Wikipedia summary here<\/a>): \u00a0they settled in the Danube valley in modern-day Hungary, Yugoslavia, and other former eastern lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and were expelled after World War II, so the Donauschwaben Center in Chicago and similar organizations were, in the post-war time, mutual support for refugees.<\/p>\nWhen we started there, we simply figured that the German school looked like a good choice. \u00a0It was only much more recently that we learned that my husband has distant Donauschwaben roots, which is another story.<\/p>\n
Anyway, in addition to the Saturday school, they also have a Kindergruppe (children\u2019s group) and Jugendgruppe (youth group), both of which focus on learning the traditional dances. \u00a0In the hallways of the building, there are group photographs of the Jugendgruppe (not everyone posing in one picture, but individual pictures with names pasted into a frame) and, as I\u2019m waiting for the kids to pack up, I\u2019ll sometimes look at these and trace the changes \u2014 a large youth group in the 50s, with very traditional names such as Helga and Hans, and a much shrunken group now, which still manages to hang on, though I imagine its future is much more uncertain and is at risk of a cohort with, simply, smaller numbers (reliant as it is on the children of immigrants prodding their own children to participate) meaning that they can\u2019t garner the critical mass.<\/p>\n
In any event, you can watch their videos on youtube, as posted by \u201cchicagodonau\u201d \u2014 here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\n