History in the Recipe: The German Food Invasion

Published on November 8, 2018

https://www.samford.edu/departments/oral-history/projects/samwav/GermanInvasion.mp3

"And what we’re going to do with, with this potato salad is we’re going to have potatoes that we can peel or not peel, okay, and then we’re going to add some onion in there, and we add a little bacon in there, and we add a little pickle juice in it, we’ll add some vinegar, we’ll add some oil and pepper and salt. And that’s it."

Chapters

Introduction: German Immigrants to the United States

Meri Cashion and Anna-Drake Stephens introduce their podcast, The German Food Invasion, and present some background on German immigration.

Play Segment

Gerhard Graf’s Journey to America and Love of German Food

Gerhard Graf discusses his transition from Germany to America, and describes his continuing enthusiasm for German culture, which led him to become involved with German clubs in Memphis and Birmingham and to impart his culture to his daughter Ellie. He goes on to outline culinary traditions in various areas of Germany.

Play Segment

Cooking Kartoffelsalat, Schnitzel, and Rotkohl with Gerhard

Gerhard and Ellie Graf show Meri Cashion and Anna Drake Stephens how to make German potato salad (kartoffelsalat), schnitzel, and boiled red cabbage (rotkohl).

Play Segment

German Drinking Culture and Gerhard’s Concluding Thoughts

Gerhard Graf, Meri Cashion, and Anna-Drake Stephens explain the German influences on American drinking culture before closing with some final remarks on German food.

Play Segment

Transcript

[HARWELL GOODWIN DAVIS: He stated that he had been appointed to suggest a
president for Howard College.

EUNICE ROGERS: And so there was a lot of industry in Bessemer when I grew up, a
lot of progressiveness. However, it was still a typical, small, Southern town.

OLIVER BARREAU: To be perfectly honest with you, um, I didn't know what Alabama
was until I set foot in Alabama.

ELIZABETH SLOAN RAGLAND: I was not greeted by hecklers. I was greeted by Martha
Ann Cox.]

MICHELLE LITTLE: Welcome back to Sam.wav! We are your hosts, Michelle Little--

CLAIRE DAVIS: and Claire Davis.

MICHELLE LITTLE: And today we'll be concluding our mini-series "History in the
Recipe" with one last student podcast.

CLAIRE DAVIS: Our other featured podcasts in this series have focused on
individuals who come from very distinct cultures. Today, however, we're
exploring how food and culture shifts upon immigration to America. Join us as
seniors Meri Cashion and Anna-Drake Stephens interview Gerhard Graf about the
German presence in Birmingham and about maintaining a distinctive tradition
while living in the Great Melting Pot.

MERI CASHION: You're listening to The German Food Invasion, the story of one
Westward German keeping his culture alive through food, a podcast produced by
Samford University's Food and History class and Samford University Oral
Traditions and Recording Initiative program. This is the wurst podcast ever. Get
it? Bratwurst? With your hosts, Meri Cashion,

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS:--and Anna-Drake Stephens.

MERI CASHION: And in this episode we interviewed Gerhard Graf and his
ten-year-old daughter, Ellie Graf, in his home in Alabaster, Alabama.

[musical interlude]

GERHARD GRAF: I think it's really interesting that the- the- the Germans want to
fit in, they're part of it. They are still to this day the largest immigration
group into the United States. How do Germans fit into the United States? Uh, we
are part of it. That's- that's the way I'm looking at it.

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: German immigrants were the largest immigration group to
enter the United States. Trying to establish themselves in a new country, German
immigrants looked for familiarity and comfort. To do this, many German
immigrants established a Little Germany. In a Little Germany, German immigrants
could work, shop, eat, drink, and socialize in a place that resembled their
homeland. A Little Germany also helped the immigrants settle in America by
teaching them how to become part of the new society. It provided a place for
immigrants to hold on to their heritage while transitioning into America.

[musical interlude]

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: We will now take you to Gerhard Graf's house to better
understand German food and culture.

MERI CASHION: We pull up to a brick house on a large hill where we are first
greeted by Ellie. She welcomes us inside the house and leads us into the
kitchen, where we meet Gerhard Graf. He has a German accent but his speech has
become Americanized.

GERHARD GRAF: It is "Gerhard Graf." I was born in Germany, in Darmstadt, on
February the fifth, 1957.

MERI CASHION: Both his parents were born in Germany. His father was the vice
president of a bank, and his mom took care of him, his two sisters, and his brother.

GERHARD GRAF: Uh, it was, it was pretty great, we all would, wore little leather
pants, you know, so the parents apparently didn't have to wash the clothes.
(laughter) Uh, and the shinier they wear, you know, you could go down slides and
all that kind of stuff, it was great.

MERI CASHION: His mom did the cooking growing up. When Gerhard was around 12,
his mom started to get him more involved in the cooking process.

GERHARD GRAF: "Do this, do that, start- start cutting this," you know, "start
doing this. And by the way, if you add a little bit of this--"

MERI CASHION: Gerhard lived in Germany until he was 26 years old and became a
citizen in 1990. When he first came to America, he lived in Tyler, Texas.
Following work, he moved to New York and later Tennessee. From his home in
Memphis, he commuted to Germany every two weeks. After deciding to stop the
constant travelling and stay in the states, he and his wife moved to Alabama,
where he currently works at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

GERHARD GRAF: I work in the, um, in the, uh, health information technology side,
so on the, on the hospital side of the business. So it's, uh, it's interesting,
um, as you see I have no hair right now but I tell people five and a half years
ago when I started with UAB I had a full head of hair.

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: To help preserve his German culture, Mr. Graf is very
active in Birmingham's German Club. German Clubs around the U.S. allow Germans
to come together and celebrate their heritage. When Gerhard lived in Tennessee,
he ran the German Club in Memphis. When he moved to Birmingham, he quickly got
involved with the German club here.

GERHARD GRAF: The German Club, yeah, they're, started in- in the, in the early
sixties, actually. Bunch of Germans got together and said "Well, we married to
G.I.'s and flyboys and who, whatever else," uh, and they said "we need to have
sort of a, of a gathering" you know, and- and they, they gathered in all sort of
different places and then they decided "well, we should have an Oktoberfest" and
they did that. And so they decided to, uh, to buy a building and the building,
uh, in the historic district was bought in 1965. So the place was only open once
a month for, for dinner dance. We had the Oktoberfest, we had the Christmas
market, we had May-fest, we had beer-fest, we had, I mean, all sorts of
festivals, it was really, really pretty cool.

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: At the German Club, Mr. Graf did the cooking.

GERHARD GRAF: I, uh, I get my mind out of all of my regular business that way,
just concentrate on something else, make sure that I'm not cutting my fingers
off or- Yeah I made, uh, I made all sorts of, all sorts of different, different
foods there that, I made from fish dishes, salmon fish, salmon meals, to stews.
One of my personal favorite ones is, uh, is lentils. So we have that with maybe
some sausages laid in there. Um, and we always had the good standbys of
bratwursts, you know in the, the typical s- you know, stereotyped German food,
but we also went very fancy with, uh, with some of the dishes, beef dishes that
we, that we do, uh, some chicken dishes.

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: The German culture is very important to Mr. Graf, and he
enjoys sharing his heritage with his daughter, Ellie. One way she appreciates
the heritage is through music. She plays the violin, drums, and piano, just to
name a few.

ELLIE GRAF: I started when I was about seven years old. I, I grew up playing by
ear. I play Classical music. I mostly play Bach songs, which is a German
composer. I am going to play "Edelweiss." It is a--Sound of Music song.

[Ellie Graf plays "Edelweiss" on violin]

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: Ellie also helps her dad at the German Club.

ELLIE GRAF: I usually would help with the German Club some. I mean, I've been
there for a couple years, since I was like five or six and I'd help them cut,
like, vegetables and I'd help a lot, um, Oktoberfest.

GERHARD GRAF: Yeah, so, so, at the, at the German Club what I do is I pay the
taxes, uh, I pay the bills, I pay the power bill, pay the electricity bill, pay
the (laughs). And, uh, and I just, it's, it's just a passion of mine to uh, to cook.

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: Lucky for us, we got a taste of his passion for cooking.

GERHARD GRAF: What are we cooking? We're cooking, uh, kartoffelsalat, schnitzel,
and rotkohl, which translates to potato salad, schnitzel, and red cabbage. [07:45]

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: He picked this meal because it was something he grew up
with.

GERHARD GRAF: What I remember is that schnitzel started off as weinerschnitzel,
so it came from Vienna originally. Uh, and, it was the, the cow's udder sliced
and breaded, okay. But then it moved on to, uh, to pork, I'm sorry, to veal
first and then on to pork, so you can find either veal or pork schnitzels, and
most commonly in Germany you have pork schnitzels. I think any, any regular
German restaurant would have something very similar to that, maybe different
combinations with, uh, with the sides. Mmhm and there's different ways that you
can fix the schnitzel. Tonight we are going to fix it very traditionally, with a
slice of lemon and actually a little lemon juice on top of it.

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: Germany is divided into regions, and each region has its
own traditional meals and cooking styles.

GERHARD GRAF: In the southern area you have lots of sausages, uh, there is a
very famous dish in Bavaria, or in Munich specifically, which is called
weisswurst, it's called a "white sausage" and the white sausage actually has
brain in it, okay, so what they do is they serve that particular sausage only in
the mornings until 12 because normally if it's later than 12 it's not good
anymore. So you have that, you have pretzels that you eat, but it's the big, you
know, soft pretzels, um, there. Uh, some of the things that we're eating at, at
Oktoberfest, uh, are some radishes like the daikon radishes, and you have that
with another food group, which is beer. Of course the, uh, stereotyped, uh,
sauerkraut is always there, you know, and, and uh, the red cabbage is, uh,
there. Another nice one, if we move up a little bit from the South to the
Southwest into the Black Forest, um, you look more at, at spaetzle, and spaetzle
is a homemade noodle. Going a little bit more into the centered area where I am
from you have more of the schnitzels. You also have, uh, a very, a very nice
dish which I like a lot, it's called a pork hock which is probably about a pound
of meat, uh, on a, on a big old bone and it's smoked or grilled. Then you go
further north and, and you get closer to the North Sea, so North Sea tells us
there's fish, you know, so it's the herrings and the mackerels and all those
kind of fishes that, uh, that they eat of there more. So that's kind of, you
know, a rough tour through Germany.

[musical interlude]

MERI CASHION: To prepare the meat, Gerhard removes the majority of the white fat
from the pork and cuts the meat with two, finger-width slices, the first slice
not going completely through in order to butterfly it. Then he pounds the meat
to make it more tender. As he is cooking, Ellie walks into the kitchen to ask if
she can help.

GERHARD GRAF: See, I have a wonderful helper.

MERI CASHION: Gerhard then takes out three bowls and fills one with lightly
beaten eggs; the second with flour, salt, and pepper; and the last with
breadcrumbs. Then he dips the meat into each bowl, fully coating it, before
placing it into the frying pan.

GERHARD GRAF: The traditional schnitzel, if you want to do it the, the true way,
okay, is, you put it in a pan with very hot oil and then you put it into another
pan with not so hot oil, so you move it from pan to pan.

MERI CASHION: Gerhard and Ellie then start working on the red cabbage. Gerhard
pours a can of red cabbage into a pot.

GERHARD GRAF: I'm going to, uh, put an apple in there and we, we're going to put
some cloves in there.

(chopping noises)

MERI CASHION: He dices an apple and adds it to the pot.

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: A German potato salad is
slightly different from a Southern potato salad.

GERHARD GRAF: And what we're going to do with, with this potato salad is we're
going to have potatoes that we can peel or not peel, okay, and then we're going
to add some onion in there, and we add a little bacon in there, and we add a
little pickle juice in it, we'll add some vinegar, we'll add some oil and pepper
and salt. And that's it.

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: For the potato salad, Gerhard boils the
potatoes for 20 minutes, but watches them so they don't get too mushy. While
they are boiling, he cuts the rest of the ingredients in the salad.

(chopping noises)

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: He starts by slicing the pickles and then moves on to
the onion and finally the bacon. Once the potatoes have cooled, Gerhard works on slicing the potatoes. Once all the ingredients are sliced and diced, they are
mixed together in a large bowl.

(mixing noises)

[musical interlude]

GERHARD GRAF: That's where the beer comes in.

(clinking noise)

MERI CASHION: The German practice of drinking is not just part of a culture, but
part of the community of togetherness. Beer has been brewed in America since the
time of the Pilgrims, but the story of beer starts with the immigration of
Germans into the United States, beginning in 1840. When immigrating into the
U.S., the Germans brought with them a taste of their homeland. This practice
introduced Americans to a different form of making beer, as well as consuming
it. John Wagner set up a shop in Philadelphia, making a new type of beer called
a lager. Lager beer is a very light, crisp brew. German immigrants also brought
with them beer gardens, creating a new beer culture in America. This was a
family atmosphere. The beer gardens and breweries throughout the United States
led to the mass-produced beer breweries.

GERHARD GRAF: So, the, the trick about the German, the German beers, is, is very
simple. There is a purity law and that's actually called a reinheitsgebot, so
the only thing that's in beer is water, hops, yeast, and malt. And my rule has
always been, you taste it, if you don't like it, I'll drink it. And it has not
happened yet. Actually microbreweries in the United States per capita are just
about at the same level as in Germany or they might be even, in, in the United
States a little bit more because for example, here in Alabaster, we're getting
two breweries. And you have all the other breweries that are, around, around
town.

ANNA-DRAKE STEPHENS: With the American and German culture coming together, one
thing Mr. Graf wants people to take away from his culture is for people to be
open minded about the food.

GERHARD GRAF: I don't know, I mean, there are some people that have their minds
set, you know. Just try it, be open minded, if you don't like it that's okay. I
mean, it's just food fixed a little different.

MICHELLE LITTLE: We hope you've enjoyed listening to our mini-series on food and
history in Birmingham. Dr. Mauldin's students ostensibly went out to investigate
the history of cassava and schnitzel, but as is often the case, they brought
back more than just recipes and cooking techniques. In the end, the food was
only a side to the main course of stories about family, childhood, national
change, and personal growth.

CLAIRE DAVIS: Our next episode will feature both new and old interviews about
the TCI mines in Docena. Until then, make waves!

CREDITS:

CLAIRE DAVIS: Our theme music is by Samford student Kerry Joiner. Today's
podcast was produced by seniors Meri Cashion and Anna-Drake Stephens with
Gerhard Graf and his daughter, Ellie Graf. The introduction and credits are by
Michelle Little and Claire Davis. This is a Samford Traditions and Oral history
Recordings Initiative production. For more on Samford University or our program,
visit our page on the Samford website or follow us on Facebook and Instagram at
Samford_Stori, and on Twitter at SU_Stori.

MICHELLE LITTLE: If you enjoyed this series and the rest of our podcasts, please
rate and leave us a review, and please pass the word along to some other person
that you think may enjoy the podcast.

CLAIRE DAVIS: Thanks for your support!

(typewriter ding)

Audio Information
Attribute	Value
Repository	Samford University Oral History Collection
Accession	SUHist/STORI/008