2009 May Lindenmaier 50 Year DS Ladies Auxiliary Cleveland

Donauschwaben in den USA

VISITING AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE

MAY 2009

50 years Danube-Swabian Ladies Auxiliary

Cleveland, Ohio

By Karoline Lindenmaier (Hetzel)

Translation: Thomas C. Thornton, M.D.

The Donauschwaben Ladies Auxiliary of Cleveland celebrated their 50^th anniversary on April 19, 2009 in the decorated Holzer Hall of the Donauschwaben GACC. Ads for the event appeared in March in the German newspaper “Germania” as well as on German radio. The afternoon event would be filled with singing. Our former members received written invitations and, to our delight, many showed up.

Costumed dolls, pictures, and albums of previous events, as well as the Dirndls and traditional costumes from the homeland were displayed in a corner of the room. White tablecloths covered the tables along with vases filled with red poppies, blue cornflowers, etc. , reminiscent of our homeland.

Members of the Ladies Auxiliary entered while wearing their dark blue Dirndls and took their places on the risers in front of the stage. Our leader, Mrs. Helga Schlothauer, opened the meeting and welcomed the quests. Our guest of honor was the 92 year old founder and first leader of the Ladies Auxiliary, Mrs. Katharina Ritzmann. She was transported to the floor in her wheelchair by her daughter, Helga Haller and received a thunderous applause by the guests. Our leader also introduced our honored past presidents, Franz Awender and Sepp Holzer and his wife, Fanny, who is in the Auxiliary, vice-president of the National Danube Swabian Association, Robert Filippi and his wife, vice-president and national youth leader, Ingrid Dorr, as well as the Cleveland Danube Swabian president, Franz Rimpf and his wife, Mrs. Helen Schatschneider, president of German Society of Cleveland and her husband, and Peter Sartschev, president of the Senior group and his wife. Helga then asked for a moment of silence and read the names of deceased members of the group. (Helen Awender, Anna Behrens, Sidonia Franzen, Ingeborg Fuchs, Julie Geisler, Anneliese Geyer, Elisabeth Keipert, Eva Mireiter, Elisabeth Reitenbach, Johanna Roth, Klara Selig, Leni Swoboda, Barbara Valentin.)

Helga read a message from Mrs. Anni Laut, who was our 2^nd president (1965-1982), and now lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She was unable to attend this event, which we regretted. The Ladies Choir then sang the song “Donauschwaben Wurden Wir Genannt” For us our Danube land remains a beautiful dream. All of the songs were accompanied by Wille Pfaff and his accordion.

Our next speaker was Franz Rimpf. He praised the group and acknowledged its efforts to maintain our customs and unite our people since 1958 and for future generations. With the help of two previous honorary presidents, Awender and Holzer, he honored four women, who have been active since the establishment of the group, with a “Golden Needle”. The women honored were Katharina Ritzmann, Eva Kühn, Elisabeth Weiss and Käthe Sadlon. This presentation was met with a thunderous applause.

Following the presentation the Ladies Choir sang the song: “Heimat dir ferne, leuchten uns Sterne” An overview of the past 50 years was given by Karoline Lindenmaier. This included the founding of the German Weekend School, which was created in 1960, and her leadership of the Ladies Auxiliary from 1982 to 1995. The attendees were reminded that most of the members came to America in the 1950’s to seek an existence after either escaping from, or being driven out of, their homeland. We were glad to have been accepted by the older immigrants of the Banater Club at the corner of West 140^th Road and Lorain Avenue in Cleveland. We were allowed to establish a sports club, a youth group, a band, a story telling hour, a kindergarten, and a German school. Afterwards, more families joined the club and could meet with others with similar interests and backgrounds. There the women did everything from baking and selling items in the city to knitting and sewing, etc for fund raising. This is how the events were prepared and carried out. However, the Banater Club eventually became too small and our Board of Directors sought and found the Ritter farm in Olmsted Township. A lot of hard work was used there to build Lenau Park and, some years later, the Cultural Center. But life goes on...! We are glad to celebrate our 50^th anniversary.

“Along with Helga Scholthauer and the other ladies, I want to thank our presidents of the last 50 years, Anton Rumpf and Fred Wintergerst (both deceased), Franz Awender, Sepp Holzer, Robert Filippi and the current president, Franz Rimpf for their understanding and support of the Ladies Auxiliary. I hope it will never change. “ said Mrs. Lindenmaier.

A short program followed, which had been prepared by several members. This included eight folk songs, which were sung by all, and accompanied by Willie Pfaff. Several small skits, poems and presentations were performed to the amusement of all.

We then looked forward to the good smelling coffee and baked goods, which had been prepared by the women at home, and laid out by our daughters and sons. The afternoon ended in Gemütlichkeit.

Karoline Lindenmaier (Hetzel)

Danube Swaben Cleveland Ladies Auxiliary

Franz Rimpf, Karoline Lindenmaier, Eva Kühn, Josef Holzer, Katharina Ritzmann, Frank Awender, Käthe Sadlon, Elisabeth Weiss, Helga Schlothauer

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