German Speakers and Pennsylvania Dutch Folklife in Greater Philadelphia

Goschenhoppen. It’s such a fun and funny-sounding name. Pronounce it: GUSH’n HUP’n. It’s also a region, a German-speaking community, and a group of concerned historians in the five-county greater Philadelphia area.

This is shocking to me. I have lived in many parts of Pennsylvania and had never heard of Pennsylvania Dutch people living in the Philadelphia SMSA. Pennsylvania Dutch inhabit Lancaster, Berks and Lehigh Counties. Amish are in Lancaster, Lawrence, and perhaps other counties. Philadelphia is, well, Philadelphia. It claims the Liberty Bell, Constitutional Conventions, and beginnings of a significant English colony. Not German farmers.

Specifically, the Goschenhoppen region was and is mostly in western Montgomery County. However, since this area is a projection of land from that county, the Goschenhoppen settlements also extend slightly into adjacent Berks, Lehigh, and Bucks counties. How did they delineate what is in? Primarily, it is defined by the farming region of the Upper Perkiomen Valley with immigrants speaking Palatine German language. To describe these immigrants as solely German, though, would be inaccurate. Alsatians, Swiss, Bavarians and Hessians are counted in the mix. Furthermore, the community members of Goschenhoppen included adherents of several organized religions: Schwenkfelders, Mennonite, Lutheran, Reformed, Dunker, and Catholic. However, as they lived and worked side by side, their cultures blended into a localized sub-culture of Pennsylvania Deitsch (also called Pennsylvania Dutch.)

Around 1963, an officer of the Historians explained, residents who valued local history plus old-timers whose old-fashioned ways of farming were disappearing agreed that something must be done to preserve the knowledge of their particular practices. The Pennsylvania Dutch dialect was spoken by fewer people, farms were sold to tract housing developers, and farm and folk life implements were auctioned away. Thus, the Goschenhoppen Historians, Inc. organization was created. Its mission is highly focused hands-on education: to learn and teach the folk culture, sponsor educational seminars, and restore and maintain significant sites. Maintenance of physical sites for passive viewing by guests is not the end purpose; the sites are owned to support active re-enacting, interpretation, and presentation to the public of the practices of the folk life of this valley.

From an article by Bob Wood, “What is Goschenhoppen?” August 3, 2011. BerksmontNews.com:

“The late ‘Abe’ Roan, a charter member of the ‘Historians,’ wrote in a 1996 issue of Pennsylvania Folk life magazine: ‘In the 1960s most preservation societies in the United States existed to protect and maintain historic buildings and paper items. The Goschenhoppen Historians, however, were committed to a European model of historical and folk cultural research which broadens the base of study to include languages and dialects, folk beliefs and folk practices, material culture, and geographic, historic, and religious influences. Utilizing these cross-cultural studies the full range of a culture – and the subtle relationships that make it function – can be better and more completely understood. ‘ ”

The two physical facilities maintained by the Goschenhoppen Historians, Inc. are a museum in Green Lane, PA and a restored 1736 stone house in Upper Frederick Township, PA. The restored house is a National Historic Landmark and serves as an education center for the organization. The museum, actually occupying a historic building from a later era, sits along a main street in the tiny town of Green Lane. The historians purchased a hall used by the now-disbanded Red Men’s fraternal organization. Within the building are an academic library, reproduction country store and blacksmith’s shop, and a folk life museum full of 18^th and 19^th century Perkiomen Valley artifacts.

The annual Goschenhoppen Folk Festival and differs from others nearby – particularly that of neighboring Kutztown. First held in 1967, the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival featured demonstrations of the vanishing arts of farm life. Each year it expanded within its mission to show and teach the authentic crafts. Only authentic foods are sold as refreshments. NO items or souvenirs can be purchased. This is a fun-filled educational event. In contrast, the Kutztown, PA folk festivals have a mix of modern foods and traditional ones, electric fair-type rides, and many items for sale.

Before first-hand knowledge was extinguished, the Goschenhoppen Historians jumped to save it. Members learned at the elbows of the true Goschenhoppen Germanic settler community. By executing living archeology or living anthropology, the members and volunteers have a heck of a lot of fun and inform the historically interested visitors. Moreover, the historians maintain a vibrant connection to their past.

What is Goschenhoppen?

Full text of the article by BerksmontNews writer Bob Wood.

Excepting the Wikimedia map, all photos and text copyright 2011 Maren E. Morgan, all rights reserved.