Germany -- Confederate Reenactors

German Civil war reenactors (hobbyists) at the Country Music Messe in Berlin. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

There have been a couple recent U.S. media pieces about Germans who reenact U.S. Civil War battles from the Confederate side -- a phenomenon that is closely linked with other hobbyists who populate Europe's Imaginary Wild West, some (many?) of whom adopt the Stars and Bars flag and other "Rebel" symbols as an evocation of freedom, independence, anti-establishmentism and rebellion. The Rebel flags, in fact, is one of the most striking of all the striking visual images of the wild west scene in Europe. It is used on its own or in tandem with the American flag, the Stars and Stripes. It’s found as decoration, on T-shirts, pins, jewelry, backdrops, logos, you name it.

One  of the recent pieces on Confederate reenactors was a blog in the Atlantic.

If the German reenactors actually "model their characters in the reenactments after...German immigrant soldiers," as they explained to the reporter that they do, then those who wear gray have their work cut out for them. Less than 10 percent of the Germans immigrants in the United States, scarcely 70,000, dwelt in the entire territory controlled by the Confederacy at the outbreak of the war. Many fled north, with perhaps 2,000 joining the Union Army. Hundreds of those who remained petitioned the consuls of German states for protection from the draft. There were certainly some ardent secessionists, and even a few slaveholders, and between 3,500 and 7,000 Germans may have served in the Confederate Army. But of that number, many were conscripted, a large number deserted, and some mutinied. "The German minority of the South," one scholar concluded, "was all but insignificant politically, economically, and militarily during the American Civil War."

It was a comment by Yoni Appelbaum on a piece on PRI Radio by Caitlan Carroll.

So for those at the reenactment, it is appealing that the U.S. Civil War took place in another country, in another time. It is safer, even romantic. A lot of fantasies have built up around the Confederacy, thanks to the movie, "Gone with the Wind;" it is a staple of German popular culture.

On the other side of camp, the Confederate soldiers are busy preparing for the battle. More people want to be on the Confederate side, so the Union troops sometimes have to recruit local reenactors from the American Revolutionary War.
Chris McLarren plays a confederate captain from Texas. He is actually an American. He said the Germans are totally immersed in the history.

"The Germans like to do things 110 percent sometimes," McLarren said. "They are perfectionists in many ways and they want to do this the way it was then."

There are  Civil War hobbyists in other countries, too -- the Czech Republic, for example. The great Czech author Josef Skvorecky even wrote a novel, The Bride of Texas, about  Czech immigrants involved in the conflict.

I've been harrangued by Stars and Bars-wearing (or bearing, or selling) hobbyists about the Civil War and its meaning, and I've written in the past and posted many photos about the Rebel Flag phenomenon, which also goes far beyond Germany -- I've posted pictures from France, Austria, Cz, etc:

One of the most striking of all the striking visual images of the wild west scene in Europe is the frequent display of the Confederate (Rebel) flag, the Stars and Bars or Southern Cross. It is used on its own or in tandem with the American flag, the Stars and Stripes. It’s found as decoration, on T-shirts, pins, jewelry, backdrops, logos, you name it.

For most country music fans in the scene, the flag seems to represent pure “rebel-hood” or the anti-Establishment, rather than to have a direct link with the Civil War, Confederacy, or slavery, i.e. connotations that it evokes in the United States. “They don't now much about the history of the southern cross and for them it's not important, it’s a link to freedom and rebellion against the establishment and their normal life,” one German member of the scene, a former employee of one of the Pullman City wild west theme parks and a close observer of hobbyist and other behavior, told me. Rockabilly fans also use it as a symbol of their favorite music -- album covers often feature the image.

In France, Alain Sanders uses the Rebel Flag as the logo of his country music fanzine, “Country Music Attitude.” Country music feeling, he told me when we met in 2004, is a kind of attitude toward life.  “It's rebel attitude,” he said. “Don't believe  everything because it's printed. We don't like kind of world where you have the good and the bad. It's grey, like the uniform of the confederate soldiers. And we explain to people also that when you are country, when you have a country attitude, it's not once a month or once a year when you come to a festival. It's every day. You think country, you sing and you think country -- that's what we try to explain.”

Nonetheless, outside the country scene per se, some skinhead and neo-Nazi groups also use the flag -- as a symbol of racism, to link them to the Ku Klux Klan and other extremists.

Oh No! Pullman City files for bankruptcy!

Pullman City, during Christmas market, December 2009. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Oh no! According to news reports, Pullman City in Eging a. See, Germany, one of Europe's premier Wild West theme parks, has filed for bankruptcy.

Am Montagnachmittag hat die Pullman City Betreiber GmbH beim Amtsgericht Passau Insolvenz angemeldet. Der Betrieb soll auf alle Fälle aufrecht erhalten werden. Rechtsanwalt Oliver Mühlberger, der zum vorläufigen Insolvenzverwalter bestellt wurde, kündigte auf PaWo-Nachfrage an, dass alle kommenden Veranstaltungen wie geplant stattfinden sollen und bittet um „zahlreiche Besucher”[...]

 

Wie kann es sein, dass dieser Besuchermagnet in finanzielle Schieflage geraten konnte? Darüber wird momentan gerätselt. Liegt es daran, dass es wegen des verregneten Sommers nicht so lief, wie es eigentlich hätte laufen sollen? „Keiner hat mit einem Insolvenzantrag gerechnet, ich bin selber überrascht”, erklärt Insolvenzverwalter Mühlberger, der momentan dabei ist, sich in die Materie hineinzuarbeiten. Für ihn steht schon jetzt fest, dass die Westernstadt als „führender Freizeitpark” in der Region auf alle Fälle Zukunftspotential hat. „Der Betrieb soll wie eh und je weiterlaufen”, betont Mühlberger.

 

Die ganze Region drückt jetzt Pullman City die Daumen und hofft auf das Motto: „The Show must go on!”

Read full story on web site

Pullman City, located near Passau in Bavaria, was founded in 1997 by a group of Wild West enthusiasts who had already staged wild west shows and competitions -- I first wrote about Pullman City in a 2004 article in the New York Times. A second Pullman City now operates in central Germany near the small town of Hasselfelde. (A third one, near Vienna, Austria,  closed several years ago.)

So far its web site does not reflect any changes -- the program for the German-American Christmas market (which I attended last year) and other events is up.

Berlin -- Modern Earl and Gentle Line-dancers at the Country Music Messe

One of the bands I liked a lot at the Berlin Country Music Messe was a Berlin-based, mainly American group called Modern Earl who play a sort of demented country rock -- and, after starting up here just 2 years ago have proved very successful, touring all over Europe and playing at all kinds of venues ranging from clubs and saloons to country and biker festivals.

There are four stages at the Country Music Messe, where acts perform simultaneously. The scene was quite different on this stage -- just minutes after the end of Modern Earl's performance -- where things were more...traditional. Similar hats, but gentle line-dancing to a band called Duo Diesel that plays "country, oldies & more."

Germany --The AP runs a story on the German Imaginary Wild West

The Associated Press runs a story about the Imaginary Wild West in Germany. It covers, of course, all the ground I've been covering in this blog and various articles over the years. It focuses more specifically on the connection with Texas,

"The picture of Texas as a Wild West country with cowboys is very strong in Germany," says Claudia Baierl, who has been contracted by the Governor's Economic Development and Tourism division in Austin to help promote the state in Germany.

In recent years, Texas tourism officials have increased advertising in German news media and on the Internet.

"There's a lot of interest in us right now," says Julie Chase, chief marketing officer for the state's Economic Development and Tourism division, noting that Germany is the fifth-largest source of international visitors to Texas. Some 77,000 visited the state last year, the most since 2003.

The article mentions Old Texas Town, the nearly 60-year-old cowboy club in Berlin, which I visited at the end of 2007.

At that time, "Ben Destry" (real name Fritz Walter) -- one of the original founders of the club -- was its "Mayor."

"Ben Destry" at the Saloon in Old Texas Town, December 2007. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

"Destry" was a courtly man in his 80s, who spoke almost no English, but loved the American West and Texas -- he dressed up in both Union and Confederate Civil War costume -- and was particularly fascinated by the Alamo. There is monument to those who died at the Alamo in the Old Texas Town grounds.

Ben's  death earlier this year closed a long, intense personal chapter of Germany's Imaginary Wild West. But O.T.T. itself seems to have overcome some of the financial and other problems that threatened to close it, and the town, at least through this year, remained open to the pubic the usual first Saturday of each month. (It is closed in January ad February).

Charlie McCoy to Be Inducted In Country Music Hall of Fame

Charlie McCoy, the Grammy-winning, virtuoso harmonica player who has played with country and bluegrass bands all over Europe and released albums in France, Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic, will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame May 17, along with Barbara Mandrell and Roy Clark.

The announcement of the honor was announced a couple months ago, but you can click HERE to see a recent article in The Ft. Myers Weekly, of Ft. Myers, Florida, where McCoy lives part time.

As McCoy's web site puts it:

Charlie is known all over the world. He performs every year in Europe and Asia, most frequently France, Japan, and Denmark. His European backup band is made up of Europe's finest musicians and is second to none.

This summer, he will be playing in the Czech Republic, France, Japan and Sweden.

He has recorded with my friends the French country duo Steve & Heather, and also with Druha Trava, the great "Czechgrass" group, with which he has frequently toured in CZ -- the album was a live recording of a concert in Brno. I met him, in fact, during one of his tours with DT, back in 2005.

Berlin versus Buehl... country music and bluegrass in Germany

Roland Heinrich at the Country Music Messe, Berlin, 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

I had a hard choice for this weekend -- whether to attend the annual Country Music Messe (Fair) in Berlin, a noisy extravaganza of scores of bands, which I have attended I think four times in the past, or to try something new -- the European Bluegrass Summit in Buehl, Germany, a meeting gathering about 30 promoters, entrepreneurs and musicians from a variety of countries to discuss the state of bluegrass music in Europe.

It's really too bad that these events take place on the same weekend.... this year I opted for bluegrass, just to see something new. (More on the "summit" later.)

But I'll be thinking of Berlin, and in particular some of my friends who will be playing, like Roland Heinrich, Daniel T. Coates, and Lonstar....

Country Music - Questions (and answers?)

At the Country Piknik, Mragowo, Poland, 2006. Photo (c) R. E. Gruber

I came across a question and answer session on answers.yahoo.com pegged to the question Why don't most people like country music?

"im 13 years old, live in california and i personally LOVE country music (and i mean REAL country). i dont see anything wrong with country music even though growing up in a family who only listened to rap. i just dont understand why some people despise country!"

The replies (and the question) made me think of my friend, the Polish country singer Lonstar, and his recent English-language album called "What's This Country Thing?" -- which is also the name of the title song, the first part of which you can hear on Lonstar's myspace page.

Lonstar performing at the Berlin Country Music Messe, Feb. 2007. Photo (c) R. E. Gruber

The gist of the song is Lonstar's answers to a "lady" who asks the question, "What's this country thing" -- i.e. what is the appeal of country music. In Europe, where hardcore fans often dress up in wild west attire (and drink a lot... and line-dance a lot...), country music is often scorned by the mainstream. Lovers of pure American country music are sometimes embarrassed by the raucous "scene" -- such as that associated with the trucker festivals and other big events, where a carnival atmosphere can prevail. Many country music fans scorn, in particular, local-language country music, sung by local musicians in German, Czech, Polish, French.....

For example, in his book Das Neue Grosse Buch der Country Music (Koenigswinter: Heel, 2005), my friend Walter Fuchs, a staunch country music fan and one of Germany's most serious experts on the genre, wrote:

"[T]hat the German language country song, [. . .] with its interpreters dressed up like cowboys and its partly banal to infantile text has brought the altogether serious German Country Music scene into discredit is undisputed. Numerous friends of country music often do not dare to 'out' themselves in front of their friends for fear of being identified as a fan of German language country songs. [. . .] The German language country song and the original country song from the U.S.A. are worlds apart."

All photos (c) R. E. Gruber.

In his song -- which he sings in both Polish and English versions, Lonstar sets out to show his skeptical questioner that there is more to country music (and "country") than that.

He sings: "you criticize it, saying that it's kid stuff, backward and bad taste, stuff we should grow out of, dirty trash and waste."

"Country's not about a boot or a cowboy hat, you should learn about it just a little more than that. It's a life that prides every word to the music of your laughter, crying, joy and hurt. A friend you can rely on, faithful to the bone. If it feels like home, then it's country.

"Simple man and scholar, granny, dad and son; poor man and a rich man, there's room for everyone. And you insinuate it's isolated, 'cos pearls and swine don't mix. You claim it's a pastime, good for fools and hicks -- which is a lie, 'cos we have loving couples, and the cheatin' wives, those who've just got fired, and those who've won a prize, united in the country music circle, good as daily bread. Why don't you drop this line of accusation, lady, join our bunch instead. And see for yourself...."

(Earlier this year, I posted a video of Lonstar singing at the Mragowo Country Piknik.)

"Hermann the German" on German TV

The German country singer Hermann Lammers Meyer sent me the link to a piece on him on German TV.

I've met Hermann, who sings and plays guitar and pedal steel guitar, a number of times at country music festivals in Germany. Along with Truckstop, he is one of the most enduring German country artists -- his career dates back to the 1970s, and he has also toured in the U.S. The video shows him and his band, The Emsland Hillbillies, on tour in Germany -- you can catch a little of the flavor of a downhome German country music festival.

New Book on East German Western Scene

While I was in Radebeul for the Karl May Fest, I picked up a just published book on the Wild Western scene in the DDR -- communist East Germany.

It's called "Sozialistische Cowboys: Der Wilde Westen Ostdeutschlands" and is by Friedrich von Borries and Jens-Uwe Fischer. The publisher is Suhrkamp.