Uploaded on: 06/24/2007
Germans find a home at mother church: Assumption
By Pat Norby
The Catholic Spirit
Maja and Emil Pfender moved to the Twin Cities from Germany in 1964 and began searching for a church home. After living in Minneapolis for six years, they moved to St. Paul, where they discovered Assumption, the archdiocesan mother church for German Catholics that was established by Bishop Joseph Cretin in 1854.
“It probably was the building [fashioned after a church in Cologne, Germany] that first attracted us,” Maja said. “At that time, it wasn’t really a German heritage. I really didn’t like the music,” she said. But, they loved the “whole climate,” she said.
However, the Pfenders didn’t officially join the parish until 1994, when their daughter wanted to be married in the church. For 20 years, they had attended Assumption and contributed financially by putting cash in the collection basket.
“I had a neighbor here who also was supposed to go to our parish — and did in the olden days — and their daughter got married at Assumption. I called her and said, ‘How did you do that?’ and she said ‘Oh we became a member and I said, ‘You must be kidding. We can do that?’ And then we became members, too. I mean official members. We finally came clean.”
Germans brought to America “a rich heritage of church music, more than any other country, even more than the Italians,” Pfender said, noting especially the works of Bach and Mozart and an abundance of choir music.
Assumption has included prayers in German during its annual St. Boniface Day celebration, ever since the pastor, Father John Malone, called and asked Pfender to do the readings in German.
“I like that they are celebrating St. Boniface Day,” she said. “I don’t know that people know that St. Boniface is the protector of the German people.”
Parishioner Bill Strub, 83, said he remembers participating in those celebrations from his days at Cretin High School, and as a child attending Assumption School. He lived with his parents in a home that sat where St. Joseph Hospital’s parking ramp rests today.
Strub and his sister Marie completed eighth grade at Assumption and attended daily Mass at the church before beginning the day. His parents told him that in their youth, Assumption School separated the boys and girls, and had half the school day in German, half in English. Bill and Marie, however, attended classes that mixed boys, girls and grades.
Although the school is gone, the church still maintains its German character, with German names for several rooms and stained-glass windows that still carry the names of former German parishioners, Strub said. And, today, parishioners come from all cultures and areas of the city and country.ฌ