DANK National Blog

And then there was Germanfest in Milwaukee

Bill Fuchs - National President — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:54:29 +0000

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!

DANK Tote is Sold Out

Stephen - Webmaster — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:49:55 +0000

With the success of our booth at GermanFest, we have sold out our entire stock of the DANK 50th Anniversary HB Totes. They were a hot item at the fest! Hopefully everyone that wanted one got it while they were available.

Music Heard at Our GermanFest Booth

Stephen - Webmaster — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:44:02 +0000

For those of you that visited us at our booth at GermanFest this last weekend you may have heard some new German music. Some visitors wanted to know what bands or songs we were playing and how they could get a copy. So I thought I would make a list of some of the music with a link to purchase if you want…

Seeed – Music Monks

Seeed – New Dubby Conquerors

Luxuslärm – So laut ich kann

Luxuslärm – 1000 km bis zum Meer

Culcha Candela - Schöne Neue Welt

Mehrzad Marashi - New Life

Yolanda Be Cool – We No Speak Americano

Stromae - Alors on danse (Single)

LaFee – Best of LaFee (Die Nacht Edition)

2raumwohnung - Es Wird Morgen

Site Redesign Update

Stephen - Webmaster — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:42:44 +0000

It’s been a few weeks since I have provided an update on the status of the new redesigned DANK.org. The goal was to launch the redesigned website this summer, which has officially begun, but it looks like I am going to push the redesign back to late summer/early fall. My new goal is the end of August or beginning of September.

So, why the delay? The truth is that this update is really big and I want to make sure it is done right. A lot of attention is being given to even the smallest details of the site and I have some completely new things up my sleeve that I haven’t even announced yet. So stay tuned!

German Student’s Joke Video Results in Record Contract

Stephen - Webmaster — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:33:13 +0000

Some university students in Germany thought it would be funny to take the winning song from the German winner of Eurovision and make it into an unofficial World Cup anthem. After posting their video on YouTube, it became an overnight success, bringing in over half a million views in under a week. EMI, the company that owns the rights to the original composition, ordered the video be taken down, but that only created more publicity. That is when Universal Music expressed interest in recording the song and the rights were cleared with EMI, and now the boys who made the parody received a recording contract. Pretty crazy!

Spiegel Online has a great write up on the entire story here and below is the YouTube video that caused it all…

Click here to view the embedded video.

DANK opens new chapter in Uniontown, PA

Bill Fuchs - National President — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:13:50 +0000

On June 5, 2010 DANK opened up its newest chapter in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. National President Bill Fuchs (me) and VP Erich Wittmann represented the National Board at this special occasion. The chapter grew of the DANK Sub-chapter concept that Pittsburgh chapter president and National VP Erich Wittmann conceived and worked very hard at. A celebration to honor this event was held at the historic Summit Resort and Lodge near Uniontown. What a beautiful place with a rich history.

Besides the presentation of the Gründungsbrief (founding letter) and the celebration dinner, the evening was showered with the traditional and entertaining dances from “D’Pittsburgher Alpen Schuhplattler und Trachtenverein.” Also included was audience participation which included the chickendance amongst several others. Below are some pictures from the wonderful evening.

Best wishes,
President Bill

Schuhplatter in motion

Schuhplatters are dancing

Schuhplattlers are platsching

National President Bill Fuchs and VP Erich Wittman (left & right) present founding letter to chapter President Ernst Young

New chapter board with chapter banner presented by the Bruderhof community of Farmington, PA

National VP Wittman and chapter President Young participating as guest Schuhplattlers

Uniontown VP and Region 3 President Chris Decker with National Pres. Fuchs doing the Chickendance

Group picture of the Pittsburgh Schuhplatter Verein

Moon Shining over Wanne Eickel

Bill Fuchs - National President — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:01:16 +0000

This just made me feel good good!

As I was flying back to Amsterdam from Bombay, India on May 28, I captured this shot of the Moon as it sat over my home town area of Gelsenkirchen, Germany. There is a song about the “Mond von Wanne Eickel” a town next to Gelsenkirchen that always gives us from the Ruhr Valley a special goose bump when we see the Moon over the Kohlenpott (the old slang word for the area).
Enjoy,
Captain Bill

Toy Tiger Scare in Germany

Stephen - Webmaster — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 01:30:09 +0000

A stuffed animal tiger caused quite a scare when it was found “sleeping” in front of a man’s car in Aachen, Germany, according to a report by Der Spiegel. Police spokesman, Paul Kemen, told Der Spiegel that, “He had left his house and was walking up to his car when he saw this tiger. He took a step closer and was gripped by fear so he rushed back indoors and called the police.”

When the police arrived, the man watched the officers approach the animal carefully, only to find out is was a well crafted stuffed toy. The police officers got a kick out of the find, but the man who spotted the tiger seems to have been more embarrassed than amused. “He refused to give any interviews to the press and believe me, I could have arranged plenty for him,” said Kemen.

Source: spiegel.de

Thanks to our forum member, GordonS, for pointing this article out on our forum.

Audi Testing Travolution Communication System in Germany

Stephen - Webmaster — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 01:35:28 +0000

This past week, Audi began showing off it’s new Travolution technology near its Ingolstadt, Germany headquarters. Travolution is a vehicle to infrastructure communications system which improves efficiency and safety on the road. Did I lose you yet?

While this system is capable of doing a lot of different things, one of the big features is a method of having the car communicate with traffic lights and other cars around it. The car sends out a communication to the traffic signals to help in timing the lights. The idea is to reduce fuel consumption by cutting down on idling at stop lights, and in many cases eliminates the need to even stop at a light. On top of that, the traffic signals can send timing information to the car, which will then recommend a driving pattern or speed for the driver so that the don’t need to stop as often. And this is just a small part of what the system does.

Audi has included a special online payment system in the cars so that drivers can pull up to a gas station and never have to pull out their credit card. The same thing goes with paying for parking in a parking garage. I’m not sure how this added value really saves on fuel consumption, but it might save a little time for the driver.

Right now the Travolution system is being tested on 15 cars and 150 traffic lights in Ingolstadt, but so far the testing has been off to a good start. On average, the cars only have to stop at every 5th light and the fuel consumption has been cut down by 17%. Audi will begin testing on a larger scale for the next four years, and will start testing in the Frankfurt am Main area soon.

This definitely seems like a good move, and it will be interesting to see how soon Audi will make this available. I have a feeling it may be a while before we see it happen, especially here in the States, but I’m ready for something new. And for those of you who want to see it in action, I have included a video made by Audi that shows off the technology.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bike Helmets That Stink?

Stephen - Webmaster — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:20:25 +0000

Here’s an interesting bit of news for you. Bike helmets can save your life, or at least some pain, if you take a nasty fall. However, the more hits the helmet takes the less effective it is in protecting your noggin. Well, researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute have developed a special helmet that releases a nasty oder when it needs to be replaced due to damage. The hope is that by having a helmet that smells bad will prevent users from “making do” with a less than safe helmet. This technology is also being considered for use in other products as well, such as pressure hoses and gas pipes.