Chapeau to New York City's Bonnet Festival

We Germans are fond of our carnivals, which take place at the start of Lent, particularly in the Catholic south of the country, where my parents came from. We like to don costumes and march in parades, as a last moment of indulgence before the Lenten season arrives.

But should we also consider the idea of a parade on Easter itself? This was one of the thoughts I was having as I headed out to Manhattan's annual Easter Parade, or Bonnet Festival, yesterday.

Then again, perhaps we couldn't pull off such a uniquely New York event? The festival of course takes place on Fifth Avenue, right in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. There is, of course, no better place to see and be seen! And the more imaginative and creative and extravagant the hat and outfit to match, the better. 

Not to be outdone, my wife and I were sporting two of the hats we wear in our film about Oswald Ottendorfer, in which we play a pair of “history gnomes”:

So, besides our gnomish hat gear, did I find any of Germany in New York City? Believe it or not, in the melee of people sporting outlandish hats ranging from protest statements to hats (and even earrings) made of dried pasta, we encountered some tourists from Stuttgart wearing their ver.di caps–ver.di being Germany's second largest trade union, based in Berlin. Hmm, how did this group make it through immigration? We didn’t dare ask. But they were pleased as punch when we asked them if we could take their photo! (No one else had made that request, they told us.)

The pageant is a New York City tradition dating back to the 1870s, when Easter Sunday was a time to wear a new hat, symbolizing new beginnings. In New York at that time, Gilded Age elites would attend the service at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church or St. Patrick’s Cathedral and then stroll along 5th Avenue in all their finery. 

These days, some of them even stroll along with their pets. Which shouldn't surprise us as Queelin—our pet pig, yes, really—doesn’t attend the Fifth Avenue parade, but she too occasionally rocks some Easter rabbit ears.

“Only in New York,” many people are heard saying at this annual event. And maybe that's true. All in all, it's a colorful affair and a paradise for photographers, with good vibes all around, helped along by this year's perfect weather.

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In other “Germany in New York” news: We were pleased to discover that Chelsea Market carries some German Easter treats, from the Weibler company. 

As it turns out, it's easy enough to find something of German Easter here in the Big Apple.

Happy Easter! And chapeau, as we Germans like to say, to the many creative hat wearers!

 

Wait, St Georges Episcopal Church Is German?

Thomas Enderle on a NYC walk with a miniature pot-bellied pig

Who would have thought? In my left hand, I’m holding the leash of a miniature potbellied pig; in my right hand, a phone. It’s February 23, 2025, and I’m following the election news from Germany while taking Queelin, the pig, for a walk. Queelin belongs to my sister-in-law. My wife and I help her out from time to time—including taking little Queelin (a 14-year-old female) for walks, usually in Stuyvesant Park (between 15th and 17th Street, Rutherford Place).

Before I came to live in NYC, I only knew that name "Stuyvesant" from cigarette packs. Since then, I learned more: Peter Stuyvesant was the governor of New York when it was still called New Amsterdam—a Dutch colony from 1624 to 1674. He was a wealthy man who owned a lot of land, including the area where the park named after him now stands, as well as the plot just west of the park where St. George’s Episcopal Church is located.

Statue of Peter Stuyvesant

 

 

 

Usually an Episcopal church points to the city's British heritage. The British, of course, followed the Dutch as colonizers of Manhattan, taking control of New Amsterdam in 1664 and renaming it New York. And, yes, the Anglican community, founded St Georges in 1749, as the church plaque reveals.

Hmm, but the structure of the church building doesn’t look British. It looks more…German.

St George's Episcopal Church, overlooking Stuyvesant Park

German? A quick search reveals that the original St. George's was a chapel built in 1752 by Trinity Chuch. At that time it was located on Chapel Street, which is now known as Beekman Street, in Lower Manhattan. Eventually, however, the congregation became independent and migrated uptown. They decided to build a church on Stuyvesant Square, then considered a very fashionable location. The current structure was erected between 1846 and 1849. (Incidentally, each tower was given a spire, but the spires were later removed, after the church was rebuilt after a fire.)

The mid-1800s is of course the period when many German immigrants were living in New York, calling their neighborhood “Kleindeutschland” (Little Germany). Their neighborhood covered what is now known as the East Village, extending into the Lower East Side. By the mid-19th century, a third of New York’s population was of German descent, making the city the third-largest German-speaking community in the world after Berlin and Vienna. Who would have imagined?

And the names of the church's two architects sound German as well: Leopold Eidlitz and Otto Blesch. My research confirms it: both were of German descent. Eidlitz was from Prague, which was part of the Austrian Empire at the time, while Blesch trained under the renowned German architect Friedrich von Gärtner from the Kingdom of Bavaria. Both emigrated to the U.S. in the mid-19th century, where they pursued successful careers as architects. Eidlitz had the distinction of becoming a founding member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

And what about the church’s exterior? What architectural style is it? According to the plaque: Romanesque Revival, also known as Neoromanesque. Experts also refer to this style using the German term Rundbogenstil (literally, round-arch style).

Rundbogenstil was very typical of in the 19th century in German-speaking regions. At that time German architects were seeking to develop a style that could be identified as German, reflecting the upsurge in German nationalism and the desire for Germany to become its own nation, something that would not happen until the founding of the German Empire in 1871.

One noteworthy example of a Rundbogenstil church in Germany is the Ludwigskirche in Munich, built between 1829 and 1844. And you'll never guess what my research revealed? The architects of St. George's in New York used this Bavarian church as their model.

A tale of two churches: Munich's Ludwigskirche (left) was the model for St George's in Manhattan.

Wow—you can certainly learn a lot during a pig walk in Manhattan. Some might think that walking a pet pig is rather special—and that’s true. Unlike dogs, pigs regularly dig up the earth with their snouts. I also enjoy digging—with a bit of instinct, curiosity, and a special focus on all things German in New York. And to me, that’s something special.

Manhattan is full of history—including plenty of German history. So many people pass by St. George’s Episcopal Church without a second thought. I suspect that many of the students attending the nearby Friends Academy have little idea how much of New York’s history can be read in that church. Few people stop to admire the beautiful building or even consider its origin story.

Sadly, we often neglect to reflect on what once was. But to understand the present, we must engage with the past.

That’s what I plan to do with this blog and on Instagram.

To turn to German for a moment:

Zwischen altem Gemäuer und frischen Perspektiven—kommt mit auf eine Entdeckungstour durch die Zeit. Ich würde mich freuen.

Meaning:

Between ancient walls and fresh perspectives—come along on a tour through time.

I’d be delighted to have you along.