German-Texan Heritage Society Newsletter, Volume 9, Number 3, Fall 1987 Page: 162
[73] p. : ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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'J !V
"German Composition", 1909, startled me with the title of one of its
short stories written in English: "The Babes in the Woods." Aha! I
thought, finally an edifying piece of immorality among all these pages
dripping with righteousness - and I was not disappointed: Two rich,
orphaned children were taken into the forest to be killed so that their t
uncle could inherit their wealth. However, the hired killer changed his A
mind and left the babes in the woods where they died -slowly and
painfully- from starvation. What was the lesson to be learned from that?
The American textbook publishers obviously had no problem with the
change from the Kaiser to the Third Reich. Just the other day, while the
news media had a feast because the White House had hired a man who had at
the age of ten been a member of the Hitler Youth, our Goodwill store sold fw.
me "German, Book One", 1938, with a drawing of two boys in Hitler Youth
uniform striding cheerfully across the cover.
Political adjustability is reflected even more drastically in my
garage sale trophy "Perspectiven I", printed in 1975 by Madison
Collective. It teaches German history and grammar according to the
communist persuasion: Fred, an American student on vacation in East
Berlin, demonstrates his capitalistic ways to Susan, who is impressed by
what she has seen of socialism. "We American men are much stronger than
the guys in the DDR, who can't even get Playboy," says Fred and puts his
hand on her leg. "Nein, Fred, nicht beim Fruhstuck (No, Fred, not at
breakfast)," snaps Susan, because first she wants to learn more about.
socialism.
I don't judge a book by its cover,
of course, but I sure buy them for their
outside looks. Fritz Reuter, ever so
popular with the immigrants because he
wrote in one of their north German -
dialects, has his bust on my edition of
his works in solid gold. I am very
partial to gold, anyhow. I have an
1887 copy of "Deutsche Dichtung" -
(German Literature) with such fine golden
lines making the most exquisite pattern on
the cover, and the pages are gilded - it
would be a shame to read it.
illustrations and pictures have a -- .
soft spot in my heart. Some are so -
unique or beautiful, they are just begging to be framed. Why not? "That
is a crime too often committed by the illiterate collector," said a book
dealer to me in horror, when I explained to him how I would frame a pageof the "Gartenlaube" magazine.
Another book I bought for its cover aroused my interest not only by -
its gold but by the fact that the title was on its back. A bookbinder's
mistake, I thought, surely a rare find. It wasn't until I got home and ' '
had found my reading glasses that I realized that the book, "Israels
Gebete", printed in 1902 in Mainz, was a collection of prayers in Hebrew
with their German translation on the opposite pages. In the Hebrew manger..-
it has to be read starting at the end. Since so many Jewish books in
Germany were destroyed during Hitler's reign I treasure this copy as a -
rare survivor.,s
r
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German-Texan Heritage Society. German-Texan Heritage Society Newsletter, Volume 9, Number 3, Fall 1987, periodical, Autumn 1987; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1507402/m1/24/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting German-Texan Heritage Society.