Chapter XII: Social Life and Domestic Customs

The German Home.--German Hospitality.--Consideration for
Strangers.--Inherited Traits and Customs.--Mode of Living.--Folk
Lore.--Teutonic Myths and Legends.--Holidays and Religious
Festivals.--Christmas.--City and Rural Life.--German Politeness.

When the large stream of German emigration poured into Pennsylvania, chiefly from South Germany, it found none of the conditions here by which the emigrants had been surrounded at home. The new order of things made certain changes in their mode of life necessary, but so far as the new conditions would permit, they retained their inherited traits, social and domestic customs, nearly all of which have come down to the present generation. In some instances they have borrowed from their English-speaking neighbors, while the latter have in return borrowed largely, from the predominant German element.

But in the main, the social customs and domestic habits brought by the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans from the fatherland were continued, and remain to this day with little change, both among the latter and their kinsmen in the Rhine country.

The resemblance of these customs and habits are most striking, among the Germans in the rural districts of Pennsylvania, and among the peasantry of South Germany, for the simple reason that the fixed habits, and traits of a people, are longest preserved by the great body of the rural population.

A marked characteristic of all Germans everywhere, is their “home life.” Nowhere do we find such cheerful sunny homes, as among the Germans. No matter how humble the home, or how poor the family may be, the first consideration always is, to live for home and family where cheerfulness, and affection reign supreme. That these virtues prevail among other people there is no doubt, but the Germans are believed to excel in this respect.

The German mode of living is simple, plain and economical; heightened by a friendly hospitality. With regard to these traits the Pennsylvania Germans retain their racial characteristics. There is a single domestic virtue universal among them, which serves to illustrate their character in this respect, and to prove their disinterested friendship. They always receive and entertain strangers with generous hospitality. If one should come among them unexpectedly at meal time, an extra seat is at once provided, and the stranger asked to join the family at the table. These invitations are never perfunctory, but are extended in the hope that they will be accepted. Should the stranger be overtaken by night, a spare bed is always provided for such occasions. These characteristics have been the subject of frequent remark, by people traveling among the Germans in the rural districts of Pennsylvania.

In connection with the subject of the Pennsylvania German’s spare bed, a kind word may be in order for the traditional feather bed which seems to be an indispensable feature of every Pennsylvania German household. The often derided feather bed is a distinctive German institution, and is found everywhere in Germany at this day, in winter and summer. No matter what the season, the feather quilt is found neatly folded at the foot of the bed ready for use, in case the emergency calls for it, so that its existence to-day in Pennsylvania is an honest inheritance from the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans, who brought the custom with them when they first came here, and where it has held its own ever since, as one of the settled household institutions.

While the Pennsylvania Germans retain many of the customs of their kinsmen on the other side of the Atlantic there is one particular in which the former have made a wide departure. In Germany the peasantry are all crowded in small villages, in striking contrast to the Pennsylvania farmers who live on their large well-tilled farms, in palatial farm houses which tell of opulence and luxury. In Germany the peasantry are living in small _dorfs_, where the houses are all built of stone most of which are several centuries old; situated on narrow streets, so as to take up as little of the valuable ground as possible; the houses are often situated in such close proximity to the cows, pigs and hens as to make it appear as if all belonged to the same household. This last condition is however an exception to the rule, for as a general rule the German peasant homes, are clean and wholesome, although furnished in the plainest manner. The first floors are frequently of stone; carpets are rarely seen in the houses of peasants, and even among the higher classes, floors are usually painted; kept scrupulously clean; and ornamented with rugs.

The universal passion of the Germans for flowers and other ornamentation is often shown by the poorest peasants, but their almost constant employment in the fields, prevents them from indulging their instincts in that direction to any great extent, but they neglect no opportunity to do so, whenever it is possible.

The German instinct for flowers is strongly exhibited by the Pennsylvania German women. There are not many, who do not find time to give some attention to their cultivation. The yard of nearly every Pennsylvania German farm house bears testimony to this fact. There are few houses in rural Pennsylvania the surroundings of which are not more or less beautified by flowering plants, often of the choicest kinds; while the poorer people are often content, with a few roses; the fragrant honeysuckle; and sometimes the unpretentious dahlia and sunflower, are made to attest their love of the beautiful.

There are certain kinds of labor performed by the German women in their native country, which are also performed by German women in rural Pennsylvania. They attend to the milking, look after the poultry, and attend to the garden, in addition to their regular household duties. They also assist not infrequently at certain kinds of work in the fields. These customs still prevail largely in Germany, but it is a satisfaction to note, that the custom is growing into disfavor in Pennsylvania more every year, and it is to be hoped that the chivalry of the Pennsylvania German farmers will soon relegate the practice wholly to the rear, as a custom out of consonance with the spirit of the times.

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There are many articles of diet peculiar to the Pennsylvania Germans to which most people have been strangers until they acquired the knowledge from them. For instance,--“Scrapple” (P. G. pan-haas), which the “Standard Dictionary” defines as an “article of food made by boiling meal or flour with scraps of pork, chopped hog’s liver, and kidneys, and seasoning, and served in fried slices;” then adds that it originated among the “Pennsylvania Dutch.” It did not originate among the “Pennsylvania Dutch” because in the first place there are no such people, and in the next place it is a common article of food in the Rhine Pfalz, whence the early German emigrants brought it to Pennsylvania.

The origin of the word “pan-haas,” (English pan-hare, or pan-rabbit), is a puzzle, but it probably belongs to that class of slang words, of which “welsh rabbit;” “blind robin,” and the like are specimens.

“Sauer-kraut,” a dish at one time associated with things vulgar and regarded as not “good form” to eat by the more aesthetic people, has forged its way to the front, until it has acquired a very respectable standing. It is of purely German origin, and supplied the larder of the Hessian soldiers as one of their chief articles of diet when they embarked for America during the Revolutionary War. “Schnits and knepp.”--sliced apples, and dumplings, cooked with pork, is another purely German dish, for which the Pennsylvania Germans are indebted to the fatherland. The so-called “Dutch cheese,” is merely the “Mainzer käse,” of Germany, so named after the city of Mainz on the Rhine. “Smear-case,” from the German “schmier-käse,” is also a native of the Pfalz. There is an endless variety of articles of food, and their manner of preparation for the table in vogue among the Pennsylvania Germans, which are inheritances from their ancestors who brought the art with them, when they emigrated to Pennsylvania.

The custom of feasting at funerals among the Germans in Pennsylvania, has been a subject of much comment by English-speaking people, also prevails in Germany to a limited extent. It is there confined to a few simple refreshments for guests, especially for those who come some distance to attend the funeral. The somewhat extravagant feasts prepared by the Germans in Pennsylvania on the occasion of funerals, may be the result of their greater ability to provide liberally for their guests; but there is no doubt that the custom is the outgrowth of the disposition of good-will, and benevolence so characteristic of the Germans everywhere. Relatives are always invited to attend funerals by the Pennsylvania Germans, and they often come long distances, to manifest their sympathy on such occasions, and it would be regarded a great breach of civility and of friendship, to send the relatives away, without inviting them to partake of the hospitalities of the house of mourning; and to refuse to accept such an invitation, would be regarded an equal breach of decorum toward the bereaved family.

The similarity of the domestic customs of the Pennsylvania Germans and their Palatine kinsmen, are exhibited in many ways; but it does not stop with their social habits and domestic customs. Much of their folk-lore, legendary romances, and Teutonic myths, which have come down the ages, and which are the inheritances of all German-speaking races are alike. The Rhine traditions being the most recent are best preserved.

The resemblances can be traced in many of the usages and beliefs common to both; in their religious observances, and manner of worship; agricultural festivals; customs at weddings; the “home-bringings,” courtship, making acquaintances; old-fashioned methods of work; neighborly gathering of friends to aid in certain kinds of work, called by the English-speaking people a “bee,” such as a husking bee; a barn raising bee, and the like, which is called by the Pennsylvania Germans in their dialect a “frolic” which would seem to indicate that they borrowed the term from the English, but it is more likely that it is a corruption of the German word “_fröhlich_,” because on such occasions all hands are gay, jovial, and make merry, which is usually heightened by “liquid refreshments,” followed when the work is done by a great feast. Among the common beliefs, more particularly among the less informed are certain superstitions; belief in fairies, and hobgoblins, and ghosts; lucky and unlucky days; the influence of certain planets on the elements, upon which subject they have a vast amount of weather lore; belief in the curative power of magic; “pow-wow” and the like. These and many more are superstitions, customs and beliefs, not altogether handed down traditionally, and communicated from generation to generation, but most of them have been preserved in the literature of folk-lore of which the Germans have produced the larger part. The word folk-lore comes from the German _Volk_, people, and _Lehre_ learning. So that the traditions of peasants, and uneducated people, are merely the result of that which was at one time believed by all classes.

Even at this day much of the ancient folk-lore is found to exist, and rigidly believed in by some of the most intelligent people, as well as among the rudest and most uncultivated people. How many people are there who would care to start on a long sea voyage on a Friday; or go unattended through a lonely graveyard on a night of inky darkness?

Many church and festal days, observed in the Pfalz, are still complied with by the Pennsylvania Germans; although the tendency with regard to their observance is growing feebler every year. The man of middle life will remember the time when such days as Good Friday, Ascension Day, Whitsuntide, and other church days were rigidly observed by attending religious services in the morning, and spending the remainder of the day in social recreation, by visiting friends and relatives, and in other similar diversions.

Those days are still devoted to similar enjoyments in Germany. A great deal of this social recreation in Germany takes place in wine halls; beer and music gardens on all festal occasions as well as on Sundays. The Germans are a church-going people on Sunday mornings, but the afternoons are devoted to recreations, which as a general rule lead to the music gardens, where beer and wine are dispensed. This mixing of beer, music, and religion on Sunday is one of the things which few of our American Sabbatarians can understand, because they view it from the standpoint of what they see of drinking in their own country. And it must be admitted, that it is seriously doubted, whether a quiet and orderly Sunday could be had in this country, if the same freedom were allowed. If the doors of the saloons in this country were thrown wide open as they are in Germany from eleven o’clock in the morning until eleven at night, drunken revels would follow with almost absolute certainty, while such a thing as drunkenness is almost wholly unknown in South Germany. The people there drink scarcely any spirits, but confine themselves to beer, and light wines. This is not true of the North German states, for there the people drink spirits, and a good deal of drunkenness prevails. The Germans as a rule drink moderately. The whole family goes to the beer garden, or the wine hall, and a _liter_ of beer suffices for all, and they will spend an hour or more over that quantity, while the American style of drinking would in the same length of time produce more or less intoxication by reason of the quantity consumed, much of which is due to the habit of “treating” which does not prevail in Germany. A German familiar with the American custom with regard to drinking expressed the difference between the two countries tersely when he remarked: “In Deutschland trinken die leute bier, aber in Amerika saufen sie es.”

Christmas is the great religious festal day of the Germans, as it has become with most Christian people everywhere within recent years. With the Pennsylvania Germans it always held first place, as it has with their kinsmen across the sea, from whom the former inherited all the essential characteristics of its observance, such as the merry-makings, family re-unions, and other social recreations. Christmas is especially a German holiday. To them it is largely due that the day has been shorn of its early ascetic character, and has been succeeded by a day of sunny cheerfulness, and general good-will. The Germans have surrounded it with much poetic sentiment, in addition to its religious aspect; and while the domestic sentiment is always uppermost with them, it is at Christmas that this sentiment is most strongly exemplified. With Christmas eve the festival commences with them. All Pennsylvania German children look forward to that evening with great anxiety. That is the evening for the “Bellsnickle” to put in his appearance in hideous disguise to look after naughty boys and girls, and when he distributes his gifts in the shape of nuts and cakes by throwing them on the floor, woe to any youngster who dares to pick any of them up, for if he attempts to do so, he will be sure to get a sound whack on his back with a whip which this fright of the children carries with him. The “Bellsnickle” is a purely German character, and does not seem to belong to any other people who have not derived the character from the Germans. The name is supposed to come from the words “peltz” skin, or a furred coat, and “nickle,” a dirty person, as the make-up of the character resembles such a combination.

To offset the Bellsnickle there is the patron saint of the little children, good Kriss Kringle, from the German _Christ-kindlein_--Christ child--who brings the children happiness with their “Weinacht-gaschenk” a word which conveys a much more poetic sentiment than the commonplace English phrase of “Christmas present.” Most of the Christmas stories which delight children so much, come from the Germans.

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The Germans have many holidays. Sometimes the most trivial event furnishes the occasion for a festal day. The birthdays of their princes, and distinguished soldiers and statesmen, are made interesting events in the lives of the people themselves, by the elaborate manner in which they celebrate them. Among the Germans the birthday of every member of the family is observed in some way. This custom prevails to some extent among the Pennsylvania Germans, but it is mainly confined to the celebration of the birthdays of aged people, especially of parents, grandparents, and of young children. The Moravians still continue the custom of celebrating the birthdays in some form, of all the members of their families.

The hard lives of the early German immigrants in Pennsylvania, had the effect to dispel much of the cheer of the happy homes, which still surrounds the firesides of their kinsmen in the Rhine country; and in these days the Pennsylvania Germans have acquired the universal contagion of Americans, of the mad rush after wealth, which robs them of many of the sunny pleasures of the Germans in their native land, about which Americans know very little.

If the emigrants that come from Germany in these days, should seem to negative the conditions of the happy German homes herein mentioned, the reply is, that they are not intended to embrace the Germans that come from the eastern part of Germany where the land is poor and the people still poorer. Very few emigrants come from the region once embraced in the old state of the Palatinate to the United States in these days, and the few that do come do not make the change to improve their temporal welfare, but to escape military duty, or the possibilities of war, which is a continual menace to the peace of Germany. While the German peasants in the Rhine country are not rich, and enjoy but few of the luxuries of the Pennsylvania German farmers, they have an abundance of the actual necessities of life; live comfortably, and are more contented and happier than any other people in the same walk in life, in the whole of Europe, and even possibly in this country.

A striking characteristic of the Germans in their own country is one of politeness, much of which they soon forget after they come here, and their Pennsylvania German kinsmen, do not any longer cultivate that trait very assiduously; but in this respect they are not behind the rest of their countrymen in democratic America. It is also true, that there is often as much genuine friendliness concealed beneath the rougher exterior of the average American, as there is in the more polished manner, and outward semblance of the profusive manifestations of friendship of the German, or Frenchman. It is a fact however that Europeans generally are politer than Americans.

Nowhere does one meet with more courteous consideration, affability and manifestations of good-will, than among the Germans in their native country. This is true with regard to their daily intercourse, and upon all informal occasions, and it’s heightened in their intercourse with strangers.

The urbane manner, and considerate courteousness of the Germans is called by them “Gemüthlichkeit.” It is said that the word has no equivalent in the English language. It is this “gemüthlichkeit,”--good nature, kindly disposition, and affability which controls every action of the German’s daily life. No matter whether you negotiate with the _kellnerin_ for a glass of beer, or you meet the _zimmermädchen_ that takes care of your room at the hotel, it is always “_guten morgen_,” or “_guten tag_,” and upon your departure from a place the salutations of adieu, “_lebe wohl_,” “_auf wiedersehen_,” are showered upon you in such an earnest manner, that you must believe that it is all meant. Traveling on a railway train, a stranger enters the coupe in which you are seated, he will always greet you by wishing you good day, after which he may become absorbed in a book, or as he frequently does, may enter in conversation with you; and on his departing he will invariably wish you a “_glückliche reise_,” and “_sehr fiel vergnügen_.” “_Ich danke sehr_,” and “_ich bitte_,” are continually heard in recognition of the most ordinary courtesies at every turn, all day long. Should you call on some newly-made acquaintance, you are always received with: “_Herzliche wilkommen_.” Men upon meeting often take off their hats to each other, especially if they have not met for some time; and on meeting a peasant when traveling in the country, he will always take his hat off to a stranger, and bid him the time of day.

With all this excessive politeness, there is also sometimes great rudeness, but the latter is a rare exception, and is usually confined to military officers, who seem to monopolize all the boorishness and bad manners in Germany. They seem to think that in order to prove their chivalry, that they must needs make themselves offensive by their rudeness.