Souvenir Flour Sack from the Balcony

Notes with the original item indicate that the flour sack pictured above was given to patrons of the Balcony, a tavern located at 301 Camp Street from 1933 to 1963. The sack advertises Wooden Shoe lager beer, and features illustrations and musical notes that accompany a German song called “The Schnitzelbank Song.” The song has several verses that teach German words to the singers. There are several videos on YouTube that will give you an idea of what “The Schnitzelbank Song” may have sounded like long ago at the Balcony. One video includes singing, while another video by Polkadelphia shows the song leader pointing to each illustration as the song is played. 

Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann wrote an article for the Sandusky Register of May 26, 1991 entitled “Balcony Conjures up Smiles.” The article explains that in 1933 Otto Ketterer established the tavern, which served beer and soft drinks. Otto played the piano, as patrons sang along.

The tavern known as the Balcony had previously been a saloon and boarding house operated by Leopold and Charles Wildenthaler. Later Emma Wildenthaler Ketterer and her husband Albert Ketterer continued the business. During Prohibition the business was a pool hall and served soft drinks. Otto Ketterer was the son of Emma and Albert Ketterer. To read the complete article about the Balcony, visit the Sandusky Library, where several decades of microfilm of local newspapers are housed.

A German Edition of an American Periodical

The Sandusky Library has an issue of the German edition of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, dated October 22, 1881, in the historical files of the Archives Research Center.

The cover of this issue featured the 100 year anniversary of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The German text was easy for local residents of German descent to read. The German-born population of Sandusky in the 1880s was about 25% of the total population, so German was a prominent second language in the city at that time.

The item was donated by Mrs. Louis Duennisch, who was both the daughter and wife of men who had been born in Germany.

Her father, Conrad Ebert, was born in 1824 in Bavaria, where he learned the trade of cabinetmaking. Mrs. Duennisch was the second wife of Louis Duennisch, who was born in Ostheim, Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach in 1847. He emigrated to the U.S. with his widowed mother in 1857. Louis Duennisch worked at the Sandusky Sash, Door & Blind Company, where he eventually became foreman of the shop. He continued at that firm as well as its successors, for over thirty five years. At the time of his retirement, the business was known as George R. Butler and Company. Mr. and Mrs. Duennisch traveled extensively, both in the United States and abroad; the library has a photograph album of their travels from 1895 to the early twentieth century. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the former residents and businesses of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio.

Minna Von Barnhelm oder Das Soldatengluck, by G. A. Lessing

The German-language book, Minna Von Barnhelm oder Das Soldatengluck, by G. E. Lessing, was used as a textbook of German language and literature in the Sandusky City Schools in the first part of the twentieth century. The main premise of the story is that Major Von Tellheim is engaged to a woman of nobility during the Seven Years’ War. After the war, Von Tellheim is stripped of his title, and becomes impoverished. Minna refuses to let him go. The revised edition of the book, which was used in Sandusky City Schools, was a part of Death’s Modern Language Series. The book featured an introduction and notes by Sylvester Primer, a professor of Teutonic languages for the University of Texas. An edition of Minna Von Barnhelm oder Das Soldatengluck from 1898 is available full text at Google Books.

Now a part of the collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, this textbook was once used by Erma and Bertha Jahraus, daughters of Sandusky residents William and Lena Jahraus. The book cover protecting the book was acquired at S.T. Lemley’s Bookstore in Sandusky. Mr. Lemley had a bookstore and stationery business in Sandusky from about 1904 to 1909.

In the 1800’s and early 1900’s, German was the first language in many homes in Sandusky. It was taught as a subject in school, and some Sandusky churches offered services in German. Soon after the United States entered World War I, the use of the German language in local schools and churches disappeared due to anti-German sentiment.