Modern Era
After 1900, German culture began to die out in Louisville, with many of the German churches switched to preaching in English rather than German. The advent of World War I increased this, forcing German names to either dropped the word "German" from their names (Germany Security Bank became Security Bank, for example), or were completely altered. Even the Louisville libraries got in the act by removing books written in German from their shelves. On March 4, 1938, the long-lasting German newspaper, Louisville Anzeiger, printed its final issue.
In the 21st century, one third of Louisville's population claims German ancestry. The Kentuckiana German Heritage Society was started in 1991 to preserve Louisville's German heritage. The German-American Club Gesangverein, which was founded in 1878, also remains. Since 1977 Louisville has a maintained a relationship with Mainz, Germany, with the two cities officially town twinning in 1994. Every October a two day Oktoberfest is celebrated.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Germans In Louisville
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or era:
“So gladly, from the songs of modern speech
Men turn, and see the stars, and feel the free
Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers,
And through the music of the languid hours,
They hear like ocean on a western beach
The surge and thunder of the Odyssey.”
—Andrew Lang (1844–1912)
“...I had grown up in a world that was dominated by immature age. Not by vigorous immaturity, but by immaturity that was old and tired and prudent, that loved ritual and rubric, and was utterly wanting in curiosity about the new and the strange. Its era has passed away, and the world it made has crumbled around us. Its finest creation, a code of manners, has been ridiculed and discarded.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)