Legacy and Values: Conference 2017
September 12, 2020
Legacy of 1848:
Transplanted Ideas & Values in America’s Past and Present Conference, 2017
The “Forty-Eighters,” were a relatively small number of individuals who emigrated from Europe in the late 1840s and early 1850s after fighting unsuccessfully with both pen and sword for liberty, democracy, and national unity. Many of the German Forty-Eighters immigrated to the United States; a large number from the present-day state of Schleswig-Holstein chose at the Mississippi Scott County, Iowa, as their adopted home. After settling in America, these unique and talented individuals provided an intellectual transfusion affecting not only their fellow German immigrants, but also the political and social history of the United States during one of its most critical periods.
Many of the Forty-Eighters left lasting marks in the fields of politics, education, business, journalism, the arts, and the military. Carl Schurz, perhaps the most well-known of the German Forty-Eighters who settled in America, achieved great success in no less than four of these areas. During his long and illustrious career, he was a young ambassador to Spain for President Lincoln, a general during the Civil War, a United States senator, and the Secretary of the Interior under President Rutherford B. Hayes. During his long and illustrious journalistic career, he served as chief editor of the Detroit Post, editor and co-proprietor of the Westliche Post in St. Louis, editor-in-chief and one of the proprietors of the New York Evening Post, and as an editorial writer for Harper’s Weekly. Noted for his high principles, moral conscience, and avoidance of political partisanship, Schurz, like many of his fellow Forty-Eighters, can still teach us much with regard to dealing with the problems that confront us all today. (His wife helped found the US kindergarten system.)
The significance of the legacy of 1848er Carl Schurz has become more timely. With the steady increase of immigration to the United States, and the ongoing refugee crisis in Germany, it has become ever more important to establish the proper framework for the absorption and integration of newcomers. Schurz’s solution - assimilation with the retention of the newcomers’ ethnic heritage - is as valid today as it was when he articulated it in the nineteenth century. The fusion of ethnic identities and American / German values is of the greatest importance, and Carl Schurz’s life is a worthy paradigm for all immigrants to emulate.
Sadly, the extensive and extremely significant legacy of the extraordinary immigrant group labeled as the “Forty-Eighters” is little known by most Europeans and Americans. The overarching purpose of our Forty-Eighter conference, March 30 - April 2, 2017, Northfield, MN, is to rectify this failing by inspiring teaching and research.
In short, the Legacy of 1848 Conference will attempt to highlight the timeless legacy of democratic and moral values the Forty-Eighters brought to America.
In addition to immigration history, the program in Northfield will feature family history topics as well.
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In addition to immigration history, the program in Northfield will feature family history topics as well.
The Legacy of 1848: Trailblazers of Democracy,
An International Conference on the Forty-Eighters in the USA
March 30 – April 2, 2017, Northfield, Minnesota
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Please submit papers or proposals by 6 October 2016 to:
Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann, Cincinnati: dhtolzmann@yahoo.com; - www.donheinrichtolzmann.net/
or to : Dr. Joachim Reppmann, Northfield, MN / Flensburg
yogireppmann@gmail.com; www.moin-moin.us
103 Orchard St N ; Northfield, MN, 55057 - H.: 507-664-1064
Please submit papers or proposals by 6 October 2016 to:
Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann, Cincinnati: dhtolzmann@yahoo.com; - www.donheinrichtolzmann.net
or to : Dr. Joachim Reppmann, Northfield, MN / Flensburg
yogireppmann@gmail.com; www.moin-moin.us
103 Orchard St N ; Northfield, MN, 55057 - H.: 507-664-1064
