Toronto, Ontario
(ON)
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After World War
II, Danube Swabian Club life was launched in
Montreal in 1947 by pre-war immigrants from
Hungary eager to revive the Swabian-German
Association, which had prospered from 1929 to
1940. It had 400 members in 1936, the
membership reached to 350 by 1980. In
Ontario, Danube Swabians created a religious
center of their own. St. Michael's Windsor, in
1949; an annual festival, Danube Swabian Day, in
1959; a cultural center, St. Michaelwerk
Toronto, the following year; a recreational
site, Danube Swabian Park "Waldheim," in 1961;
the pilgrimage Shrine of Our Lady at Marylake
near Toronto three years later; the
retirement home "Heimathof" Windsor in 1984; and
their own apartment complex in the Toronto
suburb of Scarborough, called Blue Danube House,
in 1994. Today eleven social clubs are
affiliated in the Alliance of the Danube
Swabians of Canada (Verband der Donauschwaben in
Kanada, which publishes a monthly paper called
Heimatbote (Messenger from Home; Toronto,
1959-). Most also have German members without
Danube Swabian roots. By providing a wide range
of youth, women's, social, educational,
cultural, religious, music, sports, and
charitable activities, they have reconstructed
an identity consisting of Danube Swabian and
other German cultural elements. Source: [Encyclopedia
of Canada's Peoples] |
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Vintage Donauschwaben
Toronto
Photos |
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