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Message from the President ~ May 2017

This past Sunday, my family and I spent the day at Hebron Lutheran Church in Madison, Virginia along with four hundred registered guests.  Hebron Lutheran Church is very special to Americans of German-speaking heritage – it is the oldest Lutheran church in continuous operation, and many of the attendees descended from the German colonists who married, baptized children, held funerals — and left records that have brought Americans spread across the continent back to their first church home in America.

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Happy Easter

The GAHF wishes you and your family a happy Easter.

Easter as it is celebrated in the United States today has been shaped in many ways over the centuries by traditions brought over from Germany.

While colored and decorated eggs, often symbolizing rebirth, have been part of Easter and other festivals around the world for centuries, the folklore of an Easter bunny hiding Easter eggs was first noted in 1682 by the German physician Georg Franck von Franckenau. It would then take another century for this holiday tradition to reach America.

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Closed Easter Weekend

In observance of Easter, the German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA® and the German-American Heritage Museum of the USA™ will be closed Friday, April 14th through Monday, April 17th. The GAHF and the GAHM will reopen on Tuesday, April 18th. We thank you for your understanding and hope you have a nice Easter weekend.

Message from the President April 2017

Happy Eastertide from the German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA® in Washington, DC!

The weather is beautiful, visitation to our Museum is up, and we are hard at work connecting Americans to their German-speaking heritage!

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Hollywood-Babelsberg Film Series at the GAHM

The German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA® invites you to our upcoming film series at the GAHM! This film series presents the public with an array of cinematic masterpieces. Each with its own unique German-American connection, these films showcase German-American talent beginning with the Silent Era to the present.

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Meeting with the Baltimore Immigration Museum

On March 24, our Executive Director was invited to view the recently opened Baltimore Immigration Museum. She was welcomed by GAHF members Brigitte and Nicolas Fessenden, drivers of this monumental endeavor. The Baltimore Immigration Museum is dedicated to preserving Baltimore’s rich history of immigration as well as educating the public about the different ethnic groups who came to America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum itself is located in a historic building used as temporary housing for immigrants before they continued their journey. To learn more, please visit: immigrationbaltimore.org​.