Handing Down History

At the annual Roberts Cove Germanfest

I knew my great grandparents were German, explaining why my grandmother and godparents spoke with their own dialect, which fell somewhere between their German roots and their French Acadian environment. I thought saying “roast and rice and gravy” required rolling the R’s. I knew when they said something that sounded like “form,” it wasn’t some paper they filled out; it was the place they grew rice—a farm. And I didn’t fully grasp that they were part of a unique community in Acadiana filled with these blended accents and German heritage. Having confined my visits to the Zaunbrecher’s block-size compound in Rayne, Louisiana, I didn’t understand how deep and far our roots ran through the fields just outside of town until my father took me to the German Heritage Museum in Roberts Cove. There I learned more than I could have imagined.

Roberts Cove, Louisiana, a small community just outside of Rayne, was founded by German settlers and today is made up almost entirely of descendants of thirteen original families. These families continued to grow and blend until family reunions were eventually combined into a full-fledged festival—the Annual Roberts Cove Germanfest. Today, Germanfest is essentially still a family reunion, celebrating German culture, which has been passed down through the generations and shared with visitors from far and wide.

Roberts Cove Germanfest

Fr. Charles Zaunbrecher, former historian for all thirteen original families, began holding family reunions, or feierleckkeiten, on the first Sunday of October each year on the St. Leo IV Catholic Church grounds. These celebrations gave way to the first Germanfest in 1995, combining all the families together for one big celebration of the Cove’s heritage with all descendants, neighbors, and friends who wanted to join. In keeping with its family reunion origins, the festival alternates honoring a select few families each year. This year’s honorees are the Vondenstein, Wirtz, Ronkartz, and Jabusch families.

“Germanfest is a very family-oriented festival. It’s unlike other festivals because we don’t have any vendors,” said Sherry Rimmer, secretary of the German Heritage Museum. “It’s all run by volunteers. The families cook the food; we perform songs and do the demonstrations.”

For the Foodies: Germanfest offers a large variety of foods linked to the German culture and the kitchens of today’s Roberts Cove residents. Local families cook the dishes served at the festival using much of the same methods as their ancestors. Dishes like beef or potato stew, sauerkraut, sausage or brats, apple cobbler (apfel kuchen), and German sugar cookies (zucher platzkens) are typically on the menu. Cooking demonstrations include a schweinebraten, the process of cooking a whole pig the old-fashioned way. This year’s festival also includes a German-style homebrew beer competition.

For the History Buffs: Historians will lead visitors on a Heritage Walking Tour through the grounds of St. Leo IV, speaking on the rich history of faith, family, and labor that built the Roberts Cove community on that site more than 130 years ago. Other demonstrations include rice threshing, sack sewing, and blacksmithing.

For the Music Lovers: The Germanfest Folk Singers have been performing traditional hymns and folk songs since the second festival. The chorus consists of forty-two German descendants from across the state as well as Roberts Cove residents. German bands, Alpenfest and Alpenmusikanten, will perform along with the Singers, Germanfest Folk Dancers, and Kinder Auftritt, a local children’s dancing and singing group.

For the Kids: The simple Germanfest train ride will entertain the littlest visitors again this year, in the activity-packed Kinder Land area. Children can also learn to play traditional German music from Valina and the band Dast Ist Lustig. Visitors can browse handcrafted gifts, German hats, pins, T-shirts, German cookbooks, aprons, steins, canned fruits and vegetables, and much more in the Germanfest gift shop.

German Heritage Museum

As one of its primary sources of income, all of the proceeds generated from Germanfest go straight to the German Heritage Museum, which was built to preserve and honor the area’s German customs and culture. The museum houses many artifacts, heirlooms, and documents—some dating back to 1880 or earlier—from the German families who first settled in Roberts Cove. The museum is open throughout Germanfest and by appointment during the rest of the year.

On my first call to the German Heritage Museum, Rimmer told me, “You’ll want to talk to Josie Thevis. She’s our book.” Before the hour was up, I had Thevis on the line, ever eager to talk about her passion for preserving the history of her ancestors, her melodious accent reminding me of my own relatives.

“I meet with each family we honor in the museum during the Germanfest each year. I get history you can’t get anywhere else,” said Thevis, museum coordinator and lifetime resident of Roberts Cove. The Thevis family was one of the first to settle in Roberts Cove. “A descendant can come to the museum and trace their roots. The artifacts and history we work to preserve will help future generations learn about their own family’s heritage,” Thevis continued. Those who wish to contribute to the operation and efforts of the museum may purchase a leaf with up to two family names on the museum’s Ancestry Tree for a one-time donation.

Even though French Acadian influence surrounded this small German community in southwest Louisiana and the stigma of WWI caused many of them to give up speaking their native language, residents didn’t give up their German customs and traditions. Today, descendants can share these traditions with friends and neighbors, and more importantly with future generations, thanks to the work of the Roberts Cove Germanfest and the German Heritage Museum it funds.

For more information about the Roberts Cove Germanfest and museum contact information, visit robertscovegermanfest.com.

Details. Details. Details.

2013 Annual Roberts Cove Germanfest

October 5—6

St. Leo IV Catholic Church

7166 Roberts Cove Road

Roberts Cove, La.

Activities will be held Saturday from 10 am–9 pm and Sunday from 9 am–4:30 pm.