German contributions to American Society

Lancaster ­ The Society for German-American Studies' 30th Annual Symposium will take place in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, May 4th to 7th 2006. The Pennsylvania German Society in conjunction with SGAS is hosting it.

Papers presented at this year's SGAS symposium will deal with the various contributions that German-Americans have made to American culture, and the Pennsylvania-German experience will be highlighted. Since the 100th anniversary of the death of Carl Schurz falls in 2006, Schurz' life and contributions to America will also be commemorated. The conference will be held at the Lancaster Host Resort and Conference Center, 2330 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, PA, 17602. A block of rooms have been reserved for those attending the conference.

The afternoon tours to the Ephrata Cloister, the Landis Valley Museum and the Lincoln Highway East promise to be especially interesting. The Ephrata Cloister was founded in 1732 as a protestant monastic community. Members, mostly German, numbered 300 in the 1740's and 1750's and they became known for their self-composed music, poetry, Germanic calligraphy and beautiful printing. Nine original monastery buildings are part of the 28-acre complex. In the Landis Valley Museum visitors are immersed in authentic Pennsylvania Dutch rural life. The village includes many historic buildings, heritage-breed farm animals and a collection of more than 100,000 early farm, household and trade objects. The Lincoln Highway area, by contrast, is a fascinating stretch of road of shops, malls, amusement center, and in many ways is the story of the Pennsylvania Dutch culture in the 21st Century.

For more information contact:

SGAS Publicity Director