PERPETUATING THE SPIRIT OF CARL SCHURZ
Voss, DR. Ernst
Perpetuating the Spirit of Carl Schurz Professor Kuehnemann: First to Occupy Memorial Chair at the University of Wisconsin By DR. ERNST VOSS W HEN the University of Wis consin celebrated its...
...We are glad to know that the railroads are paying their employees regularly, but that's not the point...
...The first Carl Schurz professor has been with us since the beginning of this academic year, September 27, and those who were instrumental in bringing about this Memorial for the great German-American citizen only now begin to realize what a force, what an endowment this Memorial Professorship will be, not only for the present generation, but for generations to come, as all the different branches of human learning and understanding will be represented in due time, one after the other, by the occupants of this Chair...
...Those who had the good fortune of meeting the grand old man with his heart of youth, during the days that he spent in Madison, carry with them for life impressions that they can never forget...
...ERNST VOSS W HEN the University of Wisconsin celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1904, Carl Schurz was to be the recipient of the highest honor that a university can bestow, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws...
...Is this your conception of the day...
...His delivery is perfect, his voice melodious, his manner perfectly natural and charming, and through the force of his absorption in his theme he is utterly free from self-consciousness...
...The great army of workers whom you do not see—the bundle wrappers, drivers and errand boys—look forward to Christmas as a hateful time of undeserved effort and hardship...
...Besides giving lectures for credit in the university on Goethe's Faust, on Schiller and the Modern German Drama, Professor Kuehnemann has been kind enough to give special readings of famous masterpieces of literature and also some special lectures in English on Tolstoy, Goethe and Schiller, Hauptmann and Sudermann, etc...
...Every shop girl knows that the coming Christmas season will mean to her an immense amount of extra work, of nervous strain and exhaustion...
...Negotiations with the Prussian government for a distinguished man to fill the Carl Schurz Memorial chair in 1912-13 were conducted and brought to a close through Professor Paul Reinsch of this university in 1911-12, as Roosevelt professor at the University of Berlin...
...I can still hear the portentous words addressed by Carl Schurz to the young reformer: "I am so happy to know that what I have been striving for all my life has been taken up by a younger man...
...How about that...
...PLATO again and again comes back to the position that the end of the state is the production of men and not of wealth...
...These days and weeks when we have had the rare good fortune to sit under the spell of his instruction and to listen to the beautiful imagery which clothes and vivifies his ever-flowing, ever-springing thought, will stand out in memory as the time of deep inspiration and new growth...
...The point is, do these stock and bondholders earn this money...
...His inaugural lecture, which will be published in English by the University, sets forth in a most comprehensive and masterly manner the end and aim of the Carl Schurz Memorial and it will be a guide and an inspiration in the future for all incumbents of the Carl Schurz Memorial Chair...
...Remember the Toilers A MISERABLE Christmas or a merry, Christmas...
...Carry this message on to your friends and let them see how much a little prompt action on their part will mean to a great many people less fortunate than they...
...And I am inclined to think, if I may judge from the enthusiastic audiences that come to listen to the learned and eloquent professor from Germany, their choice has been more than justified...
...When the M?n-nerchor began to sing, "Weh, dass wir scheiden muessen," (How can I bear to leave thee...
...However, a severe illness from which he had hardly recovered made it impossible for Carl Schurz to take part in that celebration...
...Go on with the good work, Governor, do not lose courage, and may God bless you...
...PROFESSOR EUGEN KUEHNEMANN, the first incumbent of the Carl Schurz Memorial Chair, is not a novice to this country...
...The American Magazine...
...He then told them the history of this song...
...Owning and Working MR...
...Both in 1905 and later as exchange professor at Harvard, Professor Kuehnemann came to Madison as special lecturer and delighted his audiences...
...In planning a merry Christmas for your friends, do not let it mean a miserable Christmas to those less fortunate than you...
...He is an idealist of the purest type, not a dreamer, but a very practical and modern idealist, sound to the core...
...Professor Kuehnemann is a perfect marvel as a lecturer...
...And in addition to this tremendous amount of work, Professor Kuehnemann is lecturing along similar lines in Milwaukee and other cities of the state that contributed largely to the Carl Schurz Memorial Fund...
...The average amount to each is five hundred and ninety dollars yearly, which seems far from exorbitant...
...It was Carl Schurz who urged him to go to his greater duties, to go to Washington so that he might carry his work of reform into the Senate and that from Washington he might speak with more weight and more authority to the whole nation...
...A very little unselfishness on your part will greatly lighten the burden of these working people...
...It was finally decided to establish a Carl Schurz Memorial in the form of a professorship endowed for scholars from the old Fatherland who should come from time to time to the seat of learning in this state, and bring besides their learning and their culture the message of peace and good will and common understanding between the two great nations...
...It was to be farewell, a parting song indeed for him for in the spring of the following year Carl Schurz closed his beautiful eyes for ever...
...of the gross receipts looks like pretty big pay for the not overly arduous task of being an owner.—E...
...WAS IT SURPRISING that friends and admirers of Carl Schurz after the tremendous impressions that this great man had left behind him in this state to which he had only recently paid his farewell visit, should think of a way, a Wisconsin way of honoring the memory of one of America's best citizens of foreign birth...
...Ely...
...It may help you to help them if you will remember these words: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethern, ye have done it unto Me...
...The point is, are the employees earning this billion...
...B. F. YOAKUM, railroad magnate, writing in World's Work, claims special consideration and immunity for the railroad industry because it "disburses" more than a billion dollars a year to its 1,700,000 employees...
...The employees get a third and the stock and bondholders get a sixth...
...For no one can fail to become purer, stronger, more hopeful, more optimistic, less trammelled with the petty things of earth through the spirituality of the message Professor Kuehnemann gives to us all...
...ing exchange professorships between Germany and America...
...Sixteen and two-thirds per cent...
...THE MADISON MAENNERCHOR had been asked by Governor La Follette to gladden the heart of Schurz, the great lover of music, by some German songs at a reception that the Governor tendered to his distinguished guest...
...O. J. in Life...
...He reported favorably and came to Harvard as exchange professor for the first semester of 1906-07...
...When you are making your Christmas plans do not forget the patient workers in the shops...
...And when the singers had finished, he asked them whether they knew the name of the composer of this wonderfully sweet melody...
...He was sitting in his chair, head on his hands, as if in a revery...
...But when the guest of honor, who was closely watched by his daughter that he might not overtax his strength, had already started to go, he turned around in the middle of the large hall asking the Herr Di-rektor of the singers to let him hear once more before he left beautiful Madison that song so dear to him: "Weh, dass wir scheiden muessen...
...He paid his promised visit to the University, with which he had been connected as a regent during the sixties, in the following year, 1905, and at this time he was given the honorary degree on commencement day after he had delivered the commencement address...
...He listened most attentively...
...When the question came up who should be the first choice for the newly created Memorial Professorship in Madison, we all said: Professor Kuehnemann...
...Merely do your Christmas shopping early— early in the month and early in the day...
...On the other hand, the railroad industry "disburses" over half a billion dollars yearly to stock and bond-holders...
...He was sent to America in 1905 on a secret mission to report to his government about the advisability of establish*Gottfried Kinkel was first sentenced to death as a rebel and then put into prison at Spandau, from which fortress Carl Schurz liberated him at the risk of his own life and then fled with him first to England, then to America...
...Every time the employees get two dollars, the stock and bondholders get one dollar...
...For Wisconsin rightly claims the greatest German-American as one of her citizens, since he began his political career in this state while a resident at Water-town...
...He created such a profound impression that he was called back to Harvard University for the whole year 1908-09 to take Professor Kuno Francke's place while he was spending his sabbathical year abroad...
...In response to the deep impression he has created here, we have already formed plans to have him return to Madison as Carl Schurz Professor, first of all to lecture on his real specialty, Philosophy, and then later as professor of German Civilization (Deutsche Kulturgeschichte...
...that it was his teacher and friend, Professor Gottfried Kinkel* of the University of Bonn, who wrote the words and that he was present at the home of Kinkel, when Frau Johanna Kinkel, his beloved wife, composed the music for this song and played it for the first time on the piano...
...Governor La Follette was then still undecided whether he should stay in Madison to superintend the reforms that had been started in this state, or go to Washington as United States Senator...
...Senator La Follette was at that time the Governor of the state and he was busy with the legislators at the capitol, where I had the honor to introduce to each other the two great men that met here for the first time...
...a song dear to every German even if he does not know the name of the poet or the composer —Carl Schurz was very much and very deeply moved...
...Thousands of workers in every city have been taught by bitter experience to look forward to Christmas with dread...
...General F. Winckler of Milwaukee, the lifelong friend and comrade of Carl Schurz, as president of the Carl Schurz Memorial Association, was able to inform the Regents of the University in the spring of 1911 that the sum of thirty thousand dollars was at their disposal for the establishment of a Carl Schurz Memorial Professorship in the State University...
...By so doing you will not only relieve the shop girls and errand boys of the necessity of serving you at the last moment, but you will escape the annoyance of finding that the very gifts you most desire have already been sold...
...The next evening the German Americans of the city had arranged a little celebration for Carl Schurz in Turner Hall...
...He stands alone in his vivid, magnetic power to sway, and hold his audience with the discussion of the ethical and scientific phases of literature...
Vol. 4 • December 1912 • No. 49
