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YSU Professor's Research Focuses on Colonial Schwenkfelders
"YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Shortly after joining Youngstown State University's faculty in 1971 to teach German, Allen Viehmeyer began looking for a research focus involving German-American studies. That search took him to several German-American communities in southeast Pennsylvania and finally to the Schwenkfelders, a religious group formed in the 16th century in Silesia in Central Europe.At the encouragement of the director of the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center in Pennsburg, Pa., Viehmeyer agreed to take on a project focusing on the Schwenkfelders. It was the beginning of more than 30 years of working together, according to a YSU news release.Viehmeyer, professor of foreign languages and literature at YSU, spent a sabbatical during the 2003-2004 academic year as Scholar in Residence at the library. The Schwenkfelders began as one of the Protestant sects that evolved at the time of Martin Luther's crusade for reform. In 1518, Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig experienced what he called a "visitation of God." Living in Silesia, then in the Holy Roman Empire, Schwenckfeld formed Bible study groups and traveled through the countryside as a lay preacher, attracting a group of followers. Silesia later became part of Germany and today is in Poland, the release said.Like other new religious groups, the Schwenkfelders were persecuted by the Catholic Church, and in the 1730s they emigrated to colonial Pennsylvania. Today, there are six active Schwenkfelder congregations in southeastern Pennsylvania.During his sabbatical, Viehmeyer translated 77 letters written by Rosina and Christoph Hoffmann, Schwenkfelders who exchanged letters with relatives in Silesia, then in Germany, from 1740 to 1790. "The Hoffmann correspondence is significant because it gives insight to dynamics between this immigrant family and those of the Schwenkfelder faith who remained in Silesia," Viehmeyer said, adding that the letters shed light on the personal lives of the colonial era correspondents and their views on local political and religious events.The Schwenkfelders were not the only German religious sect living in southeastern Pennsylvania in the 18th century. Viehmeyer also studied the hymns of the Ephrata Cloister, a closed society that, unlike the Schwenkfelders, has died out. "While German immigrant groups normally reestablished their home churches in Pennsylvania, the Ephrata community did not exist before its organization in Pennsylvania in 1730," Viehmeyer said.Viehmeyer's translation and cataloging will allow further study of the hymns. "The manuscripts and imprints are extremely rare," he said. "Although there is some scholarly interest in the corpus, systematic and in-depth study has not been possible due to the lack of a complete catalog."Visit Youngstown State University: www.ysu.eduLearn more about the Schwenkfelders: www.schwenkfelder.com"