The German Society

I was looking at old family photos of mom yesterday, and ran across this great picture of her parents, Anna and Herman Klingler, dressed in traditional German garb.

Anna is in the front row, 4th from the left, and Herman is 3rd from the right in the back.  They look like the youngest members of the group, so this might have been taken shortly after they arrived in the United States, when they were both in their 20's.

Unfortunately, the photo doesn't have a caption, so it's impossible to know for sure. It might be before they left the Homeland, but this looks too prosperous for Germany between the wars. The mix of ages and formal pose tells me this is an organized club, not a gathering of young friends.

They first lived in Philadelphia, so I did some research on German clubs of the time.   In the 1920's, the German Society of Philadelphia  had over 600 members, with another 800 in the Women's Auxiliary. (You can read their history by clicking that link.)

So I'm guessing they're at an outdoor event with that popular club. My grandmother, Anna, was very social.  The Germans loved their music and dancing, and you can see traditional instruments in the picture.

The club was at its peak then. Not long after, WWII became an extremely difficult time for German-Americans.  But somehow the club managed to hold its own and exists to this day.  It was founded in 1764, so it must be one of oldest cultural clubs in the nation.