Comments on: Origin Of The “Germans”

By: Kevin Cherry

Kevin Cherry — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 21:45:29 +0000

An addendum: In addition to holding its own dances, the German Club at UNC came to control all of the dances on campus. When the Di and Phi stopped exerting control over student behavior and campus-wide social activities in the early 1900s, a void in student governance was left. The Student Council, which replaced the Di and Phi as studet government beginning in 1904, did not extend its reach over social activities. UNC dances became a bit rowdy and villagers complained and subsequently their complaints drew the attention of leaders in the state. The German Club, an exclusive interfraternity group, managed the grandest dances at the time, and the faculty placed these members in charge of all dances on campus no matter the sponsoring student group–even though they were self-selecting in their membership. The GErman Club even came to choose the Commencement Marshals, since one of the jobs of marshals then was to lead the formations in the Commencement Ball. This brought about better controlled dances, but rubbed many Carolina students the wrong way because most o them had no say in who would control the major social activities on campus. Law students held a dance in 1932, and the German Club asserted its right of control over this gathering. There was, apparently, some conflict engendered. There was a backlash against the control led by the Phi Society and its Speaker, Ed Lanier, who had also been one of the organizers of the law student dance. Lanier later went on to be the longtime registrar of the University.

By: Ralf

Ralf — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:19:54 +0000

Here you see the original “Dance Card” of a German miss:
http://drtlibrary.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/may-i-have-this-dance/

Ralf

By: Kevin Cherry

Kevin Cherry — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:37:26 +0000

Harry is right. A “German” was a form of figure or social dancing, also known as a “cotillion.” (Think, “high-brow square dancing.” ) Over time, the term cotillion came to be given to the event rather than the dance, and a specific form of cotillion, the “German Cotillion” even came to substitute for the more general term for the type of dance. “German Clubs” existed not only in colleges but in communities, and they usually sponsored two or three major social events, “Germans” each year.

It’s odd that this just came up here on the blog. I was speaking with a dance historian who was at one of our meetings here, and asked her about the term,”German.” I report what she told me here. . .

See this mention of a German in Rocky mount in a publication by the African American Heritage of Virginia website:
See; http://www.aaheritageva.org/special%20projects/Working%20and%20Playing%20on%20Fayette%20St%2005/06WhatisaJGB.pdf