The Ethnic Clubs of Pittsburgh: German club loves to sing for its supper
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Early in the past century, ethnic clubs and churches were part of nearly every neighborhood and town. They were founded by the immigrants who came to America and worked mostly in the steel mills and coal mines. The clubs were dens of nostalgia and familiarity. Evenings and weekends, the new arrivals could get together to speak their language, eat comfort foods and share song, traditions and culture. But progress and assimilation have taken their toll, and the number of ethnic churches and clubs in Pittsburgh has dwindled.
Alyssa Cwanger, Post-GazetteGathered at one of several tables at Schlachtfest, top, members of Teutonia Mannerchor on the North Side enjoy fellowship of a very traditional sort.
Click photo for larger image.
First in an occasional seriesThis the first in a series about the ethnic clubs and traditions of Pittsburgh, their traditional celebrations and foodways.
Details: Teutonia Mannerchor, 857 Phineas St., North Side; 412-761-9467.
The ones that remain are going strong. Take the Germans.
Between 1850 and 1900, there were as many as 125 German singing clubs in the city. Teutonia Mannerchor was founded in 1854 on the North Side, then the city of Allegheny. In 2004, the club celebrated its 150th anniversary and is the leading German social and choral society in Western Pennsylvania.
Christel Van Maurik and her husband, Teutonia president Cornelius G. Van Maurik, invited me to take part in one of the club's favorite celebrations.
"Do you like pork?" she asked. "You must come to our Schlachtfest."
Giving directions, she said, "Cross the 16th Street Bridge to the North Side and you'll see in front of you a big German-style building, what they call wooden half-timbering with brick in-fill. That's Teutonia. We'll be in the rathskeller wearing ethnic dress -- my husband in his wool Bavarian suit and I'll wear my dirndl skirt.
"Oh, and come hungry."
A Schlachtfest is the celebration of the pig slaughter. On German farms, it was traditional to slaughter a pig in the autumn. An itinerant butcher visited the farm, dispatched and dismembered the pig and made the wurst according to his own recipe. The family, and often the neighbors, would then get together for a meal to sample the wurst and dine on the parts of the pig that could not be processed.
First Published March 10, 2005 12:00 am
