Speaker Series

Dr. James Kearney

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NEW FRONTIERS IN GERMAN TEXAN SCHOLARSHIP

 

Dr. James Kearney will speak 10/17/24 over his upcoming publication of his translation of Heinrich von Struve’s memoir, Lebensbild (A Life Portrait) for the speaker series sponsored by the German Texan Heritage Society, Dallas Goethe Center, and University of Texas at Arlington.  As members of the nobility the Struve family reflected the ideals and hardships of the revolutionary Napoleonic era with the extended family including scientists, diplomats, and government officials in both the fading Holy Roman and Russian Empires and ultimately, Texas.  Heinrich’s brother Gustav fled to New York City following his leadership of the failed Baden Revolt in 1848 while Heinrich immigrated to Texas after confiscation of his estate in Russian-controlled eastern Poland where he settled near Lateiners in Fayette Co.

     A leading authority on German Texas history Dr. Kearney received a cross-disciplinary Ph.D. in history and German from the Department of Germanic Studies at UT-Austin.  Due to his scholarship on German Texans he was elected as a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.

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The theme for the 24/25 speaker series, “New Frontiers in German Texan Scholarship” will place prominent German Texans, the Struve family and Ferdinand Lindheimer, within the larger perennial debate over immigration and assimilation.  Last year’s series focused on the prominent role ‘48ers and others played in attempting to shift post-Civil War and WWI era politics in a more progressive direction in commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the 1848 Revolution.  The 24/25 series will thus continue the theme of development of a unique German Texan identity as Germans adapted to the social and physical environments of Texas.      

     The role of the frontier in shaping American identity has been a topic of scholarly debate initiated with publication in 1893 of Frederick Jackson Turner’s influential essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.”   Although long out of vogue, the Frontier Thesis argued that traits associated with the American character, rugged individualism and the anti-intellectual populist tradition of opposition to hierarchy and experts stemming therefrom, was shaped by continuous struggle as the frontier moved west.   Social historians such as Patricia Nelson Limerick challenged the Frontier Thesis developing the New Western History school of thought which took root in the 1980’s.  Instead, study of the West as a region was the focus independent of the continuum of westward expansion which resulted in the view that it was the Manifest Destiny of Anglo-Saxons to subdue and control the continent thereby shaping the American character.  This school of thought emphasized the role government played in distribution and management of public lands, and the neglected role women, race, class, and the environment played in settlement of the West. 

     The adaptation of the German minority to the social, cultural, political, and physical environments of Texas included those of different classes and educational levels.  Heinrich von Struve was a member of the nobility displaced by revolutionary turmoil as was Lindheimer, who had studied philology at the University of Bonn and as a naturalist became the “Father of Texas Botany.”  Although members of the privileged class of European society via birth and education, which had little practical value in early 19th C. Texas, as members of a minority they are examples of a category of New Western historiography; or, one could argue they and the vast majority of their fellow immigrants began the transition from German to German Texan due to their character forged from the harsh reality of 19th C. Texas.  In either case, development of this unique identity regardless of its cause and the role Germans played in shaping the culture and politics of the state as they adapted to their new social and physical environments offers perspective on the perennial issues of immigration and assimilation.  

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To join this meeting please follow this link:

​Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89413934895?pwd=dpb1fCf0Av0Oq89f3a2kyqtX806Zkx.1

Meeting ID: 894 1393 4895
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If you have any questions, please contact us at office@germantexans.org.

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NEXT SPEAKER SERIES is planned for March 18th, 2025.

Dr. Christopher Wickham and Dr. Daniel Gelo will discuss their new book The German Texan Frontier in 1863, 3/18/25.  They will discuss Ferdinand Lindheimer’s role in helping his fellow immigrants adapt to the physical and social environments of antebellum Texas through his editorship of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung thereby beginning creation of a unique German Texan identity.  

     Both authors are professors emeriti at the University of Texas at San Antonio; Dr. Wickham in German and Dr. Gelo in anthropology who specialized in Comanche culture and linguistics.  Their publications on German Texan and Comanche relations include Comanches, Captives, and Germans, and Comanches and Germans on the Texas Frontier: The Ethnology of Heinrich Berghaus about an attempted development of a Comanche alphabet stemming from the 1847 Meusebach-Comanche Treaty.  

     Presentations will be via zoom at 7:00 p.m. with the link posted at the GTHS site -   https://www.germantexans.org – Programs – Speaker Series and advertised again to DGC and GTHS members prior to the events.  

     The spring presentation will also be a part of the Texas State Historical Association’s Texas Talk series and will be hosted and moderated by the TSHA with introduction and closing remarks by GTHS board member and speaker series chair, Dr. Barbara Berthold, professor of German at UTA.

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