Frankenmuth

German culture

There's one more thing about Frankenmuth that probably should be mentioned. Two of the annual festivals honor the town's Bavarian heritage. In the middle of the 19^th century, a group of Lutheran missionaries from the lower Bavarian region of Franconia settled in this part of Michigan with the purpose of convincing the native people of the errors of their ways and converting them to Christianity. Their attempts must have been successful, since today there are almost no signs of the original native culture.

To honor the noble deeds of those early Bavarian settlers, many of the buildings have been designed to look like typical Bavarian architecture. And the festivals attract many good polka bands and provide good German entertainment.

But to a great extent, the German culture is largely only skin-deep. For example, there's only one book store where you can find one small shelf of German language books. And the parade provided a telling contrast. Although there were a few floats and one marching band celebrating the town's German roots, the biggest applause from the audience was reserved for the truckload of armed forces veterans. Perhaps some of them fought against Germans in the war?