Page 1 - GC-Nov-Dec-2025

A NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GERMAN-AMERICANS OF UPSTATE NEW YORK
AUSTRIA • GERMANY • LIECHTENSTEIN • SWITZERLAND
Vol. 13 No. 6 November - December 2025 Issue

Timm, Friends of Concordia Cemetery

to receive WNY German Cultural Award

By Amber Healy exhibit reflecting all of the region’s
n recognition of their dedication immigrant groups and cultural heri-
to preserving and celebrating tages. She’s involved with the de-
Itheir German heritage, Elaine sign of a new mural to be installed
Timm and the Friends of Concordia there next year.
Cemetery group are being recog- As a child, her German heritage
nized on Thursday, Nov. 13 at this meant opening their Christmas
year’s WNY German Cultural presents on Christmas Eve, not the
Awards ceremony at Hofbräuhaus following morning. It meant attend-
on Scott Street in Buffalo. ing a church service first, of course,
and a meal of sweet and sour cab-
bage. “That’s something that seems
to have been carried down for gen-
erations,” she says. “But there are Friends of Concordia
From left to right at Riverworks in Buffalo are: Simon Goerrissen, other things that have been lost. My Cemetery
Brett Sauer, Leo Vogelsang, Freddy Schramm, Maris Haneberg, Ve- mother might have done it, but you Among those groups that are
ronica Friol, Marie Noeres, and Lena Goethe. Brett and Veronica are kind of lose it. More and more, the equally involved in preserving Ger-
Americans, and Lena is German but not part of the program. kids are losing that stuff.” man heritage in Western New York
She hopes the mural, along with is the Friends of Concordia Ceme-
Dortmund exchange students other diversity, equity and inclusion tery. Bonnie Fleischauer is a member
efforts, will help introduce more
children to their own heritage and of both Friends of Concordia Cem-
visit Downtown Buffalo background and foster the kind of etery and the corresponding foun-
curiosity and pride she feels in her dation that helps organize
By John Kleinmann, Federal Courts. An unexpected German roots. volunteers and donors to keep the
he Buffalo-Dortmund Youth highlight came in the form of the With the museum, Timm is a cemetery clean and tidy.
Ambassador Program is appearance by Jet, an explosives Concordia Cemetery dates back
Thosting five high school stu- detection canine in the Bureau of member of the collections commit- to 1859, Fleischauer says, and is
tee, helping to organize and put on
dents from Dortmund, Germany: Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. one of the oldest cemeteries in the
Marie Noeres (attending Buffalo Jet's handler, Special Agent Jason Elaine Timm display artifacts and other items area. “We were kind of the working
people bring by. “The whole com-
Seminary); Simon Goerrissen (Ca- Bernhard, described Jet's training Timm serves as curator of the person’s cemetery,” she says. “It
nisius); Freddy Schramm and Leo and discussed how Jet assists ATF Das Haus German museum in munity (near the museum) was very was founded by three churches to
German at the time. Now, so many
Vogelsang (St. Joe's); and Maris agents and other law enforcement Wheatfield in Niagara County, a share 15-and-a-half acres, and (was
Haneberg (Mount Mercy). On Octo- officers in locating explosives and position she took as she reconnect- more people have moved in, but it populated by) mostly German im-
was very concentrated. We are kind
ber 15, Mike Riester and Paul Jones, firearm-related evidence. ed with her German heritage thanks of tiny, and people find us by mis- migrants at the beginning, then it
members of the Buffalo-Dortmund Next up was a meeting in the to a friend’s interest in genealogy take sometimes,” including a gen- evolved as Buffalo evolved.”
Sister City Committee, escorted the Edward A. Rath County Office more than 35 years ago. tleman visiting from Washington, The cemetery was briefly aban-
students on their annual "Down- Building with Erie County Comp- “I joined the Historical Society DC, who stumbled across the muse- doned and uncared for following
town Day." troller (and Canisius University Po- of North German Settlements in um while visiting Niagara Falls. He some nefarious activity by previous
The first stop was at City Hall, litical Science Professor) Kevin Western New York in 1994. The leadership, but volunteers including
where Mayor Christopher Scanlon Hardwick, who gave the students a first time I planned to go to Germa- had his group make a special trip to Fleischauer have helped to bring it
the museum and enjoyed his visit.
welcomed the students, who left quick civics lesson on the relation- ny was with a group, leaving on “It was cool,” she says. “He was back to its beautiful state. “Some of
with some Buffalo swag courtesy of ships and differences among local, Sept. 12, 2001,” she recalls. She kind of a big shot.” the neighborhood people started
the Mayor's Office. While at City state and federal governments. That was finally able to go in 2008 and Timm also has worked with mu- coming over with push lawnmow-
Hall the students had an opportunity led to an interesting discussion be- has returned to Uckermark, a north- seums in Germany to establish sis- ers and taking care of it, and then a
to see the historic Buffalo Common tween Professor Hardwick and the ern region of the country, five more ter museum relationships to group of volunteers got together
Council chambers, featuring exten- students concerning similarities and times since then. continue fostering communication whose ancestors were there. It’s
sive art and carvings and a stained differences between American and “While there, I visited the muse- and cooperation between their orga- been that way ever since. I walked
glass sunburst skylight in the ceiling. German political systems. ums in Brüssow and Bergholz, nizations. in to find my great-great-grandpar-
Thanks to the efforts of Emerson The final stop was at the Nation- learning more genealogy and seeing She encourages people to stop ents and the grass was up to my
Barr, City Hall's liaison with Buffa- al Register of Historic Places listed artifacts like the ones at Das Haus. by the museum and see what’s on waist! I couldn’t find them. I went
lo's Sister City groups, this was the Shea's Buffalo Theatre, where A longtime member of the Brüssow display, and then to return to their back a year later and the grass was
first time in anyone's memory that a Shea's Restoration Consultant Doris Museum suggested that we become homes and see if there’s anything cut and (one of the volunteers)
Buffalo Mayor has met with ex- Collins led a comprehensive tour of sister museums, which we did in that might contribute to their collec- comes out to greet me and invites
change students from Dortmund. the crown jewel of Buffalo's Theatre 2018. We continue to exchange in- tion, instead of tossing unwanted me to be on the board. That was 24
From City Hall the Dortmund District. The students learned that formation regularly. A tour of 36 years ago and I’m still there.”
students crossed the street to the the 3,000-seat theater was originally residents from the Uckermark visit- items out to the curb. The volunteers spend a lot of
“Granted, we can’t take it all,
courtroom of US Magistrate Judge built as a movie house by Michael ed our museum in October 2024,” but we would like to save some of time trying to clean headstones and,
Jeremiah McCarthy in the Robert H. Shea in 1926; the theater was mod- she says. They wanted to come ear- it so people can come and see,” when needed, will organize a “dig”
Jackson United States Courthouse. eled after 17th and 18th Century lier and had a trip lined up for 2020 Timm says. As more museums add to help resurface stones that may
Judge McCarthy explained to the European opera houses; its interior but were unable to visit due to the to their digital archives and collec- have sunken into the earth and re-
students the workings of the US was designed by artist Louis Com- pandemic. tions due to space restrictions, store them. “We found three of
court system, and particularly the Continued on page 4 The Uckermark region of Ger- Timm says it’s still nice to occa- them in French that predate the
many is northeast of Berlin on the sionally be able to go in and look at cemetery, so they had to have been
current border with Poland, but things in real life, “see some old moved there, but there was no re-
both nations’ borders have fluctuat- glassware that grandma used in her cord of that. And because they were
ed throughout the centuries. Das kitchen, which to us is very special buried so deep, they were pristine,”
Haus museum was started by Eu- now but to them it’s just everyday Fleischauer says. “You could read
gene Camann in 1971 out of his stuff that’s beautifully decorated.” everything on there. It’s very excit-
interest in his family’s history and Instead of throwing it away, consid- ing.”
the migration of Prussian Lutherans er contacting Timm at the museum Volunteers use ground-pene-
to North America. and maybe helping those family trating radar and dowsing rods to
For Timm, her work is a testa- heirlooms find new life in the muse- help find the sunken stones to be
ment to her love of learning. She um, she says. removed and salvaged, she says.
enjoys being part of genealogical Like other previous honorees, The accuracy of the dowsing rods is
groups, historical organizations and Timm says she’s not really sure she particularly surprising: “We just
preservation societies and attending deserves the recognition. “I don’t started using them and they are in-
meetings, both virtually and in-per- toot my own horn, I just don’t. I fallible. It’s weird. They can walk
son, and sharing what she’s learned was brought up that you don’t do over and find out if it’s a man or
with others. Timm also is working that. That’s why when my name woman by how those things swing.
Buffalo Mayor Christopher Scanlon welcomes German exchange with the Ralph Wilson Explore & came up, I thought, who’s doing Channel 4 came out and we did a
students at City Hall along with active members of the Buffalo Ger- More Children’s Museum at Canal- that?!” she says. “All these other live four-hour thing and they were
man-American community Michael Reister and Paul Jones. side in downtown Buffalo on an people that do all this other stuff.” Continued on page 3
Photo courtesy of Emerson Barr, Buffalo City Hall