by which they became strangers to 
 each other. When the cultured Greek, 400 years 
 before Christ, in the time of Alexander the Great, 
 discovered at the mouth of the Rhine, a strange and 
 barbarous people, he had no conception that the 
 Greek and the Barbarian had a common origin, nor 
 the prophetic instinct to foretell that these barbarous 
 peoples would eventually become conquering nations 
 and develop the marvelous civilization which dawns 
 upon us to-day. The original wandering from the 
 plains of Asia marked, so far as we know, the first 
 epoch in the dispersion of the human race. 
 
 The second epoch occurred within historic times. It 
 covers the 4th, 5th and 6th Centuries of the Chris- 
 tian era, and is known as the Folk-wandering. The 
 movement was again from the east to the west. 
 " The populous north poured from her frozen loins 
 a mighty host, which, spreading with irresistible 
 power over the whole of Burope, overthrew dynas- 
 ties, conquered kingdoms and changed the whole
 
 14 
 
 course of human history." These are the peoples 
 we now call Teutons. They were divided into many 
 tribes with distinctive names. As Anglo-Saxons 
 they crossed the channel and conquered Britain 
 as Franks they established their supremacy in 
 Gaul ; as Visigoths they possessed themselves of 
 Spain ; as Lombards they became the masters of 
 Italy, and crossed into Africa. How in the inter- 
 vening centuries they appropiated Grecian and 
 Roman civilization, developed new States, new 
 forms of civilization and new languages, is familiar 
 to us all. 
 
 In modern times we have the beginning of the 
 third epoch of wandering, which may be well called 
 the American epoch. It is the epoch of reunion. 
 For two centuries men of every nation have flocked 
 to this new continent, and the end is not yet ; they 
 continue to come. In this century alone twenty 
 million have migrated hither. They are divided in 
 race, nationality and speech. They come not as 
 conquerors to divide the land into new principalities 
 and states, to reproduce the antagonisms of the 
 past. They come in peace to reunite mankind. 
 The Aryan and the Semite here meet as long-sep- 
 arated kinsmen, and the Ethiopian stands a wistful 
 suppliant to be admitted to full brotherhood. They 
 have all come to participate in the upbuilding 
 of the people's State ; to become citizens of this 
 great Republic. What then shall be the life and 
 organization of this new state in which all these 
 divers people are to have full citizenship, and in the 
 end be given organic unity and homogeneity ? Shall 
 we attempt to re-create the past, or select from ex- 
 isting systems one type of national life and of
 
 15 
 
 political and social forms, and by the strong arm of 
 power compel men of all races, creeds, tongues, 
 habits, traditions, to conform with it ? This would 
 be to prostrate us on a Procrustean bed, or at least 
 on some bed like that of which the prophet com- 
 plained when he declared : " The bed is shorter 
 than a man can stretch himself on it, and the cover 
 is narrower than a man can wrap himself in it." 
 Fortunately for us, one factor in this problem has 
 solved itself. It is that of language. Accepting as 
 true, that long years ago these various peoples 
 spoke a common tongue now lost and forgotten, save 
 as its roots may be traced in living language, it is 
 equally true that the speech of this reunited people 
 must be English. But woe betide the man who 
 from this shall conclude that all other problems 
 can as readily be solved by the wholesale adoption 
 of English precedents, ideas, forms and traditions. 
 Admirable as has been the progress of the Anglo- 
 Saxon tribe of the great Teutonic family, and great 
 as has been its achievements, after all, the Anglo- 
 Saxon represents but one phase of the great 
 Teutonic development, and is too insular to meet 
 all the wants of this great continent. 
 
 I say it with deference, but in the firm conviction 
 of its proof, that the educational systems of the 
 United States, that which forms the trend of public 
 life and opinion, have failed to meet the full re- 
 quirements of this nation, primarily because they 
 made too little account of the progress, development 
 and culture of the peoples from the European 
 continents who live among us. Let us take a better 
 view of our mission than that of becoming mere 
 imitators of others. We can best solve the great
 
 i6 
 
 problems which in the providence of God have been 
 committed to us as a people, by taking counsel 
 of all these wanderers ; learn from each what his 
 people, his ancestors, the nation from which he 
 comes, have done for the improvement of the 
 human race ; what state-craft they have developed ; 
 what truths by long searching they have found out ; 
 what forms of belief they have found conducive to 
 the welfare of man ; what orders of society, what 
 social life, what culture, what literature, they have 
 evolved ; what plausible experiments in state-craft, 
 in political economy and social life they have tried 
 and found wanting. Let each bring the best his 
 people in their long separation have brought forth, 
 as material fit to be used in the construction of the 
 temple of wisdom, truth and liberty we are engaged 
 in building as the grandest monument of the 
 sovereignty of the people. 
 
 In a more restrictive and local sense, as already 
 pointed out by your distinguished Provost, the gen- 
 eral purpose of the University to give the study of 
 Germanic history and literature and cultus a more 
 prominent place in its curriculum, is a recognition 
 of the fact that any educational system suited to 
 Pennsylvania must in a broad and comprehensive 
 way take into full account the large Germanic 
 element in her population, their traditions, their 
 language and their achievements. From the very 
 beginning Pennsylvania was the most un-English 
 of all the colonies. Thousands upon thousands of 
 Germans fled from war and persecutions to Penn's 
 peaceful Commonwealth. They formed such a 
 considerable portion of the population in colonial 
 days that the English were constantly clamoring
 
 '7 
 
 against their furthur importation for fear of their 
 ultimate political supremacy. Not only does Pennsyl- 
 vania contain this original population, (commonly 
 known as Pennsylvania Dutch) but out of the large 
 number of German emigrants, (so large that in the 
 last decade they numbered 3 1 per cent, of the total 
 immigration) a fair proportion continues to settle in 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 The University of Pennsylvania, unless its title 
 is meaningless, must be Pennsylvanian in the same 
 sense that her people are Pennsylvanian. Any 
 university that fails to recognize this German ele- 
 ment in our population cannot be a true Pennsyl- 
 vania university. 
 
 Let it be the mission, then, of this University, and 
 of all schools in this free land, to appropiate by 
 careful selection, without prejudice as to race, creed, 
 color or speech, the best in the world, and to assimi- 
 late it into a new national life, wherein shall be 
 developed a true scholarship, a good citizenship and 
 a noble manhood, which shall be known by no other 
 name than American.
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 DR. A. SPAETH. 
 
 Seit etwa einem Viertel-Jahrtausend ergiesst 
 sich nun von Deutschland her in dieses Abendland 
 der stetige, unversiegbare Strom einer friedlichen 
 Volkerwanderung. Hunderttausende von fleissi- 
 gen Arbeitern, Bauern und Handwerkern sind 
 herubergekommen und haben im Schweiss ihres 
 Angesichts die Schatze heben helfen, die des Schop- 
 fers Hand in den jungfraulichen Boden dieses west- 
 lichen Continents gelegt hat. Sie sind gekommen 
 mit Axt und Sage, mit Hammer und Hobel, mit 
 Pflugschar und Spaten und haben die Wiiste und 
 den Urwald in einen Garten Gottes verwandelt in 
 Pennsylvanien und New York, an den Ufern des 
 Delaware und Hudson, im grossen Mississippi 
 Becken und an der Kiiste des Stillen Weltmeers, 
 im wein- imd orangen-reichen Californien. In den 
 letzten Jahrzehnten nunist dieser Volkerwanderung 
 in aller Stille eine andere Wanderung gefolgt, die 
 in ihrer Art noch von viel grosserer Bedeutung ist 
 fur die Entwicklung Americas, ich meine die 
 Bucherwanderung , durch welche nach und nach 
 eine ganze Anzahl von Bibliotheken die von her- 
 vorragenden deutschen Gelehrten im alten Vaterland 
 gesammelt wurden, ihren Weg in diese neue Welt 
 heriibergefunden haben. So ist z. B. die Bibliothek
 
 des grossen Kirchenhistorikers Neander in Roches- 
 ter, N. Y. die des Sanskrit-Gelehrten Franz Bopp 
 auf der Cornell Universitat; Freiligraths Biicher 
 sind in Boston und Bluntschli's rechts-und staats- 
 wissenschaftliche Bibliothek befindet sich in Balti- 
 more. Und das sind nicht alle. Gewiss weiss 
 Mancher unter Ihnen noch weitere dieser Liste 
 liinzuzufiigen. Diese Biichersammlungen sind 
 nicht bloss die Producte, sondern auch die Werk- 
 zeuge deutscher Forschung und Gelehrsamkeit. Sie 
 reprasentiren ein machtiges geistiges Kapital, das, 
 wenn es recht umgesetzt wird, fiir die Zukunft uns- 
 res gottgesegneten Landes noch grosseren Wert 
 hat, als die starken, sehnigen Arme der deutschen 
 Bauern und Handwerker. Wir durfen uns darauf 
 verlassen, dass der praktische vorwarts dringende 
 Amerikaner solche Biicherschatze nicht hierher 
 verpflanzt hat, um sie in hiibschen Nischen und 
 Schranken verstauben und vergilben zu lassen. Sie 
 werden ihre reiche Frucht tragen in der Cultur- 
 Bntwicklung dieser Neuen Welt. Und so ist nun, 
 als ein hochst wertvolles Stiick dieser modernen 
 Biicherwanderung Bechstein's germanistische Bibli- 
 othek hierher nach Philadelphia gekommen. Wir 
 Alle, und besonders wir Deutsch-Amerikaner haben 
 Ursache, uns dariiber von ganzem Herzen zu freuen, 
 dass in der Stadt der Bruderliebe und im Staat 
 Pennsylvanien , an der Heimstatte der ersten deut- 
 schen Colonisten, da wo ein Pastorius, Miihlenberg 
 und Kunze gewirkt, ein Hauptsitz fiir system- 
 atische germanistiche Studien gegriindet werden 
 soil. 
 
 Die Germanistik als Wissenschaft ist verhaltniss 
 massig von jungem Datum. Die Zeit ihrer Entsteh-
 
 20 
 
 ung liegt im ersten Jahrzehnt unsres Jahrhunderts, 
 als Deutschland unter der Tyrannei des Corsischen 
 Eroberers aus tausend Wunden blutend darnieder 
 lag. Daiuals wendeten sich manche ernste, reich 
 begabte Geister weg von der trostlosen Gegenwart 
 dem deutschen Mittelalter zu, dem Heldengedicht, 
 der Sage, dem Mahrchen, der Kaiser-Herrlichkeit 
 vergangener Jahrhunderte. Es war die sogenannte 
 Romantische Schule, rait der das Erwachen german- 
 istischer Forschungen Hand in Hand ging. Die 
 Koryphaen der klassischen deutschen Literatur- 
 Periode gaben in dem Stuck wenig directe Anregung. 
 Sie lebten mehr in der Antike. Schiller starb schon 
 1805 und Gee the hatte bekanntlich einen solchen 
 Eindruck von Napoleon's Grosse empfangen, dass 
 ihm der Gedanke an Deutschlands Befreiung von 
 diesen Ketten ganz hoffnungslos erschien. War 
 nun zunachst die Germanistik im engsten Zusam- 
 menhang mit dem wiedererwachenden deutschen 
 Patriotismus gestanden, so hat sich doch sehr bald 
 ihr Horizont erweitert. Sie griff weit iiber die Gren- 
 zen Deutschlands und der deutschen National- 
 Literatur im engeren Sinne hinaus. Sie zog das 
 Angelsachsische und Nordische zu dem speciell 
 Deutschen in den Kreis ihrer Forschung herein und 
 bemachtigte sich so des ganzen Gebietes, das den 
 gemeinschaftlichen Grand germanischer Sprachen 
 und Sitten in Europa bildet. 
 
 Und hier liegt nun auch die besondere Bedeutung 
 welche die Germanistik auf dem Boden dieser Neuen 
 Welt beanspruchen darf. Wahrend in der Volker- 
 bildung und Geschichts-Entwicklung des alten 
 Europa der urspriinglich Erne germanische Stamm 
 in seine nordischen (skandinavischen), deutschen
 
 21 
 
 und angelsachsischen Zweige auseinander gegangen 
 1st, kommen nun diese verschiedenen Theile hier 
 wieder zusammen, urn in gemeinsamer Arbeit 
 dieses zukunftreiche Volk und Land zu dem zu 
 machen, was es im Gang der Weltgeschichte wer- 
 den soil. Wir sind uns ja wohl hewusst, dass wir 
 es hier mit einem Allerwelts-Mischkessel von 
 Nationalitaten zu thun haben, worin, wenn es nur 
 auf das abstracte Recht ankommt, die eine so viel 
 zu sagen hat wie die andre. Wir vergessen auch 
 nicht, dass die Romanen und Slaven mit Deutschen, 
 Skandinaviern und Angelsachsen zusammen der 
 einen indogermanischen Volkerfamilie angehoren. 
 Aber wir sind trotz alledem fest iiberzengt, dass das 
 germanische Element, und damit meinen wir 
 Skandinavier, Angelsachsen und Deutsche zusam- 
 men, iiber die Zukunft Amerika's entscheiden wird. 
 Nicht Romanich oder Slavish, sondern Germanisch 
 wird Kopf und Herz von Amerika sein und bleiben 
 miissen, wenn es seine weltgeschichtliche Mission 
 erfiillen soil. 
 
 Wir sind uns wohl bewusst, welchen gewaltigen 
 Vorsprung unter jenen drei germanischen Zweigen 
 das angelsachsische Element in der Geschichte 
 unsres Landes gewonnen hat. Und wir haben gar 
 keine Ursache uns dariiber irgendwie aufzuhalten. 
 Ihm verdanken wir die Grundlinien unsres consti- 
 tutionellen Staatslebens, seinen Parlamentarismus 
 seine Volksregierung. Ihm verdanken wir auch 
 die Englische Weltsprache, die ohne alien Zweifel 
 Amerikas herrschende Sprache bleiben wird. Aber 
 bei all dem miissen wir darauf bestehen, dass 
 Amerika als solches kein Neu-England sein soil, 
 gerade wie es kein Neu-Schweden und kein Neu-
 
 22 
 
 Deutschland sein soil, sondern eben Amerika ! Aber 
 ein Amerika das seine wahre Grosse, seine Freiheit 
 und Cultur wesentlich dem Germanischen Geiste 
 verdankt. Denn dazu hat die Vorsehung Angel- 
 sachsen, Skandinavier und Deutsche auf diesem 
 Boden wieder zusammengefuhrt, dass sie das acht 
 Germanische, aus dessen gemeinsamem Grund sie 
 alle entsprossen sind, hier zur segensreichen 
 Geltung bringen. 9 
 
 Das angelsachsische Element, besonders wie es 
 in Neu-England vertreten war, hat naturgemass in 
 den ersten Jahrzehnten unsrer geistigen Entwick- 
 lung eine leitende Rolle gespielt. Und durch die 
 herrschende Landessprache wird ihm bei der gros- 
 sen Masse immer eine gewisse Praeponderanz 
 bleiben. Aber je rnehr unser Volk sich selbst und 
 seine Aufgabe in der Weltgeschichte erkennt, umso 
 mehr wird vorlaufig einmal der wahrhaft gebildete 
 Theil desselben zu der Uberzeugung kommen, dass 
 wir hier nicht den Beruf haben, ein blosser Ab- 
 klatsch von Englischem Wesen zu sein, dass unser 
 Horizont ein weiterer und freierer, unser Ziel ein 
 hoheres ist. Neu-England hat seinen Tag gehabt in 
 unsrer Geschichte ; dem Germanischen Geist gehort 
 die Zukunft. Und es ist in der That an der Zeit, dass 
 die klagliche Unselbststandigkeit und geradezu 
 sklavische Abhangigkeit, die dem Englischen 
 Wesen gegeniiber bis heute in so vielen Amer- 
 ikanischen Kreisen geherrscht hat, einmal aufhore. 
 Es ist wahrhaftig keine Ehre fur uns und kein 
 Segen, wenn wir die ganze Weltlage, besonders auch 
 die Europaeischen Verwicklungen immer nur durch 
 die Englische Brille ansehen und uns von der 
 * Times " und anderen Donnerern an der Themse,
 
 23 
 
 unser Urtheil iiber die Tages-Ereignisse vorkauen 
 lassen. In einem Lande, das unter seiner Bevolk- 
 erung zehn, oder vielleicht gar zwanzig Millionen 
 Abkommlinge von rein deutschem Stamme hat, 
 sollte es nachgerade als selbstverstandlich anges- 
 ehen werden, dass jede tiichtige Zeitung unter 
 ihren Mitarbeitern Manner zahle, die eine Rede im 
 Reichstag zu Berlin und eine Mittheilung eines 
 Deutschen Ministers in Original lesen und in ihrer 
 wahren Bedeutung ohne englische Vermittlung 
 wiedergeben konnten. 
 
 Trotz dem Vorherrschen der Bnglischen Sprache 
 muss bei uns das gemeinsam Germanischemehrund 
 mehr zur Geltung kommen. 1st doch im Bnglischen 
 Sprachgeist selbst das Alt-Germ anische, Sachsische 
 das Element, das ihm seine wahre Kraft und Wirkung 
 sichert. Bosworth sagt in der Vorrede zu seinem an- 
 gelsachsischen und englischen Worterbuch von 1876: 
 " Wenn der Redner und Schriftsteller nicht bloss 
 den Verstand iiberzeugen, sondern das Herz ergrei- 
 fen will, muss er romanische Ausdriicke vermeiden 
 und angelsachsische brauchen, die zu Herzen 
 gehen." Behanntlich ruht die Kraft der Sprache 
 bei den alteren Englischen Dichtern, wie in der 
 alten Bibeliibersetzung von 1611 ganz und gar auf 
 diesem germanischen Element. Hamlet's beriihm- 
 ter Monolog : " To be or not to be" hat nicht mehr 
 als dreizehn Worter romanischer Abstammung. 
 Das Vaterunser der alten englischen Bibel hat 
 unter 69 Wortern nur fiinf aus lateinischer Wurzel. 
 Bei Chaucer und Shakespeare ist der Procent-Satz 
 mroanischer Worter nicht mehr als 10 per cent.; 
 bei neueren Schriftstellern, wie Macauley und Gib- 
 bon ist freilich ein erhebliches Steigen des
 
 24 
 
 lateinischen Elements zu erkennen. Aber auch 
 da, wo das Englische am starksten latinisiert, behalt 
 der germanische Wort-Vorrath die Oberhand. Und 
 ein tiichtiges Studium der Germanistik an einer 
 solchen Bildungs-Statte, wie es die Universitat von 
 Pennsylvanien ist, wird gewiss auch wesentlich 
 dazu beitragen, die wertvollsten und kraftigsten 
 Elemente der Englischen Sprache selbst zu pflegen 
 und zu starken. Es wird fiirwahr kein Schade sein, 
 wenn wir der Tiefe und Innigkeit, dem Reich turn 
 und der Kraft des acht germanischen Gemiitslebens 
 dadurch wieder etwas naher kommen. 
 
 Und dies fiihrt uns noch auf einen anderen 
 Punct. Es ist noch ein besonderes padagogisches 
 und sittlisches Interesse das wir zu Gunsten der 
 Germanistik gel tend machen. Der Stoff der altger- 
 manischen Mythologie nd Heldensage ist im 
 Vergleich mit dem der Antike ein so reiner und edler 
 dass ihm an sittlichem Gehalt entschieden der Vor- 
 zug gebiihrt. Ich weiss den Wert des classischen 
 Altertums wohl zu schatzen uud verstehe ganz 
 wohl, warum gerade der germanische Geist demsel- 
 ben als Bildungsfactor eine so hervorragende Stelle 
 anweist. Aber es bleibt doch wahr, was Uhland 
 sagt, " das alte deutsche Helden-Epos ist die Poesie 
 der Treue," der unwandelbaren, bis in den Tod 
 bestandigen Mannestreue. Was ist dagegen das 
 altgriechische Epos, auch eines Homer, mit seinem 
 Olymp, mit Zeus & Co. als die Poesie des Verrats, 
 der Untreue und des Ehebruchs ? Ich glaube, es 
 ist Gcethe, der einmal sagt, er danke Gott, dass wir im 
 Deutschen kein Wort fur das walsche " Perfidie " 
 besitzen. Unser " treulos " ist ein unschuldiges 
 Kind dagegen. Dagegen " perfid " ist treulos mit
 
 25 
 
 Genuss, in Ubermut und Schadenfreude. Die 
 Grundtugend der Mannestreue aber leuchtet uns 
 auf jedem Blatt der alten Lieder und Sagen 
 entgegen, zu denen uns die Germanistikden Zugang 
 erschliesst. 
 
 Bine ganz besondere Freude noch ist es mir, als 
 einem Deutschen und Theologen, dass unter den 
 reichen Schatzen dieser Bibliothek das Reforma- 
 tions- Zeitalter so wohl vertreten ist mit dem Meis- 
 tersanger Hans Sachs und vor Allem mit Luther 
 selbst, dem Altmeister der deutschen Sprache. Von 
 ganzem Herzen rufe ich darum dieser Biicherei mein 
 Willkommen zu. Sie ist eine Ehre und Zierde 
 unserer Universitat von Pennsylvanien. Sie ist ein 
 glanzendes Zeugniss fur den Mann, der an ihr als 
 Professor der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur 
 steht und der in der Beschaffung dieser Bibliothek 
 solch zielbewusstes Verstandniss, solch warme 
 Begeisterung und solche Hingebung an seinen Be- 
 ruf bekundet hat. Diese Bibliothek ist recht dazu 
 angethan, germanischen Geist hier heimisch zu 
 machen, Lust und Liebe zum Studium zu wecken 
 und zur Vertiefung in das Beste, was Angelsachsen, 
 Skandinavier und Deutsche gemeinsam miteinander 
 haben. Die Universitat von Pennsylvanien hat sich 
 damit fur immer einen Anspruch auf die Liebe, 
 Verehrung und Anhanglichkeit aller Deutsch- 
 Amerikaner gewonnen. Moge sie nun auch in 
 Wahrheit werden, wozu diese Bechstein-Bibliothek 
 sie machen soil, der Hauptsitz einer tiichtigen, 
 wissenschaftlichen Forschung auf dem ganzen wei- 
 ten Gebeit der Germanistik in den Vereinigten 
 Staaten. Quod bonum felix faustumque sit.
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 DR. G. KELLNER. 
 
 Die Universitat von Pennsylvanien verdankt 
 ihren Ursprung ebenso, wie deren Bibliothek dem 
 edlen Menschen-Freund Benjamin Franklin. Sein 
 ganzes Streben, nachdem er durch eignes Studium 
 sich durch sich selbst allein herangebildet hatte, 
 ging dahin, dem Volk durch gute Schul-Erziehung 
 jene Bildung zu sichern, deren Erzielung fiir ihn 
 mit so groszen Schwierigkeiten verbunden gewesen 
 war. 
 
 Seit seiner festen Ansiedlung zu Philadelphia, 
 in 1728, im Alter von 22 Jahren, als Buchdrucker 
 und Buch-Handler, war er mit Wort und Schrift auf 
 das Eifrigste bemiiht, eine gute Schul-Erziehung 
 der Jugend und die Fortbildung der Erwachsenen 
 zu fordern. Die erste feste Organisation, welche 
 er fiir letzteren Zweck schuf, war der "J unto Klub," 
 der nur aus 12 Mitgliedern bestand, schlichten 
 Handwerkern und Geschafts-Leuten, wie er selbst. 
 Zweck des Klubs war gegenseitige Belehrung durch 
 Debatten und Lektiire in allem Wissenswerthen, 
 womit Griindung einer freien Volksbibliothek ver- 
 bunden war. In 1732 erhielt der Klub einen Char- 
 ter und 1743 gestaltete er sich zur "Philosophischen 
 Gesellschaft von Philadelphia."
 
 27 
 
 Aus dieser Gesellscliaft ging die Brriclitung ei- 
 ner hoheren Schule, die " Philadelphia Akademie," 
 hervor. Benj. Franklin war damals schon in 
 vollster Entwicklung als Denker und Gelehrter, 
 Schriftsteller und Weltweiser, als welcher er in 
 spateren Jahren zu jenem Weltruhm gelangte, der 
 in dem lateinischen Vers seinen schlagenden Aus- 
 dmck fand : " Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque 
 tyrannis" (Er entrisz dem Himmel den Blitz und 
 das Zepter Tyrannen). Er hatte feste, liberale und 
 gereifte Ansichten iiber die Erziehung der Jugend, 
 gab eine Schrift dariiber in 1749 heraus und ver- 
 faszte den Lehrplan der neuen Akademie, die bald 
 darauf entstand und aus welcher spater die Univer- 
 sitat von Pennsylvania hervorging. Seine Ansich- 
 ten, sein Geist sind es, nach welchen diese Hoch- 
 schule nicht bios eine theoretische Erziehung in 
 den Wissenschaften fur Gelehrte geben soil. 
 
 Sie soil vielmehr die praktische Anwendung der 
 Wissenschaft auf alien Gebieten des taglichen Le- 
 bens lehren und ein Mittelpunkt sein desselben fur 
 Volks-Erziehung und Volks-Bildung in Stadt und 
 Staat, und womoglich im ganzen Land. Dazu 
 sollen dienen ihre reichen Sammlungen in alien 
 Wissenschafts-Zweigen, ihre freien Vorlesugen 
 und vor alien Dingen ihre Bibliothek. 
 
 Und in diesem Geist hat die Universitat, beson- 
 ders in den letzten Jahrzehnten Auszerordentliches 
 geleistet. Die Ausdehnung (extension) ihrer 
 Vorlesungen in popularster Fassung fur das grosze 
 Publikum, worin sie ein ziindendes Beispiel fur alle 
 anderen Universitaten des Landes gab, verdienen 
 die hochste Anerkennung aller Freunde wahrer 
 Volksbildung.
 
 28 
 
 Und die Vergroszerung ihrer Bibliothek nach 
 alien Richtungen und deren Eroffnung fur das 
 grosze Publikum ist ein weiterer Schritt, um die 
 Universitat zu einem echten Mittelpunkt der Volks- 
 Erziehung und Bildung im Geist ihres unster- 
 blichen Griinders Franklin zu machen. 
 
 Alle diese fortschrittlichen Entwicklungen ver- 
 danken wir hauptsachlich ihrem vorigen Provost, 
 Herrn Dr. William Pepper, der jahrelang mit gro- 
 szter Aufopferung und Energie in diesem schwieri- 
 gen Amte so erfolgreich thatig war, und ebenso 
 dem hochst verdienstvollen,ausgezeichneten,gegen- 
 wartigen Provost, Herrn Charles C. Harrison. 
 
 Die Einladung, welche uns heute hier in dieser 
 prachtvollen Halle versammelt zur Einweihung 
 einer groszen Vermehrung der Biichersammlung 
 der deutschen Abtheilung der Bibliothek entspricht 
 ganz jenem Prinzip, die Wissenschaft und ihren 
 Trager, die Universitat, popular, d. h. zu einem 
 Volksinstitut im edelsten Sinne des Wortes zu 
 machen. Diesem Geist und diesem Streben brin- 
 gen wir unsere besten Gliickwiinsche dar. 
 
 Die bedeutende Vergroszerung jener deutschen 
 Abtheilung, welch letztere Hand in Hand geht mit 
 dem Unterricht in deutscher Sprache und Literatur 
 an der Universitat und zwar von Anfang an, leitet 
 unsere Blicke zuriick auf jene ersten Zeiten der- 
 selben, als sie im Jahr 1791 ihren definitiven 
 Charter erhalten hatte. 
 
 Kein anderer Staat der Union ist von seiner 
 ersten Ansiedlung an mit dem Deutschthum so 
 innig verwachsen, wie Pennsylvanien. Auf die 
 Griindung der Anglo-Sachsen-Stadt der Bruderliebe 
 in 1862, folgte neben derselben sofort ein Jahr
 
 29 
 
 darauf, 1683, die Gmndlegung der " Deutschen 
 Stadt," Germantown, durch den Gelehrten Dr. 
 Franz Daniel Pastorius, welchen William Penn zu 
 seinem lieben Freund machte, beide erfiillt von 
 demselben lantern Geist der Bruder- und Freiheits- 
 Liebe und der entschiedensten Religions-Duldung- 
 
 Bbenso wie die deutsche Stadt Germantown mit 
 Philadelphia zur groszen Weltstadt zusammen- 
 wuchs, ebenso sind die Amerikaner deutscher 
 Abkunft mit denen von angelsachsischer Abstam- 
 mung znsammengewachsen znm unloslichen Bru- 
 der-Bund als treue Burger der groszen Welt- 
 Republik. 
 
 Wo die deutsche Sprache und das deutsche Lied 
 seit jetzt 216 Jahren in dieser Weise ihre Heim- 
 statte gefunden haben, da konnte es nicht an einem 
 Krwachen des deutschen Buchdrucks und der 
 deutschen Presse fehlen. 
 
 Am 20. August 1739 erschien zu Germantown 
 die erste deutsche Zeitung im Land : " Der Hoch- 
 deutsch-Pennsylvanische Geschichts-Schreiber oder 
 Sammlung wichtiger Nachrichten aus dem Natur- 
 und Kirchen-Reich. Erstes Stuck" und in 1743 
 folgte der allererste vollstandige Bibeldruck im 
 Land und zwar in deutscher Sprache. Christoph 
 Saur war der Drucker, der sich 1 738 in German- 
 town niedergelassen und die Typen seiner Druck- 
 erei von Deutschland bezogen hatte. 
 
 Tausende von deutschen Biichern sind seitdem 
 im Land gedruckt worden und die Deutsch-Amer- 
 ikanische Presse hat jetzt die Zahl von tausend 
 Zeitungen erreicht, darunter 100 tagliche. Das 
 alteste Wochenblatt ist der " Reading Adler," der 
 Bnde dieses Jahres sein hundertjahriges Jubilaum
 
 30 
 
 feiern wird; die alteste deutsche Tages-Zeitung 
 der Union ist, der " Philadelphia Demokrat," der 
 1838 gegriindet wurde. 
 
 Als alter Editor dieser alten Zeitung darf ich 
 wohl im Namen der Deutsch-Amerikanischen 
 Presse deren Gluckwiinsche hier aussprechen, 
 und zugleich im Namen des Deutschthums iiber- 
 haupt fiir die Pennsylvania Universitat. Moge sie 
 bliihn und gedeihen immerdar ! 
 
 Es verstand sich von selbst, dasz man dem 
 deutschen Unterricht an der neuen Universitat 
 dahier sofort die groszte Aufmerksamkeit widmete. 
 Es wurde eine deutsche Schule (Fakultat) errichtet, 
 in welcher Lateinisch und Griechisch vermittelst 
 der deutschen Sprache unterrichtet wurde. Dieselbe 
 wurde jedoch sehr bald in eine einfache deutsche 
 Professur umgestaltet. 
 
 Die ersten Professoren fiir deutsche Sprache und 
 deutsche Literatur waren Rev. Johann Chr. Kunze 
 und Rev. J. Heinrich C. Helmuth, beide Mitglieder 
 der 1764 gestifteten " Deutschen Gesellschaft von 
 Pennsylvanien," welche das groszte Interesse fiir 
 den Unterricht im Deutschen an der Universitat 
 bethatigte und hauptsachlich veranlaszte. 
 
 Eine ganze Anzahl tiichtiger Professoren reiht 
 sich den genannten Mannern an bis auf unsern 
 unvergeszlichen Dr. Oswald Seidensticker, den 
 ausgezeichneten deutsch-amerikanischen Gesch- 
 ichts-Schreiber, welcher so helles Licht iiber die 
 Geschichte der Ansiedlung der Deutsch-Amer- 
 ikaner im Lande verbreitet hat. Fiir die deutsche 
 Abtheilung der Bibliothek hat er lebhaft gewirkt, 
 ebenso wie fiir die Bibliothek der deutschen Gesell- 
 schaft, deren von ihm geschaffene Archiv-Abtheil-
 
 ung mehrere tausend Bande alter deutsch-amerikan- 
 ischer Druckschriften besitzt. 
 
 Der Nachfolger von Dr. Seidensticker und 
 anderer gelehrter Vorganger, ist der gelehrte Dr. 
 M. D. Learned, der jetzige Professor fur deutsche 
 Sprache und deutsche Literatur an der Universitat, 
 welcher ebenfalls der deutschen Abtheilung der 
 Universitat seine groszte Aufmerksamkeit widmet, 
 sich durch verschiedene Schriften iiber das ameri- 
 kanische Deutschthum ausgezeichnet hat und dem 
 man hauptsachlich die jetzige Hrwerbung der Bech- 
 stein-Bibliothek verdankt. 
 
 Seit 1 88 1 hat die Universitat nicht allein iiber ein 
 Dutzend neuer Unterrichts-Departements gegriin- 
 det, sondern dieselbe auch durch 14 prachtige 
 Neubauten ausgestattet. Zu letzteren gehort auch 
 dieser Bibliothek-Palast, der 1891 errichtet wurde, 
 und erst geniigenden Raum gewahrte fiir Aufstell- 
 ung von einigen hunderttausend Biichern, und der 
 eine halbe Million fassen kann. 
 
 Die deutsche Abtheilung nahm Theil an dieser 
 Ausdehnung und wurde fast noch mehr wie die 
 andern Departements durch Ankauf ganzer groszer 
 Bibliotheken beruhmter verstorbener gelehrter 
 Deutschen begiinstigt, fiir alle Zweige der Wissen- 
 schaften. So wurde vor ein paar Jahren die Biblio- 
 thek des Professor Ernst von Leutsch aus Gottingen 
 von 20,000 Banden erworben. Und dazu ist jetzt 
 der Ankauf der groszen Bibliothek des verstor- 
 benen Prof. Dr. Reinhold Bechstein von Rostock 
 gekommen. 
 
 Derselbe war ein Sohn des bekannten Dichters 
 und Novellisten Ludwig Bechstein, und war einer 
 der hervorragendsten Germanisten der neuern Zeit,
 
 32 
 
 der eine Anzahl Biicher iiber alt- mittel- und neu- 
 hochdeutsche Literatur herausgab. Seine Biblio- 
 thek umfaszt einen reichen Schatz solcher Werke 
 und gibt dem deutschen Departement der Bibliothek 
 einen ganz besonders hohen Werth. 
 
 Sie entha.lt unter anderen die Bibliothek des 
 " Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart " und seltene 
 alte Druck-Werke, wie die Ausgabe von Hans 
 Sachs durch Haussler; Schriften aus der Zeit 
 Luthers, mit dessen Autograph und Original- 
 Ausgaben der deutschen Klassiker im vorigen 
 Jahrhundert. Sie umfaszt 15,000 Bande und 3000 
 Pamphlete und periodische Schriften und Revuen 
 philologischen und literarischen Inhalts. Beson- 
 ders fur das deutsch-amerikanische Publikum ist 
 dies vom groszten Interesse abgesehen von dem 
 fur die gelehrte Welt. Diese und andere Quellen- 
 Schriften unserer deutschen Literatur, welche wir 
 im alten Vaterland zuriick lassen muszten, als wir 
 hierher nach unserm neuen theuren Vaterland 
 kamen, sind uns nun nachgefolgt und wir heiszen 
 sie freudig hier willkommen, iiberzeugt, dasz sie 
 als edle Kultur-Trager ebenso segensreich in un- 
 serm neuen Vaterland wirken werden, wie sie dies 
 im alten gethan haben. 
 
 Zu ihrer Besichtigung sind wir heute eingeladen ! 
 Jhre Benutzung wird uns in zuvorkommenster 
 Weise geboten ! Dankbar nehmen wir das an, hoch 
 erfreut iiber solch' treffliche Schritte der Universitat 
 fur praktische Volks-Erziehung, ganz im Geist 
 ihres herrlichen Stifters, des Volksmannes Frank- 
 lin, welcher die Worte sprach : 
 
 " Die beste Universitat fiir das Volk ist die beste 
 Bucher-Sammlung, welche Jedem offen steht ! "
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 PROFESSOR M. D. LEARNED. 
 
 At the founding of the Colony of Pennsylvania 
 the Englishman and the German joined heart and 
 hand. Penn and Pastorius were the typical repre- 
 sentatives of two great peoples in the establishment 
 of an Anglo-German commonwealth in America, 
 which was to extend its limits far beyond their 
 fairest fancies. Penn's vision of Philadelphia 
 (City of Brotherly Love) has had a larger realiza- 
 tion in the national brotherhood of States, and 
 Pastorius' Germanspolis (Germantown) has become 
 the sinew of a mighty German-American people. 
 
 The seeds of a system of academic education 
 were sown by these two pioneers in the soil of the 
 new colony. As early as 1683 the new Executive 
 Council proposed, " that care be taken about the 
 learning and instruction of youth, to wit, a school 
 of arts and sciences," and in 1689 the Public Gram- 
 mar School (modeled after the English Free School) 
 was established in Philadelphia. In 1697 this was 
 chartered as ihe Penn Charter School, which still 
 flourishes as a memorial of that significant be- 
 ginning. 
 
 Pastorius himself was the principal of the 
 Quakers' School in Philadelphia between 1698 and
 
 34 
 
 1 700, thus bringing to the Philadelphia youth the 
 rich learning of the German university. He was, 
 moreover, notwithstanding his rigid academic train- 
 ing and taste, alive to the practical educational 
 needs of his surroundings, and undertook in 1702, 
 with the support of the Town Council, the organiza- 
 tion of a school in Germantown. In addition to 
 this he opened an evening school for those who 
 could not attend during the day. That Pastorius 
 appreciated the necessity of practical education in 
 the Province, and thus anticipated some of the 
 views which Franklin incorporated in his " Pro- 
 posals Relative to the Education of Youth in 
 Pennsylvania " is shown by the following : 
 
 "Ich selbsten gebe sofort etliche 100 Reichsthaler 
 darum, dasz ich die kostliche Zeit, welche ich zu 
 Brlernung der Sperlingischen Physik, Metaphysik 
 und andern unnothigen sophistischen Argumenta- 
 tionibus und Arguitionibus angewendet, uff In- 
 genier-Sachen und Buchdruckerey-Kunst gekehret 
 hatte, welches mir nun mehr zu statten kommen, 
 ja mir und meinen Neben Christen niitzlicher und 
 ergetzlicher fallen sollte, als sothane Physic, 
 Metaphysic und alle Aristotelische Elenchi und 
 Syllogismi, durch welche kein wilder Mensch oder 
 Unchrist zu Gott gebracht, viel weniger ein Stuck 
 Erodes erworben werden kann." 
 
 As the Germans pushed westward and settled 
 in the interior of the Province they established 
 Church or Sect Schools, but these were not sufficient 
 to meet the demands of the youth of the Province, 
 and what they did tended rather toward conserving 
 the German language to the neglect of English. 
 So the schools opened at Ephrata (1733) and those
 
 35 
 
 established by the Moravians in Warwick, Nazareth 
 and Lititz, and those in Lancaster, Philadelphia 
 and other places perpetuated for the greater part 
 German traditions. Though the official language 
 of the Province was English the most important 
 documents had to be published also in German 
 translations. , 
 
 It was the realization of the great need of general 
 education, and a growing fear on the part of the Eng- 
 lish settlers (dating from 1719) lest serious results 
 might follow the exclusive German tendencies of the 
 Province, that gave rise to a charitable movement in 
 the direction of free education of the youth. The 
 need of popular education was very generally felt 
 by the English and Germans alike. 
 
 The significant step was taken by the opening 
 of a Charity School in Philadelphia in the year 
 1 740, in the meeting-house which had been erected 
 for Whitefield. Count Zinzendorf also in the year 
 1742 made an attempt to improve the education of 
 the Germans in Germantown. 
 
 The great organizing spirit of the education of 
 the Province at this time was Benjamin Franklin, 
 who had for ten years been studying the problems 
 of modern culture and had been maturing plans 
 for an organized educational system in the Province 
 of Pennsylvania. In 1743 Franklin drew up his 
 " Proposals " for the establishment of an Academy, 
 and in 1749 published his plan as a pamphlet en- 
 titled : Proposals Relating to the Education of the 
 Youth of Pennsylvania. In the programme pub- 
 lished by the Trustees of the newly founded 
 Academy in 1750, a plan of instruction was pro- 
 posed, " Wherein youth will be taught Latin, En-
 
 36 
 
 glish, French and German language, logic and 
 rhetoric, also writing, arithmetic, merchants' 
 accounts, geometry, algebra, surveying, gauging, 
 astronomy, drawing in perspective and other math- 
 ematical sciences, with natural and mechanic phil- 
 osophy, etc." 
 
 Here we havs as an essential feature .of the curri- 
 culum of the new Academy (the nucleus of the 
 University of Pennsylvania) the education of Ger- 
 man youth and instruction in the German language. 
 And it must be emphasized as testifying to the 
 liberal purpose of the founders of the Academy in 
 the face of the hostility of Saur and other Ger- 
 mans to the scheme that generous provision was 
 made in the programme for the study of the 
 German language by giving it a place by the side 
 of English and French, the other living languages 
 then most prominent in American culture. 
 
 The evolution of the College out of the Academy 
 was natural and easy. In 1753 William Smith 
 sent his sketch of a " General Idea of the College 
 of Mirania " to Franklin, then President of the 
 Board of Trustees of the Academy. The result 
 was the extension of the Academy into the College 
 and the appointment of William Smith as the first 
 Provost of the College in 1754. Smith in his sketch 
 had included German among the languages taught 
 in the College of Mirania, as the following passage 
 from Evander's account (p. 37) shows : 
 
 1 There are likewise Masters in the College for 
 teaching the French, Italian, Spanish and German 
 Tongues at private hours ; and a Fencing-Master, 
 who, besides the use of the sword, teaches the 
 Military Exercise. There is lastly a Dancing-
 
 37 
 
 Master ; whom I should have mentioned first ; as 
 this art is learned by the boys when very young." 
 
 Though the modern languages were repre- 
 sented more or less as accomplishments in the Col- 
 lege of Mirania, yet they were an essential feature of 
 the curriculum, and seem to have been regarded even 
 more seriously by the Trustees of the new College 
 at Philadelphia ; for from the first year, 1754, the 
 College provided for German and French instruc- 
 tion by the appointment of William Creamer as 
 Professor of the French and German Languages. 
 
 Professor Creamer held this position, thus keep- 
 ing intact German Study, till his retirement in 
 1775, a period of 21 years. 
 
 With the development of the College into the 
 University of Pennsylvania, under the new charter 
 of 1779 a significant change was made in the con- 
 stituency of the Board of Trustees, leading to a 
 new epoch of German instruction at the University, 
 By the new charter representatives of the six lead- 
 ing denominations of the City of Philadelphia, 
 the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Ger- 
 man Calvinist, Roman, were to constitute one of 
 the three classes of Trustees. Accordingly two of 
 the most prominent German divines of the City, 
 Johann Christopher Kunze and Casper Weiberg, 
 became members of the Board. It was through 
 the influence of Kunze and Weiberg that the Trus- 
 tees passed the resolution Jan. 10, 1880 : That a 
 German Professor of Philology should be appointed, 
 whose duty should be to teach the Latin and Greek 
 languages through the medium of the German 
 tongue, both in the Academy and in the University. 
 Kunze himself was elected to fill the chair and his
 
 38 
 
 place on the Board of Trustees was filled by Justus 
 Henry Christian Helmuth. 
 
 Kunze's effort to make the University of Penn- 
 sylvania the centre of German culture deserves 
 more than a passing notice here, because he was 
 the most conspicuous representative of German 
 education at that time in America and particularly 
 because he seems to have been the first to see the 
 superior possibilities at the University for a great 
 National School of German which should mediate 
 between the culture of the Fatherland and that of 
 America. 
 
 Kunze the preacher and the theologian has been 
 highly appreciated by the church historians, but 
 Kunze the Professor and man of letters deserves a 
 more sympathetic sketch. It is this side of his 
 career which appeals to us on the present occasion. 
 
 The career -of Kunze as educator and man of let- 
 ters may be treated under the following heads : 
 
 1. His Original Poetry. 
 
 2. His Educational Work as Professor. 
 
 3. His Occasional Discourses. 
 
 4. His Hymnological Studies. 
 
 In the year 1778 Kunze published a volume of 
 Poems under the title : " Einige Gedichte und Lie- 
 der von Johann Christoph Kunze, Ev. Luth. Pred. 
 zu Philadelphia in Nordamerika : Gedruckt und zu 
 finden bei Christoph und Peter Saur, 1778." The 
 importance of this book lies not so much in the 
 value of the poetry as in these three facts : 
 
 i. That it is dedicated to a Swedish Society 
 ( " Einer Hochloblichen und Hochansehnlichen 
 Schwedischen Gesellschaft Pro Fide et Christian- 
 ismo " ) of which Kunze had been made a member.
 
 39 
 
 2. That it propounds a theological Ars Poetica 
 as opposed to secular traditions of poetry on sacred 
 themes, and 
 
 3. That it offers a specimen of Christian Kpic 
 in the metre of Klopstock's Messias, but without 
 the (to Kunze) objectionable element of invention. 
 
 Kunze's theory of poetry as set forth in the 
 Introduction to his Collection of Poems briefly 
 stated is this : The heathen poets sang of gods 
 and religion, but of gods they no longer believed in, 
 though the people believed in them; hence such poets 
 as Ovid and Virgil toyed with religion. The Chris- 
 tian poets, such as Milton and Klopstock, who 
 wrote on religious or Biblical themes mixed facts 
 with fiction and thus detracted from the power and 
 sanctity of the facts themselves. Kunze would 
 eliminate invention aud substitute for it elaboration 
 and devotional reflection. If the Queen of Sheba 
 before Solomon be the theme, for example, the 
 poet may make the queen as beautiful as he can. 
 What she says he may elaborate into a discourse, 
 which sounds queenly and Arabic ; but he may not 
 attempt to cite any of the conundrums which she 
 propounded to Solomon, as he would likely select 
 the wrong ones. As a matter of fact Kunze's method 
 was not so essentially different from that employed 
 by Otfried von Weissenburg in his Book of the 
 Gospels in the middle of the ninth century. 
 
 A few passages will set forth Kunze's views. 
 
 " Meine Dichtkunst, dies Geschenke der Gott- 
 heit, soil nur die Gottheit besingen, aber in 
 Kleidung, die die Wollust wirkt, soil sie sein Heil- 
 igtum nicht entehren. Ich mus erst einmal horen,
 
 40 
 
 dasz die theologische Sphare fur Dichter erschopft, 
 ehe ich etwas anders singe. Ich will lieber nicht 
 dichten konnen, wenn ich nicht theologisch dich- 
 ten kann. Am wenigsten will ich andern die Ver- 
 mischung ablernen, nach welcher ietzt ein Lied 
 an die Liebe, und denn ein Lobgedicht an die 
 Gottheit in den Rubriken steht. 
 
 Die wenigen und von Eilfertigkeit zeugenden 
 Gedichte, die ich hier liefere werden zur Erlau- 
 terung dieser Sache nicht viel beitragen wenn ich 
 ober durch diesen Gedanken etwa das Gliick haben 
 sollte, einen gebornen Dichter zur Betretung der 
 hier gezeichneten Fuszstapfen zu reizen, nach 
 welchen er alle seine Kiinftige Geburten bios der 
 naturlichen oder geoffenborten Gottesgelersamkeit 
 gelobete, und den Schmuck, den man in der an- 
 fiirung fremder Namen sucht, lieber aus dem David, 
 Hiob, Salomo, Habakuk, als aus dem Homer oder 
 Virgil entlehnte ; so wiirde glaube ich, gewis offen- 
 bar werden, dasz der bisherige fremde Feder- 
 schmuck sehr entbehrlich war. Man wiirde machtig 
 wie Moses, und lieblich wie der Son Isai, singen. 
 Doch wir haben ia Brokese, Trillers, Miltons, Klop- 
 stocks, deren Dichtkunst wahrhaftig nur dem 
 Gegenstande heilig war, der mir allein besingens- 
 wiirdig vorkommt. Man wird indessen ohn mein 
 Erinern sehen, bei welchen unter diesen noch 
 Vermischungen herrschen, die ich nicht Hebe. 
 Indes wiirde ich kein Wort gesagt haben, wenn wir 
 viel solche Dichter hatten, als diese lichenswiirdige 
 und grosse Manner sind und waren. Die ersteren 
 beiden schranken sich mehr auf die natiirliche 
 Theologie, die beiden andern auf die geoffenborte 
 ein. Da David weit mehr Psalmen hat, die in die
 
 reinen, als solche die in die vermischten Artikel 
 einschlagen, und ich fiir die Nachahmung dieses 
 grosten der Dichter enthusiastisch eingenommen 
 bin, als ie Virgil fiir die Nachahmung des Homers 
 sein konnte ; so wiinschte ich der Welt mehr 
 Miltons und Klopstoks. Ich lasse hier die Sprache 
 meines Herzens reden, und bezeuge diesen Dichtern 
 den Beifall, den mein Herz fiilt : Aber ich wiinsche 
 ihnen doch ein Verdienst weniger, ich meine das 
 Verdienst der Fiction. Man schreibe dieses lieber 
 dem von mir gestandenen Enthusiasmus zur 
 Davidischen Nachahmung, als einer Tadelsucht 
 zu. David hat auch historische Gedichte, aber 
 ohne Erdichtung. Freilich waren seine Gedichte 
 alle kurz, weil sie zum Absingen verfertiget waren. 
 Bei uns kan hier die veranderte Ursache den Erfolg 
 verandern. Ein ausgebreitetes Gedicht vom 
 M'essias oder vom verlornen Paradies, vom Bethle- 
 hemitischen Kindermord und dergleichen, wird 
 meine ganze Sele durchdringen. Aber Sachen, 
 von denen ich weis, dasz sie nicht war sind, werden 
 meine Bewunderung mindern. Die Fiction heiszt 
 es, mus Sachen enthalten, die warscheinlich sind. 
 Die Warscheinlichkeit kann im Eigentlichen Vers- 
 tande hier nicht statt finden, wo man schon die 
 Quellen sogar kennt, aus denen die besungene 
 Geschichte geschopft wird, und Eingebungen traut 
 auch der vom Vergniigen berauschte Leser dem 
 Dichter in Ernst nicht zu. In der Iliade be- 
 wundert man die Erfindung und den grosten An- 
 teil hat der Dichter daran. Der Leser freut sich 
 iiber die entdekten Tiefen einer menschlichen 
 Einbildungskraft, und diese Freude gebieret den 
 Beifall. Wird aber mein Messias besungen, da
 
 42 
 
 soil dieser liebenswiirdige Gegenstand selbst den 
 groszten Anteil an meinem Erstaunen haben. Von 
 jedem erzelten Umstande mus meine Ueberzeugung 
 mir sagen, dasz er so war oder ohngefahr so war. 
 Die Wiirde der Sache bringt dis so mit sich. Sie 
 1st an sich groser und wunderbarer, als sie die 
 Einbildungskraft machen kann. Werden aber 
 dieser reelle Zusaze erlaubt ; so befiirchte ich, dasz 
 endlich eine Messiade so gem als die Iliade gelesen, 
 und so viel da von, als von dieser, geglaubt wird. 
 Die Fiction ist ia eben nicht das wesentliche 
 des Gedichts. Alcaus erdichtet nicht und 
 dichtet gulden. David dichtet lauter Warheit 
 und singt unaussprechlich erhaben. Der Herr 
 General-Superintendent am Ende brachte die 
 Apostelgeschichte in ein sehr schones lateini- 
 sches Gedicht, und des Frischinus Hebrais ist so 
 schon, als zuverlaszig. Waren diese Gedichte 
 deutsch, so waren sie gewis bekannter und wiirden 
 mehr bewundert. Die lateinische Poesie erfart iezt 
 eine Verachtung, die um so viel ungerechter ist, ie 
 mehr die Dichter in der Muttersprache ihr zu 
 verdauken haben, und die so schadlich werden kan, 
 als die gegenwartige Vernachlaszigung der lateini- 
 schen Sprache iiberhaupt ist." 
 
 The first few verses of Kunze's " Dichten vom 
 Messias ohne Erdichtung " may be cited here with 
 the beginning of Klopstock's Messias : 
 
 (Kunze.) 
 Denke und schweige zu denken, geborne vom gott- 
 
 lichen Hauche 
 Denke, und starre im Denken, doch stammle den 
 
 starren Gedanken 
 Hin in die warmere Brust des lauschenden Rich- 
 
 ters der Sanger.
 
 43 
 
 (Klopstock.) 
 
 Sing, unsterbliche Seele, der siindigen Menschen 
 
 Krlosung, 
 Die der Messias auf Brden in seiner Menschheit 
 
 vollendet, 
 Und durch die er Adams Geschlecht zu der Liebe 
 
 der Gottheit, 
 Leiden, getodtet und verherrlichet, wieder erhohthat. 
 
 It is Kunze's educational work, however, which 
 associates him most intimately with the history of 
 the University. In fact it may be said that educa- 
 tion in the larger sense was the labor of his life. 
 As early as 1773 he established a Seminarium or 
 Lateinische Schule, the origin of which he has left 
 on record in a letter of May 16, 1773 (Published in 
 Schlozer's Brefwehsel i. 206 ff, Mr. J. F. Sachse's 
 copy ): 
 
 " Seit meinem Klosterbergischen Aufenthalt hat 
 sich immer in mir eine ganz besondere Neigung 
 gefunden, etwas mit einer Schule darinnen Sprach- 
 en und Wissenschaften gelehret warden, zu 
 thun zu haben : die so wenig durch alle meine 
 ganz andere Geschafte erstickt worden, dasz ich 
 vielmehr noch immer mit den Gedanken schwanger 
 gegangen bin, einmal, wo es der Wille des lieben 
 Vaters im Himmel ware, dergleichen hier unter 
 unsern Deutschen zu errichten. Mit 
 
 dem Anfange des neuen Jars 1773 meldete sich ein 
 Hallischer Student bei uns an, der den Rechten 
 ehedem obgelegen, hernach Soldat geworden, und 
 zuletzt lange Zeit auf St. Thomas, Crux, und John 
 * * sich aufgehalten, und mit Unterrichtung 
 der Jugend sich beschaftigt hatte. Er suchte sein 
 Unterkommen, und wiesz Zeugnisse von der 
 hallischen Universitat auf. * * * Merkwiirdig
 
 44 
 
 war mir's dasz ich den Tag vorher, ehe Hr. Leps, 
 so heiszt mein Kandidat, sich meldete, von tmgefer 
 diesen Gedanken hatte: " Sollte ich einmal in einen 
 Vorrat von 20 Pf. kommen ; so wollte den ersten 
 deutschen Studenten, der an unsrer Kiiste anlan- 
 den, und Fracht schuldig seyn wiirde, kanfen, in 
 meine oberste Stube setzen, eine kleine lateinische 
 Schule anfangen, in den Morgenstunden selbst 
 leren, und alsdann meinen Servant leren lassen, 
 und durch ein geringes Schulgeld mich bezalt 
 machen. 
 
 Indesz war Hr. Leps frachtfrei, und hatte auch 
 ein wenig Geld, ein par Monate hier zu leben. 
 Ich riet ihm, heir eine lateinische Schule anzu- 
 f an gen, versprache ihm darinn zu unterstiitzen, 
 und machte ihm einen Aufsatz. 
 
 Ich machte einen Aufsatz des Inhalts auf einem 
 Bogen : 
 
 " Es seien etliche Beforderer des waren Besten 
 der deutschen Nation in Amerika gesonnen, eine 
 Gesellschaft zu errichten, die den Namen fiiren 
 konnte : die Gesellschaft zu Beforderung des 
 Christentums und aller niitzlichen Brkenntnis 
 unter den Deutschen in Amerika. 
 
 The necessary number of subscribers (24) were 
 secured, each contributing TO to the treasury. 
 The members had a right to free tuition, others had 
 to pay. A regular code of by-laws was drawn up, 
 providing for three classes of members of the So- 
 ciety and minutes were kept of the progress of the 
 enterprise. This school seems to have been the 
 first attempt at strict academic instruction among 
 the Germans in America and perpetuated the influ- 
 ence of Francke's Paedagogium at Halle. That
 
 45 
 
 the general ultimate purpose of the school was 
 similar to that of Francke appears from the follow- 
 ing passage from Kunze's letter: "Einige endzwecke, 
 z. Ex. wirklich im Lande etliche Kirchen zu 
 bauen, ein deutsch Armenhaus und Waisenhaus 
 zu errichten Prediger zu besolden, erlebe ich ohne 
 Zweifel gar nicht." 
 
 Kunze saw in his appointment as German Pro- 
 fessor of Philology at the University an opportunity 
 for the largest academic education of German 
 youth and bent his energies toward enlisting the 
 interest and co-operation of the Germans in this 
 department of the University. German was the 
 language in which he interpreted the ancient 
 classics and thus kept the German students in touch 
 with the best culture of the Fatherland and at the 
 same time afforded opportunity for the Bnglish 
 speaking student to acquire a fluent knowledge of 
 the German language as the speech of the lecture- 
 room. The German student had here also the 
 advantage of being able to attend the courses in 
 English and thus familiarize himself with the 
 English language. 
 
 That Kunze was planning a comprehensive sys- 
 tem by which Germans should be prepared for the 
 higher work of the University is evident from the 
 fact that he was active in organizing a movement 
 for educating German children under the auspices 
 of the German Society, as appears in the Society's 
 Charter, Sept. 20, 1781. At the anniversary of the 
 granting of the Charter, Sept. 20, 1782 Professor 
 Kunze set forth more definitely the educational plans 
 of the Society : " For the advancement of know- 
 ledge among the Germans, the Society intends in
 
 46 
 
 the course of time, with the help of God, either to 
 establish necessary schools or to make those al- 
 ready established more servicable to the Nation." 
 
 In this famous Gedachtnisrede of Sept 20, 1782, 
 Professor Kunze exhorts the German " fur erhal- 
 tung der deutschen sprache unter den hiesigen 
 Deutschen, fur Errichtung von Schulen und Biblio- 
 theken u. s. w. sich wirksam zu erweisen." He 
 then gives an account of the German Department 
 at the University and warns the Germans that 
 " die Fortdauer dieser Anstalt vom Gebrauch ab- 
 hangt, der devon gemacht wird." 
 
 Kunze's transfer to New York was made with 
 the expectation that his educational efforts might 
 find more success under the patronage of Columbia 
 College, where he was Professor of Oriental Lan- 
 guages ; but his hopes were not realized and he 
 gradually entered more and more into the exclusive 
 service of his Church expressing his educational 
 vigor in organizing the New York Synod. 
 
 It was in this latter work that he published a 
 Hymn and Prayer-Book for the use of such Lutheran 
 Churches as use the English Language, 1795. In 
 this work Kunze shows that he foresaw the neces- 
 sity of coming into line with the strong anglicising 
 forces then at work among the Germans in America 
 and so became the pioneer in this field of Church 
 education among the Lutherans. Kunze was in 
 a word educationally a well poised German-Amer- 
 ican, true to the traditions of his mother tongue, 
 but alive to the demands of the new life in the in- 
 fant American Republic. 
 
 In his occasional addresses Professor Kunze 
 showed himself in close touch with the living cul-
 
 47 
 
 tural issues of the day. Of these discourses 
 delivered during his connection with the University 
 the following are the most important : 
 
 Etwas vom rechten Lebenswege Philadelphia, 
 1781 (Dedicated to Peter Freiherrn von Hohenthal, 
 Oberconsistorialrath und Domdnenprdsidenten in 
 Sachsen}. Lobet den Herren, der zu Zion wohnet. 
 (Delivered at the renovation of Zion Church, 1782, 
 after the English had used it as a hospital). 
 
 Eine Rede von den Absichten und dem bisherigen 
 Fortgange der priviligirten deutschen Gesellschaft, 
 Philadelphia, Sept. 20, 1782 (Reprinted in Schopf's 
 Reise durch die Vereinigten Staten}. It traces the 
 activity of the Society, which through Kunze's 
 efforts had been granted a Charter allowing it to 
 apply a part of its funds to education, (quoted 
 above). 
 
 Eine Aufforderung an das Volk Gottes in Amer- 
 ika zum frohen Jauchzen und Danken, u. s. w. (Oct. 
 n, 1783. Celebration of the day of thanks for 
 Peace and Independence). 
 
 Professor Helmuth, Kunze's successor as Ger- 
 man Professor of Philology at the University, 
 continued the Policy of keeping the German 
 Society and the German "Institut" (as the German 
 Department was called) of the University in the 
 closest affiliation, thus showing clearly that the 
 efforts of the University and of the German Society 
 were parts of one and the same educational plan. 
 
 Helmuth was like Kunze a poet, but of the more 
 exclusively devotional type. He had published in 
 1781 at Philadelphia his poems: Empfindungen 
 der Herzens in einigen Liedern, which compare 
 very favorably with the German church poets of
 
 4 8 
 
 of the time and breathe the spirit of fervent piety. 
 
 But Helmuth like Knnze rendered his greatest 
 service to the University in his capacity as German 
 Professor. He like Kunze kindled the enthu- 
 siasm of the German Society for the German De- 
 partment and was able to report in 1785 that sixty 
 students were in attendance. He sent to Germany 
 a most interesting account of the public exhibition 
 of the work of the students of the Institute given 
 at the anniversary of Charter Day before the Ger- 
 man Society, Sept. 20, 1 784. This report, which was 
 sent to Germany, runs in English translation as 
 follows : 
 
 " After this I went to the meeting of the officers 
 of German Society here, which had requested me 
 to deliver an address at the anniversary. I pro- 
 posed that they should act as Patrons of the Ger- 
 man Institute. They kindly accepted all my 
 propositions and bore the trouble and expense of 
 the whole performance." 
 
 Speaking of the exercises he said : 
 
 ( To-day our Actus Oratorius was held in a very 
 festive style, the first of the kind among the Ger- 
 mans in America. All the members of the assem- 
 bly, of the Executive Council and Censors of the 
 State, the City Council, the entire Faculty and 
 the German Society and many other ladies and 
 gentlemen honored us with their presence. The 
 German Society had provided music, which was 
 played during the intervals. I offered prayer in 
 English at the beginning. After this one of my 
 pupils delivered an English address, thanking the 
 Trustees for their interest in the Germans in estab- 
 lishing the German Professorship. One of the
 
 49 
 
 young students gave an account of the School in 
 the German Language. Two entertained those 
 present with the discovery of a planet, their jour- 
 ney thither and sojourn upon it. German. A Con- 
 cealed Moral. Another described in German 
 verses the Day of Judgment. After these t 
 another told of the goodness of God, also 
 in German verses. Next, four others entered 
 the stage and discoursed about spirits and witch- 
 craft, one of them describing the new discovery 
 of so-called animal magnetism, German. Three 
 others discussed the tolerance of religions, and three 
 impersonated peasant children, one of whom had 
 been in the school two years and gave the others 
 instruction about things they did not know. 
 This was intended to serve as an admonition 
 to well-to-do country people that they should give 
 their children better education. After this I as 
 member of the German Society made an address 
 and our Provost closed with prayer." 
 
 Also July 4, 1785, Professor Helmuth gave an 
 oratorical exhibition of his students and invited 
 the German Society. So in 1787 a similar per- 
 formance in Zion Church. 
 
 This account gives suggestive evidence that 
 Helmuth's students had already heard of Les- 
 sing's Nathan der Weise, which had appeared in 
 1779, and were being instructed in the best contem- 
 pory German thought. 
 
 Reference has been made already to the oppo- 
 sition of Saur and many other Germans to the 
 Charity School movement, which planted schools 
 in various parts of the Province between 1750 
 and 1760, for the education of German youth.
 
 50 
 
 The fear of the English Colonists that German 
 ideas might obtain too strong a foot-hold in the 
 Commonwealth and the organized plan of ang- 
 licising the Germans by a system of popular 
 education roused a corresponding anxiety on the 
 part of the Germans lest they should become 
 thoroughly anglicised and lose their German 
 traditions. This alienation of the Germans led 
 to an unfortunate separation of the German and 
 English educational forces of the State after the 
 Revolution, by the transference of the seat of 
 German academic education to Lancaster and 
 the founding of Franklin College, 1787, to meet 
 the speific needs of the Germans. 
 
 The mistake was not the founding of Frank- 
 lin College for the Germans, but the dissipation 
 of the educational energies of the Commonwealth 
 by the dissolution of the flourishing German 
 Institute at Philadelphia and the premature 
 foundation of a German College in the middle 
 of the State at a time when there was not suffi- 
 cient educational impetus to carry it forward. 
 If the German Institute of the University of 
 Pennsylvania had been fostered for a quarter of 
 a century and then with a strong current of 
 German culture setting toward Philadelphia a 
 Franklin College had sprung up out of soil al- 
 ready prepared, the history both of the 
 University of Pennsylvania and Franklin College 
 might have been far more significent in the an- 
 nals of the young Republic. 
 
 But as it was, neither Franklin College nor 
 the University could maintain the proper cul- 
 tural balance. The auspicious union of German
 
 5 1 
 
 and English culture at the University of Penn- 
 sylvania during the period of Kunze and 
 Helmuth was retarded for a round century and 
 the graft of German letters into the English 
 stalk was left to send forth its shoot in the chilly 
 soil of New England during the cultural revival 
 of the second quarter of the present century. 
 It was during this period that Harvard had its 
 first Professor of German in Charles Follen, 
 three quarters of a century after the appoint- 
 ment of Professor Creamer at the University of 
 Pennsylvania and half a century after the elec- 
 tion of Kunze as German Professor of Philology. 
 
 The question of the cultivation and preserva. 
 tion of German language and culture in America 
 must be reserved for another discourse, but this 
 much must be kept in view that no culture, no 
 literature, can attain and maintain full vigor for 
 a long period of time, if left entirely to its 
 own resources. The law of nature that perpetual 
 progressive development must be secured by 
 the crossing of species is not less exacting in 
 literature than in animals and plants. So the 
 years of German alienation from Helmuth to 
 Haldeman were almost barren of German fruit 
 at the University of Pennsylvania save in the 
 Department of Medicine, while Puritan New 
 England was rejoicing in an era of literary 
 awakening from the touch of German L-etters. 
 
 The revival of German studies at the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania begins with the researches 
 of Samuel Stedman Haldeman, Professor of 
 Natural History, 185053, and Professor of Com- 
 parative Philology, 1869-1880. Professor Hadelman
 
 52 
 
 contributed ten studies on conchology, thirty-six 
 on entomology, seven on geology and chemistry, 
 seven on archaeology, thirty-two on philology, and 
 twenty-eight on other subjects. Of the thirty-two 
 contributions to philology, one is of particular im- 
 portance as inaugurating the study of German 
 dialects in America. This was a paper entitled 
 On the German Vernacular of Pennsylvania, 
 published in the transactions of the American 
 Philological Association for 1869-1870, read also 
 before the Philological Society of London, 1870, 
 and published separately with Perfatory Notice by A. 
 J. Ellis, under the title, Pennsylvania Dutch, A Dia- 
 lect of South German with an Infusion of English, 
 Philadelphia, 1872. It was the instinct and experience 
 of a naturalist that led Professor Haldeman to the 
 study of language and gave his researches their pecu- 
 liar value. The relation of linguistics to etymology 
 attracted him in particular and stimulated his studies 
 On the Phonology of the Wyandots (1846), On Some 
 Points in Linguistic Ethnology, Relations between 
 the Chinese and Indo-European Languages (1856), 
 and similar subjects, in which the influence of 
 Wilhelm von Humboldt seems clearly traceable. 
 At the time when Haldeman was writing his study 
 on Pennsylvania Dutch, dialect study in Germany 
 was still in the formative stage, as a brief mention 
 of the more important works before 1868 will show. 
 Before the middle of the century were such works 
 Stalder's Vereuch eines schweiz. Idiotikon (1812), Sch- 
 meller's Die Mundart Bayerrfs grammatisch darg- 
 ' estellt(\%2\)^w&o>i,Mustersaal aller deutschen Mun- 
 daren, (1822) and Schmeller's Bayerisches Wortebuch 
 (1827-1837) bearing specifically on German dialects.
 
 53 
 
 After 1850 we note the following as important : 
 1853. Weinhold Ueber deutsche Dialektforschung. 
 1853-1859. Deutsche Mundarten I. VI. 
 1856. Briicke, Grundzuge der Physiologie und 
 Systematik der Sprachlaute. 
 
 1862. Sartorius Die Mundart der Stadt Wurz- 
 burg. 
 
 Schopf, Tirolisches Idiotikon. 
 
 1863. Weinhold, Alemannische Grammatik. 
 Nassl, Die Laute der Tepler Mundart. 
 
 1864. Fetters, Beitrdge zur Dialektforschung in 
 Nordbbhmen. 
 
 Riickert, Die deutsche Schriftsprache der 
 Gegenwart und deutsche Dialekte. 
 
 1866. Merkel, Physiologie der menschlichen 
 Sprache. 
 
 1867. Weinhold, Bairische Grammatik. 
 
 1868. Vilmar, Idiotikon von Kurhessen. 
 Scherer, Zur Geschichte der deutschen 
 
 Sprache. 
 
 In England Alex. Melvill Bell had published 
 his Visible Speech (1867), and Alex. J. Ellis his 
 Early English Pronunciation (1867). 
 
 It is hardly likely that Professor Haldeman had 
 access to all the dialect treatises mentioned above. 
 We know, however, that in preparing his Pennsyl- 
 vania Dutch he consulted Stalder, Radlof, 
 Schmeller, Castelli, Briicke, Merkel, and Ellis. 
 
 Haldeman's Pennsylvania Dutch may be regarded 
 as a pioneer study, first in American dialectology, 
 and secondly in comparative study of modern Ger- 
 man dialects. 
 
 The point of view and at the same time the im- 
 portance of Professor Haldeman's study is admir-
 
 54 
 
 ably set forth by Mr. Ellis in his Prefatory Notice 
 
 as follows : 
 
 " Sufficient importance does not seem to have 
 been hitherto attached to watching the growth and 
 change of living languages. We have devoted our 
 philological energies to the study of dead tongues 
 which we could not pronounce, and have therefore 
 been compelled to compare by letters rather than 
 by sounds, and which we know only in the form 
 impressed upon them by scholars of various times. 
 The form in which they were originally written is 
 forever concealed. The form in which they appear 
 in the earliest manuscripts has practically never 
 been published, but has to be painfully collected 
 from a mass of various readings. The form we 
 know is a critical, conjectural form, patched up 
 by men distinguished for scholarship, but for the 
 most part entirely ignorant of the laws which 
 govern the change of speech. The very ortho- 
 graphy is mediaeval. We are thus enabled to see 
 as little of the real genesis of language in form, in 
 sound, in grammatical and logical construction, in 
 short in the real truth of philological investigation, 
 the relation of thought to speech-sound, as the 
 study of a full-grown salmon would enable us to 
 judge of the marvellous development of that beau- 
 tiful fish. Such studies as the present will, I hope, 
 serve among others to stimulate exertion in the 
 new direction. We cannot learn life by the study 
 of fossils alone." 
 
 Simultaneously with the researches of Professor 
 Haldeman in the Pennsylvania Dutch, his col- 
 league Oswald Seidensticker, Professor of German 
 in the University, was breaking ground in another
 
 55 
 
 field of German- American culture the History 
 and Literature of the German Pioneer in America. 
 
 As early as 1864 Professor Seidensticker pub- 
 lished a paper entitled Schiller im Englischen. This 
 study seems to have served only as the door to a 
 more attractive department, for his studies for the 
 next twenty years lay chiefly in the earlier period 
 of German- American history and literature, and it 
 was only toward the end of his career that he once 
 more published a paper more closely related to the 
 one of 1864 under the title, The Relation of Bng- 
 glish and German Literature in the Bighteenth 
 Century. The work of Professor Seidensticker is 
 so fresh in the minds of those who followed it, that 
 one might perhaps most fitly characterize it by 
 allowing the more important titles to speak for 
 themselves in the order of publication : 
 
 1864. Schiller im Englischen (Deutsch-Amer- 
 kanische Monatshefte). 
 
 1870. Johannes Kelpius, der Einsiedler am 
 Wissahickon (Der Deutsch Pionier, Bd. 2). 
 
 187071. Franz Daniel Pastorius und die Grun- 
 dung von Germantown in 1683 (Ibid). 
 
 1872. Francis Daniel Pastorius (Penn Monthly, 
 Jan. and Feb., 1872). 
 
 Phonetic Laws and their Limits (Penn 
 Monthly, June, 1872). 
 
 The King and the Professors (Penn 
 Monthly, Dec., 1872). 
 
 1873. The Electra of Sophocles, Review (Penn 
 Monthly, Oct., 1873). 
 
 1874. The First Anti-Slavery Protest (Penn 
 Monthly, July, 1874). 
 
 1875. Die Beziehungen der Deutschen zu den
 
 56 
 
 Schweden in Pennsylvanien (Der Deutsche Pionier, 
 Bd. 6). 
 
 1876. Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft von 
 Pennsylvanien (Philadelphia, 1876). 
 
 Die Deutschen von Philadelphia im Jahr 
 1776 (Der Deutsche Pionier, Bd. 8). 
 
 1877. Deutsch-Amerikanische Biographie bis 
 zum Schluss des vorigenjahrhunderts (Der Deutsche 
 Pionier, Bd. 9, 10, 12). 
 
 1878. William Penrfs Travels in Holland and 
 Germany in 1677 (Pennsylvania Historical Society, 
 Dec., 1877). 
 
 188081. Die bieden Christ oph Saur in German- 
 town (Der Deutsche Pionier, Bd. 12, 13). 
 
 1 88 1. A Colonial Monastery (Century Maga- 
 zine, Dec., 1881). 
 
 1883. Ephrata, eine Amerikanische Kloster- 
 geschichte (Der Deutsche Pionier, 15, 16, also separ- 
 ately). 
 
 Die erste deutsche Einwanderung in 
 Amerika und die Grundung von Germantown im 
 J'ahre 1683 (Philadelphia). 
 
 1885. Geschichte des Mdnnerchors in Philadel- 
 delphia von 1835-1885 (Philadelphia). 
 
 Bilder aus der Deutsch- Pennsylvanien 
 Geschichte (Geschichtsblatter a. d. deutschen Leben 
 in Amerika, Bd. 2). 
 
 1888. The Hermits of the Wissahickon (Penn. 
 Magazine of Hist, and Biogr., Jan.) 
 
 1889. Frederick Augustus Conrad Muehlenberg, 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 
 First Congress, 1789 (Penn Magazine of Hist, and 
 Biogr., July). 
 
 1890. The Relation of English and German
 
 57 
 
 Literature in the Eighteenth Century (Poet-Lore, 
 Feb., Mar.) 
 
 German-American Events, Principally of 
 Pennsylvania, collected and chronologically arranged. 
 Memoir of Israel Daniel Rupp* the 
 Historian (Pennsylvania Mag. xi.) 
 
 1893. The First Century of German Printing 
 in America, 1728-1830 (Philadelphia). 
 
 The value of this work for the study of American 
 culture has not been duly appreciated beyond a 
 limited circle, partly because most Anglo-American 
 historians have been inexcusably slow in recognizing 
 the importance of the German element in the growth 
 of the great American Republic. Then too it 
 must stand as an ineffaceable reflection upon the 
 German- American's interest in his own history, that 
 Der deutsche Pionier, which for years contributed 
 to the study of German history and culture in 
 America, was finally allowed to be discontinued for 
 want of even a modest number of subscribers. 
 
 The German in America has played his part 
 most nobly. He tills to-day our richest farms and 
 turns the skilful hand in our most important 
 trades ; he helps to fight our battles and teaches 
 us the arts of war ; he develops American industry 
 and controls great avenues of American com- 
 merce ; he teaches us the value of literature and 
 supplies us with a new education and a new science. 
 The presence of 10,000,000 Americans in our 
 population in whose veins German blood flows 
 justifies the study of the traditions of this sturdy 
 race. It is in emphasizing the significance of such 
 facts that the importance of the work of Professor 
 Seidensticker and those laboring in the same field
 
 58 
 
 has rendered its greatest service. 
 
 This brief survey has made it apparent that 
 the traditions of German studies at the University 
 of Pennsylvania have been at each revival epoch in 
 close touch with the literature and science of the 
 Fatherland and have fostered truly national Amer- 
 ican ideals by investigating the cultural problems 
 of the German settlers in his adopted Fatherland. 
 
 With this heritage of German traditions it re- 
 mains for us to develop our resources in accordance 
 with the most enlightened methods of the new 
 science of linguistics, which has inaugurated a new 
 epoch in the study of language and literature. 
 Here is the place, the University of Pennsylvania, 
 for a distinctively 
 
 AMERICAN SCHOOL OF GERMANICS. 
 The conditions and the resources are here for 
 such an enterprise. Bven a precedent is not want- 
 ing, for the Institut of Kunze and Helmuth may 
 be regarded as a faint prototype of what might be 
 developed in the more distant future. What con- 
 ditions ! Here is the cradle of German culture in 
 America, whence thousands of sturdy pioneers 
 have gone forth breaking new paths to the shores 
 of the Pacific. Here too are the descendants of the 
 Pennsylvania Pilgrim and his companion settlers 
 still cherishing the traditions of their fathers and 
 preserving their ancestral records under the auspices 
 of the Pennsylvania German Society. Here too is 
 the venerable German Society representing the 
 native German element in its untiring efforts to 
 mediate between the newly arrived immigrant and 
 his new evironment and to minister to the cultural 
 needs of the German-American. Here is one of 
 America's oldest Universities with its noble record
 
 59 
 
 representing a long line of German and Anglo- 
 American scholars. 
 
 THE RESOURCES 
 
 too are ample and unique, making it possible for us 
 to pursue many lines of investigation more advan- 
 tageously here than in the great university libraries 
 of Germany. A brief mention of these collections 
 will suffice to indicate their importance. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : The Historical Society of Penn- 
 sylvania containing as a nucleus of its German- 
 Americana the Collection of Abraham H. Cassel 
 of Harleysville. The Cassel Collection is enriched 
 by other gifts and purchases. 
 
 The German Society's Library possesses also 
 rare German- American prints and a rich collection 
 of German literature of the Ninteeth Century per- 
 taining to America. 
 
 The Philadelphia Library (particulary the Ridge- 
 way Branch) has valuable material both old and 
 new. 
 
 The Library of the Philadelphia Turgemeinde 
 contains valuable files of Turner publications and 
 a collection of German books. 
 
 Mt. Airy Lutheran Seminary Library has very 
 valuable Lutherana besides other important docu- 
 ments relating to the literary and ecclesiastical 
 history of the Germans in America. 
 
 Private collections worthy of special mention are 
 the following : Judge S. W. Pennypacker's rich 
 collection of old Germ an- American prints represent- 
 ing the industry of many years and great expense. 
 The Sower Collection in the possession of the 
 descendants of Christoph Saur of Germantown con- 
 taining valuable Saur imprints. J. F. Sachse's
 
 6o 
 
 collection of old German-American imprints and 
 other works relating to the early history of Colonial 
 Pennsylvania, especially the Pietistic Sects. 
 
 All these Library facilities are within the limits of 
 Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania 
 has taken account of them in its equipment of the 
 Germanic Department by the purchase of 
 
 THE BECHSTEIN GERMANIC LIBRARY, 
 which together with the collection of German 
 books (which I will call the Seidensticker Collection), 
 purchased by the late Professor Seidensticker with 
 money contributed by Germans of Philadelphia, 
 supplies the one thing that was lacking to make 
 our facilities for the scientific study of German 
 complete, viz. the critical philological and literary 
 apparatus. Such apparatus is the characteristic 
 feature of the Bechstein Collection. 
 
 BETHLEHEM AND NAZARETH : The Moraviana 
 of Bethlehem are second only to the great collections 
 at Herrnhut, Saxony. The Malin Collection con- 
 stitutes the nucleus of the Moravian Library and 
 is rich in Hussite documents and related subjects. 
 
 GETTYSBURG : The Lutheran Seminary has a 
 good collection of documents pertaining to the his- 
 tory of Lutheran influence in America. 
 
 HARRISBURG: The State Library is especially 
 rich in local history, which is of great importance in 
 studying the life and culture of the German set- 
 tlers of the State. 
 
 THE PROGRAMME 
 
 justified by these traditions and resources is ample 
 and distinctively national and American : 
 
 The scientific study of the Germanic dialects of 
 America. High German (Swiss, Suabian, Bava-
 
 6i 
 
 rian), Midland German (Prankish, Saxon), Low 
 German (Platt and Netherlandish), Norse (Swedish 
 Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic). All of these dialects 
 are represented as living speech in America. 
 
 The study of German literature in America 
 (German Literature written here and the influence 
 of the literature of Germany on our own). 
 
 The German Folk-lore and Culture of America 
 (manners, customs, and other forms of German 
 culture in American life). 
 
 These subjects lead naturally and necessarily to 
 the Comparative Study of Germanic dialects and 
 literatures of Europe through all the periods of their 
 history. Thus we may justify each step by the 
 claims of our national cultural genealogy. 
 
 It is to the achievement of the fullest success 
 of this School of Germanics, in the estimation not 
 only of contemporaneous American and European 
 scholars, but in the more calm and severe judgment 
 of the future, that we invite the Germans of the 
 City of Philadelphia and of the Country at large 
 to lend their interest and co-operation by contri- 
 buting serial publications, books, pamphlets and 
 other material relating to the Germans in America. 
 
 This is a work in which every German-Amer- 
 ican as well as Anglo-American may take part 
 without fear of encountering social, political or 
 race prejudice and with the consciousness that he 
 is aiding in strengthing the bonds which unite the 
 two great cultures of modern civilization. Having 
 once formed such an alliance among ourselves, the 
 hearts of the Fatherland will respond to the 
 great work of preserving the history, language, 
 literature and culture of the German in America.
 
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