Sunday, May 1st 2016, Missouri Germans Consortium and Blumenhof Winery will hold a tribute to Springtime and a German Heritage Cultural Fest with their first Maifest Celebration.
Join in the fun from noon until 3pm as Missouri Germans Executive Director Dorris Keeven-Franke shares the history of Dutzow founded in 1832!!! The first German Settlement in Missouri
. She will also be sharing the
German Heritage Corridor for everyone too. NOON at Blumenhof.
Also at Blumenhof will be Harry Wolf from the Waterloo German Band who will entertain you with his Alpenhorn and the best German music from east of the Mississippi! PLUS – there will be delicious German food and wine for everyone!! Perhaps even a Maypole Dance to top the celebration. Lots of Gemutlichkeit!
Tour the farm of Friedrich Muench – Far West – the most prolific of all Missouri Germans who wrote and promoted German emigration to Missouri – and was a leading founder for viticulture in Missouri! FROM 2pm – 4pm Information and Directions at Blumenhof. Free – registration at Blumenhof.
Join us that day! and enjoy Springtime!
In 1819, a world famous German author named Gottfried Duden purchased land in what was the Missouri Territory, hoping to investigate what he thought would be a good location for Germans wanting to emigrate to the U.S. After spending 1824-1827 in the new State of Missouri, he published a book called A Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America about that visit, which prompted thousands of Germans to come to Missouri. One of those first to follow was a small group called the Berlin Society, the first society of Germans to settle as a group. In 1834, by Johann Wilhelm Bock, leader of the group, who has sold his estate named Dutzow in Germany, platted the small village here on the hillsides of Lake Creek. In the 1890s when the KATY Railroad came through, an addition brought the village closer to the railroad.
Today the village remains very much the same as it always has. Quaint buildings and shops, nestle among the vineyards on the sloping hillsides, where Lake Creek flows into the Missouri River near Washington, Missouri. Part of the Missouri Weinstrasse between Augusta and Marthasville, the German heritage is still very much alive.
LakeCreekMap
Where Missouri's German Heritage begins
Dutzow 