The German city sings: Turners, Männerchor, and Germanfest

1865 - 1992

The societies: Fort Wayne calls itself, in Whatzup's phrase from a Germanfest spokesman, the most German town of the region, and the claim rests on institutions, not ancestry alone. The Fort Wayne Turners were organised in 1865 as the Turnverein, a gymnastics society on the Turner principle that physical fitness leads to a sound mind, and stand as the oldest German club in Fort Wayne. On 4 October 1869 German immigrants organised the city's first German male chorus under the name Fort Wayne Sängerbund, the ancestor of the Fort Wayne Männerchor/Damenchor, which still sings all its music in German, calls itself the second oldest German singing society in Indiana, and is described by Whatzup as far and away the longest-running secular musical group of any sort in Fort Wayne. The Fort Wayne Sport Club followed in 1927, founded by German immigrant labourers who had played soccer for the teams of General Electric, the Pennsylvania Railroad and International Harvester. Behind the clubs stand the congregations: St. Paul's Lutheran Church, founded in 1837, is named by Whatzup as the second-oldest continuously operating church in Indiana, and the first German-language Lutheran and Catholic congregations date to the 1830s and 1840s.

The festival: In 1981 the clubs federated their culture the way the arts had federated in 1955. Germanfest began that year as a project to bring a German folk festival to Fort Wayne, at the suggestion, in its treasurer's recollection, of Mayor Win Moses, on the grounds that the only festival in town then was Three Rivers. The festival was run by the German clubs, held its first years in parking lots and parks, and moved to Headwaters Park in 1994. Its youngest partner carries a dating bracket this section prints rather than resolves: the German Heritage Society is dated to 1986 by its own and the Germanfest committee's accounts, an outgrowth of Germanfest itself, while a 2024 photograph caption in the Allen County record says the society sprang from the Germanfest beer tent and was founded in 1981. The society's documented work is not in dispute: it promotes the German language, gives scholarships for study in Germany, and was instrumental in the sister city relationship with Gera, Germany, formalised in 1992, whose delegations come to Fort Wayne for Germanfest week. The other ethnic societies and congregations of Fort Wayne stand in RELIGION and in the people record; the German case is printed here at size because it alone built a full cultural infrastructure, clubs, choir, sport, festival and sister city, out of one heritage.

Sources:

1. Germanfest Committee of Fort Wayne, History of the Fort Wayne Germanfest (Germanfest began in 1981; the four German organisations: the Turners organised 1865 as the Turnverein; the German Heritage Society formed 1986).
2. Whatzup, Germanfest celebrating 40th year in city (St. Paul's Lutheran founded 1837; the Männerchor/Damenchor founded 1869, rehearsing at Park Edelweiss; the Sport Club founded 1927 by German immigrant labourers from the GE, Pennsylvania Railroad and International Harvester teams; the German Heritage Society formed 1986 as an outgrowth of Germanfest; the most German town phrase).
3. Whatzup, Choral group kick-starts GermanFest festivities (the Männerchor/Damenchor singing since 1869; the longest-running secular musical group in Fort Wayne; GermanFest founded 1981 by the clubs).
4. Whatzup, Celebrating Gemütlichkeit (the Win Moses suggestion in treasurer Robert Anweiler's recollection; the parking lot and park years; the 1994 move to Headwaters Park; the 1992 Gera sister city agreement).
5. Allen County Genealogical Society, German Heritage in Allen County (the Männerchor's own account: organised 4 October 1869 as the Fort Wayne Sängerbund; second oldest German singing society in Indiana; the 2024 photograph caption dating the German Heritage Society's founding to 1981, printed in the bracket above).