Have you ever dreamed of taking THE VACATION to Germany? The Germanna Foundation offers a unique opportunity to experience Germany as only it can. The next trip takes place June 2021.
Each year’s trip is custom designed with the traveler in mind, whether you are a Germanna descendant of the First or Second Colony, have German roots, or are fascinated by German culture.
The itinerary is flexible and based on the ancestry of the group. We travel to small villages and towns, sit down and share meals with locals, visit churches and view church documents from as early as the mid-seventeenth century. It’s not just all ancestral churches and villages, we experience German food and beverages, we visit castles, historic towns and cities, and historically significant sites. It is THE GERMAN cultural trip.
So, where will you take us? Perhaps to Müsen, the Kemper, Martin and Brumbach village, to peruse the church books with Pastor Weiss and visit the medieval mining settlement of Altenberg….or maybe to Eisern, the village of the Hofmann and First Colony Weaver families, to see firsthand the ancient art of iron smelting in the Windhofen dating from 500BC and the home of Johannes Hofmann:
We might stop at the Fleischmann village of Klings on our way south and tour the Wartburg Castle, sanctuary of Martin Luther in 1521.
How about a visit in the Krachigau to Johanniskirche, the church of the Wilheit and Bumgardner families, built on the site of a chapel from the 9th century?
Perhaps partake in some winetasting at the next door winery of the noble family Neipperg.
Our base in the north is the Hotel Zur Alstadt, located in the old town of Freudenberg, complete with cobblestone streets and historic timberframe houses.
In the south our base is the family-owned hotel, Villa Waldek in Eppingen in the heart of Second Colony ancestral villages.
Alida Matthey of Siegen, Germany, will be the on-site, native speaker for the 2020 Germanna trip to the ancestral villages in Germany, assisting Barbara Price, our Germanna board member who has organized and led the Germanna trip for the past three years.
Introductions are not necessary to the 200+ members of the Germanna Foundation who have participated in one of these Germany trips that have taken place every summer since 2003, for Alida has been the group’s guide for the all-day walking tour of Siegen each time.
This past year she retired from her career as an English teacher, but for nearly twenty years she has also been a certified tour guide for English-speaking visitors to Siegen and environs, and continues in that role. In addition to knowing our home base, Alida is also familiar with the Kraichgau area of Baden-Württemberg from which most of the 1717 Second Colony families originated.
On this trip, you create a bond with your fellow travelers that you’ve never experienced. Seeing your fellow traveler hold the church record of their earliest ancestor or play the organ in the village church, these are unforgettable shared experiences you cannot get anywhere else as a visitor to Germany.
Join us on the trip of a lifetime as we travel to Germany in June 2021. We will depart Washington DC and arrive in Germany to start our adventure. All hotels, meals and admissions are covered by the cost of the trip, we just need you and your fellow traveling companion to make this the perfect trip. See photos from the 2018 trip.
If you have already decided, make your deposit now to hold your place by contacting Barbara Bounds at the Germanna Visitor Center at: 540-423-1700 or [email protected].
If you’re interested in finding out more about the 2021 trip to Germany, please contact Barbara Price, Tour Leader and Germanna Foundation Trustee, at 805-215-0232 or [email protected] or fill out this form:
Travel to Germany with the Germanna Foundation