"German-American Friendship Month” has started with a bang – or, to be precise – four bangs hammered out by “Dr. Ruth” Westheimer as she closed the trading session at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday with a giant wooden gavel.

I’ve always joked that German-American friendship is my own personal story. I grew up in Southern California, and my American roots are undeniable.

But my German grandmother, who lives in northern Bavaria, has also been one of the most powerful influences in my life. She has, at times, acted more like a mother than a ’grandmother,’ raising me the only way she knew: as a German.

In Britain, it's generally seen as a righteous battle against the forces of totalitarianism. In many of Britain's former colonies though, the picture is very different. Professor Richard Overy from the University of Exeter and Prof Tapan RayChaudhuri, an expert on Indian History at Oxford University, discuss the different perspectives. Listen to Professor Tapan Ray Chaudhouri and Professor Richard Overy Here

Gustav Koerner’s The German Element in the Northeast, translated and edited by Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann, has just been published by the Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, Maryland, and provides a wealth of information about German-Americans in the northeastern states of the U.S.

By Fritz Busch, NU Journal

Youth age 13 and under concluded a week studying the German language and culture at Martin Luther College (MLC) with a program Friday for parents and friends. (Photo: Glockenspiel in New Ulm, Minnesota)

Not quite. While French is today the most commonly spoken language in the two Eastern-most French provinces, the majority of people living there learn German in school. And in America, the spread of privately supported Samstagsschulen at the elementary school level, and the continued existence of many German-American organizations tell us that people refuse to buckle under such pressure.

Focusing on immigration movements from the 17th century through post-World War II, Tolzmann, an author and editor of numerous books on German-American history and culture, said the population of German ancestry is the largest ethnic group in the United States.

Bob Boyce, a retired pastor from Texas, recently organized a bus tour through eastern Germany for his fellow Americans from the southern US state. It was no ordinary journey.

The trip took the group across the Lausitz region - Lusatia in English - about 150 kilometers southeast of Berlin. It's home to the Sorbs, a 60,000-strong Slavic minority.

By Garret Mathews

About three years ago, as ideas for a city-wide celebration centering around Hermann, the Germanic hero turned local and national symbol, were just beginning to emerge, Glotzbach (photo) visited the monument, looking over the complex and its various details. (Staff photo by Steve Muscatello)

Despite place names like New Berlin and New Holstein, they did not, for the most part, strive to create “little Germanies” on the American landscape.

A look at both secular and religious community institutions illustrates nicely the synthesis of Old and New World influences in the (post-) immigration context.

After the failure of the democratic revolution in 1848, many rebellious German intellectuals were attracted by the US concept of personal freedom. (The exhibition runs through October 3). Philadelphia or New York, rather than Weimar, might have become the birthplace of German Classicism. Photo: Goethe-Schiller monument in Weimar.

The new frame surrounds a rare original lithograph from 1882. It is the most famous print of Hermann the Cheruscan's victory over the Roman, Varus, which was made for the book "German Fame".

Included is the caption "The Cheruscan Chief, Hermann, leads the charge of Germans against the Romans, whose leader commits suicide". Photo: Hermann Monument in New Ulm, MN.

Heinz Gietz is a native of Frankfurt, Germany. His mechanical background includes specialized schooling in Mercedes-Benz automobiles, and he has supervised the service departments of leading Mercedes-Benz dealerships throughout the country.

Heinz, now in his 90s, remains an active leader in San Diego's German community. He was one of the founding fathers of the German American Societies of San Diego in 1965, and he served as its president for the first five years.

By Denis Warta

In the heart of the Texas Hill Country exists a small town with the name of Comfort, population about 1,000. The founding year of this town was 1854, the same year in which New Ulm in Minnesota was established.

Memorial Day was established in 1868 to honor those who had served and perished in what until then was and remains the most costly conflict in American history, the Civil War. It was also known as Decoration Day, although its name was officially designated as Memorial Day in 1967. (Photo: Memorial Day speaker Tolzmann.)

By Larry Grill

To name an event a Schmeckfest, or festival of tasting, it has to be a celebration of food – good German food; and it does not disappoint. This unique annual four-day festival is held in Freeman, South Dakota.

If this sounds good, what is the downside, you may ask? Here it is: Take part in a raffle organized by the German-American Steuben Parade Committee. All they ask you to do is make a small donation (they take big bucks as well) in support of their cultural programs.

The Steuben Society of America announced that Andreas Schumacher is the 2010 recipient of the Erick Kurz Memorial Award for German-American Studies.

Andreas studied History at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, completing a master’s thesis on August Rauschenbusch, one of the founding fathers of the German Baptist Church in America.

"The work shows great diligence and an enthusiasm for the subject acquired in part by on site research in the United States," the announcement said.

In the 1980’s DANK along with the The German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA and the Steuben Society of America formed an organization for the purpose of having a congressional and presidential proclamation for an annual German-American Day in the US.

The privately-run German-American Heritage foundation of the USA (GAHF) formally opened the museum with a "Celebratory Ball" last Saturday at Fort McNair's Officers Club in downtown Washington, D.C..

Lange, of Hamburg Germany spent a  week in New Ulm earlier this month gathering information at the Brown County Historical Society Museum and from documents compiled by George Glotzbach. She made the journey with her father, Helmut Lange, who was born near Detmold, where Germany's Hermann Monument is located.

The names “Amana” and “Amish” sound similar, but they’re not connected.
And that’s where most people’s knowledge — or lack thereof — ends.
Carol Schaefer of Davenport, photo, wants to change that.

Germany's US ambassador Klaus Scharioth said he was "more than happy" with the results of a new survey presented on Monday evening in Washington DC. The survey showed "the Americans' thoroughly positive view of our country," Scharioth said.

For many American soccer lovers of that era, “Soccer Made in Germany” was the only place to see regular action from Europe. But it was the latest in a long list of German influences on the beautiful game here in the U.S.

The history of these people dates back to the tumultuous times of religious reformation in Germany. Apart from the well-known reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546), there were other critics who propagated a reform of the Catholic Church. Among them were Johannes (Jean) Calvin (1509-1564) and Ulrich (Huldrych) Zwingli (1484-1531) and – connected with them – the Dunkard Church.

Heinrich (originally Chaim Harry) Heine was born in Düsseldorf in 1797 of Jewish background. In 1825 he received his doctorate in jurisprudence. In order to enter a career in public service, he converted to Lutheran Protestantism and was baptized Christian Johann Heinrich.

On December 10, 2009, the Ottendorfer Library on 135 Second Avenue in Manhattan celebrated its 125th anniversary as the oldest branch of the