2010 German Fest in Milwaukee is now over but the memories will be everlasting!  As we did last year, DANK had a Public Relations Booth on the midway, next to the main entrance.  It proved to be a popular place with all kinds of folks inquiring as to what DANK does.  We [...] Read more »]]> Captain Bill travels to Milwaukee’s German Fest, the original Haus Party!

2010 German Fest in Milwaukee is now over but the memories will be everlasting!  As we did last year, DANK had a Public Relations Booth on the midway, next to the main entrance.  It proved to be a popular place with all kinds of folks inquiring as to what DANK does.  We also had lots of folks sign up for our very popular DANK VISA card and for membership for which we awarded a DANK T-Shirt or Tote Bag.

DANK German Fest Booth Staff: Rein, Stephen, Darlene, Amelia, Bill, Donna, Mathias (not shown: Kathy)

President Bill Fuchs, wife Darlene and son Stephen had lots of help this year with National VP Donna Lippert and husband Reinhard helping them from Thursday thru Sunday.  Also helping over the weekend where Office Manager Amelia Cotter and past DANK Intern Mathias Knobloch, along with member Kathy Wolf.

Stephen, Amelia & Mathias

This year the fest celebrated its 30^th anniversary and it was only fitting that founding member, past DANK Milwaukee President Walter Geissler, along with his wife, attended the many celebrations at the fest with National President Fuchs. Mr. Geissler was also declared honorary Bürgermeister for the Festival. Thirty years ago, at the 20^th Anniversary of the Milwaukee DANK chapter, Walter Geissler was encouraged by then Milwaukee mayor, Henry W. Maier, to start a German Fest in Milwaukee since there was none at the time.  President Geissler was able to have 14 other organizations join DANK in a team effort to put on German Fest the following year and it was an instant success.  The rest is history.

VP Donna Lippert, Walter Geissler, Mrs. Geissler, Pres. Fuchs

This year’s festival started out with a bang.  Cloudbursts in the morning gave way to some dry weather in the afternoon on Thursday and allowed set up for our PR tent, but the rain came back shortly after the opening at 5 PM.  At 6:30 PM the heavens opened up with Regen, Donner und Blitzen, and it did not stop until Milwaukee recorded its second worst summer storm ever, with mudslides, sink holes and lots of flooding.  Our tent was under a foot of water but thanks to Darlene and Stephen, who put all our merchandise and other stuff on the tables to keep out of the water, we did not have any damage.  President Bill, who was at the Mader’s tent for dinner with Rein and Donna, because of the heavy rain and lightning, was unable to come to the rescue until an hour later, at which time the festival was closed for the night.  He was then able to bring in the truck to have Darlene and Stephen climb onto the tailgate into safety.  It continued to rain hard all night to produce a 7.5 inch record that evening.  Even the Milwaukee airport was closed for a day due to the runways being under water.

Stephen & Donna before things got really bad... Notice the tent is already closed up before dinner

The next day and all other days continued to be better with 90 degree and very humid weather finally giving way to a picture perfect day on Sunday, which also drew a top crowd.  It was a wonderful opportunity to meet and converse with current DANK members, make new friends and tell folks about our organization.  As mentioned before, we also signed up a bunch of new members and many folks signed up for our DANK Credit card.  Of course one cannot have an event like German Fest without having a lot of fun sharing our great German traditions, enjoying the great Music and Food and the many fun things that are just part of the greatest German Festival in the Midwest.

Sunday Crowd in front of DANK PR tent

Inside the Tent

Enjoy the pictures and I look forward to seeing many of you at one of the many German Festivals and Events around the country…..President Bill

Suckling pig getting roasted for Pres. Bill to enjoy

Spanferkel delivery to the Pres by Lake County Chapter ex Pres. Victor Kordas

DANK Culture Booth Exhibit staffed by Milwaukee chapter Member Theresia

Parade time on Saturday as DANK chapters marched together- shown here is the DANK Chicago North chapter

DANK Chicago South parading in front of PR tent

Amelia, Donna, Darlene and Mathias in Parade Trachten Garbe with Edwin Gunther, Milwaukee chapter President admiring at left

DANK Youth Ambassadors Andrea Dietz and Kathe Freiberger hitching a ride from Mike Adams in the parade

Little Jake and Big Jake of the Phenix band entertaining the crowd

This kid is just too cute to pass up

And he know just where to stand to get in the picture

Milwaukee chapter Pres. Edwin Gunther having a ball with the Jaegermeister Girls

Ed Sutter and Al Mueller getting a Jaeger Squeeze

Hard working Wiener Dog Bier Schlepper at the fest

Wiener Dachshund at the Festival Races

Scuba Dackel at the talent show

The End!

Just got back from that trip which took me to Amsterdam twice right after the European Control opened up the airspace again.  Found it interesting [...] Read more »]]> Over the last 3 weeks the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano created havoc and virtually shut down all of European airspace for over a week.  I had my flight schedule cancelled and changed, finally able to fly on April 21.

Just got back from that trip which took me to Amsterdam twice right after the European Control opened up the airspace again.  Found it interesting that no one I talked to in Amsterdam and Germany saw any volcanic ash cloud.  The airspace in Europe was closed nonetheless in the interest of safety.  From the experience I have flying through a sky filled with particles from volcanic eruptions in the early 90’s, with the eruptions of multiple volcanoes along the Pacific ring of fire, it is safe to fly as long as the particle density is low.  Don’t want to fly into the Ash cloud but as long as one stays out of the dense cloud by a safe distance it is safe to operate.  We have been doing so for years.  There will be erosion on our windscreens, engines and wing leading edges, which increases maintenance on the aircraft over the long period but the airlines look at this as a cost of doing business.  There is lots of dust (fine gritty particles of sand and other debris) in the air normally.  Engines also ingest lots of  dust from ramps and runways in normal operation.   The short of this is that European airlines, along with other carriers around the world, finally convinced European Aviation Authorities of this and the sky was opened up.

I have to say that at night and in cloudy weather it is harder to make out the dense volcanic cloud and there will have to be some operational restrictions at times but those we have also dealt with in the past in other areas of the world, including in the US (Mt. St. Helen in 1980).

It’s good to see all the stranded folks, which included over 500 flight crew members from Delta, back home or on their way of normal life.  Below is a picture of the sky over the UK on April 22, which shows a more hazy colorful sunrise than normal but with a safe concentration of volcanic ash particles in the atmosphere.

Morning Sky over the UK April 22, 2010

Enjoy,
Captain Bill

 In the 1980’s DANK along with the The German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA and the [...] Read more »]]> Friday, March 19, 2010, marked a major milestone for not only the German-American Community in our nation’s capitol, Washington D.C., but also for all German-Americans.  We celebrated the opening of the German-American Cultural Center and the German American Heritage Museum of the USA at the newly renovated Hockemeyer Hall.

 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.  Under the German American Joint Action Committee (GAJAC) we were successful in having President Reagan sign the first proclamation in 1987 and lead us to celebrate German American day on October 6 in every year since.

The German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA spearheaded the purchase and renovation to make this museum possible. As an important part of the GAJAC alliance I and my wife Darlene represented DANK in this milestone event as special guests to the GA Heritage Foundation.

The opening ceremony with the ribbon cutting and the follow on Gala celebration for major donors was a wonderful opportunity to meet and mingle with important partners of the German-American Community not only from the East coast but also from the Midwest and the West Coast.

Official Ribbon Cutting with Bern Deichmann, Senator Lugar and German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth

 I had some good conversations with Senator Richard Lugar, who was the keynote speaker for the opening ceremony, and Ruediger Lentz, past Washington Bureau Chief and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent for Deutsche Welle USA, and now the Executive Director of the Heritage Museum.  

Senator Richard Lugar with Bern Deichmann on the left and Bill Fuchs on the right

More importantly I finally met personally with Randall Ratje, the National Chairman of the Steuben Society America and Bern Deichmann, President of the German American Heritage Foundation of the USA, my counterparts in the GAJAC Alliance. 

Bern Deichmann, Lars Halter, Bill Fuchs and Randall Ratje on opening day

We committed to establishing a much closer working relationship not only for our three organizations but also to explore our role in providing a conduit to unite German- Americans in the United States and channel our energy for common causes.  Lars Halter, a director of the Foundation and chairman of the Steuben Parade in New York and Ruediger Lentz are also very dedicated to this cause.  I am planning to meet with Lars next month on one of my layovers in New York and confer with Randy Ratje and Bern Deichmann along with Mr. Lentz to explore how we can make not only this year’s German-American Day more relevant but also tie this celebration in with other events, such as this year’s 100 year anniversary of the dedication of the Von Steuben statue in Lafayette Park, just north of the White House.

Randall Ratje, Ruediger Lentz, Bayard Johnson (administrative assistant to the museum), Darlene and Bill Fuchs in the lobby of the museum

At the Gala dinner celebration we were delighted to be seated not only with Randy and Lars but also with Horst Stabenow, of the Chicago Schwaben Society and a US Rep to Schwaben International, and, to my surprise, with Petra Schuermann of German World magazine.

The personal contacts that Darlene and I made with these fine people and many others should prove to be very helpful for DANK’s involvement in our cooperation with other German-American organizations of the US.  Because of that I feel that this trip to Washington will serve us well as a primer to a much closer relationship with many other German American societies.

One point that I would like to add is that from our visit we found that we have some very interested youthful allies that have the zest and energy to further German-American causes & education in this country. 

 I have been very busy with work since this event and finally got a chance to put a post on the blog with pictures, while on a layover in Amsterdam.  Springtime is finally arriving here after a cold European winter and flowers are popping up everywhere.  By the way, one of the most incredible flower shows in the world occurs every year in the Keukenhof gardens, just a few miles south-west of Amsterdam.  It’s in full swing right now and I can see the entire splendor from the air since we fly over it on our departure from Amsterdam.  Definitely worth the visit if you ever come to the Netherlands in the spring.

Tulips at Keukenhof

Best wishes,
Captain Bill

Just left Hong Kong today on my way back to the US via a layover in Tokyo.  Did not even consider that I was going to be in Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year so what a bonus.  All on the same day, Valentines day, Chinese New Year, the start of the Winter Olympics and of course the start of Karneval/Mardi Gras [...] Read more »]]> Hi Everyone,

Just left Hong Kong today on my way back to the US via a layover in Tokyo.  Did not even consider that I was going to be in Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year so what a bonus.  All on the same day, Valentines day, Chinese New Year, the start of the Winter Olympics and of course the start of Karneval/Mardi Gras celebrations.  Missed the gigantic fireworks since they will be held tonight but got to experience the New Year’s Day parade in the Kowloon section of Hong Kong last night.  This is the model for all the Chinese New Year’s Parades in the US.   They had quite a few international participants, Swiss bands, American NFL cheerleaders but I did not see any from Germany.  They must all be in the Karneval mood instead of New Year.   I met plenty of German spectators though.  Enjoy the pictures from the New Year of the Tiger.

Christmas & New Years lights on the buildings

Captain Bill with hotel hostesses (who happen to be Dutch interns) in front of good fortune tree in Hotel lobby

I [...] Read more »]]> I’m back!  It’s been so long since I have written for the blog.  It’s been so busy for me in the last 6 months both with my job and with DANK.  In November I was re-elected to the position of DANK National President for 2 more years, so there will be more time to report on my journeys around the world and with DANK.

I just returned in time for Christmas from two weeks back and forth to Frankfurt from both Detroit and Atlanta.  Germany has been very cold and snowy in the last week.  They broke records in the southern part with minus 30 degrees Celsius.  In Frankfurt it only got to -15 while I was there and it warmed up just enough to make the visits to the Weihnachtsmarkt bearable.  The abundance of Glühwein also helped.  The nice part of tasting Gühwein in Germany is that there are different recopies at each booth which makes sampling more fun.  For those that can’t make it to the German Christmas markets, the Chicago one is a real good sample of what the German ones are like. 

On my last trip I visited the ones in Wiesbaden and Rüdesheim am Rhein.  The one in Rüdesheim definitely was the nicer one, with stands all over the quaint little town with the right atmosphere of snow and wonderful Christmas music. 

Enjoy the pictures!  Frohe Weihnacht und Prost Neujahr!
Captain Bill!

Captain Bill in Rüdesheim

Bill & Editor Stephen Selecting Family Christmas tree

Captain Bill in front of the Wiesbaden Casino

Wiesbaden Weihnachtsmarkt

Fellow Delta crew going to Christmas market

Flight Attendant Sabine and Captain Bill in the Drosselgasse- Rüdesheim