[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] PLATTDEUTSCHER CLUB

[Mike McHenry]

In 1911 there were about 42000 German's in Hoboken. The city is about 1
square mile in size. This is highly concentrated. The city wasn't a melting
pot. The North German Lloyd and Hamburg Lines docked here to off load
immigrants to the ferries to Ellis Island. There must be a reason why this
club chose to distinguish it self as the Eastern Plattdeutscher Club from
the many other German clubs. There were a number of specific German sporting
clubs as well. 
                                        Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of
shoning at att.net
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 6:13 PM
To: Mike McHenry; 'S G G E E'
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] PLATTDEUTSCHER CLUB
Importance: High

Mike,

One can assume that the founding members of the club spoke Plattdeutsch
regularly, but beyond that I would not assume too much about the membership
of a particular ethnic club.  For example, although much later, in the
latter part of the 1960s, I played in the German-American Soccer League of
New York (I don't know the status of this league now; it may have ceased to
exist since then) against teams that were sponsored by various ethnic clubs
such as the Ukrainians, the Hungarians, the Greeks, Germania, etc.  Players
on these teams were members of the clubs, but many had no national ties to
the clubs.  They joined for sport reasons.  On my team players were mostly
of German backgrounds, but we had Italians and one or two "Americans"; all
spoke American.

George Shoning 

-------------- Original message from "Mike McHenry" <maurmike1 at verizon.net>:
-------------- 


> Thanks to all for your comments. This is in a 1911 city directory. There
are 
> several German clubs in it. Does this suggest that the members of this
club 
> were all from northern Germany? 
> 
> Mike 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org 
> [mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of Otto 
> Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 8:09 PM 
> To: S G G E E 
> Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] PLATTDEUTSCHER CLUB 
> Importance: High 
> 
> Hi Mike, 
> The full name appears to be a local designation peculiar to the 
> Hoboken area. 
> 'Eastern' refers to what, East Hoboken? East Jersey? 
> A 'Platt-Deutsch-er' refers to a Flatland German, one speaking 
> Flatland German. 
> Dutch, Angles, Frisians, Saxons, Pomeranians, East Prussians and so 
> on, spoke dialects of flat-land German. 
> 
> Inquire within your club specified area to determine the ethnicity of 
> the speakers. 
> From what lowland area do they come at the beginning of their 
> migration? 
> 
> Flat-land German is one of the major three groups of German I loosely 
> refer to as: 
> 1. Flat-land German (think sand & beaches & marshlands) 
> 2. Hilly area German (think rolling foothills) 
> 3. Mountain area German (think of yodeling and mountain climbing) 
> All three major groupings have many dialects and overlapping of the 
> dialects within their area. 
> 
> German is a catch-all word. 
> Germanic peoples are comprised of North, West, East, etc. Germanic 
> language groups. 
> Language is a home. 
> People live in their language. 
> I am writing this E-letter in a Germanic language with at least four 
> major groups to it, 
> American, British, Canadian, and Australian English. 
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_language 
> 
> On May 30, 2006, at 3:20 PM, Mike McHenry wrote: 
> 
> > About a month ago the list had a discussion about German dialects. 
> > My German 
> > grand parents lived in Hoboken, New Jersey from 1910 to 1920. This 
> > town was 
> > a German immigrant strong hold. For those who don't where it is 
> > located in 
> > the USA it is across the Hudson River from New York City. In going 
> > through 
> > city directories of the time I came across a number of German 
> > clubs. One was 
> > called the "Eastern Plattdeutscher Club". From the previous 
> > discussion I 
> > thought Plattdeutsch referred to a German dialect. Can anyone tell 
> > me what 
> > this inferred about the club? 
> . . . Otto 
> 
> " The Zen moment..." wk. of March 5, 2006 
> ________________________________ 
> "Remove what isn't... What is remains." 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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