OKTOBER CAN WAIT
German Sommerfest ushers in season with friends, food, brews
PAWTUCKET — You don’t need to be German to be a member of the German American Cultural Society of Rhode Island. You just have to love good food, good beer, good fellowship and good times.
Just ask Paul Pouliot. He’s the first non-German to be named president of the society in its history.
Pouliot is as French as can be, but in his heart of hearts he’s German. He loves the culture, the food and the country, which he tries to visit at least once a year.
“I met my late wife Ingrid in Germany when I was in the Army in the 1960s,” he says. “She was so beautiful I knew I had to learn German if I was going to talk to her.”
Pouliot served in the Army for 23 years, receiving two Bronze Stars, one for heroism in ground combat, and another for “Meritorious Achievement in Ground Operations Against Hostile Forces,” both in Vietnam with the 18th Engineer Brigade.
He married Ingrid Brunst, a native of Permasens, Germany, where he was once stationed. They were married for 48 years until her death in 2016.
Over the years, Pouliot became fluent in German and fell in love with German culture.
A longtime resident of South Attleboro, Pouliot joined the German American Cultural Society of Rhode Island, which was established in 1998 when the German Dramatic Society of Olneyville and the Eintracht Singing Society of Pawtucket came together to form the new organization.
Both of the original groups had been created over 100 years ago by German immigrants to serve the needs of the German community and were chartered in Rhode Island as cultural and social societies.
The German Dramatic Society was founded to preserve the
“It’s a diamond in the rough that not a lot of people know about. It’s family- friendly and we welcome everyone to stop in for a great time.”
—German American Cultural Society of Rhode Island President Paul Pouliot, who happens to be French
dramatic traditions of Germany, and plays were presented in the German language as late as the 1940’s. The Eintracht Singing Society from its beginning had a strong musical emphasis. Its male chorus was recognized as one of the finest in the country until the mid 1950s.
Early on, the two society’s served two purposes – to aid the assimilation of newcomers into American society and to further understanding by the general population of the rich variety of German costumes, traditions and culture.
Headquartered on Carter Avenue, the German American Cultural Society of Rhode Island presents a variety of festivals and events throughout the year, including its popular Oktoberfest in September and Sommerfest, a summertime edition of Oktoberfest that kicked off on Saturday.
More than 4,000 attended the all-day celebration, which featured authentic German beer and food, an outside beer garden and authentic German music.
“This is our second year doing the Sommerfest,” said GACS Vice President Howard Kurt Widmann. “We’ve been successful with the Oktoberfest and pretty much figured out how to put that festival together, so we thought why not do something for the summer.”
Saturday’s second annual Sommerfest featured authentic German food, including traditional German and Bavarian sausages like Nurnberger brat, Nnackwurst and Weisswurst; giant German pretzels, potato salad, potato pancakes, and specialty German pastries and cakes such as Black Forest Cake, Hazelnut Torte, Chocolate Mocha and Apple Strudel.
The German beer was flowing, including the king of German beers, Weihenstephan Hefeweissbier, a Hefeweizen-style beer brewed by Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan in Freising, Germany, the world’s oldest brewery and sponsor of Saturday’s festival.
There was plenty of foot-tapping music from the Schwarze Schafe Band and Alpenblumen Musikanten, and a special appearance by the S.G.T.V. Alpenblumen Schuhplattlers, who are part of a larger network of Bavarian and Austrian schuhplattler and folk dance groups called Gauverband Nordamerika, an organization compromised of similar groups from across the USA and Canada.
Some of the dances performed are centuries old. The “Dirndl im Roatn Miader” (Bayern dialect) was first recorded in written form in the tenth century, most likely having been performed and passed down from generation to generation long before then. There are dances which portray occupations and trades, such as the Mühlenradl, or Mill Wheel, and the Holzhacker Tanz, or Wood Cutters Dance.
Others are flirtation dances, and still others are known by the particular village where they have their roots, such as Reit im Winkel from Reit im Winkel, a village in Bayern and the Ammerseer from Ammersee, a lake in Oberbayern. In between individual dances at a performance, information about various dances and components of the tracht or costume are explained. Sometimes, the audience will be invited to participate in a dance such as the Woaf, a flir- tation dance, or other dances such as a Rheinländer or the Zillertaler Hochzeitsmarsch.
There was also plenty of merriment in the Ratskeller, the German American Cultural Society’s famous beerhall, which is also open to the public every Friday from 7 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
The Ratskeller features a wide selection of German beers on tap and by the bottle, as well as a full bar. Authentic German food is prepared nightly, with a special dinner served every third Friday of the month on Guest Chef Night. There’s always traditional music, singing, and plenty of toasts throughout the night.
Pouliot says while Oktoberfest and Sommerfest bare the society’s signature yearly events, the GACS is about more than drinking. They offer German language lessons, Bavarian dancing classes, and a German-speaking choir. Additionally, they have a library with more than 1,200 books – written in German – on site.
“Our main mission is to continue the German culture because we don’t want to lose it,” he says.