1 Gedanke zu „Holger “Holli ” Karstens †“

  1. Dies habe ich gerade noch im ‘Cache’ von Google gefunden:

    link: News@theIndependent.com
    Published Tuesday, October 24, 2000

    German delegates arrive in Grand Island

    By Tracy Overstreet
    The Independent

    Happy, hearty voices rang out Monday night at the Liederkranz.

    More than 100 voices, those of Americans with German backgrounds and 35 German visitors, joined in songs such as “Edelweiss” and “The Beer Barrel Polka,” all in celebration of German heritage.

    The German delegation was organized by Joachim “Yogi” Reppmann, a German professor from Northfield, Minn.

    Reppmann described the visit as a “microcosm” of what will happen in Grand Island one year from now when the community hosts the Low German Genealogical Conference Oct. 19 through 21. Visitors are expected from 16 states.

    Holger Karstens and his brother Herwig Karstens made the trip to Grand Island because they knew they had relatives in the area.

    The brothers met their St. Paul relatives, one of whom is elderly and in a retirement home, for the first time over the weekend.

    “It was hearty and deeply moving, and they were surprised,” Holger Karstens said of the meeting.

    The Karstens brothers grew up in the Schleswig-Holstein area of Germany, and Herwig Karstens still lives there. Holger Karstens moved to Low Saxony in the community of Hemmingen.

    Schleswig-Holstein is the area of Germany from which many of Grand Island’s founding families emigrated. Grand Island Mayor Ken Gnadt and Reppmann are working with the Schleswig-Holstein communities of Bad Segeberg and Trappenkamp to form a sister-city relationship with Grand Island.

    The Karstens brothers said four generations of their family have been American born, and they were eager for the trip as a family history experience.

    Renate Kunde and her husband, Helmut, of Flensburg, Germany, said they made the trip because they were interested in the history of German emigration but have no relatives in the area.

    The Kundes are staying with Greg and Marla Mehring, who said they are planning a trip to Germany to trace family roots.

    “All my great-grandparents came over from Germany,” Greg Mehring said.

    Loren Schuett of Grand Island and his wife, Donna, recently returned from Germany, where they met for the first time his 88-year-old aunt.

    “My dad came over from Germany,” he said of his heritage.

    Schuett’s father, Hans, was a farmer.

    When people of a common heritage meet for the first time, Reppmann said, it’s as if they always knew one another. He enjoyed seeing the nervousness “melt away” when he introduced the German visitors to the Grand Island families with whom they are staying.

    The German visitors have a full day planned for Tuesday.

    After touring historical monuments and sites such as Fonner Park, Stuhr Museum, the Bob Claussen farm and the Murdock Trail site — where pioneers crossed the prairie — the delegation will shop at Conestoga Mall.

    The final event of the day will be an abschlussdinnnerfete at the Platt-Duetsche.

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