Albertus van Raalte in Deutschland - pagina 14

The school at Dubuque was in a different situation. The Eastfriesian churches had come to grow in Minnesota since the 1880s. A long time they thought about how to work under the Germans in their surrounding. But also Dubuque could not really grow anymore after the War. The German heart was broken. To be a German was nothing to be proud of anymore. The Germans in the CRC kept silent in these years, when they were considered as Dutch people. They understood mostly the Dutch language – why shouldn’t they be Dutch? Is was much easier for them…. World War II was not such a traumatic experience for the emigrants from Germany in the US as was the previous war. Most German-Americans belonged to the second and third generations. The identification with the motherland had weakened. And as far as I know, nobody of the new immigrants from Germany coming after World War I has served in the US army or fought against Germany in World War II. The small Oldreformed Church in Germany (ORC) has had a great influence in the founding and history of CRC in the US. The letter of the consistory of Graafschap, Michigan from 1857 tells early reasons for leaving the RCA and building the CRC. Graafschap started with training students for the ministry. Till 1900 different teachers at the Theological School, today Calvin Seminary, had worked and lived in the ORC. The contacts to the US, interrupted by World War II, were revitalized after the war and were important till 1955. The coming of first Polish and then American soldiers in northwest Germany was experienced as a liberation. The ORC as the other churches provided support for the spiritual and physical need of Germany. The international contacts with the US and the Netherlands proved valuable. Care packages were sent by immigrants and their descendents in America. Fred Oldemulder for example from Graafschap, Michigan had emigrated in 1924 with several others from Emlichheim in the County of Bentheim. Immediately after World War II he organized hundreds of packages for known and unknown people in the County. Also the connections of the ORC with the Netherlands and the US were helpful in acquiring the official recognition of the new German Government in 1951. It had lasted for more than a century to get this status. A new wave immigrants restored the connections with the Old Country. These new immigrants profited from the rising standard of living in the USA and could afford to travel back to Germany five, ten or even fifteen times by airplane. Tourism and internet connections further bridge the distance. As churches today in 1999 there are very few or no contacts at all between the ORC and the CRC, though both churches face similar problems. The American way of live is much different from the German. At the other hand, (nearly) every year a German Interim group from Calvin College is visiting my local church at Hoogstede (since 2008 to Laar) for some days, before the group travels through Germany. Thrice I organized a tour through the US between 1988 and 1996. The Holland Christian High School is coming this spring with a big choir for a European Tour. Mostly they are singing in the County of Bentheim and in some places in the Netherlands. A German ”Gymnasium”, a kind of High School 7th to 13th grade, at Neuenhaus is planning to exchange students with the descendants of the immigrants in Holland and Grand Rapids, Michigan. A Newspaper in the County is organizing trips for two or three weeks to the US. They stay for some days also at Holland, Michigan. The times of Internet, modern media and traffic make a village of the world.xxvii

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen