been fully discharged by United Empire Loyalist Richard Beasley, from whom they had bought their land. Word of insecure land titles in Ontario quickly spread in Pennsylvania, causing many Mennonites to avoid the Waterloo settlement and to establish the Markham colony in York County instead. Responding to their Ontario brethren’s call for help, a group of Mennonite investors in Pennsylvania founded the German Land Company and bought an area of 60,000 acres. This purchase cleared all the land of preexisting mortgages and secured the exclusive German character of the Grand River settlement for the future.

Corresponding with the continuing demand for land in Upper Canada, the German Land Company in 1807 bought an additional 45,000 acres, later called the German Block, in the adjacent township of Woolwich. By 1841 Ontario’s Mennonite population counted 5,400 people (Bassler 1991, 124), mostly concentrated in Niagara and Waterloo counties, around Markham and on the Northern shore of Lake Erie.

The Mennonite settlements in Waterloo County and Niagara attracted other Pennsylvania Germans and, from the 1830s onward, European Germans who arrived in the New World in ever-growing numbers. European newcomers, most often while on their way to the American Midwest, learned about the German character of the existing Mennonite communities in Waterloo and Niagara and took up residence there. This way Waterloo and Niagara counties were able to attract almost all German immigrants to Canada during the first half of the nineteenth century, making the earlier presence of the Pennsylvania German Mennonites imperative for the development of a strong ethnic German settlement in Waterloo County in particular.

While the county’s rural areas were mostly populated by Pennsylvania German farmers, European German immigrants were primarily attracted by the economic opportunities and the German character of Waterloo County’s growing centers: Preston (now part of Cambridge), Berlin (renamed Kitchener in 1916), and Waterloo. European German immigrants established a rich denominational and cultural life with ethnic churches, Turnvereine (sports clubs), denominational associations, choirs, musical societies, theatre groups, Schuetzenvereine (shooting clubs), veterans’ societies, lodges, etc. Between 1862 and 1912 Berlin and Waterloo hosted thirteen large-scale choir festivals, the so-called Saengerfests, which attracted thousands of participants and visitors from Canada and the northern states of the United States. Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the most flourishing period of German culture in Ontario, more than thirty German-language newspapers were published.

On the Niagara peninsula, European Germans founded communities such as New Germany in Welland County; and St. Catharines and Niagara had large German minorities. In the census of 1871, 25 percent of the Niagara peninsula’s population was of German descent (Census of Canada 1871). The area’s rich German cultural life as well as use of the German language declined, however, after German migration to that region came to an end during the 1870s. The corresponding arrival of larger numbers of non-German immigrants resulted in assimilation of the German group.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, new settlement areas were opened in Ontario. While many newcomers were still attracted by the existing German settlements, others became pioneers themselves. They cleared the land and established new communities in the upper Ottawa valley and the Huron region. Immigrants’ new focus on the lands between the lower Ottawa River and Georgian Bay developed in response to the government’s attempt to establish permanent settlements in the area. Some 12,000 Germans settled in the Ottawa valley between 1857 and 1887 (Bassler 1991, 105), mostly attracted by the government’s promise of free land. The fact that Waterloo County was almost saturated by then further contributed to the immigrants’ willingness to settle in the Ottawa valley. With eleven primarily German townships, Renfrew County became the main German settlement area in the upper Ottawa valley. Community names such as Augsburg, Woermke, Rosenthal, Kramer, and Hoffman indicate the Germanic background of the early settlers. Due to the strength of the German group in the area, a rich German cultural life with German schools, churches, and a German-language newspaper developed in the Ottawa Valley.

Corresponding with the opening of the Canadian West for settlement, immigration to the traditional German settlement areas in Ontario decreased dramatically. Depending on the size of the local German group, the level of acculturation and assimilation differed in the various Ontario communities with a German population. The German heritage was maintained the longest in the ethnic group settlements of Waterloo and Renfrew counties, where Germans formed the charter group and determined the parameters of political, economic, cultural, and denominational life in their respective communities. But even there the forces of acculturation had done their work by the turn of the twentieth century. Ethnic newspapers and clubs were dissolved or merged as the immigrant generation passed away and the Canadian West attracted new German immigrants who could have reinforced German ethnic life in Ontario. Even more importantly, members of the Canadian-born generations increasingly perceived themselves as Canadians and turned to English as their primary language. In ‘Canada’s German Capital’-Berlin- however, community leaders publicly expressed their strong feelings for the old fatherland; for example, in celebrations of the German emperor’s birthday as late as in January 1914, creating the false image that Ontario’s Germans identified with imperial Germany rather than with their adopted homeland of Canada.

Several Ontario communities were directly affected by the anti-German feelings that developed all over Canada during the years of World War I. The War-Time Election Act of 1917 disenfranchised all Mennonites, as well as German immigrants who had arrived in Canada after 1899. German Canadians working in government and education were laid off in Toronto, London, Guelph, and elsewhere in Ontario. German-sounding street names were changed, and in 1916 Torontonians formed an Anti-German League, aimed at forcing the dismissal of all Canadians of German heritage from public office and the administration. German clubs were ransacked in Berlin and Waterloo, and citizens of Austria-Hungary living in Guelph were interned. Facing growing public pressure, several Ontario communities with German-sounding names were renamed-most notably Berlin, which became Kitchener after the British minister of war, Lord Kitchener, in 1916.

Having been the victims of stigmatization as disloyal elements of Canadian society and anti-German measures during World War I, German Canadians at large were reluctant to identify themselves as Germans any longer. Correspondingly, the numbers of Ontarians claiming German ethnic origin decreased dramatically in the census of 1921. While more than 192,000 had identified themselves as German in the 1911 census, the number had dropped by almost 60,000 to 130,545 in 1921 (Census of Canada 1911, 1921).

Even though several German clubs were reconstituted and German-language services were resumed in several congregations, Ontario’s German community became silent and almost disappeared after World War I. New organizations that were formed in the interwar years were also of a different character from those active prior to World War I. When German immigrants were allowed into Canada again from the 1920s onward, the character of German immigration had changed entirely from Reichsdeutsche immigrants from Germany to ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. This change was further perpetuated after World War II, when ethnic Germans who had been expelled from their homelands in Yugoslavia, Rumania, Hungary, the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Baltics constituted the majority of German immigrants to Ontario and Canada at large.

Even though, according to the 2001 census, 8 percent of Ontarians are of German origin (Statistics Canada Census 2001), a numerically strong German presence has survived only in Kitchener-Waterloo. While the area’s countryside is usually referred to as Mennonite County for its strong Pennsylvania German influence, German life in the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo is based on clubs, choirs, churches, an annual Pioneer Day celebration, the Christkindl market, and North America’s largest Oktoberfest. Almost exclusively supported by German immigrants who arrived in the fifties and sixties, German clubs and German cultural life are facing an insecure future, with the exception of Oktoberfest, which has developed into a multiethnic large-scale community event. In view of demographic development, lack of recent German immigrants, as well as ethnic organizations’ difficulties in attracting members of the Canadian-born generations, it is safe to conclude that German life in Ontario is entering a difficult stage: many clubs will be forced to merge and consolidate again to secure their own survival. In the end, only the adoption of the English language will guarantee the continuing existence of German cultural life in Ontario beyond the early decades of the twenty-first century.

Bassler, Gerhard P. The German Canadian Mosaic Today and Yesterday: Identities, Roots and Heritage. Ottawa: German-Canadian Congress, 1991.

English, John, and Kenneth McLaughlin. Kitchener: An Illustrated History. Toronto: Robin Brass, 1996.

Frisse, Ulrich. Berlin, Ontario (1800-1916): Historische Identitaeten von „Kanada’s Deutscher Hauptstadt.“ Ein Beitrag zur Deutsch-Kanadischen Migrations-, Akkulturations- und Perzeptionsgeschichte des 19. und fruehen 20. Jahrhunderts. Kitchener, ON: Transatlantic Publishing, 2003.

Government of Canada. Census of Canada 1870-1871. Recensement du Canada. Volume I. Ottawa, 1873.

______. Fifth Census of Canada 1911. Volume II. Ottawa, 1913.

______. Sixth Census of Canada 1921. Volume II-Population. Ottawa, 1925.

newspapers. Toronto’s German community grew substantially during the second half of the century as well. In 1851 a German Lutheran congregation was founded. The city had a German choir and band, and German business- and craftspeople contributed to the economic life of Ontario’s most economically active city. A German consulate was established with entrepreneur Samuel Nordheimer acting as consul for many years. By 1871 almost 1,000 Germans were living in Toronto; at the time of the 1911 census the city’s German community had grown close to 9,000 people (Census of Canada 1911) Culturally active Germans all over Ontario formed part of an ethno-cultural network that was primarily perpetuated by choirs and churches paying each other visits on occasions such as the Saengerfests and denominational events.

Corresponding with the opening of the Canadian West for settlement, immigration to the traditional German settlement areas in Ontario decreased dramatically. Depending on the size of the local German group, the level of acculturation and assimilation differed in the various Ontario communities with a German population. The German heritage was maintained the longest in the ethnic group settlements of Waterloo and Renfrew counties, where Germans formed the charter group and determined the parameters of political, economic, cultural, and denominational life in their respective communities. But even there the forces of acculturation had done their work by the turn of the twentieth century. Ethnic newspapers and clubs were dissolved or merged as the immigrant generation passed away and the Canadian West attracted new German immigrants who could have reinforced German ethnic life in Ontario. Even more importantly, members of the Canadian-born generations increasingly perceived themselves as Canadians and turned to English as their primary language. In ‘Canada’s German Capital’-Berlin- however, community leaders publicly expressed their strong feelings for the old fatherland; for example, in celebrations of the German emperor’s birthday as late as in January 1914, creating the false image that Ontario’s Germans identified with imperial Germany rather than with their adopted homeland of Canada.

Several Ontario communities were directly affected by the anti-German feelings that developed all over Canada during the years of World War I. The War-Time Election Act of 1917 disenfranchised all Mennonites, as well as German immigrants who had arrived in Canada after 1899. German Canadians working in government and education were laid off in Toronto, London, Guelph, and elsewhere in Ontario. German-sounding street names were changed, and in 1916 Torontonians formed an Anti-German League, aimed at forcing the dismissal of all Canadians of German heritage from public office and the administration. German clubs were ransacked in Berlin and Waterloo, and citizens of Austria-Hungary living in Guelph were interned. Facing growing public pressure, several Ontario communities with German-sounding names were renamed-most notably Berlin, which became Kitchener after the British minister of war, Lord Kitchener, in 1916.

Having been the victims of stigmatization as disloyal elements of Canadian society and anti-German measures during World War I, German Canadians at large were reluctant to identify themselves as Germans any longer. Correspondingly, the numbers of Ontarians claiming German ethnic origin decreased dramatically in the census of 1921. While more than 192,000 had identified themselves as German in the 1911 census, the number had dropped by almost 60,000 to 130,545 in 1921 (Census of Canada 1911, 1921).

Even though several German clubs were reconstituted and German-language services were resumed in several congregations, Ontario’s German community became silent and almost disappeared after World War I. New organizations that were formed in the interwar years were also of a different character from those active prior to World War I. When German immigrants were allowed into Canada again from the 1920s onward, the character of German immigration had changed entirely from Reichsdeutsche immigrants from Germany to ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. This change was further perpetuated after World War II, when ethnic Germans who had been expelled from their homelands in Yugoslavia, Rumania, Hungary, the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Baltics constituted the majority of German immigrants to Ontario and Canada at large.

Even though, according to the 2001 census, 8 percent of Ontarians are of German origin (Statistics Canada Census 2001), a numerically strong German presence has survived only in Kitchener-Waterloo. While the area’s countryside is usually referred to as Mennonite County for its strong Pennsylvania German influence, German life in the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo is based on clubs, choirs, churches, an annual Pioneer Day celebration, the Christkindl market, and North America’s largest Oktoberfest. Almost exclusively supported by German immigrants who arrived in the fifties and sixties, German clubs and German cultural life are facing an insecure future, with the exception of Oktoberfest, which has developed into a multiethnic large-scale community event. In view of demographic development, lack of recent German immigrants, as well as ethnic organizations’ difficulties in attracting members of the Canadian-born generations, it is safe to conclude that German life in Ontario is entering

Das bevorstehende Jubilaeum des Schwabenclubs Kitchener nehmen wir zum Anlass, Ihnen einen kurzen Abriss der Geschichte eines erfolgreichen Clubs zu praesentieren, der seit seiner Gruendung einen bedeutenden Beitrag zum kulturellen Leben unserer ethnischen Gruppe leistet. Der Kanadisch-Schwaebische Krankenunterstuetzungs-Verein Kitchener, so der offizielle Name des Schwabenclubs, wurde im Jahre 1931 gegruendet. Der Gruendungspraesident war Wilhelm Goss. Zunaechst trafen sich die Mitglieder in einem Versammlungsraum im American Hotel. Spaeter teilten sich Schwaben- und Transylvania Club einen Raum in der King Street. Der Schwabenclub begann als ein Krankenunterstuetzungsverein fuer Arbeiter. Die Mitglieder zahlten monatlich $1 und im Falle von Krankheit oder anderen Gruenden, die dazu fuehrten, dass sie sich nicht laenger selbst versorgen konnten, zahlte der Verein monatlich $10 an Unterstuetzung aus. Das heutige Gelaende an der King Street wurde im Jahre 1948 erworben.

Schon bald nach seiner Gruendung begann der Schwabenclub vielfaeltige kulturelle Aktivitaeten, die ausserhalb des Mandates eines reinen Unterstuetzungs- bzw. Versicherungsvereins liegen. Bereits 1933 wurde eine Deutsche Sprachschule eroeffnet. Die Theatergruppe hatte ebenfalls im Jahre 1933 ihren Ursprung. Ein Jahr spaeter wurde der Chor gegruendet. Ein Hoehepunkt war das erste Kirchweihfest, welches - der Tradition der Donauschwaben in der alten Heimat folgend - 1934 veranstaltet wurde. Die Frauengruppe wurde 1935 begonnen. Im selben Jahr veranstaltete der Club das erste Trachtenfest. 1936 wurde die erste Jugendgruppe gegruendet, ein Vorlaeufer der Schwabentanzgruppe. 1949 kam schliesslich noch ein Fussballteam hinzu.

Als zweitgroesster deutschsprachiger Club Kitcheners hat der Schwabenclub ueber 400 Mitglieder. Wir wuenschen dem Praesidenten Dieter Hanke, den Vorstandsmitgliedern sowie allen Mitgliedern und Freunden des Schwabenclubs
Alles Gute zum diesjaehrigen Jubilaeum. Sie koennen alle mit grossem Stolz auf 75 Jahre Schwabenclub zurueckblicken.

Bericht zur Jahreshauptversammlung der

in Wien

Am 28. und 29. September 2005 fand die Jahreshauptversammlung der Deutschen Weltallianz im Haus der Heimat in Wien statt.

Neben Einzelmitgliedern waren folgende Organisationen vertreten: Allgemeiner Deutscher Kulturverband (vertreten durch Gertraud Schuller), Alpenländischer Kulturverband Südmark (Mag. Renate Reimann), Danube Swabian & Youth Soc. of New York (Edward Gruenwald), German Canadian Congress (Ernst Friedel), Institute for German American Relations (Dr. Marianne Bouvier), Österreichische Landsmannschaft (ÖLM; Helmut Loicht), VDA-Landesverband Baden-Württemberg (Dr. Hartmut Fröschle), VDA-Landesverband Bayern (Dipl.-Ing. Rudolf Maywald), Verband der Volksdeutschen Landsmannschaften Österreichs (VLÖ; Mag. Peter Wassertheurer).

Die Versammlung war von unseren österreichischen Freunden gut vorbereitet worden und die Gastfreundschaft war ausgezeichnet.

Da DWA Präsident Dr. Kearn Schemm, aus Familiengründen nicht an der Versammlung teilnehmen konnte, fiel es mir zu, die Versammlung zu leiten. Da ich die volle Unterstützung des Vorstandes hatte, war diese Aufgabe nicht schwer.

Es gab Berichte zur Lage deutscher Volksgruppen in aller Welt: Kroatien, Slovenien, Serbien, Russland, Polen, Kanada, USA, Südamerika, Namibia, Ungarn, der Slowakei und Tschechien.

Während in manchen Ländern allerhand Hürden zu überwinden sind, sind auch gute Erfolge zu verzeichnen, z. B. die Anerkennung deutscher Volksgruppen als offizielle Minderheit.

Es wurde besprochen, wie Verletzungen von Menschenrechten behandelt werden sollen. Die Anzahl der Direktoren wurde auf maximal 15 erhöht. Der Jahresbeitrag wurde auf US $25.00 (€ 20.00) für Einzelpersonen festgesetzt. Für Organisationen beträgt der Beitrag US $ 50.00 (€ 40.00)

Zum Abschluss dieser Versammlung wurde eine "Wiener Erklärung" als Pressebericht herausgegeben, welcher zur Veröffentlichung an deutschsprachige Zeitungen weltweit geschickt wurde. Sie finden diese Wiener Erklärung auf

Die nächste JHV der Deutschen Weltallianz soll voraussichtlich 2006 in München stattfinden.

Am 31. Dezember 2005 ging das Deutsche Fernsehen in Kanada, nach nur einem Jahr Laufzeit, zu Ende.

Es war schön so lange wir es hatten, und der Abschied davon fällt allen schwer, ganz besonders den älteren Menschen, für die es ein schöner Blick zurück in die Heimat war.

Im Namen des Deutsch Kanadischen Kongresses schrieb ich an German TV in Berlin. Hier ein Auszug aus dem Antwortschreiben der German TV Verwaltung:

„Die Anschubfinanzierung für German TV war auf die Zeit von 2001 bis 2005 befristet. Das Ziel bestand darin, mit einer ausreichend hohen Zahl an Abonnenten die Selbstfinanzierung des Pay-TV-Kanals zu gewährleisten. Dieses Ziel konnte bisher nicht erreicht werden und im Ausschuss für Kultur und Medien waren sich die Mitglieder nach eingehender Analyse der Zahlen darin einig, dass dieses Ziel auch in naher Zukunft nicht erreicht werden könne. Die an German TV beteiligten Sender Deutsche Welle, ARD und ZDF arbeiten aus diesem Grund daran, mit einem neuen Kooperationsmodell ein attraktives Auslandsfernsehen für Nachrichten, Informationen und Unterhaltung zu erarbeiten, das auch dem gesetzlichen Auftrag der Deutschen Welle entspricht.“

Der Verlust von German TV fällt schwer, jedoch gibt es einen Schimmer der Hoffnung in der Form eines neuen deutschen Fernsehprogrammes. Seit November arbeitet der DKK mit Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. zusammen, um ein neues deutsches Programm für ganz Kanada zu bekommen. Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. sendet bereits mehr als zwölf verschiedensprachige ethnische Progamme und hat einen Vertrag mit ProSiebenSat.1Welt in München abgeschlossen. Das ProSiebenSat.1Welt Programm läuft in den USA seit diesem Frühjahr über Satellit.

Dem Antrag der Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. wurde im Dezember die Public Notice Nummer CRTC 2005-113 zugeteilt. In Unterstützung dieses Antrags hat der DKK 700 Formbriefe drucken lassen und an öffentlichen Plätzen ausgelegt. Die Briefe brauchten nur mit Datum versehen, unterschrieben und an CRTC, sowie Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. abgeschickt werden. Diese Formbriefe wurden auch an alle provinzialen DKK Büros über ganz Kanada ausgesandt mit der Bitte sie ihren Mitgliedern zukommen zu lassen. Wie ich von Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. erfuhr, lief diese Briefunterstützung sehr gut und wir können hoffen, daß CRTC den Antrag im Februar genehmigen wird.

Es ist wichtig, daß wir genügend Abonennten für dieses Programm bekommen. Nur so können wir ein ähnliches Schicksal wie mit German TV, verhindern. Zusätzlich zu diesem Programm liegt auch noch ein weiterer Antrag bei CRTC für ein zweites deutsches Fersehprogramm vor.

Herz TV Toronto hat ein sehr umfangreiches deutsches Fernsehprogramm in Vorbereitung. Herr Paul Schneider, der bereits einen sehr erfolgreichen, internationalen Radiosender betreibt (Radio Herz), hofft ebenfalls bis Februar ein deutsches Fersehprogramm senden zu können.

Sie können mehr darüber in der website www.herztv.com lesen. Beide Fernsehprogramme werden über Kabel und Satellit kanadaweit angeboten werden.

On October 2, 2005 the sixth German Pioneers Day was celebrated in Kitchener, Ontario. Since Wayne Wettlaufer successfully pushed through his private member’s bill to proclaim the Tuesday after Thanksgiving as German Pioneers Day in 1999, the DKK has organized a commemorative event five times in Kitchener, the last one with support of the Cooperative Council of German-Canadian Clubs of Waterloo Region, and once in Markham. The presidents of the German-Canadian Clubs of Waterloo Region resolved to continue the German Pioneers Day as a yearly event at Kitchener City Hall. However, it would be desirable to have other parallel celebrations elsewhere, i.e. in Markham, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Essex County, Norfolk County. These events do not have to be elaborate. They could comprise anything from presentations to city councils, proclamations, press releases to more elaborate functions. The DKK is offering advice based on the experience with the previous events, but it is critical that volunteers step up to spearhead commemorations at the different locations. We therefore appeal to all presidents of member German-Canadian Clubs and Business Associations, as well as to the German community at large to identify individuals who would be prepared to take a leadership role. Nothing would be more ideal or impressive than having several parallel Pioneers Day events across the province.