Cultural Continuity
St. Marks Lutheran Church in Huntsville, AL. was established in 1951 by many families of the German Rocket Team. Huntsville did not have a Lutheran church when the Germans arrived and the formation of this institution provided not only a physical location for faith-gatherings, but most interestingly, a place for the German Rocket Wives to connect, create, and continue their German heritage.
Both Gisela Rieger and Klaus Heimburg shared memories of their childhoods and the school lunches their German mothers would make for them. While Gisela, Klaus, and other children of the German Rocket Scientists went to Alabama schools, their mothers were intentional about cooking German foods for their lunch boxes.
Klaus Heimburg, son of Karl and Ruth Heimburg, recounts a memory of his childhood: "All that was available in the stores here was the white soft bread...So mother would make her brown bread and I had that almost everyday for lunch."
The family and motherhood were an avenue for German Rocket Wives to maintain a connection to their roots. The family home - the kitchen - were central to the continuation of their Germany culture. After-school snacks, evening family meals, community cookouts and, kaffeeklatsch (traditional German informal social gathering) were intregal to the maintenance of their German heritage.
Providing meals and snacks for boyscout events, church functions, Easter celebrations, etc. were an opportunity to offer their family and others a piece of their Deutsch cousine and their skill in the kitchen.
German Rocket Wives dress in traditional dirndls to perform at a social event hosted by St. Mark’s Lutheran Church.