Muench News
Friedrich Muench homestead purchased
The Friedrich Muench homestead, located beside Lake Creek in Dutzow, Mo., was purchased by Steve and Denelle Fechter in May 2024.
Muench purchased the farm soon after immigrating to Missouri in 1834. Near the farm once owned by Gottfried Duden, who authored a German book that launched extensive emigration to Missouri, the Muench farm became one of the centers of German-American social and political influence in the 19th Century.
Known as "Papa Muench" in those days, Friedrich was one of the early "Latin farmers" -- highly educated German immigrants who came to America to participate in enlightened democracy. An abolitionist, he became a Missouri State Senator during the Civil War and helped rewrite the state's law code to rid it of slavery-based laws.
Muench family members Iris Roberts and Jim Muench applied to the State of Missouri to purchase the property, but the state declined citing lack of available funds.
Muench purchased the farm soon after immigrating to Missouri in 1834. Near the farm once owned by Gottfried Duden, who authored a German book that launched extensive emigration to Missouri, the Muench farm became one of the centers of German-American social and political influence in the 19th Century.
Known as "Papa Muench" in those days, Friedrich was one of the early "Latin farmers" -- highly educated German immigrants who came to America to participate in enlightened democracy. An abolitionist, he became a Missouri State Senator during the Civil War and helped rewrite the state's law code to rid it of slavery-based laws.
Muench family members Iris Roberts and Jim Muench applied to the State of Missouri to purchase the property, but the state declined citing lack of available funds.
The Rev. Dr. Richard F. Vieth, author and theology professor, dead at 96
Richard F. Vieth, author and retired professor of systematic theology, died December 8, 2023, at the Lakeside nursing care facility at Willow Valley Senior Living Community. Vieth wrote many books including Muench 4 Kids, and was a long-time resident of Lancaster, PA. (Obituary by LNP Media Group Inc.)
Friedrich Muench Homestead for Sale
The price for the Friedrich Muench homestead in Dutzow, Mo., has dropped from $1.3 million to $849,000, according to realtor Debbie Mueller of Washington, Mo.
A group of Muench relatives applied to the State of Missouri in the hope that the state might purchase the property as a potential state historic site or as an add-on to the Deutschheim State Historic Site, but the application was refused. According to officials, at present, the state does not have enough budget to purchase real estate or to fund personnel and exhibits for such a project.
If a family member or group wanted to take on the property as a project, it could perhaps become a tribute to our "Latin Farmer" ancestors in Missouri. For more information, contact the Blondin Group Inc. listing agents: Tamara O'Laughlin, 314-750-2193, [email protected], and Amy Copeland, 314-304-2454, [email protected]. Or contact Debbie Mueller, Main Street Real Estate, 636-667-2313.
A group of Muench relatives applied to the State of Missouri in the hope that the state might purchase the property as a potential state historic site or as an add-on to the Deutschheim State Historic Site, but the application was refused. According to officials, at present, the state does not have enough budget to purchase real estate or to fund personnel and exhibits for such a project.
If a family member or group wanted to take on the property as a project, it could perhaps become a tribute to our "Latin Farmer" ancestors in Missouri. For more information, contact the Blondin Group Inc. listing agents: Tamara O'Laughlin, 314-750-2193, [email protected], and Amy Copeland, 314-304-2454, [email protected]. Or contact Debbie Mueller, Main Street Real Estate, 636-667-2313.
Dr. Karl H. Muench, famed geneticist and MFA genealogy chief, dead at 88
Dr. Karl Hugo Muench, retired professor of medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, died March 26, 2023, from multiple organ failure caused by underlying chronic lymphocytic leukemia at Mercy Hospital near his home in Coconut Grove. He was 88.
Karl’s memorial service was held April 22, 2023, at Plymouth Congregational Church in Miami, Fla.
In recent years, he served as the Muench Family Association’s chief genealogy officer tracking down descendants. When people contacted the association asking if they were connected to the Muench clan, Karl would make the determination.
Until last year, Dr. Muench served as a professor of medicine teaching genetics to students at the University of Miami, where he began as an instructor in 1965. Three years later, he became the first chief of the Division of Genetic Medicine, a position he held until 2009 alongside appointments in the departments of biochemistry and pediatrics. He would also serve as director of the sickle cell center, chief of the Gaucher disease treatment program, and head of the Ph.D.-to-M.D. program.
A beloved instructor to thousands of medical students, he served as the doctoral mentor for five candidates. He founded the original, required course in medical genetics at the University of Miami in 1975, and many of his students became lifelong friends stemming from the brown-bag lunches that he hosted after every lecture. He viewed his course in medical genetics as an introduction to all of medicine and blended science with traditional doctor-patient bonding and allusions that connected genetics to history, literature, art, sports, animals, and music. He received George Paff Awards for Teaching Excellence six times, was nominated for the award annually and was voted Best Basic Science Professor by the MD graduates in 1998. Published in 1988, his textbook, Genetic Medicine, was favorably reviewed by the New England Journal of Medicine and remains a staple for medical students.
Along with 12 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter, Karl is survived by his wife, Anyltha (“Any”) Muench; their son, Dr. Michael Muench, and daughter-in-law, Rebecca Duncan Muench; daughter, Natalie Muench Albainy, and son-in-law, Michael Albainy. Karl is also survived by daughters Julia Muench, with husband Kenneth Forrest; Laura Muench Escardo, with son-in-law Jose Escardo; and Anita Muench Poonawala, with son-in-law Karim Poonawalla.
Karl was born May 3, 1934, in Saint Louis, the son of attorney Albert F. and Virginia Kueter Muench. His siblings, including elder sister Ruth and younger brother Laurence, both died in 2001. In 1938 the family moved to Washington D.C., where Albert joined the U.S. Housing Authority. In 1942 Albert was assigned to the Chicago office, and the family settled in suburban Evanston.
A graduate of Evanston Township High School, Karl delivered the Evanston Review newspaper from age 10 to 18. He became an Eagle Scout, an ordeal member of the Order of the Arrow and served as an assistant scoutmaster as an adult in Miami. In high school, Karl lettered in cross-country and track. An excellent scholar, he was named editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper as a senior, and entered the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. At a Washington, D.C., banquet for the top 40 contenders, during a week filled with further examinations, visits with top scientists, and tours of the National Institutes of Health and other landmarks, he was named the first-place winner and received the Grand National Scholarship Award. He met President Harry Truman in the Oval Office at the White House and was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1952 Karl gave a valedictory address at his high school commencement. Accepted at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, he chose the latter and majored in chemistry. He graduated in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude; was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; and had his senior research thesis published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Accepting a scholarship to Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Karl was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society as a junior and served as its president as a senior. In 1960 Karl received the Borden Undergraduate Research Award and his medical degree, magna cum laude, a distinction granted only four times previously in the school’s history. In 1961, after an internship at Barnes Hospital in Saint Louis, Karl became a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, before joining the University of Miami faculty four years later.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Karl was named a Faculty Research Associate of the American Cancer Society, a Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine, and a Scholar of the Leukemia Society of America. He received a Research Career Development Award from the U.S. Public Health Service, became a Diplomate in Clinical Genetics of the American Board of Medical Genetics in 1982, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians in l985 and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics in 1993. In 2001, he was named the Inaugural Faculty Representative of the Council on Honorable and Professional Conduct.
He was a visiting scientist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University in Britain, a visiting scholar in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University and a Consultant in Medical Genetics to the Ministry of Public Health in Kuwait. He served on the editorial board of the Year Book of Cancer, the National Science Foundation Advisory Panel for Molecular Biology and the steering committee of the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease.
In lieu of flowers, donations in honor of Dr. Karl Muench may be made to Young Patronesses of the Opera (www.ypo-miami.org/donate) or Plymouth Congregational Church, 3400 Devon Road, Miami, FL 33133.
Karl’s memorial service was held April 22, 2023, at Plymouth Congregational Church in Miami, Fla.
In recent years, he served as the Muench Family Association’s chief genealogy officer tracking down descendants. When people contacted the association asking if they were connected to the Muench clan, Karl would make the determination.
Until last year, Dr. Muench served as a professor of medicine teaching genetics to students at the University of Miami, where he began as an instructor in 1965. Three years later, he became the first chief of the Division of Genetic Medicine, a position he held until 2009 alongside appointments in the departments of biochemistry and pediatrics. He would also serve as director of the sickle cell center, chief of the Gaucher disease treatment program, and head of the Ph.D.-to-M.D. program.
A beloved instructor to thousands of medical students, he served as the doctoral mentor for five candidates. He founded the original, required course in medical genetics at the University of Miami in 1975, and many of his students became lifelong friends stemming from the brown-bag lunches that he hosted after every lecture. He viewed his course in medical genetics as an introduction to all of medicine and blended science with traditional doctor-patient bonding and allusions that connected genetics to history, literature, art, sports, animals, and music. He received George Paff Awards for Teaching Excellence six times, was nominated for the award annually and was voted Best Basic Science Professor by the MD graduates in 1998. Published in 1988, his textbook, Genetic Medicine, was favorably reviewed by the New England Journal of Medicine and remains a staple for medical students.
Along with 12 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter, Karl is survived by his wife, Anyltha (“Any”) Muench; their son, Dr. Michael Muench, and daughter-in-law, Rebecca Duncan Muench; daughter, Natalie Muench Albainy, and son-in-law, Michael Albainy. Karl is also survived by daughters Julia Muench, with husband Kenneth Forrest; Laura Muench Escardo, with son-in-law Jose Escardo; and Anita Muench Poonawala, with son-in-law Karim Poonawalla.
Karl was born May 3, 1934, in Saint Louis, the son of attorney Albert F. and Virginia Kueter Muench. His siblings, including elder sister Ruth and younger brother Laurence, both died in 2001. In 1938 the family moved to Washington D.C., where Albert joined the U.S. Housing Authority. In 1942 Albert was assigned to the Chicago office, and the family settled in suburban Evanston.
A graduate of Evanston Township High School, Karl delivered the Evanston Review newspaper from age 10 to 18. He became an Eagle Scout, an ordeal member of the Order of the Arrow and served as an assistant scoutmaster as an adult in Miami. In high school, Karl lettered in cross-country and track. An excellent scholar, he was named editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper as a senior, and entered the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. At a Washington, D.C., banquet for the top 40 contenders, during a week filled with further examinations, visits with top scientists, and tours of the National Institutes of Health and other landmarks, he was named the first-place winner and received the Grand National Scholarship Award. He met President Harry Truman in the Oval Office at the White House and was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1952 Karl gave a valedictory address at his high school commencement. Accepted at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, he chose the latter and majored in chemistry. He graduated in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude; was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; and had his senior research thesis published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Accepting a scholarship to Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Karl was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society as a junior and served as its president as a senior. In 1960 Karl received the Borden Undergraduate Research Award and his medical degree, magna cum laude, a distinction granted only four times previously in the school’s history. In 1961, after an internship at Barnes Hospital in Saint Louis, Karl became a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, before joining the University of Miami faculty four years later.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Karl was named a Faculty Research Associate of the American Cancer Society, a Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine, and a Scholar of the Leukemia Society of America. He received a Research Career Development Award from the U.S. Public Health Service, became a Diplomate in Clinical Genetics of the American Board of Medical Genetics in 1982, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians in l985 and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics in 1993. In 2001, he was named the Inaugural Faculty Representative of the Council on Honorable and Professional Conduct.
He was a visiting scientist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University in Britain, a visiting scholar in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University and a Consultant in Medical Genetics to the Ministry of Public Health in Kuwait. He served on the editorial board of the Year Book of Cancer, the National Science Foundation Advisory Panel for Molecular Biology and the steering committee of the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease.
In lieu of flowers, donations in honor of Dr. Karl Muench may be made to Young Patronesses of the Opera (www.ypo-miami.org/donate) or Plymouth Congregational Church, 3400 Devon Road, Miami, FL 33133.
Memorial Service for Anita Mallinckrodt
Dr. Anita Mallinckrodt, town historian of Augusta, Mo., and a friend of the Muench Family Association, died January 7, 2019. Her memorial service was held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, before a standing-room-only crowd at the Legion Hall in Augusta, a building that used to be the Harmonieverein, which was the subject of one of her many books.
Several paid tribute to her memory including Cathie Schoppenhorst, curator of the Warren County Historical Society and a close personal friend.
An interesting fact that surprised some audience members was: as a strong supporter of civil rights, she attended the 1963 March on Washington where she heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream Speech" in person.
Her obituary is posted at: http://pitmanfuneralhome.com/view.php?id=4013.
Several paid tribute to her memory including Cathie Schoppenhorst, curator of the Warren County Historical Society and a close personal friend.
An interesting fact that surprised some audience members was: as a strong supporter of civil rights, she attended the 1963 March on Washington where she heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream Speech" in person.
Her obituary is posted at: http://pitmanfuneralhome.com/view.php?id=4013.
Muench Pronunciation Swayed 1860 Election
Karl Muench, M.D., finds new evidence in the story about how the pronunciation of our family name affected the 1860 campaign in Missouri for U.S. Senate. See the "Muench Folklore" page.
Historians, Muench team up to author new book about Missouri Germans
January 5, 2016
Three St. Louis area historians and a descendant of Friedrich Muench have written a newly published book about 19th-century German immigrants to Missouri.
Drawn from a series of presentations given by the authors last spring at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, “The Historic 1830s German Immigration to Missouri” by Anita M. Mallinckrodt, Marc Houseman, Cathie Schoppenhorst and James F. Muench, provides a clear understanding of German immigration and the culture they created upriver from St. Louis. Mallinckrodt, Houseman and Schoppenhorst are historians in the Missouri towns of Augusta, Washington and Marthasville, and Muench is a writer from Columbia, Mo., and the great-great-great grandson of Friedrich Muench.
The book’s authors drew on their family histories and extensive historical experience as curators of local history museums to write the new book. The authors discuss how the early immigrants followed the trail of Gottfried Duden, settled the land and transferred their European culture to Missouri.
The book also counteracts the premise of a foreign exhibit, which visited St. Louis last year, that implied the 1830s immigrants were “utopians” who created a utopian community in Missouri. “Missouri’s German immigrants were not looking to build a utopia but were simply searching for freedom, just like the immigrants of today,” James F. Muench said.
Published by Footnoted Legacies Ltd. of Augusta, Mo., the book costs $10 plus postage. It can be purchased from the printer, B&J Printing of Washington, Mo., www.bjprintingonline.com, 636-239-3512. It is also available from the history societies in Augusta, 636-228-4821; Marthasville, 636-359-6175; St. Charles, 636-946-9828; and Washington, 636-239-0280; or from Far West Enterprises in Columbia, Mo., 573-864-0484, [email protected] or www.jamesfmuench.com.
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Three St. Louis area historians and a descendant of Friedrich Muench have written a newly published book about 19th-century German immigrants to Missouri.
Drawn from a series of presentations given by the authors last spring at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, “The Historic 1830s German Immigration to Missouri” by Anita M. Mallinckrodt, Marc Houseman, Cathie Schoppenhorst and James F. Muench, provides a clear understanding of German immigration and the culture they created upriver from St. Louis. Mallinckrodt, Houseman and Schoppenhorst are historians in the Missouri towns of Augusta, Washington and Marthasville, and Muench is a writer from Columbia, Mo., and the great-great-great grandson of Friedrich Muench.
The book’s authors drew on their family histories and extensive historical experience as curators of local history museums to write the new book. The authors discuss how the early immigrants followed the trail of Gottfried Duden, settled the land and transferred their European culture to Missouri.
The book also counteracts the premise of a foreign exhibit, which visited St. Louis last year, that implied the 1830s immigrants were “utopians” who created a utopian community in Missouri. “Missouri’s German immigrants were not looking to build a utopia but were simply searching for freedom, just like the immigrants of today,” James F. Muench said.
Published by Footnoted Legacies Ltd. of Augusta, Mo., the book costs $10 plus postage. It can be purchased from the printer, B&J Printing of Washington, Mo., www.bjprintingonline.com, 636-239-3512. It is also available from the history societies in Augusta, 636-228-4821; Marthasville, 636-359-6175; St. Charles, 636-946-9828; and Washington, 636-239-0280; or from Far West Enterprises in Columbia, Mo., 573-864-0484, [email protected] or www.jamesfmuench.com.
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New Book on Muenches Published
March 14, 2015
Richard Vieth's Adventure into Hope: the Founding and Fate of the Giessen Emigration Society and its Organizers, Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius, is now available as an e-book on Amazon for $4.99.
The book explains the historical and political circumstances leading Germans to emigrate en masse to the U.S. in the 1830s, the Giessen Society's bold plan to establish a German democratic state in America, the voyage to Missouri and ultimate demise of the society, and the subsequent adventures of Muench and Follenius in America.
Originally delivered as two lectures in 2014, the tightly-written book tells the remarkable stories of Muench, Follenius, and the Giessen Emigration Society in a nutshell.
Vieth is the great-great-grandson of Friedrich Muench.
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Richard Vieth's Adventure into Hope: the Founding and Fate of the Giessen Emigration Society and its Organizers, Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius, is now available as an e-book on Amazon for $4.99.
The book explains the historical and political circumstances leading Germans to emigrate en masse to the U.S. in the 1830s, the Giessen Society's bold plan to establish a German democratic state in America, the voyage to Missouri and ultimate demise of the society, and the subsequent adventures of Muench and Follenius in America.
Originally delivered as two lectures in 2014, the tightly-written book tells the remarkable stories of Muench, Follenius, and the Giessen Emigration Society in a nutshell.
Vieth is the great-great-grandson of Friedrich Muench.
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News Release: "Utopia" to Open; Controversy Continues
November 18, 2014
A new exhibit opening this weekend in St. Louis about the Muench family has generated angst amongst local historians and the group’s descendants.
The Utopia exhibit, which opens November 22 at the Missouri History Museum, celebrates the Giessen Emigration Society’s voyage to America, along with an accompanying film premiere and book rollout. In 1834 Friedrich Muench and his brother-in-law, Paul Follenius, brought 500 German immigrants to Missouri. Muench and Follenius wanted to live in the freedom provided by American democracy and hoped to prove that Germans could live in a democratic system.
Unfortunately, according to a group of St. Louis area historians, the Utopia exhibit presents a false interpretation of the group’s history. The exhibit implies that Muench and his brother-in-law planned to build a utopia. While the Muench family appreciates the attention the exhibit has brought to its ancestors and their difficult journey to America, many object to the depiction of their ancestors as utopians, said James F. Muench, provisional chairman of the Muench Family Association and Friedrich Muench’s great-great-great grandson.
“My ancestors could be called liberals or idealists – even Jeffersonians – but they were not utopians,” James F. Muench said. “They wanted to work within the U.S. democratic system, not create some separate entity. They simply wanted to live in a free, democratic society.”
As promoters of the exhibit freely admit, the word “utopia” was not used by the Giesseners to describe their goals; instead, it was used as an epithet by a detractor in Germany to describe the group. “Allowing a snide critic to define the Giessen Society’s goals is a bit like letting Sheriff Jim Clark or George Wallace define the goals of the civil rights movement,” Muench said.
The term, “utopia,” is used to describe religious movements such as the Shakers, Mormons and Oneidans, which blended communal living with elements of Christianity. Dictionary definitions of the word tend to highlight imaginary places where society has reached perfection. First used by Sir Thomas More in a 1516 book, the term since then has taken on sinister connotations from the world of science fiction in which utopias usually turn out to be dystopias such as those depicted in “Metropolis” and “Blade Runner.”
The Giessen Society, which died on arrival in America, did not share any of these characteristics, Muench said. In contrast, Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius were practical men who believed in the ideals of the Enlightenment, the philosophical movement that revered reason. Friedrich Muench, a Lutheran pastor who said it was more important to build schools than churches, and Follenius, a lawyer, saw the U.S. constitutional government as an experiment in enlightened government and wanted to be part of it.
They longed for freedom that Germany’s authoritarian principalities of their day would not give. Friedrich Muench wrote at the time that the Giesseners were simply traveling to “the land where freedom shines.”
“They left Germany to find political freedom, just like most other immigrants – even those of today,” James F. Muench said. “It may be an idealistic dream, but it hardly rates as a ‘utopian’ one.”
“I’m proud that a multimedia company such as the German Travelling Summer Republic is interested in the story of the Muenches and the Giessen Society,” Muench said. “I just wish they would get the history right.”
“It would have been nice if they had done their homework and consulted with local historians who have long studied and truly understand the legacy of my ancestors,” he said. “Unfortunately, flashy fiction often plays better than historical truth in today’s media environment.”
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A new exhibit opening this weekend in St. Louis about the Muench family has generated angst amongst local historians and the group’s descendants.
The Utopia exhibit, which opens November 22 at the Missouri History Museum, celebrates the Giessen Emigration Society’s voyage to America, along with an accompanying film premiere and book rollout. In 1834 Friedrich Muench and his brother-in-law, Paul Follenius, brought 500 German immigrants to Missouri. Muench and Follenius wanted to live in the freedom provided by American democracy and hoped to prove that Germans could live in a democratic system.
Unfortunately, according to a group of St. Louis area historians, the Utopia exhibit presents a false interpretation of the group’s history. The exhibit implies that Muench and his brother-in-law planned to build a utopia. While the Muench family appreciates the attention the exhibit has brought to its ancestors and their difficult journey to America, many object to the depiction of their ancestors as utopians, said James F. Muench, provisional chairman of the Muench Family Association and Friedrich Muench’s great-great-great grandson.
“My ancestors could be called liberals or idealists – even Jeffersonians – but they were not utopians,” James F. Muench said. “They wanted to work within the U.S. democratic system, not create some separate entity. They simply wanted to live in a free, democratic society.”
As promoters of the exhibit freely admit, the word “utopia” was not used by the Giesseners to describe their goals; instead, it was used as an epithet by a detractor in Germany to describe the group. “Allowing a snide critic to define the Giessen Society’s goals is a bit like letting Sheriff Jim Clark or George Wallace define the goals of the civil rights movement,” Muench said.
The term, “utopia,” is used to describe religious movements such as the Shakers, Mormons and Oneidans, which blended communal living with elements of Christianity. Dictionary definitions of the word tend to highlight imaginary places where society has reached perfection. First used by Sir Thomas More in a 1516 book, the term since then has taken on sinister connotations from the world of science fiction in which utopias usually turn out to be dystopias such as those depicted in “Metropolis” and “Blade Runner.”
The Giessen Society, which died on arrival in America, did not share any of these characteristics, Muench said. In contrast, Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius were practical men who believed in the ideals of the Enlightenment, the philosophical movement that revered reason. Friedrich Muench, a Lutheran pastor who said it was more important to build schools than churches, and Follenius, a lawyer, saw the U.S. constitutional government as an experiment in enlightened government and wanted to be part of it.
They longed for freedom that Germany’s authoritarian principalities of their day would not give. Friedrich Muench wrote at the time that the Giesseners were simply traveling to “the land where freedom shines.”
“They left Germany to find political freedom, just like most other immigrants – even those of today,” James F. Muench said. “It may be an idealistic dream, but it hardly rates as a ‘utopian’ one.”
“I’m proud that a multimedia company such as the German Travelling Summer Republic is interested in the story of the Muenches and the Giessen Society,” Muench said. “I just wish they would get the history right.”
“It would have been nice if they had done their homework and consulted with local historians who have long studied and truly understand the legacy of my ancestors,” he said. “Unfortunately, flashy fiction often plays better than historical truth in today’s media environment.”
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News Release: "Utopia" Exhibit Spurs Controversy
Sept. 2, 2014
As the nation struggles with immigration issues today, an exhibit about German immigrants of the past has generated mixed feelings amongst their descendants and local historians in Missouri.
The "Utopia" exhibit, which opens Sept. 6 at the German-American Heritage Museum in Washington, D.C., celebrates the Giessen Emigration Society’s 1834 voyage to America. The society’s organizers brought 500 German immigrants to the U.S. and hoped to prove that Germans could live in a democracy.
While the Muenches appreciate the attention the exhibit is giving to its ancestors and their difficult journey to America, many family members object to the depiction of their ancestors as utopians, said James F. Muench, provisional chairman of the Muench Family Association.
“My ancestors were not utopians; they were Jeffersonians,” Muench said. “They simply wanted to live in a free, democratic society.”
As promoters of the exhibit freely admit, the word “utopia” was not used by the Giesseners to describe their goals; instead, the word was used as an epithet by a detractor in Germany. “It’s a bit like letting Sheriff Jim Clark or George Wallace define the goals of the civil rights movement,” Muench said.
Dictionary definitions of “utopia” tend to highlight imaginary places where society has reached perfection. First used by Sir Thomas More in a 1516 book describing such a place, the term since then has taken on sinister connotations from the world of science fiction in which utopias usually turn out to be dystopias such as those depicted in “Metropolis” and “Blade Runner.”
In contrast, Giessen Society leaders Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius were practical men, a Lutheran pastor and a lawyer, who by experience and conviction would never have believed people were perfect, James F. Muench said. The nature of their professions alone would have precluded such an idea.
Friedrich Muench wrote at the time that the Giesseners were simply traveling to “the land where freedom shines.” “They left Germany to find political freedom, just like most other immigrants,” James F. Muench said. “That hardly rates as a ‘utopian dream.’”
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As the nation struggles with immigration issues today, an exhibit about German immigrants of the past has generated mixed feelings amongst their descendants and local historians in Missouri.
The "Utopia" exhibit, which opens Sept. 6 at the German-American Heritage Museum in Washington, D.C., celebrates the Giessen Emigration Society’s 1834 voyage to America. The society’s organizers brought 500 German immigrants to the U.S. and hoped to prove that Germans could live in a democracy.
While the Muenches appreciate the attention the exhibit is giving to its ancestors and their difficult journey to America, many family members object to the depiction of their ancestors as utopians, said James F. Muench, provisional chairman of the Muench Family Association.
“My ancestors were not utopians; they were Jeffersonians,” Muench said. “They simply wanted to live in a free, democratic society.”
As promoters of the exhibit freely admit, the word “utopia” was not used by the Giesseners to describe their goals; instead, the word was used as an epithet by a detractor in Germany. “It’s a bit like letting Sheriff Jim Clark or George Wallace define the goals of the civil rights movement,” Muench said.
Dictionary definitions of “utopia” tend to highlight imaginary places where society has reached perfection. First used by Sir Thomas More in a 1516 book describing such a place, the term since then has taken on sinister connotations from the world of science fiction in which utopias usually turn out to be dystopias such as those depicted in “Metropolis” and “Blade Runner.”
In contrast, Giessen Society leaders Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius were practical men, a Lutheran pastor and a lawyer, who by experience and conviction would never have believed people were perfect, James F. Muench said. The nature of their professions alone would have precluded such an idea.
Friedrich Muench wrote at the time that the Giesseners were simply traveling to “the land where freedom shines.” “They left Germany to find political freedom, just like most other immigrants,” James F. Muench said. “That hardly rates as a ‘utopian dream.’”
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Mini Reunion and Utopia Visit Planned for DC
Revised Sept. 2, 2014
Richard Vieth has planned a mini Muench reunion on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014, in Washington, D.C., to meet and view the Utopia exhibit about the Giessen Emigration Society’s voyage and impact on the United States.
The event begins with lunch at 11:30 a.m. at Mozart Cafe. At 2 p.m., the group will meet at the German-American Heritage Museum for an orientation with Peter Roloff and Dorris Keeven-Franke and then view the Utopia exhibit until 5 p.m., when the museum closes.
Muench family members and children are welcome, as are other Giesseners who would like to attend, organizers said. In order to plan for the event, an RSVP is requested.
“The exhibition actually opens on Saturday, Sept. 6, so if you're in D.C. that weekend and want more time to absorb the exhibition, you could begin on Saturday--it's free!” Vieth said.
Family members who would like to attend, but who have not yet shared their contact information with the Muench Family Association are encouraged to contact the MFA, either through the contact form on the website or by email to Jim Muench, provisional chairman.
“In fact, the MFA needs the contact information of any Muench, even if he or she cannot attend this particular event,” Muench said. “For the sake of planning future family reunions, if you have not yet contacted the MFA, please do so. A large family reunion event is not possible until we get more family members in the database.”
In addition, so that a family tree may be created to show relationships among those attending, the organizers request that family members provide their line of descent and offspring. If you do not know whether or how you are connected to our branch of the Muenches, please provide as much information as you can via the contact form on the Muench Family Association website, or by email to Jim Muench, and the MFA will attempt to ascertain your family connection.
“While the attachment of the word ‘utopia’ to the project has sparked some controversy among Muench Family Association members,” Muench said, “events such as this exhibit that bring attention to the positive contributions of our ancestors and that bring us together should receive our support nevertheless.”
Educated in the ideals of the Enlightenment, Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius led the Giessen society to America in order to make a better life for themselves and to display the benefits of life in a free and democratic society to their homeland and its people. Some have interpreted these actions as a desire to create a “utopia.” Others dispute that notion because the term may give the impression that the practical actions of Muench and Follenius were akin to science fiction or fantasy visions of the future such as those in Brave New World or Metropolis.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Muench said. “The brothers simply wanted something better for themselves and their families than the repressive, medieval society they left behind. Unfortunately, Germany took a different road, and it took two world wars to fully integrate it into the democratic community of nations. Meanwhile, the Giessen society’s immigrants changed the course of the United States and helped it more fully realize its democratic ideals.”
###
Richard Vieth has planned a mini Muench reunion on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014, in Washington, D.C., to meet and view the Utopia exhibit about the Giessen Emigration Society’s voyage and impact on the United States.
The event begins with lunch at 11:30 a.m. at Mozart Cafe. At 2 p.m., the group will meet at the German-American Heritage Museum for an orientation with Peter Roloff and Dorris Keeven-Franke and then view the Utopia exhibit until 5 p.m., when the museum closes.
Muench family members and children are welcome, as are other Giesseners who would like to attend, organizers said. In order to plan for the event, an RSVP is requested.
“The exhibition actually opens on Saturday, Sept. 6, so if you're in D.C. that weekend and want more time to absorb the exhibition, you could begin on Saturday--it's free!” Vieth said.
Family members who would like to attend, but who have not yet shared their contact information with the Muench Family Association are encouraged to contact the MFA, either through the contact form on the website or by email to Jim Muench, provisional chairman.
“In fact, the MFA needs the contact information of any Muench, even if he or she cannot attend this particular event,” Muench said. “For the sake of planning future family reunions, if you have not yet contacted the MFA, please do so. A large family reunion event is not possible until we get more family members in the database.”
In addition, so that a family tree may be created to show relationships among those attending, the organizers request that family members provide their line of descent and offspring. If you do not know whether or how you are connected to our branch of the Muenches, please provide as much information as you can via the contact form on the Muench Family Association website, or by email to Jim Muench, and the MFA will attempt to ascertain your family connection.
“While the attachment of the word ‘utopia’ to the project has sparked some controversy among Muench Family Association members,” Muench said, “events such as this exhibit that bring attention to the positive contributions of our ancestors and that bring us together should receive our support nevertheless.”
Educated in the ideals of the Enlightenment, Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius led the Giessen society to America in order to make a better life for themselves and to display the benefits of life in a free and democratic society to their homeland and its people. Some have interpreted these actions as a desire to create a “utopia.” Others dispute that notion because the term may give the impression that the practical actions of Muench and Follenius were akin to science fiction or fantasy visions of the future such as those in Brave New World or Metropolis.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Muench said. “The brothers simply wanted something better for themselves and their families than the repressive, medieval society they left behind. Unfortunately, Germany took a different road, and it took two world wars to fully integrate it into the democratic community of nations. Meanwhile, the Giessen society’s immigrants changed the course of the United States and helped it more fully realize its democratic ideals.”
###
Proper Manors
February 28, 2014
"Proper Manors" is a racy TV series on the Web about the small town of Proper that features Jon Muench in the role of the town's mayor. The link to the series is: http://propermanors.tv/.
"Proper Manors" is a racy TV series on the Web about the small town of Proper that features Jon Muench in the role of the town's mayor. The link to the series is: http://propermanors.tv/.
Tolzmann Works Posted
December 20, 2013
Announcement: Works by author/editor Don Heinrich Tolzmann, a new friend of the Muench Family Association, former president of the Society for German-American Studies and retired director of the German-American Studies Program at the University of Cincinnati, have been posted on the MFA website under the "History" tab under "Muench-Related Publications." They are particularly informative as to the character of Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius. Enjoy!
###
Announcement: Works by author/editor Don Heinrich Tolzmann, a new friend of the Muench Family Association, former president of the Society for German-American Studies and retired director of the German-American Studies Program at the University of Cincinnati, have been posted on the MFA website under the "History" tab under "Muench-Related Publications." They are particularly informative as to the character of Friedrich Muench and Paul Follenius. Enjoy!
###
Mini Reunion Postponed
December 16, 2013
Announcement: The mini Muench reunion scheduled for December 27, to be hosted by Melissa Mitchell in St. Louis, will be postponed until early summer. Too many have responded that they cannot attend. However, Muenches are encouraged to find fun ways to reconnect with relatives in their local areas.
###
Announcement: The mini Muench reunion scheduled for December 27, to be hosted by Melissa Mitchell in St. Louis, will be postponed until early summer. Too many have responded that they cannot attend. However, Muenches are encouraged to find fun ways to reconnect with relatives in their local areas.
###
Roosevelt Connection Discovered
Dec. 10, 2013
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In recent family research, Karl Muench, M.D., discovered that the Muenches are connected by marriage to the Roosevelt family.
Marie Muench Follenius, the sister of Friedrich and Georg Muench, and her daughter, Mathilda Follenius Lange, had nine children each. One of Mathilda’s children with William Lange was Adelheid Lange, who in 1905 married Cornelius Louis Andre Roosevelt, a filmmaker and cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt. They were later divorced.
For more information, see the Presidential Connection page under the Genealogy tab.
###
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In recent family research, Karl Muench, M.D., discovered that the Muenches are connected by marriage to the Roosevelt family.
Marie Muench Follenius, the sister of Friedrich and Georg Muench, and her daughter, Mathilda Follenius Lange, had nine children each. One of Mathilda’s children with William Lange was Adelheid Lange, who in 1905 married Cornelius Louis Andre Roosevelt, a filmmaker and cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt. They were later divorced.
For more information, see the Presidential Connection page under the Genealogy tab.
###
Charlie Muench Story Picked Up by Alma Mater
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Jim Muench's story about Westminster College alumnus Charlie Muench, who invented Goop, is now featured on the college's website.
See the WC story at http://news.westminster-mo.edu/alumni-friends/the-story-of-charlie-muench-goop/. The original is posted under the Family Lore tab: "A Great Inventor."
###
See the WC story at http://news.westminster-mo.edu/alumni-friends/the-story-of-charlie-muench-goop/. The original is posted under the Family Lore tab: "A Great Inventor."
###
An Appeal for Funds to Restore the Muench Portraits
December 5, 2013
By Iris Roberts:
Several years ago, my husband, Tim, and I visited the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, in order to view the portraits of Friedrich and Luisa (Fritz) Muench, Friederich's second wife. I am a Muench descendant.
I cannot remember whether my mother had told me about the portraits' existence or whether I first learned about them from a book on her shelf, Charles van Ravenswaay's _The Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri_, where the portraits are prominently pictured in the un-numbered, colored pages of the preface (5th page); again, in black and white, on page 488; and then, on page 486, where van Ravenswaay describes them and several others in the following way:
"Fine arts brought into the area [of central Missouri] consisted of a small number of portraits, a few religious paintings, and some miniatures, drawings, and water colors. Of the surviving works the portraits are the most interesting. They were painted in oil by men of competent professional abilities in the neoclassic and later romantic styles fashionable in Germany and Western Europe during the early nineteenth century...The portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Friedrich Muench, presumably [since verified] painted in their home in Upper Hessia, show the minister in his study and his wife by a window overlooking her garden....."
I was intrigued that van Ravenswaay, a former director of each of the following institutions, the Missouri Historical Society, Old Sturbridge Village, and Winterthur, would describe this small collection of German oil portraits as "fine art" and "interesting"....and when I saw the Muench portraits, I had an insight as to why. That extra nuance that one receives from viewing a work of art compared to a photograph of the same was there! I was so touched and happy to see the faces and to contemplate the items in the rooms, details that someone, the portraitist or the Muenches themselves, chose to have represented that reflected what they considered important. These portraits, then, are not only documents of family history, but they are primary source documents from the early 1800's, as well. The MIssouri History Museum in St. Louis has used them in three exhibitions over the past several years.
The German film company, Maxim, several summers ago, filmed in Germany and then in Central Missouri to chronicle the journey of the Giessen Immigration Society for their documentary, _A Trip to a Forgotten Utopia._ This film company has designed a traveling international exhibition that our own Carol Muench has helped to launch in Giessen just this fall (2013). The portraits have been invited to join this exhibition when it comes to the Missouri History Museum in Saint Louis in November of 2014. For more information about this exhibition go to utopia-exhibit.net
So, just as their charm and worth as historical documents is apparent, so is their age! Areas of both portraits have paint that is peeling and sloughing off. The artist's signature might be decipherable with restoration, but without restoration, this attribution could be totally lost at some point. To be in yet one more exhibition will require special display "packaging" because of their fragility.
One could argue that the museum has a responsibility to conserve what artifacts they accept, but one could also argue that families who donate their treasures have some responsibility over time to support the institutions that accept and conserve their family artifacts. Museums have very real budget constraints with complex variables; they can only conserve a whole collection to the extent that available money allows--and deterioration throughout a whole collection is ongoing and is expensive to arrest.
Both my husband and I believe that these Muench portraits are important enough to conserve through a quality restoration that should be done soon. They would then be restored for the next 200 years for our descendants and others, all of whom could profit from knowing about these brave, upright immigrants who not only dreamed of utopia, but who also took action for their beliefs--such as the abolition of slavery. They were people of culture and learning, who not only had a deep sense of enjoying the pleasures of working hard and enjoying a good life uprightly lived but who also endured with strength and resolve hardships and losses that their new circumstances brought. Our children and others can learn much from the stories of their lives.
(Richard Vieth's book, _Muench 4 Kids_ is a wonderful contemporary resource as is the family web site that was created and is being managed by James Muench : www.muenchfamilyassociation.com) please register on this site and join us!
Also, please consider joining us in this worthwhile effort to conserve and thus preserve an important part of not only of family history but also an important part of state, national, and international history by making your contribution to the Portrait Restoration Fund. All contributions are being matched; all contributions are tax-deductible--and no contribution is too small.
If you have already made a contribution toward the restoration of these wonderful portraits, to all fellow contributors, thank you! Some family members are making "serial" contributions by requesting that birthday and holiday celebrations be recognized with gifts to the restoration fund.
You may call Nellie LaVigne at the Missouri History Museum at (314) 454-3195 for more information, or send a check with your tax-deductible donation to
Missouri History Museum
PO Box 11940
Saint Louis, MO 63112-0040
Attention: Nellie LaVigne
Please attach a note with the check that the donation is for the Muench Portrait Restoration Fund, and be sure to include your address and email address if you care to. It is important that the museum be able to contact you to acknowledge the contribution. Labeling the purpose on the check is good to do also.
You may check either the family web site at www.muenchfamilyassociation.com or check the Missouri History Museum's site for information as to how the fund is growing and the extent of our goal. A list of contributors by category will appear at the completion of the project.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Iris M. (Buchholz) Roberts
By Iris Roberts:
Several years ago, my husband, Tim, and I visited the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, in order to view the portraits of Friedrich and Luisa (Fritz) Muench, Friederich's second wife. I am a Muench descendant.
I cannot remember whether my mother had told me about the portraits' existence or whether I first learned about them from a book on her shelf, Charles van Ravenswaay's _The Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri_, where the portraits are prominently pictured in the un-numbered, colored pages of the preface (5th page); again, in black and white, on page 488; and then, on page 486, where van Ravenswaay describes them and several others in the following way:
"Fine arts brought into the area [of central Missouri] consisted of a small number of portraits, a few religious paintings, and some miniatures, drawings, and water colors. Of the surviving works the portraits are the most interesting. They were painted in oil by men of competent professional abilities in the neoclassic and later romantic styles fashionable in Germany and Western Europe during the early nineteenth century...The portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Friedrich Muench, presumably [since verified] painted in their home in Upper Hessia, show the minister in his study and his wife by a window overlooking her garden....."
I was intrigued that van Ravenswaay, a former director of each of the following institutions, the Missouri Historical Society, Old Sturbridge Village, and Winterthur, would describe this small collection of German oil portraits as "fine art" and "interesting"....and when I saw the Muench portraits, I had an insight as to why. That extra nuance that one receives from viewing a work of art compared to a photograph of the same was there! I was so touched and happy to see the faces and to contemplate the items in the rooms, details that someone, the portraitist or the Muenches themselves, chose to have represented that reflected what they considered important. These portraits, then, are not only documents of family history, but they are primary source documents from the early 1800's, as well. The MIssouri History Museum in St. Louis has used them in three exhibitions over the past several years.
The German film company, Maxim, several summers ago, filmed in Germany and then in Central Missouri to chronicle the journey of the Giessen Immigration Society for their documentary, _A Trip to a Forgotten Utopia._ This film company has designed a traveling international exhibition that our own Carol Muench has helped to launch in Giessen just this fall (2013). The portraits have been invited to join this exhibition when it comes to the Missouri History Museum in Saint Louis in November of 2014. For more information about this exhibition go to utopia-exhibit.net
So, just as their charm and worth as historical documents is apparent, so is their age! Areas of both portraits have paint that is peeling and sloughing off. The artist's signature might be decipherable with restoration, but without restoration, this attribution could be totally lost at some point. To be in yet one more exhibition will require special display "packaging" because of their fragility.
One could argue that the museum has a responsibility to conserve what artifacts they accept, but one could also argue that families who donate their treasures have some responsibility over time to support the institutions that accept and conserve their family artifacts. Museums have very real budget constraints with complex variables; they can only conserve a whole collection to the extent that available money allows--and deterioration throughout a whole collection is ongoing and is expensive to arrest.
Both my husband and I believe that these Muench portraits are important enough to conserve through a quality restoration that should be done soon. They would then be restored for the next 200 years for our descendants and others, all of whom could profit from knowing about these brave, upright immigrants who not only dreamed of utopia, but who also took action for their beliefs--such as the abolition of slavery. They were people of culture and learning, who not only had a deep sense of enjoying the pleasures of working hard and enjoying a good life uprightly lived but who also endured with strength and resolve hardships and losses that their new circumstances brought. Our children and others can learn much from the stories of their lives.
(Richard Vieth's book, _Muench 4 Kids_ is a wonderful contemporary resource as is the family web site that was created and is being managed by James Muench : www.muenchfamilyassociation.com) please register on this site and join us!
Also, please consider joining us in this worthwhile effort to conserve and thus preserve an important part of not only of family history but also an important part of state, national, and international history by making your contribution to the Portrait Restoration Fund. All contributions are being matched; all contributions are tax-deductible--and no contribution is too small.
If you have already made a contribution toward the restoration of these wonderful portraits, to all fellow contributors, thank you! Some family members are making "serial" contributions by requesting that birthday and holiday celebrations be recognized with gifts to the restoration fund.
You may call Nellie LaVigne at the Missouri History Museum at (314) 454-3195 for more information, or send a check with your tax-deductible donation to
Missouri History Museum
PO Box 11940
Saint Louis, MO 63112-0040
Attention: Nellie LaVigne
Please attach a note with the check that the donation is for the Muench Portrait Restoration Fund, and be sure to include your address and email address if you care to. It is important that the museum be able to contact you to acknowledge the contribution. Labeling the purpose on the check is good to do also.
You may check either the family web site at www.muenchfamilyassociation.com or check the Missouri History Museum's site for information as to how the fund is growing and the extent of our goal. A list of contributors by category will appear at the completion of the project.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Iris M. (Buchholz) Roberts
Portrait Restoration Fund Tops $7,300, $2,300 to Go
November 27, 2013
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Iris Roberts reports that the portrait restoration fund now totals $7,315, leaving $2,685 to go to restore the 2-foot by 4-foot paintings of Friedrich and Luisa Muench.
“The end of the year is a good time to give,” said Roberts, leader of the restoration effort. “Contributions are tax deductible, and are being matched, so it doubles the effect of your gift.”
Contributions or correspondence may be sent to the attention of Nellie LaVigne, development coordinator for the Missouri History Museum, P.O. Box 11940, St. Louis, MO 63112-0040. LaVigne can be reached by phone at 314-454-3195, or by email at [email protected]. Roberts asked that givers indicate that the contribution should go to the Muench Portrait Fund by writing that message on the check itself, through an accompanying note, or preferably both.
“The portraits are really special, they reflect the Missouri German influence on our state’s history and they are uniquely tied to the coming Utopia exhibit,” LaVigne said. “The story of the portraits is really special. By conserving them, we’ll finally be able to tell that story.”
###
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Iris Roberts reports that the portrait restoration fund now totals $7,315, leaving $2,685 to go to restore the 2-foot by 4-foot paintings of Friedrich and Luisa Muench.
“The end of the year is a good time to give,” said Roberts, leader of the restoration effort. “Contributions are tax deductible, and are being matched, so it doubles the effect of your gift.”
Contributions or correspondence may be sent to the attention of Nellie LaVigne, development coordinator for the Missouri History Museum, P.O. Box 11940, St. Louis, MO 63112-0040. LaVigne can be reached by phone at 314-454-3195, or by email at [email protected]. Roberts asked that givers indicate that the contribution should go to the Muench Portrait Fund by writing that message on the check itself, through an accompanying note, or preferably both.
“The portraits are really special, they reflect the Missouri German influence on our state’s history and they are uniquely tied to the coming Utopia exhibit,” LaVigne said. “The story of the portraits is really special. By conserving them, we’ll finally be able to tell that story.”
###
Utopia Update: Germany Takes Notice
November 27, 2013
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Utopia exhibit and tour has generated media interest in Germany.
After a successful run in Giessen, the Utopia crew and Carol Muench on Nov. 22 visited the Hanseatic town of Bremen. The Giessen Society emigrated from Bremen’s port of Bremerhaven in 1834.
For example, German interest can be seen in television news reports such as this clip about Carol Muench's visit in Nieder-Gemünden from the website of the TV program "Hauptsache Kultur."
###
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Utopia exhibit and tour has generated media interest in Germany.
After a successful run in Giessen, the Utopia crew and Carol Muench on Nov. 22 visited the Hanseatic town of Bremen. The Giessen Society emigrated from Bremen’s port of Bremerhaven in 1834.
For example, German interest can be seen in television news reports such as this clip about Carol Muench's visit in Nieder-Gemünden from the website of the TV program "Hauptsache Kultur."
###
Carol Muench Reports on Giessen "Utopia" Exhibit
GIESSEN, Germany (from Carol Muench) -- The exhibition gala grand opening was simply wunderbar!! I arrived 2 days before it opened & got to watch all the last minute hurrying about & actually helped in some very small ways.
Peter asked me to host a kaffeeklatsch on Sunday afternoon, which I did reluctantly, but it was not too bad. Sunday a.m., we headed for Nieder Gemuenden with a T.V. camera in the back seat of our car filming & interviewing me all the way there & before service. Pastor Schill is very interested in F.M., Giessen Immig. Soc. & Utopia & Peter said he did quite a lot of advertising during service. He was at the grand opening on Fri. night & my kaffeeklatsch on Sunday as well. On the return trip from N.G., the T.V. crew were in the van in front of us filming us all the way back to Giessen & interviewed Peter for an hour after we got back to the exhibition hall.
I will try to be in touch after I return home 29 Nov.
--Carol Muench
Peter asked me to host a kaffeeklatsch on Sunday afternoon, which I did reluctantly, but it was not too bad. Sunday a.m., we headed for Nieder Gemuenden with a T.V. camera in the back seat of our car filming & interviewing me all the way there & before service. Pastor Schill is very interested in F.M., Giessen Immig. Soc. & Utopia & Peter said he did quite a lot of advertising during service. He was at the grand opening on Fri. night & my kaffeeklatsch on Sunday as well. On the return trip from N.G., the T.V. crew were in the van in front of us filming us all the way back to Giessen & interviewed Peter for an hour after we got back to the exhibition hall.
I will try to be in touch after I return home 29 Nov.
--Carol Muench
Muench Mini-Reunion Set for Dec. 27
The Magic Tree, Columbia, Mo.
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Melissa Mitchell plans to host a holiday Muench "Mini-Reunion" at 6 p.m. Fri., Dec. 27, at her home in St. Louis.
Mitchell said she hopes many relatives will attend to get to know other Muenches. "The more the merrier," she said.
For more information, use the MFA contact form or contact Melissa Mitchell, 314-941-5452 or [email protected].
###
--Jim Muench, Oct. 28, 2013
Mitchell said she hopes many relatives will attend to get to know other Muenches. "The more the merrier," she said.
For more information, use the MFA contact form or contact Melissa Mitchell, 314-941-5452 or [email protected].
###
--Jim Muench, Oct. 28, 2013
"Utopia!" Exhibit Moves Toward Launch
The Traveling Summer Republic team is preparing the "Utopia!" exhibit for its opening weekend Nov. 1-3 in Giessen, Germany. See the story below or www.utopia-exhibit.net for more information.
German-American Exhibit Tour to Launch Nov. 1 in Giessen
An edited email message from The Traveling Summer Republic:
With an extensive calendar of events, the Traveling Summer Republic team is ready for the opening weekend from November 1 to 3. In addition to the ceremonious opening of the exhibition„ "Utopia!" by Giessen Mayor Dietlind Grabe-Bolz and project leaders Dr. Ludwig Brake, Oliver Behnecke and Peter Roloff, at 5 p.m. Nov. 1, the program contains readings, guided tours, lectures and the grand opening of a very special travel agency.
Two guests from the U.S. plan to be present. Archivist and author Dorris Keeven-Franke will speak about German immigrants in Missouri, and descendant Carol Muench will report on Missouri today.
For more information, see www.utopia-exhibit.net, where visitors can find new photos and information about the exhibit.
--The Traveling Summer Republic Team
With an extensive calendar of events, the Traveling Summer Republic team is ready for the opening weekend from November 1 to 3. In addition to the ceremonious opening of the exhibition„ "Utopia!" by Giessen Mayor Dietlind Grabe-Bolz and project leaders Dr. Ludwig Brake, Oliver Behnecke and Peter Roloff, at 5 p.m. Nov. 1, the program contains readings, guided tours, lectures and the grand opening of a very special travel agency.
Two guests from the U.S. plan to be present. Archivist and author Dorris Keeven-Franke will speak about German immigrants in Missouri, and descendant Carol Muench will report on Missouri today.
For more information, see www.utopia-exhibit.net, where visitors can find new photos and information about the exhibit.
--The Traveling Summer Republic Team
New Film Featured Sept. 10 at St. Louis Event
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Dorris Keeven-Franke, a friend of the Muench Family Association, invites all of the Muench family who live in the St. Louis Area to join her from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, for an evening of Utopia! at St. Charles County Heritage Park.
The address of the park, located near the intersection of Missouri Highways 364 and 94, is 1630 Heritage Landing, St. Peters, MO 63303.
Utopia! Revisiting a German State in America Is a new film by Maxim films of Berlin, Germany. Peter Roloff and Oliver Behnecke of Maxim will be present at the event to talk about the film.
“Utopia -- the exhibit, book and documentary -- are the story of the Giessen Emigration Society,” Keeven-Franke said. “Although the Society's plan was a failure in its effort to create a German State, Friedrich Muench's dream of creating a state that was German in its culture and ethnicity did not fail. ‘Utopia!’ IS the story of Friedrich Muench, which is why the Missouri Historical Society is hosting it.”
After Friedrich Muench gave his last sermon and departed from his hometown of Nieder-Gemunden, she said, his cynical successor us the local pastor wrote in the Church records, "He has gone to his Utopia" -- a sentiment that provided the title. “Many of even the most dogmatic considered the U.S. to be a Utopia in that early day, though,” she said. “Friedrich Muench persevered past so many obstacles, and I feel many of the Muench family will find it interesting.”
The exhibit opens Nov. 1, 2013, in Giessen, Germany; travels to Bremen in April 2014; and comes to Washington, D.C., at the German American Heritage Center next fall. The final planned stop on the tour, assuming other venues do not come forth, will the the Missouri History Museum in in St. Louis. The Missouri Historical Society has begun restoration work on the portraits of Friedrich and Louise Muench so they can be finished in time to be displayed in the exhibit next fall, Keeven-Franke said.
A PDF with more details regarding the film is posted below. For more information, contact Dorris at [email protected] or 636-221-1524.
###
--Jim Muench, Sept. 5, 2013
The address of the park, located near the intersection of Missouri Highways 364 and 94, is 1630 Heritage Landing, St. Peters, MO 63303.
Utopia! Revisiting a German State in America Is a new film by Maxim films of Berlin, Germany. Peter Roloff and Oliver Behnecke of Maxim will be present at the event to talk about the film.
“Utopia -- the exhibit, book and documentary -- are the story of the Giessen Emigration Society,” Keeven-Franke said. “Although the Society's plan was a failure in its effort to create a German State, Friedrich Muench's dream of creating a state that was German in its culture and ethnicity did not fail. ‘Utopia!’ IS the story of Friedrich Muench, which is why the Missouri Historical Society is hosting it.”
After Friedrich Muench gave his last sermon and departed from his hometown of Nieder-Gemunden, she said, his cynical successor us the local pastor wrote in the Church records, "He has gone to his Utopia" -- a sentiment that provided the title. “Many of even the most dogmatic considered the U.S. to be a Utopia in that early day, though,” she said. “Friedrich Muench persevered past so many obstacles, and I feel many of the Muench family will find it interesting.”
The exhibit opens Nov. 1, 2013, in Giessen, Germany; travels to Bremen in April 2014; and comes to Washington, D.C., at the German American Heritage Center next fall. The final planned stop on the tour, assuming other venues do not come forth, will the the Missouri History Museum in in St. Louis. The Missouri Historical Society has begun restoration work on the portraits of Friedrich and Louise Muench so they can be finished in time to be displayed in the exhibit next fall, Keeven-Franke said.
A PDF with more details regarding the film is posted below. For more information, contact Dorris at [email protected] or 636-221-1524.
###
--Jim Muench, Sept. 5, 2013
Relative Searching to Donate Copy of Friedrich Muench's Writings
Janet Bollman Blees is looking for a copy of Friedrich Muench's book, Die Gesammelte Schriften, (The Collected Writings) to donate to the Missouri Historical Museum in St. Louis's Forest Park.
Although she parted with much Muench memorabilia for an exhibit the museum is doing, she couldn't part with the book, for which there are few copies remaining in existence. "I sent the museum a lot of books, papers, documents, family tree charts, pictures, stories, autobiographies, etc.," she said. "I even sent him Friedrich Muench's Bible, which has his handwriting in the margins! That was something precious, but again, the public will benefit more from such things, than I. But one thing I just cannot part with is Die Gesammelte Schriften."
--Jim Muench, August 26, 2013
Although she parted with much Muench memorabilia for an exhibit the museum is doing, she couldn't part with the book, for which there are few copies remaining in existence. "I sent the museum a lot of books, papers, documents, family tree charts, pictures, stories, autobiographies, etc.," she said. "I even sent him Friedrich Muench's Bible, which has his handwriting in the margins! That was something precious, but again, the public will benefit more from such things, than I. But one thing I just cannot part with is Die Gesammelte Schriften."
--Jim Muench, August 26, 2013
The Teutonic Cross Launches Aug. 1, 2013
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Silver Tongue Press delves into race relations with a launch party to celebrate the publication of the historical murder mystery, The Teutonic Cross, at 8 p.m. CST August 1 on Facebook.
The novel by James F. Muench, a long-time resident of Columbia, Mo., tells the story of Heinrich Kueter’s efforts to find the murderer of an exchange student in a small Missouri college town on the eve of World War I. The young history professor of German immigrant ancestry solves the mystery while standing against racism, fighting a corrupt local politician and wooing a local suffragette.
It is the first novel and second book for a descendent of Friedrich Muench, a political leader of the Missouri Germans. “Missouri is the quintessential center of America, with aspects that are eastern, western, northern and southern,” Muench said. “It’s the crossroads of America that everybody came through whether they were staying or heading farther west. And it’s where my ancestors settled.”
Celestial Book Promotions will begin the launch party during which attendees may ask questions of the author. To join the launch party, simply fill in the contact form for The Teutonic Cross virtual book tour on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/442675599178954/.
Silver Tongue Press is a publishing company in Milwaukee, Wisc. To purchase the novel, look it up on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/The-Teutonic-Cross-James-Muench/dp/0989254631 or go to http://www.silvertonguepress.com/shopping-center/.
The novel by James F. Muench, a long-time resident of Columbia, Mo., tells the story of Heinrich Kueter’s efforts to find the murderer of an exchange student in a small Missouri college town on the eve of World War I. The young history professor of German immigrant ancestry solves the mystery while standing against racism, fighting a corrupt local politician and wooing a local suffragette.
It is the first novel and second book for a descendent of Friedrich Muench, a political leader of the Missouri Germans. “Missouri is the quintessential center of America, with aspects that are eastern, western, northern and southern,” Muench said. “It’s the crossroads of America that everybody came through whether they were staying or heading farther west. And it’s where my ancestors settled.”
Celestial Book Promotions will begin the launch party during which attendees may ask questions of the author. To join the launch party, simply fill in the contact form for The Teutonic Cross virtual book tour on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/442675599178954/.
Silver Tongue Press is a publishing company in Milwaukee, Wisc. To purchase the novel, look it up on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/The-Teutonic-Cross-James-Muench/dp/0989254631 or go to http://www.silvertonguepress.com/shopping-center/.
Familial Connections: Two Missouri Historians Found to be Muenches
By Karl Muench, M.D.
May 7, 2013
An occasional delight of genealogy is the discovery of previously unrecognized familial connections between members who are related in other ways, such as by being neighbors. Even better is finding a celebrity in the family.
So, with pleasure, the Muench Family Association has found that two distinguished historians who were already considered to be honorary Muench family members are, in fact, actual Muench family members through marriage.
Renowned Augusta historian Anita Mallinckrodt, in her latest book, The Other Muench, George at Augusta, describes the marriage of her first-cousin-twice-removed, Hermann Adolf Mallinckrodt (1838-1905), to Melina Muench (1843-1865), the daughter of George Muench (1801-1879).
Likewise, revered Missouri historian Ralph Gregory, still active at age 104, who translated the 1834 poem, Auswanderungslied (Song of Emigration), by Friedrich Muench (1799-1881), is also a Muench via marriage. His wife, Adele C. Brehe (1921-2001), was a sister-in-law of Friedrich’s great-granddaughter, Blanch Clara Ahmann (1913-2009).
The Muench family is honored and delighted to officially welcome these two notable historians into the family!
So, with pleasure, the Muench Family Association has found that two distinguished historians who were already considered to be honorary Muench family members are, in fact, actual Muench family members through marriage.
Renowned Augusta historian Anita Mallinckrodt, in her latest book, The Other Muench, George at Augusta, describes the marriage of her first-cousin-twice-removed, Hermann Adolf Mallinckrodt (1838-1905), to Melina Muench (1843-1865), the daughter of George Muench (1801-1879).
Likewise, revered Missouri historian Ralph Gregory, still active at age 104, who translated the 1834 poem, Auswanderungslied (Song of Emigration), by Friedrich Muench (1799-1881), is also a Muench via marriage. His wife, Adele C. Brehe (1921-2001), was a sister-in-law of Friedrich’s great-granddaughter, Blanch Clara Ahmann (1913-2009).
The Muench family is honored and delighted to officially welcome these two notable historians into the family!
Adolf Schroeder, 1916-2013
Adolf E. Schroeder, 97, died March 29, 2013, at University Hospital in Columbia, Mo. His wife, Rebecca Schroeder, said a memorial service is being planned in late May. At the 1984 Muench family reunion, Dolf Schroeder gave a lecture on Friedrich Muench.
Schroeder, a retired professor of German at Mizzou, did extensive research into Missouri’s German heritage, especially its early settlers, working closely with his wife, Becky, a long-time editor with the University of Missouri Press. The Schroeders and Muenches have often shared information in their quest to learn about their history.
At the time of his death, Schroeder was working on a biography, soon to be published by the Missouri State Historical Society, of Gert Goebel, a Giessen Society member and early settler of Franklin County, Mo., of which Washington is a major town and Union is the county seat. Goebel was elected to the Missouri Senate in 1864 and reelected in 1866. He also was a frequent contributor to newspapers such as the Westliche Post.
Correspondence may be sent to Rebecca Boies Schroeder, 3700 Lenoir St. G-25, Columbia, MO 65201.
Schroeder's obituary in the Columbia Daily Tribune: http://www.columbiatribune.com/obituaries/adolf-schroeder/article_4cb827a6-9f36-11e2-8321-10604b9f6eda.html
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Schroeder, a retired professor of German at Mizzou, did extensive research into Missouri’s German heritage, especially its early settlers, working closely with his wife, Becky, a long-time editor with the University of Missouri Press. The Schroeders and Muenches have often shared information in their quest to learn about their history.
At the time of his death, Schroeder was working on a biography, soon to be published by the Missouri State Historical Society, of Gert Goebel, a Giessen Society member and early settler of Franklin County, Mo., of which Washington is a major town and Union is the county seat. Goebel was elected to the Missouri Senate in 1864 and reelected in 1866. He also was a frequent contributor to newspapers such as the Westliche Post.
Correspondence may be sent to Rebecca Boies Schroeder, 3700 Lenoir St. G-25, Columbia, MO 65201.
Schroeder's obituary in the Columbia Daily Tribune: http://www.columbiatribune.com/obituaries/adolf-schroeder/article_4cb827a6-9f36-11e2-8321-10604b9f6eda.html
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Response to Muench Portrait Effort
February 27, 2013
Hello Jim, and all of my Muench friends,
Thank you for your invitation to be a guest member of the Muench Association, I will be happy to accept. I also wanted to congratulate you and Iris on the fantastic job you are both doing raising funds for restoration of the Muench portraits.
Both Friedrich's and Luise's portraits are currently on exhibit at the Missouri Historical Society, for those members of the family who live in the St. Louis area. The exhibit called "Reading a Portrait" will come to a close soon. Besides their importance, of course, to the Muench family, they are a wonderful example of that 19th century German artist. It would also be wonderful if their restoration could begin soon. Keep up the good work!
Sincerely,
Dorris Keeven-Franke
[email protected]
Hello Jim, and all of my Muench friends,
Thank you for your invitation to be a guest member of the Muench Association, I will be happy to accept. I also wanted to congratulate you and Iris on the fantastic job you are both doing raising funds for restoration of the Muench portraits.
Both Friedrich's and Luise's portraits are currently on exhibit at the Missouri Historical Society, for those members of the family who live in the St. Louis area. The exhibit called "Reading a Portrait" will come to a close soon. Besides their importance, of course, to the Muench family, they are a wonderful example of that 19th century German artist. It would also be wonderful if their restoration could begin soon. Keep up the good work!
Sincerely,
Dorris Keeven-Franke
[email protected]
New Book About Georg Muench Published
For Release:
February 25, 2013
AUGUSTA AUTHOR PRESENTS NEW GEORG MUENCH BOOK
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Historian Anita Mallinckrodt spoke about her new book, “The Other Muench: Georg, at Augusta, Missouri,” at a book premier event held Feb. 16 in Augusta, Mo.
Mallinckrodt presented the book and gave a short lecture for a crowd of about 40 historians and other dignitaries at 2 p.m. that Saturday at the Augusta Visitor Center.
Afterward, a dessert of apple cake was served, accompanied by Concord wine, which according to an 1875 St. Charles Demokrat article was an Augusta tradition. The Concord grape was a staple in the vineyards of growers such as that of Georg Muench at the time. The wine at the Feb. 16 event came from Mount Pleasant Winery, which was originally founded by Muench in the 19th Century.
To purchase the book, ISBN 0-931227-20-8, contact Anita Mallinckrodt by mail at Haus Dortmund, 498 Schell Road, Augusta, MO 63332 or the Augusta Historical Society, 119 Jackson St., Augusta, MO 63332, 636-228-4338. The book costs $12.
Like his more well-known brother, Friedrich, and like their father before them, Georg Muench had served as Lutheran pastor in the German village of Niedergemuenden. They were both free-thinking ministers taught the tenets of the Enlightenment at the University of Giessen. However, after emigrating in 1837 to join Friedrich in Missouri, Georg would become more well-known for his fine rifles, crafted in a shop on his farm in Dutzow, Mo.
Georg would later return to Germany in 1847 just in time to see a revolution the following year. Upon his return to Missouri in 1849, with a new wife, he decided to move to the nearby town of Augusta, purchasing blufftop land that would later become the Mount Pleasant Winery.
Georg became a respected community leader in Augusta and was often called upon to chair or speak at meetings and events. He and his brother, Friedrich, became heavily involved in politics in the mid-1800s as the nation wrestled with the subject of slavery and hurtled toward the Civil War.
“People liked him,” Mallinckrodt said. “He had a gift, the ability to explain things so they could understand and make their own decisions.”
And Georg didn’t just talk a good game. He even led a posse of 50 armed men in October 1863 to free a slave that had escaped from his master but who had been recaptured in Augusta.
“Friedrich is writing, while Georg is riding,” Mallinckrodt said.
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February 25, 2013
AUGUSTA AUTHOR PRESENTS NEW GEORG MUENCH BOOK
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Historian Anita Mallinckrodt spoke about her new book, “The Other Muench: Georg, at Augusta, Missouri,” at a book premier event held Feb. 16 in Augusta, Mo.
Mallinckrodt presented the book and gave a short lecture for a crowd of about 40 historians and other dignitaries at 2 p.m. that Saturday at the Augusta Visitor Center.
Afterward, a dessert of apple cake was served, accompanied by Concord wine, which according to an 1875 St. Charles Demokrat article was an Augusta tradition. The Concord grape was a staple in the vineyards of growers such as that of Georg Muench at the time. The wine at the Feb. 16 event came from Mount Pleasant Winery, which was originally founded by Muench in the 19th Century.
To purchase the book, ISBN 0-931227-20-8, contact Anita Mallinckrodt by mail at Haus Dortmund, 498 Schell Road, Augusta, MO 63332 or the Augusta Historical Society, 119 Jackson St., Augusta, MO 63332, 636-228-4338. The book costs $12.
Like his more well-known brother, Friedrich, and like their father before them, Georg Muench had served as Lutheran pastor in the German village of Niedergemuenden. They were both free-thinking ministers taught the tenets of the Enlightenment at the University of Giessen. However, after emigrating in 1837 to join Friedrich in Missouri, Georg would become more well-known for his fine rifles, crafted in a shop on his farm in Dutzow, Mo.
Georg would later return to Germany in 1847 just in time to see a revolution the following year. Upon his return to Missouri in 1849, with a new wife, he decided to move to the nearby town of Augusta, purchasing blufftop land that would later become the Mount Pleasant Winery.
Georg became a respected community leader in Augusta and was often called upon to chair or speak at meetings and events. He and his brother, Friedrich, became heavily involved in politics in the mid-1800s as the nation wrestled with the subject of slavery and hurtled toward the Civil War.
“People liked him,” Mallinckrodt said. “He had a gift, the ability to explain things so they could understand and make their own decisions.”
And Georg didn’t just talk a good game. He even led a posse of 50 armed men in October 1863 to free a slave that had escaped from his master but who had been recaptured in Augusta.
“Friedrich is writing, while Georg is riding,” Mallinckrodt said.
###
Muench Portrait Restoration Update
February 25, 2013
PORTRAIT RESTORATION FUND TOPS $2,300 AS NIEDERGEMUENDEN CHURCH PLANS FUNDRAISER
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- As of March 1, 2013, the balance in the Muench Portrait Restoration Fund will be $2,330, according to Iris Roberts, who is spearheading the restoration effort.
Meanwhile, the Niedergemuenden Lutheran congregation pastored by Friedrich and Georg Muench, and their father before them, is planning a fundraiser for the portrait restoration project this spring, she said.
“Generosity from friends connected with the ‘Utopia’ film project resulted in one of the latest contributions,” Roberts said. “Some Muench kin here in the U.S. have been requesting that their families give gifts to the fund in the honor of birthdays and holidays. And all contributions to the fund are being matched so that we can reach our goal faster!”
Contributions or correspondence may be sent to the attention of Vicki Kaffenberger, director of volunteer and intern services, Missouri History Museum, P.O. Box 11940, St. Louis, MO 63112-0040. Kaffenberger can be reached by phone at 314-454-3194 work, 314-322-1690 cell, or by email at [email protected]. It is important to indicate that the contribution should go to the Muench Portrait Fund, either by writing that message on the check itself or with an accompanying note, or preferably both, Roberts said.
“Vicki is especially enthusiastic about our project, so she is alert to what comes in and where it is to go,” Roberts said. “Contributors will also receive acknowledgement of their generosity, which is tax deductible.”
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PORTRAIT RESTORATION FUND TOPS $2,300 AS NIEDERGEMUENDEN CHURCH PLANS FUNDRAISER
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- As of March 1, 2013, the balance in the Muench Portrait Restoration Fund will be $2,330, according to Iris Roberts, who is spearheading the restoration effort.
Meanwhile, the Niedergemuenden Lutheran congregation pastored by Friedrich and Georg Muench, and their father before them, is planning a fundraiser for the portrait restoration project this spring, she said.
“Generosity from friends connected with the ‘Utopia’ film project resulted in one of the latest contributions,” Roberts said. “Some Muench kin here in the U.S. have been requesting that their families give gifts to the fund in the honor of birthdays and holidays. And all contributions to the fund are being matched so that we can reach our goal faster!”
Contributions or correspondence may be sent to the attention of Vicki Kaffenberger, director of volunteer and intern services, Missouri History Museum, P.O. Box 11940, St. Louis, MO 63112-0040. Kaffenberger can be reached by phone at 314-454-3194 work, 314-322-1690 cell, or by email at [email protected]. It is important to indicate that the contribution should go to the Muench Portrait Fund, either by writing that message on the check itself or with an accompanying note, or preferably both, Roberts said.
“Vicki is especially enthusiastic about our project, so she is alert to what comes in and where it is to go,” Roberts said. “Contributors will also receive acknowledgement of their generosity, which is tax deductible.”
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On SEO matters, Jan. 16, 2013
It has come to the website editor's attention that Internet Explorer's main search box may be having trouble finding our site. If you use Internet Explorer as your browser, I therefore suggest that you either type the website address (http://www.muenchfamilyassociation.com) directly into the address box or use a stronger search engine such as Google or Yahoo. The browsers Firefox and Chrome also appear to find our site with ease. I will continue to do what I can (recognizing budgetary constraints) to optimize the site for search engines. --Jim Muench
From the Washington Missourian, Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012
Remembering When: Joseph Muench Came to Washington Every August Between 1928 and ’41 to Visit His Grandparents. He Was Back in Town This Week for the First Time in Over 70 Years.
http://www.emissourian.com/features_people/feature_stories/article_cee96d99-8729-5cb9-947c-c129cec9547c.html#.UCe83fz_4HQ.email
http://www.emissourian.com/features_people/feature_stories/article_cee96d99-8729-5cb9-947c-c129cec9547c.html#.UCe83fz_4HQ.email
Muench Portrait Restoration
For Immediate Release March 5, 2012
Contact: Everett Dietle or: Jim Muench
314-746-4599 573-443-0879
[email protected] [email protected]
Family Spearheads Effort to Restore Portraits
ST. LOUIS – A prominent family of German descent announced today an effort to restore the portraits of two illustrious ancestors at the Missouri History Museum.
With the help of the museum, the Muench Family Heritage Society initiated the fund-raising drive to restore the 2-foot by 4-foot portraits of Friedrich and Julia Muench, which have fallen into disrepair and cannot be properly displayed. The museum estimates the cost of restoration at $10,000.
Iris and Tom Roberts have offered to match donations up to $5,000. To contribute, please send donations to Vicki Kaffenberger, Missouri History Museum Library, P.O. Box 11940, St. Louis, MO 63112-0040. For checks, please write “Muench Portrait Restoration” on the memo line. The contribution is tax deductible as long as it is written to the museum.
In 1834, along with his brother-in-law Paul Follenius, Friedrich Muench led to Missouri a large group of freedom-seeking German immigrants known as the Giessen Immigration Society. The two friends hoped to set up a utopian democratic community in America that would show Germany how to throw off its feudal past and create a modern political society.
Although the dream did not work out as planned, the immigrants settled in St. Louis and towns along the Missouri River to the west, playing a major role in Missouri’s development. Friedrich Muench became an important figure in Missouri politics and served in the state legislature during the Civil War, when German immigrants played a major role in keeping the state in the Union.
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Contact: Everett Dietle or: Jim Muench
314-746-4599 573-443-0879
[email protected] [email protected]
Family Spearheads Effort to Restore Portraits
ST. LOUIS – A prominent family of German descent announced today an effort to restore the portraits of two illustrious ancestors at the Missouri History Museum.
With the help of the museum, the Muench Family Heritage Society initiated the fund-raising drive to restore the 2-foot by 4-foot portraits of Friedrich and Julia Muench, which have fallen into disrepair and cannot be properly displayed. The museum estimates the cost of restoration at $10,000.
Iris and Tom Roberts have offered to match donations up to $5,000. To contribute, please send donations to Vicki Kaffenberger, Missouri History Museum Library, P.O. Box 11940, St. Louis, MO 63112-0040. For checks, please write “Muench Portrait Restoration” on the memo line. The contribution is tax deductible as long as it is written to the museum.
In 1834, along with his brother-in-law Paul Follenius, Friedrich Muench led to Missouri a large group of freedom-seeking German immigrants known as the Giessen Immigration Society. The two friends hoped to set up a utopian democratic community in America that would show Germany how to throw off its feudal past and create a modern political society.
Although the dream did not work out as planned, the immigrants settled in St. Louis and towns along the Missouri River to the west, playing a major role in Missouri’s development. Friedrich Muench became an important figure in Missouri politics and served in the state legislature during the Civil War, when German immigrants played a major role in keeping the state in the Union.
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