125 Years, 125 Stories

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From the President In the scope of world history, 125 years doesn’t seem so long. How much more so when compared with eternity! After all, we worship the great I AM. The eternal One teaches us that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Who can brag about a measly 125-year anniversary?

And yet 125 years is cause for reflection and praise. As you peruse this monograph of historical tidbits from this campus in the heart of the Minnesota prairie, may you reflect on the dramatic changes in our country, on our campus, and in a global society, a tsunami of change gathering momentum still today. What student in 1884 would recognize the society of 2010?

And then may you be even more amazed as you reflect on what has not changed.

Our gracious God Most High provides himself as a Rock to withstand the waves of turbulent change. We praise him that in the last 125 years and still today . . .

The promises of a gracious Savior God remain constant, reflecting the constancy of the Christ, for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The providence of a generous Savior God remains constant, for his mercies are new every morning. Through decades of economic ups and downs, our Lord has provided for this ministry through Christian people who support the gospel in many ways.

The power of the Word remains constant, for the word of the Lord stands forever. It is a gift of unmerited mercy that the Christ allows his unconditional gospel to remain in our midst, and through that means of grace he pours out the Spirit to strengthen faith and motivate messengers to go forth and touch the hearts of the world with the good news of free forgiveness.

The prayers of God’s people, moved by the Spirit, remain constant. Jesus instructed his people to pray until the trumpet: The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

I hope this booklet provides many interesting reminiscences of life on the hill. I pray also that you marvel at the constancy of God’s love in Christ to allow this institution to continue to serve the Lord by training creatures of time to go forward with the eternal Word of life.

In the name of Christ, the great I AM, President Mark Zarling

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From the Author Since 1884, the Lord of the Church, “who gave some to be pastors and teachers,” has allowed us to train men and women for public ministry in New Ulm, Minnesota.

By his grace and his calling, the light of the gospel has passed from generation to generation through the people and institutions on this campus in the heart of the Minnesota prairie.

Those of us “on the hill” comprise just one component of the WELS ministerial education system. Other schools and campuses have their own rich stories to tell, and in a few years many of those stories will be told as we celebrate 150 years of WELS ministerial education. Still, a 125th anniversary of this campus seemed an appropriate time to pause and thank the Lord of the Church for his many blessings on us.

Please note that the purpose of this booklet is not to present a definitive or comprehensive history of this campus. We are merely attempting to tell a few stories about God’s blessings—125 stories, to be exact, which is far too few. Hundreds of stories remain to be told, and almost every reader will think of a story that should have been included in this book. Be that as it may, it is our hope that these 125 stories will stir memories, inspire more recollections, and lead all God’s people to praise him.

Laurie Gauger

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Acknowledgments I’m grateful to the people who assisted me in the production of this booklet: The MLC administration for their support of the project: President Mark Zarling, Vice Presidents Phil Leyrer, Jeff Schone, Steve Thiesfeldt, Jon Scharlemann, and David Wendler.

Morton Schroeder and Edmund Bliefernicht, past professors of DMLC, from whose scholarly histories I gleaned many of the stories in this publication. Bliefernicht published Dr. Martin Luther College: A Brief History in 1934 to celebrate the first 50 years of the school, and Schroeder published A Time to Remember in 1984 as part of the centennial celebration of the school. These men did the heavy lifting, without which this little booklet would not have been possible.

Bruce Backer, John Isch, Arnold Koelpin, Phil Leyrer, Jon Scharlemann, and Morton Schroeder, for their thorough reviews, additions, corrections, suggestions, and doses of encouragement. Please note that any errors in the book are mine, not theirs.

The MLC Alumni Association Archive Committee for their diligent research and review of the material: Steve Balza (alumni director), Clarice Fastenau, Char Fritze, Paul Fritze, Arthur Schulz, Lois Willems, and Paul Willems.

Phil Biedenbender for his research and proofreading.

Amanda Scharlemann, the graphic designer who created the look of the book while on internship at Lime Valley Advertising, Mankato, Minnesota. Lime Valley also donated a portion of their production services.

Bill Pekrul, public relations director and campus photographer, for his photos.

Anna Biedenbender for her line drawing of Old Main.

The past staffs of the campus newspapers, the DMLC Messenger and MLC Knight’s Page, and of the campus yearbooks, the DMLC Excelsior and MLC Shield.

Gwen Kral, Helen Krueger, Christie Bare, Marie Kriege, and Krista Pappenfuss for their photo-scanning, fact-checking, and other miscellaneous searches.

The individuals who took the time to tell me their stories.

Laurie Gauger 125 Years—125 Stories is published by the Martin Luther College Mission Advancement Office.

Martin Luther College exists to serve the ministerial needs of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) • by preparing men for pastoral training at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and • by preparing men and women for service as teachers and staff ministers in the Synod’s churches and schools so that the WELS may be served by candidates both qualified and competent to proclaim the Word of God faithfully and in accord with the Lutheran Confessions in the Book of Concord.

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1880s 1

1880s Minnesota Street in New Ulm

1880s at a Glance

Presidents Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison . . . 2,500 citizens in 30-year-old city of New Ulm . . . tornado rips through New Ulm in ’81; relief fund started with $100 from Minnesota Governor John Sargent Pillsbury . . . Karl Benz makes modern automobile . . . Edison invents movie . . . “liquorfree” Coca-Cola brewed . . . Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . . . ragtime music . . . Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show . . .

Queen Victoria celebrates 50th year on British throne . . . Carnegie opens first public library . . . August and Theresa Schell build their mansion and deliver beer by horse-drawn wagon . . . Michigan Lutheran Seminary established . . .

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The Father of DMLC

Dr. Martin Luther College may never have graced the bluffs of New Ulm, Minnesota, had it not been for Christian Johann Albrecht, pastor of St. Paul’s, New Ulm, and also president of the Minnesota Synod.

When the Minnesota Synod resolved to build a college in 1883, it invited all congregations in the state to propose a site. Pastor Albrecht and the St. Paul’s congregation offered the synod $4,000 and four acres of land. According to one interpretation of ensuing events, the Minnesota Synod never formally accepted the New Ulm congregation’s offer, but before anyone could say nein, construction of Old Main had begun.

C. J. Albrecht preached the dedication sermon on November 9, 1884.

He served for a short time as the first director, or president, of the new college, and he continued to teach religion there until 1893—while still serving as St. Paul’s pastor, a call he held for 42 years.

1884 Pastor Christian Johann Albrecht, the Father of DMLC

3 A City on a Hill “When will our Dr. Martin Luther College be in truth a city on the hill? Answer: 1) When the only true knowledge and wisdom is taught and learned therein; 2) when the teacher and scholar will let their light shine before the world.” Thus preached Pastor C. J. Albrecht in his dedication sermon November 9, 1884.

Classes began the next day, November 10, Luther’s Geburtstag.

c.1888 Student body in front of Old Main

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At DMLC’s 40th anniversary, in 1924, Albrecht’s son, Pastor Immanuel Albrecht, preached on the same theme.

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4 F First Chapel—and Everything

Else Too Built in 1884 for $16,500 and standing alone on the bluff for 27 years, Old Main was Dr. Martin Luther College. The basement contained a kitchen, washroom, and housekeeper’s room. The first floor housed a professor’s apartment, chapel, and two classrooms. The second floor contained classrooms, and the third floor held four large bedrooms.

Without central heating or electricity (first generated in New Ulm in 1889), stoves and kerosene lamps provided warmth and light.

In his history A Time to Remember, Professor Emeritus Morton A. Schroeder called Old Main the students’ universe: “in it they slept, ate, studied, played, argued, laughed, cried, got homesick, and nicknamed their teachers.”

1884 Chapel on first floor of Old Main

5 Tuition in 1884—and Beyond In 1884-85, students paid $32 in yearly tuition, plus $1.50 a week for room & board. They supplied their own bedding, wood for the stove, and kerosene lamps. They probably could not have imagined how tuition and room & board would increase over the next 125 years: 1918: $ 160 1932: $ 170 (men) $ 230 (women)* 1972: $ 972 1990: $ 4,280 2010: $15,250 *The increased cost for women was due to a higher room & board fee. Without a dorm, the women were scattered—in Redeker (Bode) Hall, Hillcrest Hall, private homes, and the upper floors of Old Main.

1883 Nickel

6 Practicing Proper Deportment The early college catalogs listed dos and don’ts for the Th students, beginning with such basics as “proper deportment” and “proper dress.” The 1884 catalog listed 27 regulations, including . . .

No throwing things from the windows No outside games on Sundays No visiting eating houses where intoxicating spirits are sold No cards or games of chance No tobacco without permission from the president No attending balls or theatrical exhibitions No bathing in the river without permission from the faculty

1880s Boys in an Old Main dormitory room

We may presume from this 1880s photo that pillow fights were allowed.

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1880s 7 C Commencement Concert Though small, the student body performed a full Th commencement concert in 1887. Later called “June Night” or “May Night,” the 1887 concert featured an orchestra and male choir, as well as smaller ensembles and the St. Paul’s choir. Bilingualism being the norm, choirs sang in both English and German.

The concert was staged in New Ulm’s Union Hall at 26 North Broadway. A cultural center built in 1873 for the Arbeiter Verein, or Workingmen’s Association, the building housed a saloon, café, and large halls for meetings, operas, theatricals, and dances—which made the building at any other time verboten for the young men of DMLC.

8 A “Freundship” with

St. S Paul’s School 1887 Commencement Concert program

1885 St. Paul’s church and parsonage

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church opened its elementary school one year after DMLC opened. Its 1885 enrollment was 75 students taught by one teacher, a Mr. Abele. Since Abele spoke only German, a DMLC theology student named Freund was asked to teach the English subjects. Thus, the St. Paul’s-DMLC partnership was established.

For decades, DMLC students acted as short- and long-term substitute teachers at St. Paul’s. In addition, on Wednesday afternoons normal students (teachers in training) walked down the hill and practice taught—first in the old church/parsonage, then in the building erected in 1900 on the same site, kittycorner from the present church. This arrangement held until shortly after World War I, when both the school building and DMLC’s student teaching program expanded greatly.

To this very day, St. Paul’s continues to be a popular site for student teachers, and the college continues to be grateful to the New Ulm families who let the aspiring teachers hone their craft in the St. Paul’s classrooms.

1900 St. Paul’s school erected on same site as 1885 building

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Your Schedule, Young Man 9 Y The young scholars of DMLC would leave their bedrooms Th in Old Main’s top floor and enter the classrooms on the first and second floors, some of which contained organs. They were enrolled either in the three-year progymnasium department or the four-year academic department.

The progymnasium students took three years of religion, English, German, Latin, math, and social studies; one year each of Greek and science; and two years of drawing.

Students enrolled in the four-year academic department, or academy, also took religion, English, and German. In addition, they chose from options including bookkeeping, civil government, logic, French, and zoology.

1880s-1890s Classroom in Old Main

10 T They Came from Afar DM s short-lived theology department, instituted DMLC’ officially in 1885 and closed in 1893, began with 12 students, eight of whom were internationals: one from Austria and seven from Germany. The remaining four students were from Philadelphia; Racine, Wisconsin; and Minneota and Shakopee, Minnesota.

11 Of Teachers and Tools 1887 saw the appearance of two longstanding New Ulm institutions: DMLC instituted a normal, or teacher-training, department, and a family named Retzlaff opened a hardware store downtown. F. H. Retzlaff was a staunch supporter of the college, serving for many years on boards and committees. Both of these institutions remain beloved fixtures in New Ulm. 1887 F. H. Retzlaff opened his first business in New Ulm

12 L Life in the Beginning In his 1934 history of DMLC, E. R. Bliefernicht (college president from 1920-1936) wrote that, despite cutting their own wood, keeping their own lamps and stoves burning, rising at the Board-appointed hour of 5 am, and washing with ice-cold water from the cistern, “a happy family of scholars lived within the confines of the ‘old building,’ received a good education, and primarily learned the lessons of moderation and contentment.”

c.1880s-1890s Old Main dormitory room

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1890s 13 1890s at a Glance The Gilded Age, Gay Nineties . . . Presidents Benjamin Th Harrison, Cleveland, and McKinley . . . New Ulm economy built on the Bs: beer, bricks, butter, bread (flour), and Burg’s cigars . . . gold in the Klondike . . . General Electric established . . . Bram Stoker’s Dracula . . . first Ferris wheel . . . John Philip Sousa marches . . .

Lizzie Borden trial . . . Tesla’s alternating current eclipses Edison’s direct current . . . Synod establishes first “foreign” mission—to Apache nation in Peridot, Arizona . . .

Clerics and Clerks 14 C George Ferris’s first “Wheel,” built at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

By 1892, not only had Dr. Martin Luther College helped provide 30 pastors and eight teachers to the Minnesota Synod, it had also provided general education and business courses to many other young men in the academic department. New Ulmites may recognize the names of some of those early students in the academy: Boock, Cordes, Crone (of the New Ulm department store family), Keller, Retzlaff, Tappe, Vogel, and Winkelmann, to name a few.

Although the business courses of the academy were tangential to the primary mission of the young college, they served both the community and the college: the former happily sent its boys up the hill for practical training, and the latter happily collected their tuition payments.

Teachers, Not Tramps 15 T c.1890s DMLC student Arthur Ehlke

Before Be DMLC was established, Lutheran congregations had a difficult time finding qualified teachers. Schroeder’s history cites an 1872 article bemoaning the “itinerants” and “tramps” who insinuated themselves into congregations and then attempted to teach, their service marked by “indolence, indifference, stinginess.”

Bliefernicht’s Brief History notes that early DMLC catalogs emphasized that “the ideal teacher is not he who possesses merely the necessary intellectual equipment, but rather he who has a really Christian personality and is at heart a man of staunch Lutheran convictions.” The aim of DMLC then was to “offer the necessary intellectual knowledge, but, above all, to try to produce men of a Christian character.”

1895 DMLC Teachers’ Seminary diploma

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N Synod—New Purpose for New tthe College

In 1893, DMLC had a rebirth. The Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan Synods merged into one body, repurposing DMLC as the synod’s sole normal, or teacher-training, college. Its theology department closed and all pastors-in-training enrolled at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin, which had been providing preseminary training faithfully since 1865.

In addition to the two-year normal program, DMLC also maintained a three-year preparatory program both for future teachers and also as a feeder for Northwestern College. (A fourth year was added in 1903.)

The preseminary department on this campus was officially reopened 102 years later when DMLC and Northwestern College amalgamated into a new college. Re-baptized Martin Luther College in 1995, the institution offers degrees in education, staff ministry, and preseminary studies.

1893 Old Main spire

17 A Teacher in the 1890s An 1893 report notes that the Joint Synod was maintaining 141 schools with 145 teachers (including teaching pastors) and 8,805 students—a ratio of one teacher for every 60 students. Some teachers taught over 100 students in a single room. Such was the case, for example, for Richard Albrecht at Jerusalem Lutheran School in Milwaukee. In 1916 Albrecht joined the DMLC faculty as an education professor.

In addition to the course preparation and classroom management issues these teachers faced, they may also have cut wood, stoked the fire, swept the floors, shoveled the walk, and whittled the nibs of the pens. After school they would go “home” to the congregation family they were staying with.

1890s Classroom, location unknown

1890s Classroom with students, location unknown

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1890s Director Schaller Edits 18 D Educational Journal

In 1893, Director John Schaller replaced the second college president, Director Otto Hoyer, and assumed another duty as well: editing the Schulzeitung, or School Paper. It seemed appropriate that this German-language education journal, which had been established in 1876, become the duty of the synod’s new normal school. It was a short-lived venture, however, surrendering to English-language journals in 1905.

1893 Director John Schaller, third president of DMLC

Later journals included The Lutheran School Bulletin (1930-1960) and The Lutheran Educator (1960-2009). In a demise similar to its earliest ancestor, The Lutheran Educator published its last print issue in 2009, also surrendering to a new mode of communication—the internet.

19 College Admits Women DMLC opened its doors to women in 1896.

At the Wisconsin teachers’ conference that year, a Mr. Wedekind spoke against female teachers: “Although German educators do not approve of teaching as a profession for women, many of our congregations appoint female teachers because the salaries are lower. Some even think it is best for little children away from their mother’s care for the first time to be under a woman teacher. But that is a big mistake.”

1898 DMLC’s first female graduate, Lillie Mohr

In spite of dissension in the ranks, much quoting of St. Paul, and the general belief that higher education made women unfit for marriage and motherhood, DMLC graduated its first “co-ed,” Lillie Mohr, in 1898.

20 D DMLC Ahead of Its Time In his history A Time to Remember, Morton Schroeder says of DMLC’s 1896 coeducational policy, “the move was a stroke of minor genius; it was ahead of its time.” It seems that another Lutheran teacher-training institution, Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Illinois, did not officially open its doors to women until 1938, 40 years after the graduation of DMLC’s Lillie Mohr; furthermore, Concordia capped each class’s female enrollment at 30%.

1910 DMLC students Agnes Aufderheide, and Alma Peters

Haar,

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125 Stories

A Another Striking Structure on the Hill o

Thirteen years after the Old Main spire pierced the New Ulm sky, another structure caused New Ulmites to look up. “Hermann the German” was dedicated in 1897, with 24,000 people from 23 different states craning their necks to see the sword point 102 feet in the air. At the time, the Statue of Liberty was the only copper statue in the nation taller than Hermann.

In 2009, thousands again paid homage to Hermann, celebrating the 2000th anniversary of the German hero’s victory over the Romans in 9 AD.

Why Don’t You Give Me a Ring?

22 W In 1897, the first telephone lines were installed in New Ulm. Twenty-one years earlier, Alexander Graham Bell’s first words on his invention were to his assistant: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” Perhaps the first words spoken in New Ulm were to St. Alexander’s Hospital, asking one of the nursing nuns to make a house call . . . or to Crone’s, requesting a grocery delivery . . . or to Schell’s, asking that the beer wagon make an extra stop.

1897 Hermann the Cheruscan general, known affectionately as Hermann the German

As for DMLC Director John Schaller’s first words on the college line, the record is silent.

Faculty of 1899 23 F The six-member faculty at the turn of the 20th century: Th (back) Otto Montgomery, J. G. Mohr, Gottfried Theodore Burk; (front) Adolph Ackermann, John Schaller, A. F. Reim. Professor Montgomery taught the business courses in the academic department: stenography, bookkeeping, shorthand, commercial law, and typewriting. The other five taught in the normal and prep departments.

1890s Henry Crone’s Dry Goods and Groceries

Burk was called in 1884 when the college opened. He served DMLC for 59 years, until his retirement in 1943.

1899 DMLC faculty

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1900s 24 1900s at a Glance

1902 Wright Brothers’ glider at Kitty Hawk

The “aughts” . . . Presidents McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, Th and Taft . . . New Ulm’s first moving picture at Union Hall . . . Schell’s alcohol-free Vacuum Tonic . . . Carrie Nation, temperance advocate, stops at Amann’s Saloon (now B & L Bar) and sermonizes on dangers of alcohol . . . Wright Brothers fly at Kitty Hawk . . . Henry Ford’s Model T . . . San Francisco earthquake . . . Kodak’s Brownie camera . . . first Cubist exhibition in Paris . . . Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Houses . . . London’s The Call of the Wild . . . corsets . . . Teddy bears . . . Sears Roebuck catalog . . . Theologische Quartalschrift, precursor of Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, first published . . .

25 A Turnhalle on Campus Th The Turners, some of New Ulm’s earliest settlers, held no truck with organized religion. In fact, they intended New Ulm to be void of all “popish priests and lawyers.” But they did share one value with the Lutherans on the hill: the importance of physical fitness.

Students practiced their “turning,” or gymnastics, in physical culture class. In 1901, a Turnhalle was built just west of Old Main.

A 25- by 40-foot wooden structure, it gave the young men a place to play the new game of basketball, and the later installation of a horse and parallel bars allowed for actual turning.

1904 DMLC “turning” equipment

First Alumni Association 26 F On June 11, 1909, the newly formed Dr. Martin Luther College Alumni Association convened on campus. A Wisconsin branch organized a year and half later at a Milwaukee teachers’ conference. Dues were set at $1 a year, although how to use the funds was not immediately clear. “The Old College has long needed a proper laboratory,” mused one student, “a first-class gymnasium, a high-grade reading room, and a scholarship fund.” The newest alumni association, the Martin Luther College Alumni Association, adopted its constitution 90 years later, in October 2008.

1910 DMLC physical culture class

27 Picnics on the Cottonwood For 120 years, DMLC students have indulged in lazy picnics Fo in Cottonwood River State Park, renamed Flandrau State Park in 1945. Enjoying this early 1900s class picnic are Professor A. F. Reim, Bertha Mueller, Louise Stelljes, William Hellmann, Emil Buenger, Emma Hellmann, and Louise Vogelpohl. Whether the beverage they’re pouring is Schell’s Vacuum Tonic or good old-fashioned sarsaparilla, we can’t say.

Early 1900s Class picnic on the Cottonwood

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28 Reuter Sets Musical Foundation A Lutheran music icon, Professor Friedrich O. (Fritz) Reuter came to DMLC in 1908 to organize and galvanize the fledgling music program. Reuter established class singing, founded male and mixed choirs, directed the orchestra, taught keyboard lessons, and composed about 200 organ compositions and 60 chorales. It’s said that Reuter could trace his musical training lineage back to none other than J. S. Bach. Since the laying on of musical hands has continued on this campus, the majority of musicians trained here can also declare themselves Bach’s children.

In 1924, after 16 years at DMLC, 61-year-old Reuter died. Pastor C. J. Albrecht, “Father of DMLC” and pastor at St. Paul’s, preached Reuter’s funeral sermon. His text was Matthew 17:8, “He saw no one except Jesus.” Twenty-eight days later, the synod mourned again as Albrecht too was laid to rest.

1908 Professor Friedrich O. (Fritz) Reuter

29 Our Great Heritage Fritz Reuter composed many well-known tunes, including Fr NEW ULM (“Lord, Dismiss Us with Your Blessing”) and REUTER (“Lord Jesus Christ, the Church’s Head” and “God’s Word Is Our Great Heritage”). The latter has been sung by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of choir members as their cars and buses labored up the hill on their return to campus after a worship service or choir tour.

Like Old Main’s spire itself, “God’s Word Is Our Great Heritage” is a mark of this campus, expressing our gratitude to God for his Word and our intent to remain faithful to it.

1910 DMLC Men’s Choir, directed by Reuter, on steps of St. Paul’s in New Ulm

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Dr. Martin Luther College—in Hutchinson?

In 1908, Old Main still served every purpose for 115 students: classrooms, chapel, dining hall, and even dormitory for some.

When the new director, Adolph Ackermann, began appealing for a boys’ dorm and music hall/chapel, Lutherans in Hutchinson and St. James saw an opportunity: “Instead of adding to this New Ulm campus, why not move the college to one of our fair cities?”

That’s when the city of New Ulm stepped in. To keep the college on the Cottonwood, they upgraded the water and sewer; the Commercial Club gifted the college with four more acres; and the city added a blacktopped sidewalk on the Center Street hill, markedly easing the walk up that “Weary Way to Wisdom,” as the students like to call it.

The college has always been indebted to the city for its support, and “town and gown” remain partners and friends.

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1905 Old Main dining hall

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1910s 31 1910s at a Glance Presidents Taft and Wilson . . . World War I . . . Bolshevik Pr Revolution . . . Titanic sinks . . . women’s right to vote . . . life expectancy: male 49/female 52 . . . Spanish flu . . . Einstein’s theory of relativity . . . first pop-up toaster, first zipper . . . Charlie Chaplin’s “Little Tramp”. . . Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes . . . Jim Thorpe wins gold at Stockholm Olympics . . . English-language Northwestern Lutheran launched, but German Gemeinde-Blatt preferred . . . The Sprinter statue installed at Northwestern College . . .

1912 RMS Titanic

Early to Bed, Early to Rise 32 E A schedule from the 1910s:

1912 Students studying in Old Main study room

6:00 am: Wake-up by tower bells 6:20 am: Chapel Breakfast (where kniep, or syrup, was a favorite) Make beds, sweep rooms, get ready for class 7:30 am: Bells ring for English Chapel, which included town students 8:00 am: Five 40-minute classes (recitation periods) in Recitation Hall (Old Main) 11:50 am: Dinner, rest, and relaxation 1:20 pm: Four more recitation periods 4:00 pm: Free time (maybe a trip to the sweet shops downtown) 6:00 pm: Supper 7:00 pm: Study hall 9:00 pm: Evening chapel 10:00 pm: Lights out A century later, 10 pm is more likely the time when students start their homework than when they finish, and at 6 am you’d be hard-pressed to find many students up and about—no matter how loudly the tower bells were ringing.

Scandal in the City 33 S Ne Ulm was abuzz shortly after Christmas in 1912, as New flyers were posted all around town. The DMLC campus family was already wary of those newfangled moving pictures, but now the Gem Theater brazenly announced that they were engaged in human trafficking!

Whether any fine, upstanding Lutherans sneaked into the theater that cold night is unknown. But a baby was produced and it was given away—just as advertised—to a complete stranger. It was a baby pig.

1912 New Ulm flyer

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34 For Their “Vigorous Manhood” When Wh the Crescent Tennis Club debuted in 1910, they were grateful for the five campus tennis courts. A rudimentary field was also available for the baseball players, who were local champs in 1912, and the basketball team practiced in the Turnhalle.

But students longed for better facilities to help them grow into big, strapping boys: “Our physical equipment to lay the foundation of a vigorous manhood, to build up a body with strength and endurance, is at the present time of a very poor kind,” said the Messenger. “The play impulse within our students is strong and must find expression in one way or another; therefore it is the sincere desire of all that the new gymnasium may soon be completed.”

1911 Crescent Club tennis team

By the next year, it was.

35 R Raking It In The Th annual Arbor Day tradition took root on a mild April morning in 1910, as the students put down their recitations and picked up their rakes to tidy the campus.

To collect rakes from New Ulm citizens the night before, a few students may have been allowed to drive downtown. They were surely aware of the new ordinance, which lowered the speed limit for automobiles in town from 12 mph to 10 mph.

At noon, some of the young men played cook for the picnic meal.

Then the students relaxed on their blankets and enjoyed their hour of Gemütlichkeit.

1910 First Arbor Day

As the campus celebrated its 100th Arbor Day in 2009, the simple elements of the day remained: closing the books, grooming the campus, soaking up the sun, and enjoying a meal together.

1912 A properly gloved student driver from the college

1911 Arbor Day student “cooks”

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1910s 36

S Summit Hall—Space to Sleep, S Space to Play

The synod as well as the students applauded when the campus buildings tripled in number in 1911. A boys’ dormitory and a chapel/ music hall joined Old Main on the hill.

1911 Summit Hall on Dedication Day

With the new dorm, Summit Hall, the young men would now have much more space for their beds and desks, but more important, room to play. The gymnasium in the basement allowed the basketball team, the amateur turners (gymnasts), and any young man with energy to burn, a place to practice in heated comfort.

The dedication of the $45,000 building drew 5,000 people on August 20, 1911.

In 1926, Summit Hall acquired an addition, a new wing set at a right angle to the existing structure. The dorm was closed briefly in the late 80s/early 90s, but opened again in 1995 when DMLC and NWC amalgamated. It is home today to about 150 MLC men.

1910 Students from Room 17 of Old Main moved into the new Summit Hall in 1911

37 The Aula—A Hall Used by All The Th chapel-music hall was called the Aula, meaning “hall.”

Much like the chapel-auditorium in the Wittenberg Collegiate Center used from 1928 until 2010, it was a multifunctional building—a chapel, auditorium, recital hall, and rehearsal space. It seated 250 on the main floor and 50 in the balcony for chapel, recitals, and small theatricals. A music rehearsal hall with ten practice rooms allowed Professor Reuter’s keyboard and orchestra students to hone their craft. The building was dedicated with Summit Hall in 1911.

1911 The Aula on Dedication Day

Today called the Music Hall, this structure still houses organs and pianos for practice purposes. For a short time, MLC had more organs than any other institution in the world. We are now a close second to Oberlin College, although we still have far more organ students than any other institution.

1911 5,000 people attended the dedication of Summit Hall and the Aula

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38 The Pipes, the Pipes Are Calling In 1914, Edward Rechlin, a noted organist from New York, was invited to give a dedication recital on DMLC’s new pipe organ in the Aula. The instrument of 24 stops was fabricated and installed by the Wirsching Organ Company of Salem, Ohio.

Then as now, organs were valuable commodities. The 1914 Wirsching cost $5,000, about 30 percent of the entire Aula project (building and organ). Today’s Chapel of the Christ organ, by comparison, constitutes about 10 percent of the total cost of the project.

In 1928, the Wirsching was moved to the chapel-auditorium in the newly erected Administration Building (later the Academic Center, now the Wittenberg Collegiate Center). Called Organ A, it was used until 1968.

1914 Professor Fritz Reuter, guest recitalist Edward Rechlin, and the new Wirsching pipe organ

39 Pump, Pedal, and Play Keyboard Ke skills have always been a valued gift in our church.

Early DMLC organ students were assigned to practice the organ in pairs. While one student rehearsed his fingering and pedaling, the other worked the bellows, pumping air into the wind chests. After a half hour, they switched places. From time to time, the pumper would relax his effort. This would produce an unseemly sound, much to the dismay of the diligent student on the bench.

Love for the keyboard—and the college—inspired members of one class to raise money over the summer of 1914 to purchase a Packard piano. When it arrived on campus, the class issued a challenge: “Which class is ambitious enough to do likewise?”

1914 Edward Rechlin dwarfed our Professor Reuter in size, though not in skill.

40 Good Music and Good Faith We don’t know the history of the Bona Fides (“Good Faith”) Quartet, made up of four gentlemen named (appropriately) Strauss, Grant, Krause, and Muesing, except that they appeared in concert programs for several years. The DMLC student body, like ours today, had music in their blood—folk, classical, and sacred—and they were not shy about putting together their own musical ensembles and performing in concert.

1913 The Bona Fides Quartet

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1910s 41 Peach Baskets Maybe The Th 1916 basketball team was DMLC’s eleventh, the first one having hit the court in 1906. Naismith’s game was still very young when DMLC took it up, and since metal hoops first replaced peach baskets in ’06, it’s hard to say what type of basket the first DMLC cagers used.

The 1916 team had the advantage of practicing in the Summit basement gymnasium, which, unlike the old Turnhalle, was heated.

That fact didn’t help them, however, in their match-up with New Ulm High School, where they lost 26-24. Scoring for the college were Koenig (11), Westerkamp (9), Bradtke (2), and Kolander (2).

1916 DMLC basketball team

42 Excuse Me, Do You Have a Light?

Pipe-smoking, a national pastime, became a DMLC club in 1913. The first elected officers (their titles and duties doubtlessly declared with tongue firmly embedded in cheek) were E. Janke, president; E. Hinz, secretary; L. Luedtke, judge; M. Dommer, lawyer; and A. Falde and A. Gerlach, policemen. The Etna club, as they dubbed themselves, met on the Summit Hall third floor.

As the unhealthy effects of tobacco were not fully established at this time, it probably did not seem strange that, in addition to serving as smoking club officers, Janke and Luedke played center and guard, respectively, on the basketball team.

1914 Smoking Club called Etna

Hot off the Press 43 H The Th first DMLC Messenger was published in December 1910. The Messenger featured campus news; stories, poems, and jokes; editorial comment on world and national news; and of course the social pages (noting, for instance, who was seen walking with whom out on Camelsback and—a year or two later—the color of the bridesmaid dresses at the couple’s wedding).

The staff also quoted and critiqued other college magazines, including Northwestern College’s Black and Red, a more established periodical first appearing in 1897. The October 1911 Black and Red received this review from the DMLC editors: “The issue appeared with a new cover design, which is quite attractive. It has a well filled literary column. ‘An Evening on Indian Hill’ is well worthy of praise. It is written in good English.”

1917 Messenger staff

Most Messengers are archived in the MLC library. Early editions require fluency not only in English but in German as well. Frohes Lesen!

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44 Loyal to the Vaterland Du During World War I, some felt that German-Americans were not to be trusted. In New Ulm there may have been good reason.

DMLC President Adolph Ackermann, for instance, had been involved in a draft protest rally. Like many others, Ackermann did not want to force New Ulm’s German-American residents to fight a war against the “fatherland.”

The situation was serious enough that Pinkerton Agent #83 was assigned to secretly tail Ackermann when he traveled to St. Paul for a 400th Anniversary Reformation Rally in August 1917. Hoping to discover incriminating evidence against Ackermann, the agent was sorely disappointed when Ackermann’s “speech” was a sermon, and his topic was grace, not grenades.

However, Ackermann was eventually removed from his DMLC presidency by the College Board of Control when the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety threatened to close the school.

In a related event, the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety arrested the entire city government of New Ulm—three men by the names of Fritsche, Pfaender, and Vogel—and replaced them.

Rumor had it that New Ulm—called Kaisertown by some—was considering secession from both Minnesota and the United States and was declaring itself a “free city” of Germany—an action that needed to be quashed.

1908 Director fourth president

Adolph

Ackermann,

DMLC’s

Whether or not that rumor held any water, there is no doubt that the citizens and perhaps the DMLC students had divided loyalties.

On Armistice Day—at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918—when the country stopped in its tracks for a moment of silence to celebrate the armistice, New Ulm’s celebration was tepid at best. “The students were the first to raise the flag in this city,” a student wrote, “and the only ones, I think, that really celebrated the Armistice.”

1918 Class photo

45 A An Amalgamation On Reformation Day 1919, Bethany Lutheran (Ladies) College of Mankato closed its doors, and its 11 students joined the student body of Dr. Martin Luther College. A curricular need was immediately felt on campus, and two years later Professor Oscar Levorson was called to fill it: he taught English and Norse to our “Norwegian Synod” friends.

c. 2009 Old Main of Bethany Lutheran College

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1920s 46 1920s at a Glance The Th Roaring ‘20s, the Jazz Age . . . Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover . . . flappers . . . Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue . . . Kleenex, 3M Scotch tape, sliced bread . . . Prohibition . . . Al Capone . . . Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance . . .

F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Lost Generation . . . Harry Houdini . . .

Grand Ole Opry on the radio . . . Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary built to resemble Wartburg Castle . . . Protes’tant Conference established . . .

1922 Short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer of the Jazz Age from St. Paul, Minnesota

47 Inspection, Please As the number of young men in Summit Hall grew, an “inspector” was called to supervise them. The inspector did some actual inspecting—encouraging cleanliness, discouraging contraband—but his main concern was for the boys’ Christian character, that the decadence of the Jazz Age not corrupt them.

Using the timeless tools of law and gospel, he dealt out fatherly advice, gentle encouragement, and punitive measures when necessary.

1923 students: Emil John, Edmund Schweppe, Lawrence Lehmann, Gerhard Albrecht, Herbert Hackbarth, Paul Rohrke, and Helmuth Hellmann

Four different inspectors held the job the first five years: Professor Bliefernicht, seminary students Alexander Sitz and Henry Nitz, and Professor Hugo Mosel. Then arrived M. J. “Hans” Wagner, described

by Bliefernicht as “a man who had the proper tact, evangelical spirit, and that particular personality required for such a position.” Wagner held the job from 1916 to his untimely death in 1931.

“Inspector” gradually changed to “Dean” and then to “Vice President for Student Life,” but perhaps the closest we come to the old inspector is “Tutor,” the name given to the seminary graduates called to live in the dorms and supervise the young men. Many tutors today would warmly refer to the dorm students the same way Wagner did in the 20s: “my boys.”

1928 M. J. “Hans” Wagner, DMLC Inspector 1916-1931

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48 Our Own Little Flappers F. Scott Fitzgerald published his popular short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” in the May 1, 1920, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. It may have taken a decade, but the flapper fashion did eventually creep across the prairie, and the high school and college women on the hill proudly sported their bobs and their drop-waist, at-the-knee flapper dresses. Whether they secretly practiced the Charleston behind closed doors is unknown.

1929 DMLHS students

49 W Where Shall We Put the Women?

From Fr the 1890s to 1920, the catalog stated that the “institution is open to young ladies . . . but they must find their own lodging in private homes.”

In 1920, only a few rooms were available in Old Main, so the new director, or president, Edmund “Stubby” Bliefernicht, decided to provide something more. He bought his own house off campus, thus freeing the on-campus director’s house, which stood where the current library is, to be remodeled into a modest residence hall.

Renamed Hillcrest Hall, it housed 20-30 women, supervised by a “matron,” Miss Luella Sitz, until 1924. Subsequent matrons were Mrs. Henry Goeglein, Miss Ada Sievert, Miss Ida Ingebritson, and several others who followed them.

1920 Hillcrest Hall

1920 Luella Sitz, Hillcrest Hall’s first matron

1928 Mrs. Henry Goeglein, second matron of Hillcrest, with her husband

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1920s The New Normal 50 T Beginning Be in the early 20s, the normal (teacher-training) course took on a more professional air. Up to that point, DMLC normal students had walked down the hill on an assigned Wednesday afternoon to practice teach at St. Paul’s. Now, every day was a practice day, as St. Paul’s School loaned its entire second grade classroom, along with some third, fourth, and fifth graders, to DMLC’s program. Students spent two weeks practice teaching under Professors Albert Stindt and Richard M. Albrecht. These two professors each spent half the day at the practice school, supervising student teachers, and the other half on the hill, teaching pedagogy courses.

1908 Center Street hill

In 1928, a third year was added to the normal program. We might venture a guess that student teachers read the newest bestseller to the children: Millions of Cats by New Ulm’s own Wanda Gag.

1921 New St. Paul’s School building

We Will Accept You If . . .

51 W Incoming In students in the 20s had a few hurdles to overcome.

1928 Professor Albert Stindt

1928 Professor Richard Albrecht

They were tested and expected to submit to the grade level they were assigned, even if they’d “entertained higher expectations.” The word of wisdom: “Better to study a year more than to be a dabbler.”

If they came from a public high school, they had to take their senior year over again, in order to fulfill DMLC’s requirements of religion, German, and music.

And they had to promise, upon their honor, to complete the normal course and take a position as a Lutheran teacher—or else pay the college back for the expense of educating them.

1928 Book by New Ulm native Wanda Gag

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52 A And a One, and a Two . . .

An orchestra was established on campus almost from its founding, but a wind band was a bit later in coming. In 1921, the students asked a classmate, Kurt Oswald, to direct a band. Oswald did not actually play any band instruments, but he learned to play the cornet the summer of ’22 and got the ensemble started when school began. Soon, the band was providing open-air Sunday evening concerts from the new band shell.

The baton passed to other student directors through the years, including Armin Rauschke, Carl Finup, Martin Albrecht, Meilahn Zahn, and Arthur Glende. One of those students, Martin Albrecht, came back in 1943 and directed the band for many years as a professor.

1925 The DMLC band was directed by student Kurt Oswald, who’s standing behind the bass drum.

c. 1925 Campus band shell

53 From the Tower In 1924, the band instituted a campus tradition that had its roots in the German Turmblasen, or “tower trumpeting.” On the morning of Commencement, band members climbed to the roof of Old Main and greeted the rising sun with a short concert. They also called out the names of the graduates, one by one, ringing the bell for each graduate. The Turmblasen custom continued on and off for decades.

Perhaps “instrumental” in getting this custom “off the ground” was a group of 1920s vocalists, who sang from the tower under the direction of their classmate Victor Albrecht.

1920 DMLC student Victor Albrecht directs singers on top of Old Main: Hilbert Engel, Alfons Engel, Godrey Schultz, Ed Bradtke, and Alvin Bear.

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1920s 54 Looking Back—and Backer In 1923 Emil D. Backer was called for one year to fill in for DMLC’s first music professor—and his own beloved teacher and mentor—Fritz Reuter, who had suffered a stroke. When Reuter died in ’24, Backer stayed and steered the music department until 1957, the year of his death.

1928 Professor Emil D. Backer

Music was part of every student’s life at DMLC—more than athletics or drama or any other activity. Until Christmas every year, the choir consisted of the whole student body—except for ninth graders, whom Reuter had excluded due to the boys’ changing voices.

Between Christmas and Easter, Backer trained a select 60-voice Concert Choir and toured with them every other year, except during World War II, sometimes using a Greyhound bus and drivers. After Easter, the entire student body practiced secular music for June Night, the Commencement Concert.

According to Schroeder’s history, the students appreciated Backer, nicknamed “Ba,” as “a masterful musician, a friendly face, and a dandy dresser. To them he gave the campus an air of distinction.”

c. 1930 Backer and bus drivers for a choir tour

In 1928, Backer taught his choir Brahms’ German Requiem—in German. Accompanied by organists Martin Albrecht and Hertha Sievert, they sang it at St. Paul’s and then were invited by the Minnesota District to sing it at the dedication of the college’s new Recitation Hall (now Wittenberg Collegiate Center).

Brahms’ German Requiem is again part of the College Choir repertoire: It was presented in November 2009 at St. John’s in New Ulm and in April 2010 in the newly dedicated Chapel of the Christ.

1928 Northland Greyhound Lines bus and drivers for choir tour

1928 Backer’s choir sang Brahms’ German Requiem at the dedication of the new Recitation Hall.

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55 Room for Recitations When Wh 260 post-war students were swarming the campus, the synod acted swiftly to alleviate the congestion, allocating $328,000 for a new recitation building. That building, known through the years as the Recitation Hall, Administration (Ad) Building, Academic Center (the AC), and Wittenberg Collegiate Center (WCC), was dedicated in 1928.

It contained 13 classrooms, science labs, a chapel-auditoriumgymnasium, locker and shower facilities, and a library. A meticulous bookkeeper calculated the final cost at $302,270.63.

1928 New Recitation Hall, known today as Wittenberg Collegiate Center

Many familiar names filled the slots on the building committee: Rev. Gerhard Hinnenthal, Mr. Herbert Sitz, Mr. F. H. Retzlaff, and Mr. John Roeder, all of New Ulm; Rev. Adolph Ackermann, the college’s former president; Rev. C. G. Fritz of Fairfax; Mr. O. Stindt of Menomonie, Wisconsin; Rev. E. Birkholz of Marshall, Minnesota; Mr. R. Rohrke of Hoskins, Nebraska; and three college professors, H. R. Klatt, M. J. Wagner, and Director E. R. Bliefernicht.

Chapel services moved from the Aula to the auditorium-gymnasium, where students sang psalms and sank free throws, depending on the time of day. About 300 seats faced the stage, which was the setting for chapel. The other half of the room was a 68- by 76-foot gymnasium, with a fullsize basketball court and bleachers on each side. Folding doors normally separated the two areas of the room, but for large events, chairs were set up on the gym floor, increasing the seating to 1200.

1928 The library in the new Recitation Hall held some 7,000 books.

1928 The auditorium half of the auditoriumgymnasium in the Recitation Hall.

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1920s Notes from the Messenger 56 N “October 27, 28, and 29 [1921], the institution was under quarantine on account of scarlet fever.”

“A very helpful device is to be purchased for the kitchen. It is a potato peeler, slicer, masher, and hashmaker combined.”

Students gathered to watch a crew blast stumps out of the ground where the new Recitation Hall was to be built. Though flying wood chips and broken glass from an Old Main window sent them flying, it was still a festive occasion, and “while the blasting was going on, the band played several selections.”

1920-1921 Messenger staff

“The latest fad among the student at College seems to be the double act: first, of swearing off smoking; second, of continuing the buying of cigarettes.”

“On March 4 [1925], Mr. Ulrich of the local Ulrich Electrical Company placed one of his radio receiving sets into our music hall.

This gave us all an opportunity to hear the ceremonies of President Coolidge’s inaugurations. In the evening Mr. Ulrich came up again and tuned in on station KFUO, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in order to give us an opportunity to hear the Lenten service which was being broadcast.”

1925 Vintage radio

1924 Marlboro ad

“‘Minnesota is a better state than Wisconsin.’ This was proved to us when [students] Mildred Albrecht and Adeline Drevlow convincingly overruled their opponents, Theophil Gieschen and Arnold Meyer, in debate. The interest aroused by this debate was shown by the attendance of almost the entire student body.”

“The weaker sex has finally reached the aim by which it is endeavoring to strengthen itself. The doors of the gymnasium have actually been opened to them and will be open every Monday and Friday afternoon. Zip! Right through the baskets go the balls. We don’t play rough; nevertheless, Alyce Vogelpohl sprained her knee one day, we don’t know how, and Irma Meier, Lydia Rudolph, and Alma Sievert ran around with suspicious looking bandages tied around their wrists. Even Martha Steinberg limped.”

1928 Stubby Bliefernicht plays bass drum with the band

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1930s 57 1930s at a Glance Great Depression . . . Presidents Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt . . . Monopoly board game . . . Jesse Owens’ four golds in Berlin . . . Amelia Earhart . . . Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath . . .

PWA mural in former New Ulm high school . . . Hollywood’s Bette Davis, Clark Gable, and Shirley Temple . . . Disney’s Snow White . . .

Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club . . . Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats . . . synod heavily in debt . . .

1930 An iconic Depression photo

58 T The Depression During Du the Roaring 20s, when enrollment was booming, the synod went heavily into debt by building “Wittenberg” and “Wartburg.” DMLC’s Recitation Hall, later called Wittenberg, was dedicated in 1928; and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary’s building, designed to look like Wartburg Castle, was dedicated in Mequon in 1929.

Then came the crash. Suddenly, salaries were slashed, mission work ceased, enrollment bottomed out—only 14 college graduates in ’38—and few calls were available for those who did graduate.

As the enrollment dropped to 125, less than half of the 260-member student body of a decade earlier, President Bliefernicht wrote: “During the last year we made every effort to operate as economically as possible. We had pupils rise at 7 am, we closed off all but the most important rooms, we restricted the bathing schedule, we had all basketball practice stop at 4:30 pm, all this to save on fuel and light. We had the evening devotions in a small classroom. We had all telephones removed except those absolutely necessary.”

1938 Graduation program

From his office as president, Bliefernicht also issued this word to the wise: “In these days of depression in which the tendency is to lose interest in Christian elementary schools on account of the apparent financial burden they bring with them, let us not lose sight of Luther’s words, ‘Where the word of God does not rule supreme, it is dangerous to place a child for education.’ If our fellow-Christians heed these words of the great Reformer, then our elementary Christian schools will not only continue to exist, but will multiply, and our Dr. Martin Luther College will continue to serve a long time in the purpose for which it was established. May the Lord give his blessing to this end.” c. 1930s Director Edmund “Stubby” Bliefernicht

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1930s 59 Simpler Times The Th 30s and 40s were simpler times. Students kept busy with on-campus activities: picnics, music, the literary societies (Phi Delta Sigma and Phi Gamma Rho), the annual Arbor Day, and Hilltopper athletics.

1930s Arbor Day: Bill Arras and his crew of freshmen, known then as “fuchses,” the German word for foxes

Schroeder adds: “The students played cards; pinochle, 500, and Schafskopf were favorites. ‘Pit’ was a popular table game. The students entertained themselves at parties, picnics, banquets, sleigh rides, and roller skates. They had a ‘Hardtime Party’ in ’32 and a ‘Hobo Party’ in ’36. Shagging, the modern equivalent of going for a hike, was a favorite pastime.”

1930s DMLHS vs. St. Mary’s, Sleepy Eye

1930s Arbor Day: Norb Luehmann sitting on the Dodge

1928 Class picnic

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60 Chapel in the 30s Dorothy Plagge, who attended the high school and college from 1931 to 1938, remembers chapel services very well. Chapel was at 8 am every morning in the new auditorium-gymnasium, and the boys and girls sat in their assigned seats, boys in one section and girls in another. Third-year normal students played organ A, and President Bliefernicht and later President Schweppe, who’d taken the office in ’36, read a devotion. In 1956, the faculty began to preach sermons twice a week.

Dorothy remembers that one morning as she was taking attendance, the president’s daughter, Betty Schweppe, was accidentally late to chapel. Although Dorothy kindly did not mark her tardy, the transgression did not go unnoticed: The president had seen his daughter arrive late, and he read her name aloud from the podium the next day, giving her an unexcused absence.

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1928 Organ A on the stage of the chapel-auditorium

M Marluts, Aeolians, and a TABS

“I remember with joy the tradition of the Marlut Singers serenading us in the front hall of our house early on the morning of the Christmas concert,” writes Rhoda Sauer Baer, daughter of Inspector (Dean) Edwin Sauer. “Our home was right next to the boys’ dorm, since my dad was Dean of Men. All of my childhood memories are tied up in the various traditions and fun times of the college days.”

The Marluts, a male chorus whose name comes, cleverly, from MARtin LUTher, was formed in 1930 under the leadership of Meilahn Zahn. A corresponding women’s chorus, called the Aeolians, formed a bit later. The student-directed Marluts and Aeolians eventually gave two concerts every year, flourishing especially in the 40s and 50s and fading out in the 70s.

1931 The Marluts, the men’s student-directed choir, were first directed by Meilahn Zahn, second from left.

Another group also appears in concert programs for several years: The Three TABS, a group of 12: three each of tenor, alto, bass, and soprano.

1950 The Aeolians, the women’s student-directed choir, numbered 98 in 1950. They were directed by Mickey Pingel.

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1930s 62 Oh, the Ivied Walls of Bode Hall

1958 Bode Hall/Redeker Hall housed DMLC women from the 30s to the 60s.

From Fr the 30s to the 60s, some women lived off campus in Redeker Hall, later named Bode Hall, the names derived from the house’s owners. Situated below Hermann Monument and directly across from Summit Avenue, on what is now a bare hillside, the house provided rooms for 10-12 women. To get to school, they crossed Center Street and walked up a curving pathway, later paved and named Excelsior.

In 1969, Bode Hall was moved three miles north on Garden Street, where it can still be found just west of St. Paul’s Cemetery.

1930s This curving pathway wound up to Old Main. Later it was paved and named Excelsior.

Rah Rah Rah Siss Boom Bah 63 R In 1932, DMLHS junior Karl Gurgel introduced a new custom to the DMLC campus: cheerleading. He and his classmate Waldemar Nolte took the lead that year, and the custom prevailed, as it did at colleges all over the country.

Eventually skirts and pompons took over the squads on most campuses, but the male cheerleading tradition continued at Northwestern College, and when their student body and the DMLC student body amalgamated in the brand-new Martin Luther College in 1995, the male cheerleaders—known on our campus as “The Knobs”—came back as well.

With “cheerleader” on their résumés, those two 1930s students went on to great things: Nolte became a DMLC professor, and Gurgel became a pastor, chairman of the home mission board, district president, and father of a synod president.

1937 Karl Gurgel

64 City Support The student magazine, the Messenger, was supported by area advertisers for decades. In ’35 the 60 advertisers included . . .

Schuck’s Tailor Shop (suits $22.75 and up)

1935 Ad for Retzlaff Motor Company in the June Messenger

New Ulm Union Hospital (A fireproof hospital supervised by graduate nurses, Call them at phone #404) Retzlaff Motor Company

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65 Y You Can Call Me Stubby—or Cubby Inevitably, In profs are known more by their nicknames than their given names. The list below, containing names from many decades in the school’s history, is by no means complete. It doesn’t include, for instance, the many profs affectionately called “Grandpa,” either by virtue of their gentleness and maturity or the fact that a son, grandson, or nephew of the same last name was also on campus.

And yes, this campus did have two presidents named “Stubby” and one tutor named “Cubby.”

President Edmund Bliefernicht President Carl Schweppe President Conrad Frey President Lloyd O. Huebner President John Lawrenz Professor Richard Janke Professor Martin Albrecht Professor Huldreich Klatt Professor Roland Hoenecke Professor Victor Voecks Professor Morton Schroeder Professor Waldemar Nolte Professor Otis Stelljes Professor Emil Backer Professor E. H. Sauer Professor Oscar Levorson Professor Harold Palmbach Professor John Oldfield Professor Howard Birkholz Professor Gil Fischer Professor Harold Kaiser Professor Meilahn Zahn Tutor Wayne Schultz

Stubby Schwep or Schwap Stubby Eloheeb/Elohim Dr. J Spike Mutz Bull Doc Sparky Salty Schimmel Oats Ba Just (“Yust”) Levy Peggy Barney Birky Guppy HAK Smilin’ Meilahn Cubby

1930s Stubby Bliefernicht

1930s Sparky Voecks and Bull Klatt

1937 Levy Levorson and Peggy Palmbach

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1930s 66 Notes from the Messenger “Maybe reading makes a full man, but a game of ping pong makes a happy man. That is why so many students removed the papers and magazines from the reading room table in order to enjoy a few games of the modern American baby sport.”

In the first interscholastic debate of its history, DMLC defeated St. Paul Concordia. The topic: whether the government should provide centralized control of industry. The winning team: Meilahn Zahn, Vera Hafenstein, and Frederick Manthey.

1930-1931 Messenger staff

“The girls are getting ready for their big kittenball tournament, trying their skill at swinging the bat and making home runs. Keep it up, girls, and you will soon be as good as Babe Ruth.”

Students cast a straw vote in the November ’32 presidential election.

The results: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat (86); Norman Thomas, Socialist (18); and Herbert Hoover, Republican (14). “Our socialist votes were not altogether in vain,” wrote one student, “for Mr. Roosevelt wasn’t elected unanimously.”

“With the final exams staring us in the face, the universal sigh of relief has not as yet issued forth. After the tests, the consumption of cigarettes and candy will come back to normal, our microcosm will again assume its wonted air of tranquility.” (See the Old Main women’s dorm room, the very picture of tranquility.)

1930s-1940s Old Main dorm room

Adolf Wilbrecht, a local student, wrote the music and words for the new school song, which was sung until amalgamation in 1995: “Hail to thee, dear DMLC! A great school, we’ll say.

Hail to your colors, The old maroon and gray!

Forward and onward, For a goal we’ll try.

Onward to vict’ry is our battle cry!”

1938 Karl Mittelsteadt studies in his room.

“Our new movie machine” was first tried on January 12 [1939].

“The Oregon Trail” and “William Tell” were two of the first pictures shown. A few weeks later, Retzlaff Motor Company of New Ulm sponsored a showing of some skiing from the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

1910s DMLC pennant

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1940s 67 1940s at a Glance Presidents Pr Roosevelt and Truman . . . World War II . . . Rosie the Riveter . . . average public school teacher’s salary: $1,441 . . . television appears: Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan, Howdy Doody . . .

Richard Wright’s Native Son . . . Dr. Spock’s childrearing methods . . . polio epidemic . . . Tupperware . . . Slinky . . . Casablanca . . . Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, Katherine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe . . . Synod deems Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) fertile mission field . . .

68 A Armistice Day Blizzard 1940 November No 1940 was a month to remember in New Ulm. FDR had just won a record fourth term as president, although New Ulm gave its majority to Wendell Willkie. Wanda Gag visited New Ulm and made voice recordings of several of her books. St. Paul’s celebrated its 75-year anniversary with over 3,000 congregants.

And on Monday, November 11, the city had a bit of weather.

Temperatures suddenly plunged from an unseasonable 60 to zero. Rain, sleet, and snow poured down, and winds gusted to 32 mph. Called by some the deadliest blizzard of the century, the Armistice Day Blizzard killed 49 people in Minnesota—and Salty Schroeder almost made it 50.

Calling himself foolish and in love, he ignored the advice of the college buck, George Heckmann, and walked to see his girl, Bettie Trettien. “Someone in the Trettien household must have told me leaving was the better part of staying, that the storm was no laughing matter, that I had better seek the safety of my dormitory room,” he said.

So Schroeder set out, still dressed for 60-degree weather, and battled the sleet, wind, snow, and downed power lines flashing and sparking around him.

1940 Minneapolis Day Blizzard

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Other New Ulm citizens were also struggling to get home, notably Dr. Carl Fritsche and Hugo Schnobrich, whose car had stalled at the bottom of the 10th Street South hill. A nearby friend loaned them extra clothing and a rope to tie themselves together—lest one of them be lost—and they finally made it up the hill, at times crawling through the snow on their hands and knees.

Salty made the same struggle up the Center Street Hill. “George Heckmann met me at the bottom of Excelsior, the steps leading up to the campus proper,” he said. “Never were two guys happier to see each other, he because he didn’t have a casualty on his watch and I because I wasn’t the casualty.”

1940 George Heckmann

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1940s 69 Bewitched, Bothered,

and Bewildered

Of course, students fell in love. But those good Lutherans on the hill frowned mightily upon the public display of affection or anything that might lead to improper thoughts or deeds.

1910 Lover’s Lane on DMLC campus

One student vividly recalls the president telling couples they could not take a blanket along when they walked to Flandrau.

Another student remembers that in plays, even the idea of a kiss was forbidden, and in songs the word “dance” had to be changed to something less incendiary. In the library, racy magazine covers and provocative articles were removed by vigilant librarians—which resulted, this student said, in students rushing downtown to see what they were missing.

But the situation was not completely hopeless. It seems that on Arbor Day and at class picnics, professors were willing to turn a blind eye to students pairing off. As early as 1910, a secluded footpath was dubbed “Lover’s Lane,” and, as Schroeder says in his history: “Young love crossed Center Street to spoon in Denkmal [Hermann] Park. Hermann never revealed any secrets.”

Neu Ulmer Deutsch 70 N 1910 Denkmal, or Hermann, Park

The Th German language requirement for new students was finally removed from the catalog in 1946. Fewer and fewer of the campus family were truly bilingual, but some spoke a curious English-German mix the students called “Neu Ulmer Deutsch.”

A June 1940 Messenger writer gives some examples: Schtepp auf die Brakes (Step on the brakes) and Bahäft euch (Behave!). In jest, the writer adds that when composing a sentence for German class, if you didn’t know the German verb you needed, you could simply insert a hard “ge” before the English verb, as in “gewatched” or “gememorized.”

Professor Bruce Backer recalls a brief Neu Ulmer Deutsch conversation he overheard in 1955 in Nun’s Grocery: Mensch! ‘sist abah kalt heut’! (Man! It’s cold today!)

Ja! Abah mei Kar hat g-shtart. Ich hab’ auf’m Pumpah kshteppt und boom! s-ging los! (Yeah, but my car started. I stepped on the accelerator, and—bang!—it went off right away.)

Early 20th century New Ulm advertisement

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Silk Stockings 71 S As Rosie the Riveter ushered in a more egalitarian era, women all over the country were stepping into dungarees, pulling their hair back, and picking up welding guns. Not so on the hill— at least not the dungarees. The high school and college dress code mandated that women—like the 1941 coeds from Hillview Hall pictured—wear skirts and stockings.

It seems there were a few concessions. Modest “slacks” or long shorts were allowed after class on Saturday afternoons, and, as wartime rations made both silk and nylon stockings scarce, ankle sox became acceptable.

1941 Coeds on steps of Hillview Hall

The women also enjoyed another indulgence granted in the late 30s by President Schweppe. Realizing that the young ladies were freezing as they walked up and down the hill in sub-zero weather, he announced that they could wear slacks under their skirts when walking to church on Sunday. Before entering the church proper, however, they were to go down to the basement, slip the slacks off, and leave them in the boiler room. Only then could they show their faces—and legs—to the congregation.

Thanks to Schwap, the women of the 40s were much warmer as they walked to church. In fact, some of the braver gals followed the lead of 1938 coed Dorothy Plagge who, never one to brook any nonsense, refused to make the trek down to the boiler room and kept her slacks on through the whole church service.

1942 Two DMLC students reading a letter on campus

1938 Graduate Dorothy Plagge

72 M Mastering the Lingo DMLC DM graduates not only mastered their English, German, and Latin; they were also fluent in college slang. The following terms were popular for many decades, although they may sound a bit ridiculous or risqué to us.

Fuchses: German for foxes—term for high school freshmen Whack: To reserve something: “I get first whack at the drinking fountain.”

Shag: To fetch by walking: “I’ll shag the mail.”To walk or hike: “Let’s go shagging at Flandrau.”

Buck: Leader, as in table buck, dorm buck, room buck.

Bucking: Studying.

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1942 Graduation class

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1940s Arbor Day 1945 Rocked by Tragedy 73 A

Late 30s Arbor Day outdoor band concert

On April 12, 1945, the campus was raked by noon, and the students were enjoying their Gemutlichkeit, relaxing on blankets and listening to the band play. They were jolted from their reverie, however, when some students listening to the Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters on the radio heard the news: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage.

Notes from the Messenger 74 N Although Al interscholastic football, basketball, and baseball were put on hold due to low men’s enrollment [caused by the Selective Service Act], the intramural program thrived. “Uncle Sam wants us to be a strong and healthy nation, so football, baseball, and tennis have become compulsory for our boys. Touch football has won many adherents. Forty boys turned out and four captains were chosen: Jim Albrecht, Ray Fluegge, Eckhardt Gauger, and Ervin Walz.”

And in women’s intramurals: “There are four volleyball teams.

Lillian Krause is the captain of the Lovenuts, Valeria Thalman is captain of the Butternuts, Dorothy Mueller heads the Peanuts, and Corintha Reier was chosen captain of the Walnuts. I understand that the Peanuts are leading all the nuts.”

April 13, 1945, newspaper

“The entire student body was called together in the auditorium and (you guessed it!) seats were assigned for the dining halls. There is one innovation: a few boys are now found in the small [girls’] dining room also.”

“This is war, and we all know it. Little did we realize what a shortage of things meant until a short time ago when we had no water. Birkholz managed to rescue the last glassful. This much we must say, he was very patriotic about it. For he went up and down the halls with the glass of water in his hand, yelling, ‘Anybody want to wash with me?’”

1941 Messenger staff

“These double-decker beds at West Hall are surely a space-saver.

Once in a while someone falls out, but that’s not so bad.”

“Oscar the pet squirrel has moved from Orville Degner’s room to Robert Wolf’s humble abode. Oscar had a slight accident. He was caught between two windows, and he hurt his hind legs. Visiting hours have been posted.”

Old Main dining hall

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1950s 75 1950s at a Glance Presidents Pr Truman and Eisenhower . . . Baby boom . . . Cold War. . . McCarthyism . . . polio vaccine . . . Alaska and Hawaii join union . . . Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye . . . school integration . . . American Bandstand . . . transistor radios . . . poodle skirts and saddle shoes . . . Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly . . . Ozzie and Harriet . . . Jackie Robinson and Wilt Chamberlain . . . Synod officially becomes WELS . . . first missionary sent to Japan . . .

76 Of Phone Calls and Divine Calls The Th tradition of the call service and public reading of the calls did not formalize until the late 50s and early 60s.

In the 40s, President Schweppe drove to Mequon in May or June to meet with the Conference of Presidents at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and prayerfully decide where each student would be placed. The students had to wait until he drove back to hear where they were assigned. It seems that one spring Saturday in 1944, some seniors spotted the president as he was walking across campus to see the baseball game. Knowing he had just returned from Wisconsin, they gathered around him in the apple orchard where Augustana (Hillview) now stands, and he graciously produced the call list then and there.

1961 President Schweppe hands out calls after the graduation service.

In ’46, the senior class pooled their pennies to pay for a long distance call rather than wait until Schwap returned. The phone call was taken by either the senior class president or the dorm buck, with the information repeated aloud to another student who wrote it down. Because Summit Hall was not without its eavesdroppers, “who was going where” got around campus well before it was announced officially.

In ’56 it was decided that the telephone call should come not to a student but to the dean of students, Delmar Brick. For the next several years, when the call came and the information was recorded, a lucky student ran to ring the Old Main bell, and the graduates gathered in a classroom or later the auditorium for a brief devotion and the reading of the calls. The Messengers record the announcement of assignment calls sometimes two or three weeks before graduation day, with President Schweppe then handing out the formal calls after the graduation service.

1963 Graduate hears her assignment.

Though the times, places, and traditions may vary, the anticipation and agitation of Call Day remains as powerful today as decades ago.

2009 Graduate hears her assignment.

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1950s Princesses in the Tower 77 P In 1950, during President Carl Schweppe’s administration, the beautiful Centennial Hall was built, its name a commemoration of the synod’s 100th anniversary. One of its trademark features is the central tower.

A coed from the 50s remembers that the young women often gathered in the tower room when the 7:15-9:15 pm study time was over. Dressed in pajamas, robes, and curlers, they celebrated birthdays and other occasions, maybe with a box of goodies a woman had received from home or a birthday cake a friend had baked just that afternoon in the dorm kitchen. The social hour was short, because it was lights out at 10.

1950 Centennial Hall

Sometimes the women made their way to the canteen in the basement during that golden half-hour, where they bought candy bars and half-pints of ice cream delivered fresh from the dairy.

They also got some extras: “Not only did we provide treats,” said a canteen manager, “we also dispensed comfort to homesick freshmen or discouraged sophomores. We gave advice on dating, dieting, getting along with roommates, and occasionally on studying. Many friendships began over the canteen counter.”

The tower room experienced a few transformations over the years, including the current look, which was financed by the Ladies’ Auxiliary in 2006-2007. It remains a gathering spot for the young women who, often far from home, are finding their way in the new world of life on the hill.

1950s Students in the tower room

! Walking My Baby Back Home Class picnics at Flandrau State Park were an autumn tradition for many years at DMLC. Having no cars, students walked along Summit Avenue in the late afternoon sun to enjoy games and a meal in the park. Clarice Panning Fastenau remembers that the real excitement came when it was time to walk back to campus. “A young man who had an interest in a particular young woman might ask her if she would walk back with him. That walk often led to a date and the start of a romance. It would be interesting to know how many walks back from the class picnic later resulted in walks down the aisle.”

2007 Students in the tower room

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79 Bringing Home the Bacon What Wh did it take to feed 440 students on a day in 1951? A student’s look into the cafeteria on a September morning revealed five bushels of peeled potatoes, 165 pounds of roast browning in the ovens, 18 gallons of vegetables simmering in large pans, 18 gallons of milk, 25 loaves of bread, and eight pounds of butter. It was estimated that it took $375 a day to buy, prepare, and serve that amount of food in 1951.

According to a catalog from the 20s, a small farm had been operated in connection with the school, furnishing the required milk and vegetables.

1955 Pickup truck returns to campus full of donated food.

In addition, from the 1880s through the 1970s, at least some of the cafeteria victuals were donated. In the fall, students were sent out in school trucks to pick up foodstuffs from generous Lutherans at farms and churches all over southern Minnesota. When the food arrived at the college, kitchen staff froze and canned it.

For several memorable Thanksgivings, Henry Weede of St. Peter, Balaton, Minnesota, donated a dozen or more 25-pound turkeys.

And in 1919, when the Spanish flu pandemic—and the panic it produced—had waned, the ladies of St. Paul’s made a delicious New Year’s Day meal for 14 students. These students had remained on the hill over Christmas because they’d already been home for a few weeks during the first semester due to the “flu vacation.” The March 1919 Messenger said that the ladies surprised the students with “fowl, salads, cakes, cookies and many other good things, and presented them to the students on that day. It was a well satisfied group who cheered the ladies, who had prepared such a rare treat.”

1955 DMLC kitchen pantry

1952 DMLC kitchen staff and several Thanksgiving turkeys

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1950s The Stu U 80 T In 1953, the students set up a union and recreation center in the basement of the Music Hall. A $1 fee bought a membership card, and the first monies purchased card tables and a radio-phonograph.

At the grand opening, students played cards, ping pong, and checkers; and, as one student reported, “The coke machine got quite a workout.” A renovation in ’65 gave the “Stu U” a medieval flair, earning it a new moniker, the “Lancers-Keller.”

1953 Students playing cards in the new student union

Notes from the Messenger 81 N “This year [1949-50] the student body is publishing a yearbook which is known as EXCELSIOR. This name itself will bring back to our memories the steps approaching our beautiful tree-covered campus. It will be a brief pictorial digest of a student’s life at our school, a book of memories we will always treasure.”

A new television set was added to the collegiate clubroom in Summit Hall in 1951. Paid for by the young men themselves, the set was a Hallcrafters with an 18-inch tube. Reception was reported to be very good.

1950 Messenger staff

The College Choir cut short its April 1952 tour when the Missouri River flooded and the bus could not cross the river to its last six stops.

November 1958 Messenger Patrons:

1950 First Excelsior yearbook

1952 College Choir itinerary

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1960s 82 1960s at a Glance Presidents Pr Kennedy and Johnson . . . Bay of Pigs . . . John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King assassinated . . . pop art and op art . . . Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird . . . Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are . . . Barbie dolls and G. I. Joes . . . feminism . . . go-go boots, mini-skirts, and bellbottoms . . . Woodstock . . . hippies . . . anti-war protestors . . . U.S. puts man on the moon . . . The Beatles . . . Joan Baez . . . The Grateful Dead . . . Camelot . . . Hair . . . Polka Days draws 80,000 visitors to New Ulm . . .

WELS breaks fellowship with Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod . . .

WELS considers future of DMLC in relation to Milwaukee Lutheran Teachers College . . . “Venture of Trust” self-study re-examines and reshapes DMLC curriculum, staff organization, and facility planning . . . Dr. Martin Luther High School becomes Martin Luther Academy in ’62; although still sharing the campus, the high school and college are now independent entities . . .

83 L Ladies’ Auxiliary—50 Years Ago In 1960, the DMLC Ladies’ Auxiliary was established to promote and support the college. About 800 women attended the first meeting on October 19 and elected their officers. They selected projects worth $2,465, a hefty sum for 1960: a giant food mixer for the kitchen; and drapes, lamps, and a planter for the Music Center.

For the last 50 years, these dedicated women have continued to support students on this campus with prayer and projects—over $400,000 worth.

1960 Ladies’ Auxiliary officers

Lois Luetke Kluender ’63 received one of the first Ladies’ Auxiliary scholarships—$100. “It sounds like such a small amount of money today, but for me it was huge,” she says. “It wasn’t just the money; it was a confidence builder.” Lois used it to help finance her younger sister’s expenses at DMLC and then, a few years later, she returned the money to the auxiliary so that another student could be helped by it.

“My education at DMLC has been the foundation for the rest of my life,” she says. “After 50 years, I can only wonder how many, many others were uplifted by the (D)MLC Ladies’ Auxiliary.”

1964 Ladies’ Auxiliary meeting in DMLC chapelauditorium-gymnasium

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1960s 84 IIt Wasn’t Built in a Day But Bu much of it was built in about a decade. Under Presidents Carl Schweppe and Conrad Frey, from 1961 to 1971, the campus gained the Music Center, Hillview Hall (now Augustana), Luther Memorial Union (now Luther Student Center), an addition and renovation to the Academic Center (now Wittenberg Collegiate Center), Highland Hall (now Concord), and the library.

In the category of “What Might Have Been,” we note that a site plan in the 60s foresaw the probable demolition of three buildings—Old Main, Summit Hall, and the Aula—and the building of a new chapel in the very near future. In fact, in 1963 chapel plans were drawn up and donations of $7,000 were received. But other building needs, specifically women’s housing, took precedence. The chapel would not be built for another 45 years; and Old Main, the Aula-Music Hall, and Summit Hall remain some of the most beautiful and well used buildings on campus.

1961 The Music Center

1968 Students in the new Luther Memorial Union

85 Student Teaching—

New Schools of Thought N As post-war babies flooded Lutheran schools in the 50s, the synod asked DMLC to produce 100 teachers a year—a nearly impossible feat considering enrollment levels. To help meet the need, an experimental extension course was established at Winnebago Lutheran Academy in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Enrollees took a year of college courses at WLA, flanked by two summer sessions at DMLC. Some called the grads “six-week wonders.” The short-lived program folded in 1961.

The student teaching program on the hill was being rethought as well. By 1963, college “normal students” (a term that was no longer normal at all) had been walking down the hill to practice teach at St. Paul’s for nearly 80 years. That year the college redesigned the student teaching program, lengthening it and adding off-campus sites in Appleton and Watertown, Wisconsin. In ensuing years, other Midwestern cities were added, primarily in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan.

1971 The new library

1967 Student teacher Carol Wendt and her grade 1-2 helpers

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Today the system is even larger. Students complete hundreds of hours of early field experience, beginning their first year in college.

They student teach in public as well as Lutheran schools. Secondary education majors teach in high schools. Early childhood education majors teach in our own ECE center. And we’ve sent students beyond the Midwest, to Washington and Florida. In this global age, one can only imagine where students will go next.

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86 Lock ‘Em Up and Throw Away the Key Thanks Th to Presidents Schweppe and Frey, four women’s residence halls were built—West Hall in ’45, Centennial in ’50, Hillview in ’64, and Highland in ’70—to keep the high school and college women safe and secure. Maybe too secure.

In ’69, a room on the fourth floor of Hillview Hall (now Augustana) had a funky door. The roommates, Ginger Sugden and Ruth Ann Klement, were instructed not to close the door until Heinz Zickler, the handyman, could fix it. “The inevitable happened,” said Ginger, “and one of us shut the door, and the lock broke.”

1964 Hillview Hall

They shouted. They pounded. They called “Ma Siegler” on the intercom. Classmate Janine Vasold ran outside with a pillow and told them to jump—it was only four floors, after all. Tools and verbal instructions were slid under their door. But all for naught.

The door would not budge. The girls were stuck and, truth be told, a little hungry.

“It had been about four hours,” Ginger says, “and still we weren’t able to get the door open. By this time the entire campus was aware of the situation. Heinz finally called the New Ulm Fire Department.”

The department sent out their brand-new hook-and-ladder truck— an initiation run. Heinz scrambled up the ladder, crawled through the window, and pried open the door.

Onlookers cheered, and the girls were escorted immediately to the Round Table, where they enjoyed their freedom, their fifteen minutes of fame, and a big order of fries.

1977 Mrs. Vera “Ma” Siegler

1969 The New Ulm Fire Department rescued two coeds, Sugden and Klement, from their dorm room.

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1960s Snow Carnival 87 S Snow Sn Carnival has been a regular feature on campus for many decades. In the 60s students were making snow sculptures, performing skits, putting on talent shows, and playing hockey, as well as skating, tobogganing, and sledding on cafeteria trays to their hearts’ content.

1969 Mary Travis, front, with her court of junior girls: Sandy Schroeder, Ruth Seeger, Sally Hartig, Christine Zahn, Bev Just, and Sharon Loehr

New in 1969 was a Snow Carnival Queen competition. Lest it become a beauty or popularity contest or some other “vain show of self-glorification”—a warning from the faculty—the Collegiate Council proposed that the queen be chosen on the basis of “poise, personality, and talent” and that she “foster a wholesome and spirited attitude, engendering excitement for the whole carnival.” Seven college juniors were chosen, and after a small talent presentation and extemporaneous question, Mary Travis was named the winner.

The schedule has changed a bit in 40 years. Snow sculptures are no more, but Iron Chef contests and Man Hunts have appeared. Class skits have given way to class videos. The Snow Carnival court is now made up of one couple from each class, and students also elect “Mr. Concord,” a first-year guy who embodies something of the UMOC (Ugliest Man on Campus) idea of Northwestern College.

But the spirit of the carnival hasn’t changed. A talent show and lots of skating and sledding (still on cafeteria trays) make bleak Februarys a lot brighter.

1966 Snow Carnival snow sculpture

1966 Tobogganing during Snow Carnival

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88 The Counter Culture—or Not Woodstock Wo and the Summer of Love, psychedelic drugs and communes—these didn’t touch students on the hill. Hippies were found only at Halloween, and no sit-ins took place—although students did quietly gripe about going to school on Saturdays.

The campus, however, was not completely out of touch. The newly formed Junto Club discussed the Vietnam situation, youth riots, and the wisdom of allowing “Red” China to belong to the United Nations. (On a lighter note, Tom Buege and Ron Kallies presented a report on UFOs at a Junto meeting in ’66.)

1968 Gary Wille dressed as a hippie for Halloween

Bethany and DMLC debate teams tackled the topic, “Should the federal government establish a program of national public works for the unemployed?”

And two new freedoms were ushered in for the students. First, Dean Hahnke announced in 1961 that women would now be allowed to have cars on campus, with the same rules governing them as had governed male drivers in the past. These rules included no driving around New Ulm, and, to enforce that rule, handing one’s keys over to the dean at the start of the school year. One 60s grad admits, however, that some students rented garages in town to ensure access to their cars. Fill-ups, by the way, averaged about 31 cents per gallon.

1967 Junto Club: Edith Zickuhr, Judy Tessmer, and Michele Murray

The second freedom was a new dress code instituted in ’67. On weekends and when going downtown, students could wear “casual dress,” which now included “neat, unfrayed Bermuda shorts and sweatshirts as well as slacks.” Further, women were now allowed to wear “slacks” to evening meals (except Wednesdays) when the weather was inclement.

1968 Debate Team: C. Schubert, J. Towner, E. Eckelberg, D. Dankers, R. Klindworth, and D. Needham

1963 Paul Koepsell and Roger Sievert hanging in the dorm, where almost any attire was allowed

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1960s 89 60s Grads Remember . . .

Pre-1968 Dining hall in the Old Main basement

Pre-1968 Student Union in the Music Hall basement

No open dorms . . . no football . . . no TVs or phones in dorm rooms . . . student union in Music Hall basement . . . three years of choir and four years of keyboard required . . . self-induced nosebleeds to get out of piano lessons on Old Main fourth floor . . . snow shoveled by first-year boys . . . having to sign out to leave campus . . . curfew on weekends: 11 pm . . . running to Old Main at noon bell, throwing books in a pile, and dashing to front of lunch line . . . classes still held on Saturday mornings, with Wednesday afternoons free . . . women’s evening chapel in dorm basement; most worshipers pajama-clad . . . men in Summit, firstyear women in Centennial, and other women in Hillview . . . school called off for St. Patrick’s Day Blizzard . . . earning 50 cents each for shoveling snow for townspeople . . . fragrant Christmas greens over every doorway in Ad Building . . . finishing each Christmas concert with mob choir singing Hallelujah Chorus . . . chocolate brownies and lukewarm orange drink after every field trip and class activity . . . showers in the old gym . . . jumping on trampoline in old gym without supervisors or spotters . . . watching President Kennedy talk about Cuban Missile Crisis on TV in Centennial basement; girls crying, afraid they’d never get home . . . hearing about assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK . . . June Night concert when choir not allowed to sing “St. Peter, don’t you call me” in Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons” . . . spirited campaigns for student office—but campaign speech on KNUJ not allowed . . .

1965 June Night Choir II sings a medley from The Sound of Music

1967 Dave Lohse, Jim Robinson, Dale Finch, and Bill Zeiger were the “checkers,” patrolling the Music Hall and Music Center to ensure that students were practicing piano and organ when assigned.

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1970s 90 1970s at a Glance Presidents Pr Nixon, Ford, and Carter . . . Watergate . . . average salary $7,564 . . . mandatory busing, desegregation, and affirmative action . . . mood rings, lava lamps, pet rocks, and Rubik’s Cubes . . . bellbottoms, earth shoes, and leisure suits . . . floppy discs and Atari . . . All in the Family, Roots, Happy Days, The Brady Bunch . . .

Joe Namath and Pete Rose . . . first test tube baby . . . Vietnam War ends . . . Roe v. Wade . . . energy crisis . . . Jonestown mass suicide . . . Jackson Five, Aerosmith, the BeeGees, the Eagles . . . Star Wars, Rocky, The Godfather, Jaws, Grease . . . Martin Luther Preparatory School opens in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School opens in New Ulm, removing all high school students from college campus . . .

1968 Gary Wille dressed as a hippie for Halloween.

91 H Hurray for Hollywood “Brain Lane” was the 1950s nickname for Waldheim Drive, where the Waldheim house and five brick residences housed the professors and their families. The 1970s nickname for Hollywood Avenue, just west of campus, was a bit more colorful.

It started when Milwaukee Lutheran Teachers College, a junior college opened in 1960 as a feeder for DMLC, closed in 1970 and much of the faculty and student body moved to New Ulm. Fifteen new houses—averaging $23,000 apiece—were built on Hollywood Avenue to house professors.

“There must have been about 60 children on that street,” one professor recalled. “They could go outside at any time and find someone to play with.” The old adage “New house, new baby” took effect as well, and many of those families had another child or two, resulting in the nickname of their street: Hollywood Hatchery.

1975 Little Peter, son of John and Connie Micheel, enjoys the snow in front of his Hollywood Avenue house.

92 Super Bowl Blizzard of ’75 The Th snowing and blowing hit the Friday before the VikingsSteelers Super Bowl, January 12, 1975. Snow piled higher than the library ramp, and students had to walk from dorm to dining hall on top of the snow, creating icy footpaths. Clarence Dauer, the boiler man, stayed on campus all weekend—getting home to Garden Street was impossible—and in true Laura Ingalls fashion, the maintenance staff tied a rope from the boiler room to Summit Hall, looping a tree in between, so that Dauer could find his way in the blizzard and do his boiler checks. The college pickup with the snow plow broke down. The fire hydrant near 19 Waldheim Drive ruptured, spilling water that quickly turned to glare ice all the way down the back drive to Summit Avenue. Fifty-eight people in the Midwest died.

And the Vikings lost 16-6.

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1970s Breaking a Leg 93 B In 1968, a school organization founded in 1890 disbanded: the Luther Literary League. Established to promote student creativity through drama, writing, debate, forensics, and visual art, the LLL flourished for almost 80 years. When it dissolved, its four main genres continued as independent clubs: Art Club, Children’s Theater, Creative Writing (which published the Forensic, a literary magazine), and Drama Club.

Plays and children’s theater productions continued as they had for years, and in 1968 a new genre was introduced in the new auditorium: a musical. Oklahoma was staged in 1968 and repeated in 1984 as part of the school’s centennial, and musicals have hit the stage every year since.

1967 Musical: Oklahoma

When Dr. Martin Luther College and Northwestern College amalgamated in 1995, they brought together a joint heritage of some 230 years of dramatic productions. The new school, Martin Luther College, birthed a new drama club, The Curtain. The curtain quickly came down on that moniker, however, and Forum, the name of Northwestern College’s drama club, was adopted. The Forum, an organization completely run by students, continues to present five productions a year: fall musical, winter play, readers’ theater, children’s theater, and outdoor classical theater.

Theater programs, whether professional or amateur, are often marked by lighthearted superstitions and idiosyncratic traditions.

Actors here, for instance, as in all the English-speaking world, say “Break a leg” instead of “Good luck” before a show. And as to traditions, for many years a baby doll was brought on stage by one of the characters. In 1984’s Oklahoma, when a character opened a picnic basket expecting to find sandwiches, she found the doll instead. In 1989’s The Sound of Music, a nun carried the doll on stage, perhaps raising a variety of questions for alert viewers.

1970 Children’s Theater: Snow White

2009 Pirates of Penzance

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94 Lancers Go to Nationals 1976-1977 was Coach Gary Dallmann’s last year as men’s basketball coach, and he decided to take his team on a great ride.

After winning the MRCC (Mississippi River Collegiate Conference) tournament, they journeyed to Norfolk, Nebraska, for the NLCAA (National Little College Athletic Association) national tournament.

The team didn’t go far, but they will forever be the first Lancer team to advance to nationals.

One player on that team was Jim Unke, the current MLC Knights basketball coach. In 2000, he decided to return the favor, taking his team to nationals as well. Their excellent play earned them a trip to the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) national tournament at College of the Ozarks in Branson, Missouri.

1976-1977 Lancers advanced to the NLCAA National Tournament.

Since 1995, all MLC teams have played in Division 3 of the NCAA.

1999-2000 Knights under Coach Jim Unke advanced to the NAIA National Tournament.

95 Lancerettes Take State The Th women on the hill had been playing intramural basketball for many decades, but major changes occurred in the late 60s. Boys’ rules were adopted in ’66, allowing all five players to play full court. Then, in ’67 an interscholastic squad was formed for the first time, with teams like Pillsbury and Gustavus Adolphus on the schedule.

Just seven seasons later, in 1974, the DMLC Lancerettes won the Minnesota State Championship. Current MLC Professor Barb Leopold played on that team, along with Judy Wade, Kathy Deines, Carol Bauer, Karen Wilsman, and Gloria Lohmiller. In ’76, the team took state again, this time with Leopold as coach and Wilsmann, Rachel Kaesmeyer, and Mary Ruth Bush leading the team.

1967 Nancy Just and Marian Kruse played on the first women’s interscholastic basketball team.

The softball teams of 1974 and 1977 also took the state title.

DMLC supported women’s athletics even before Title IX was enacted in 1972. There was little or no budget, as evidenced by the earliest uniforms: pinnies to begin with and, later, maroon-dyed shorts with a zipper up the side. But the athletic department always found money for transportation to games and for food (50 cents per person, the same as the men received). The women playing today couldn’t be more grateful.

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1974 Lancerette state champions

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1970s Saturday School 96 S The Th 1970s produced some dark songs about American education. “We don’t need no education. We don’t need no thought control,” intoned Pink Floyd in 1979. In ’72, Alice Cooper shouted: “School’s out for summer; school’s out forever!”

In 1970, the students on the hill celebrated something much simpler: “School’s out . . . on Saturdays!”

1970 Senior class officers: George Traucht, Susan Odegard, Sandy Schroeder, and Ron Buelow

A tradition of more than 80 years—Saturday morning classes— ended in 1970. A May 20, 1970, Messenger writer gushed: “No more Saturday classes! This sounds like a victory cheer from a typical student protest group that has won its cause. But it didn’t happen that way at DMLC, and we should be proud of the fact that this is about the extent of any student unrest or discontent on our campus.

The abolishment of Saturday classes has been a wish for many years.

Six days a week for school was depressing for some and provided very little free time to wash, clean, or simply relax.”

In an obligatory trade-off, classes were scheduled during the previously free Wednesday afternoons.

The Clothes Make the Man 97 T —or Do They?

— The spring 1976 Messengers featured a little sparring on the benefits of wearing jeans. One writer said: “When a person wears jeans, he sits differently, walks differently, and many times even acts differently. Wearing jeans can affect a person’s whole character. . . .

Most public school systems allow students to wear jeans in classes. . . . DMLC is neither a public school, nor is it an ordinary school.

People look to us as examples of how Christians should look and act. If we dress well, people will naturally follow us, and we will be better able to lead them to Christ.”

1970 L Club members in a wide array of casual dress

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The next month a writer retorted: “Jeans are not only more economical than other pants (less than $10), but they don’t snag, shrink as much, itch, or hold stains. . . . The desks in the academic building are not only uncomfortable but also destroy thousands of pairs of nylons a year. . . . How dare we become so legalistic as to think dress has much to do with our message, much less legislate the dress?”

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98 Let’s Go Clubbing What Wh molds a campus culture is more often clubs than coursework. Students on this campus have formed, dissolved, and reformed countless clubs. Luther Literary League, Etna (the smoking club), and the Marluts and Aeolians were some of the earliest. Others include . . .

Alpha-Omega Players Art Club AVCO Chess Club Clown Club Dance Team Debate Club Directors’ Club Excelsior / Shield (yearbooks) The Forensic (literary magazine) Forensics Fortress (religious topics discussion) Junto (current events) LASER (Luther Association for Science and Experimental Research) Luther Cadettes (drill team) Meet Math The Messenger (student newspaper) Ophidian League (bowling) Organ Club Outdoor Adventure Club Pep Band Philatelists (stamp collecting) Phlogistons (science) Photography Team Pro Musica / Recorder Club Renaissance Faire Sheepshead Club Sign Language Club Ski Club Soccer Club Speakers Corps Student Ambassadors Wrestling Club

1974 Professors John Paulsen and Paul Boehlke led science clubs at DMLC.

1970 Chess Club met Sunday afternoons in the Hillview “town girls’ room.” Officers pictured: Byron Windhorst, James Finster, Robert Mitchell, and Eileen Eckelberg

1973 AVCO members used the latest in technology.

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1970s 99 70s Grads Remember . . .

1971-1972 Football reinstated as interscholastic sport; the Lancer Bowl was dedicated in ‘74

School Sc starting late in 1970 because Highland dorm wasn’t finished, then going to school on Saturdays to make up the days . . . signing up to reserve (whack) the TV room . . . stereos and albums . . . having to sign out whenever you drove a vehicle off campus (even for church) . . . when the profs dispersed among the students at chapel instead of sitting together in the lower lefthand corner of the auditorium . . . Professor Hartwig’s first-hour Western Civ lectures in the auditorium, where he made every a, an, and the seem important . . . lesson plans for Professor Sievert, where even the upswings in our penmanship had to be correct . . . classes divided alphabetically . . . reading books and writing papers over Christmas because semester ended two weeks after vacation . . . football back on campus . . . the Lancer on a real horse at football games . . . John Denver singing on campus . . . Homecoming parades and floats . . .

Schwan’s experimental ice cream flavors in the cafeteria . . . no salad or pizza . . . Snow Carnival snow sculptures . . . wearing dresses or pantsuits . . . no slacks or jeans . . . meeting Christians who shared your faith and people who would be your friends for life . . .

1966 Lancer mascot

1972 Women in the Organ Club sport pantsuits in solids, stripes, plaids, and polka dots.

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1980s 100 1980s at a Glance Presidents Pr Carter, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush . . .

The “Me Generation” . . . minimum wage $3.10 . . . video games, aerobics, big hair, and Nikes . . . minivans . . . “new Coke” . . . Berlin Wall comes down . . . AIDS . . . Challenger explosion . . . Sandra Day O’Connor is first female Supreme Court justice . . . Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and Danielle Steele . . . E. T. and Tootsie . . . cable TV . . . The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls . . . MTV . . . break dancing . . . Flashdance . . . Michael Jackson, U2’s The Joshua Tree, and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats and Phantom of the Opera . . . Glockenspiel dedicated in New Ulm . . . DMLC and NWC receive accreditation . . .

101 JJoyce’s Voices Directed Di

by Professor Joyce Schubkegel from 1977 to 2005, the Treble Choir—aka “Joyce’s Voices”— numbered up to 225 women in the mid-80s. Schubkegel’s music choices (including many she arranged herself), her high standards for tone and diction, and her lighthearted choreography made her choir’s performances a highlight of concerts for many years.

In ’91 the Treble Choir was invited to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary to join the seminary choir and the Lutheran Chorale of Milwaukee in concert. One hundred women boarded a bus, dubbed “Flight Sem,” including one young lady who originally refused to go. “I’m not going to Rome,” she had said, using the familiar nickname for Mequon. “It’s just a matchmaking scam.”

Professor Schubkegel talked her into it, however, and that weekend Becca Fastenau not only sang in the choir, she met the young Paul Koelpin, future professor of MLC . . . and later married him.

1982 “Joyce’s Voices” in their pastel formals at May Night

1995 Faculty men sang with the Treble Choir.

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1980s 102 100 Years of Grace “In Quietness and Trust” was the theme of the DMLC centennial celebration November 9-11, 1984. Thousands came to celebrate 100 years of ministry training, which began here on the hill on Luther’s birthday in 1884.

To commemorate the occasion, choirs sang a new arrangement of “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” composed by Professor James Engel, and Professor Morton Schroeder penned the history A Time to Remember.

1984 Thousands of people came to campus to celebrate the centennial of DMLC.

Students, faculty, staff, and visitors praised God in worship services and enjoyed concerts, campus tours, the musical Oklahoma!, and many occasions for fellowship.

The DMLC family of 1984 had little idea that the institution they were commemorating would be entirely transformed a decade later. In 1995, Dr. Martin Luther College would be no more, nor would Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin. In their place would arise Martin Luther College, the new WELS College of Ministry.

1984 President Lloyd Huebner spoke at several events during Centennial weekend.

1984 The campus family enjoyed a celebratory dinner.

1984 Professor James Engel presented an organ recital on the Memorial Organ in the auditorium.

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103 Going Global—The First Steps In 1985, a group of DMLC students, professors, and alumni traveled to Israel, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Germany with Professors Arnold Koelpin and Theodore Hartwig. Their six weeks of sightseeing was augmented by lectures, their learning was assessed by an exam, and they received college credit. It was one of seven European Civilization and Culture study-tours—“traveling classrooms”—offered by DMLC and MLC from 1972 through 1996 The 1985 group was swimming one day at an Israeli kibbutz, unaware that only a few miles away, a terrorist was holding a gun to the head of a PanAm pilot. Frightened family and friends in America saw the terrorist on the news before the tour group knew anything about it.

Making the incident more alarming was the fact that two days later, the group was to travel from Israel to Greece—on that very same PanAm plane. “Tensions were high in Jerusalem!” Koelpin said. “When we got to Jerusalem, Israeli security aroused us in the morning darkness, whisked us off to the Tel Aviv airport, and set us on an Israeli EL Al airline for our outbound flight instead. I will never forget boarding the plane and seeing an Israeli security guard holding a machine gun on alert. The news of our whereabouts spread back home fast. The New Ulm Journal phoned my wife: ‘Was the DMLC group okay?’”

“Living history!”

Lord’s oversight!”

Koelpin

exclaimed

in

summary.

1985 The fifth European Civilization and Culture study tour group

1996 The seventh European Civilization and Culture tour group en route from Chicago to Frankfurt

“The

Since the first study-tours took off, DMLC and MLC have offered others in conjunction with English, geography, science, foreign languages, etc. History students enrolled in Renaissance and Reformation study tours in 2004 and 2007. Science students continue to enroll in a marine ecology course in Jamaica every other January, and Spanish students participate in immersion experiences every summer.

Students coming to MLC today often have their passports in hand, having traveled overseas while still in high school. But in the 70s and 80s, going to Europe was still a rare adventure, and the students taking these trips were among the first to “go global.”

2007 Jessica Tess, Kaylen Orr, and Cori Psycher, three students on the 2007 Renaissance and Reformation tour

2009 A China study tour group

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1980s Volleyball National 104 V

S Small College Champs

Under Coach Drew Buck, the women’s volleyball team was invited to the NSCAA (National Small College Athletic Association) invitational tournament four years in a row and won that tournament the first three of those years: 1985 (St. Louis), 1986 (DMLC), 1987 (St. Louis), and 1988 (New York).

1987 NSCAA championship volleyball team

1981 These DMLC students did TCW during their spring break.

Present MLC volleyball coach Becky Huhn Cox was a member of those four squads. She particularly remembers the 1985 trip to St. Louis: “On the day of the finals we took a trip to the Arch. Coach let us take the vans while he stayed back at the hotel. We misjudged the time, and some players went up the Arch and did not make it back down by the time we were supposed to leave. We raced back to the hotel, arriving quite late, only to find our uniforms folded by each of our hotel room doors. I don’t think Coach said a word to us as we sprinted up to get our stuff, ran back to the vans, and arrived at the venue.” The team went on to win that final match.

Huhn remembers that the next year at DMLC was even more special: “We had a standing-room-only crowd, the biggest one we’d ever played in front of—and in our own gym too. It was incredible to have the support of the whole student body as we went on to repeat as national champions.”

New Ways to Serve 105 N

1996 A TCW team at Divine Peace, Largo, Maryland

Re Relatively new in the 1980s were Travel-CanvassWitness (TCW) teams. In March 1981, 70 students from DMLC, Northwestern College, and Wisconsin Lutheran College traveled to congregations in Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Florida, among others, to canvass. The synod’s Special Ministries board paid all expenses. Later in the 80s, some fourmember teams of graduates were assigned on Call Day to do TCW for a full year, traveling each week to a new congregation.

Currently, about 80 students volunteer to serve congregations in this way each spring break, and another 100 or so lend ministerial assistance to congregations each summer. We call this our Daylight USA program, and since its inception in 2001 over 1,600 students have volunteered their time and gained valuable ministerial experience.

One 1981 student said, “This is something you can use your whole life, teaching or not.” Students today would agree.

2009 Four students on a Daylight USA trip to Las Vegas

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106 80s Grads Remember . . .

Walking Wa to Dannheim’s for half-pints of ice cream . . . one pay phone per floor in the dorms . . . TVs, VCRs, and refrigerators hidden in dorm closets and under blankets . . . a choice of two entrees for cafeteria meals, one of them often salmon cakes and pea sauce . . . Mrs. Barnes’s cheerfulness in the cafeteria line and her memorization of every student’s name and ID number . . . being “welcomed” as freshmen at Homecoming, including wearing beanies and doing early-morning calisthenics under the watchful eyes of hardcore sophomore drill sergeants . . . after-event parties hosted by parents at Holiday Inn . . . still no jeans allowed for class . . . shoulder pads and asymmetrical haircuts . . . Professor Wulff’s brand of questioning: “Who was responsible for the conflict on the frontier: the settlers or the American Indians? The answer is ‘Yes’” . . . President Huebner’s kindness and servant’s heart . . . the planetarium . . . the telescope on the roof . . . the “fitness center,” which contained a mat or two, one weight bench, and some hand weights, the whole thing mostly encased in a batting cage . . . the computer lab with about eight machines . . . waiting in line for the one computer printer in the dorm lobby . . . the new handbell choir . . . that cold night when a prankster squirted water into all the locks on campus and the next morning no one could get into any buildings . . . “Blind Babs and the Cataracts” . . . the new ice cream machine . . . Summit Hall closed . . . Centennial Hall as a men’s dorm . . . the library closing at 10 pm . . . people driving their cars up the library ramp . . . the time students hid in the library overnight . . . the day we moved 2,000 beer cases full of books from the library to the girls’ dorm basement . . . the luau in the Summit basement when some guys filled a children’s pool with water, hauled in sand, borrowed the palm trees from the chapel to lend tropical ambience, and invited in female guests for a swim . . . tanning on the roof of Hillview, starting the first warm day in March or April . . . some of our lingo: jazzed, stoked, pumped, and psyched; an airhead, a flake, a space case, a wench, a dormrat, a lizard, a Ted, a yak; to geek, to grind, to book, to bolt, to motor, to step out, to nerd out, to wail on, to Gator, to crank it out, to get hosed . . .

1984 Student examines new “microcomputers” as Professor John Micheel looks on.

1979 The handbells were donated by Drs. Howard Vogel and Ann Vogel.

1986 Students cleared books out of the library before it received its renovation.

1985 First-year students singing “We love you, seniors”

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1980s Somebody Get the Phone!

107 S In 2010, when every student has a cell phone and computer to call, text, tweet, Skype, message, facebook, and email friends a hundred times a day, the idea of one phone for a whole floor of college students is astonishing. And what happened when that phone rang is like an esoteric rite from an ancient culture. In a 1981 Messenger, Dawn Fuerstenau wrote: “If there are women expecting calls, then there is a mad dash on the phone’s first ring. However, during the less-than-peak hours, the phone has been known to continue to ring until the caller gives up, while disinterested women stroll past it or stay behind closed doors.

“It’s quite an event when the phone is finally answered. The name of the woman who is lucky enough to get a call is screamed toward the proper end of the hall, and is often accompanied by such comments as ‘It’s a man!’ or ‘It’s only a girl.’ The privileged woman races toward the phone and stays there anywhere from five minutes to two hours, depending whether the call is for a babysitting job or from Northwestern College.

1981 Pete Schumacher on the phone in the guys’ dorm

“Not only are DMLC women a bit unusual in the way they receive telephone calls, they also are out of the ordinary in the way they talk on the phone. Many have developed their own posture for talking comfortably: The Perch. In Hillview the phones are located in the wall above a waist-high counter that serves as a shelf for newspapers and magazines. Some women like to climb up and perch on the counter in a crouching position as they converse. This position is practical only for short people. The Thinker. Here a woman sits on the back of a chair with her feet on the seat, her elbows on her knees, and one hand on her chin. The Ostrich. A woman leans against the counter and sticks her head between the partitions right next to the phone. This way is good for those wanting to be a little closer to the caller. The Drape. Some women talk on the phone while sitting slouched in a chair with their legs extending up and feet resting on the counter. This allows the blood to rush to the head and gives a sense of well-being.”

2009 MLC student on her cell phone

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1990s 108 1990s at a Glance Presidents Pr George Herbert Walker Bush and Bill Clinton . . . World Wide Web born . . . Amazon.com . . . The Gulf War . . . Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey . . . Steve Jobs and Bill Gates . . . O. J. trial . . . Oklahoma City bombing . . . Columbine shooting . . . Casual Fridays . . . Tommy Hilfiger . . . Beanie Babies and Tickle Me Elmo . . . Mariah Carey and Madonna . . . Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld, ER, and The Simpsons . . . John Grisham and Michael Crichton . . . Titanic . . . the New Ulm Concord Singers and Narren continue to preserve the city’s heritage at Fasching and other German celebrations . . . Amalgamations of synod colleges and preparatory schools . . .

1990s Concord Singers perform German folk music as they have since 1931. The gnome-like Narren first donned their wooden masks in 1989.

109 A New School on the Hill It was August 1995 when WELS President Karl Gurgel preached: “What are we doing here today? It’s the beginning of something quite new, the joining together of two old schools, Northwestern College and Dr. Martin Luther College.”

President Gurgel’s text for the dedication of the new school, Martin Luther College, was 1 Kings 8:57-60: “May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers . . . that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.”

1994 A student covers the “Dr.” in the Dr. Martin Luther College sign.

“Many thoughts are going through our minds,” Gurgel said, “many emotions tugging at our hearts, and yet this is what is essential: that we, in classroom and pulpit, may share the love of Jesus. That’s why God guided our ways, bringing us together here.”

President Theodore Olsen, who’d been given the task of leading this blended family, wrote: “There are two ways we can approach this. We can either realize that the Lord has given us a tremendous opportunity, or we can complain that it isn’t like it used to be. By bringing everything on the same campus we’re bringing all forms of Christian education together. This will strengthen the ministry and give pastors and teachers a common background, a respect, and a camaraderie they will carry into the future.”

Spring 1995 Students from both schools met on the New Ulm campus for the Inaugural Student Congress.

1995 The new school seal, between the library and Wittenberg Collegiate Center, is heated so that it’s never covered in snow.

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1990s 110 “GoodKnight” to the Trojans

and Lancers

In the Knight’s Page, the new student newspaper, students expressed the wide range of emotions they felt their first year at Martin Luther College.

1995 NWC and DMLC students getting acquainted at local restaurant, The Lamplighter

In Volume 1, Number 1, September 1995, a student from the former DMLC wrote: “There is no longer a DMLC or a Northwestern.

These schools have died. The historic traditions and the old way of doing things have passed away with them. Martin Luther College is a new beginning. Any efforts to keep customs, traditions and the old way of doing things alive are futile. Instead, it’s time to build new ones. Remember your old school and look back on it with fond memories. But now, look forward to the future of your current school and making new memories which you will also cherish some day. Give your love and dedication to the school that is here to serve you now.”

The next month, a student from the former NWC wrote a poem entitled “Walk a Mile in Our Shoes”: They say “Not to unite is a crime.”

When I hear those words I cringe each time.

Unity has its place here and there, But to forget the past is a lot to bear.

Why should the ways of old be put to rest?

Weren’t these the things that we thought were best?

Why is it wrong to hold them dear?

Haven’t they guided young men for one hundred thirty years?

1994 Lancer mural formerly in the Luther Memorial Union

1995 Knight mural constructed over the top of the Lancer mural

And another student took a little lighter view, listing some of the best things about amalgamation: Great new pick-up lines: “Hey baby, what’s your track?”

A language program that even incorporates a dead language.

Men: no longer on the endangered species list.

Women: relieved from the stress associated with leadership.

Hermann and the Sprinter—who could ask for more?

1999 A student decorates the Northwestern College seal at Christmas time.

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111 The Sprinter Makes a Run for It The Th Sprinter, a gift to Northwestern College from St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, in 1912, was a fixture on that campus and a meaningful symbol to the young men studying to be pastors.

When DMLC and NWC amalgamated, it was originally decided to leave the statue at the Northwestern campus, renamed Luther Preparatory School. “Due to the cost of moving the Sprinter, primarily insurance costs, the decision was made by the authorities to leave it in Watertown,” said a student writer. “This policy moved Northwestern students to take the Sprinter hostage with the plea to move it to New Ulm. After admonishment, the Sprinter’s whereabouts were revealed.”

1994 Sprinter at Northwestern College

The statue did find its way 350 miles west to Martin Luther College, where it continues to toe its mark silently, as it has for almost 100 years.

Making Changes by Degree 112 M Martin Ma Luther College and its predecessor schools were established to meet the ministry needs of the WELS. As those needs have changed and grown, the college’s programs have changed and grown as well. The late 80s, 90s, and 00s saw several additions to the college’s degree offerings: staff ministry, early childhood education (ages 0-8), and secondary education. When initially introduced, these majors were offered in tandem with an elementary education major; most students needed five years to complete their double majors. Now many are single-major four-year programs.

1995 Sprinter at Martin Luther College

The largest change came in 1995 at amalgamation, when preseminary studies was added to the catalog. The program was officially adopted as SPaM, Studies in Pastoral Ministry—not to be confused with SEM, Studies in Educational Ministry, whose enrollees have no plan to go to the seminary. The students in SPaM are sometimes known as Spammers, and in the office of some SPaM professors, one can find a can of the famous spiced ham product produced in nearby Austin, Minnesota.

1996 First “SPAMMERS” received their diplomas.

1999 An early childhood education major teaches in the MLC Early Childhood Learning Center.

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1990s 113 Let’s Give Teaching a Whirl In 1997, one student called it “A great experience! Best week of the year!” Another, confirming the boot-camp quality of the week, noted: “Had to get up way too early.”

1997 Student at First-Year Early Field Experience

It’s Early Field Experience, an experiential learning requirement for first-year students initiated in the 1990s. During these five days, when other students have begun their spring break, first-year students remain on campus, learning about lesson preparation, involved in group discussions and mock faculty meetings, hearing guest speakers, doing reflective teaching, and—the best part—teaching a real lesson to real children who come up the hill for the experience.

This early experience, unique to MLC, allows students who are still unsure about their vocational choice to give it a whirl early in their college careers. As sophomores, juniors, and seniors, they will complete many additional hours of early field experiences, culminating in student teaching at both Lutheran and public schools.

A 2007 first-year student echoed the comments of those students a decade earlier: “There is more to teaching than I thought, but it’s fun!”

2000 Student at First-Year Early Field Experience

114 A License to Serve Since Si 2001, MLC teacher candidates have not only earned a Bachelor of Science in Education degree and been eligible for assignment in a WELS school, they have also completed coursework that meets the standards for Minnesota state licensure.

2009 Student at First-Year Early Field Experience

It began when the 1999 synod in convention approved this program change almost 3-1, after discussing one concern: To meet state standards, MLC students would have to student teach in public schools. Would this change our mission? Would this hurt or help our students?

Almost 10 years later, the program expansion has proven itself beneficial in many ways. “Our students witness their faith through their lives in the public schools,” says Vice President for Academics David Wendler. “Public school educators enjoy our students, saying that they are excellent role models in the classroom. Our students, in turn, have more hands-on classroom experiences, observe a wider variety of teaching methodologies, and work with a more diverse student population—making them even stronger candidates for their assignments into WELS elementary and secondary schools.”

2008 MLC student in a clinical experience in a New Ulm public school

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115 1990s Grad Remembers . . .

The Th library as the social scene after evening chapel . . . using the library computers (no personal computers yet) . . . setting up our first email account and wondering whether we’d ever use the crazy thing . . . the campus instant messaging system where people sometimes sent messages using someone else’s identity—oops! . . . Professor Arnold Koelpin’s stories, President Lawrenz’s Seder, Coach Buck’s great coaching style, long fifth-year research papers for Hartwig and Isch . . . other prof sayings: Lange: Deutschlander: Dan Balge: Czer: Carmichael:

“This is a case where . . .”

“Heresy may result in a grade lower than a C.” “You have a mind like a steel trap.”

“In my never-ceasing struggle to make life easier for you . . .”

“Cherubic young froshlings” “You’re thinking good thoughts.”

“Nothing good can be found in a prepositional phrase.”

“People.”

. . . open dorms Friday supper to midnight, Saturday noon to midnight, and Sunday noon to supper . . . lots of food: Domino’s Pizza 2 for $10, Big Macs 2 for $2, Crazy Bread 50 cents . . . the “morning-afters” when we all jammed in a room and discussed the juicy details of the last night’s date or COS (party sponsored by “pastor track” guys) or Frat (party sponsored by “teacher track” guys) . . . spending Saturdays vegging all day in our pajamas . . . sharing clothes, books, and everything else . . . flannel shirts . . . Summit Hall remodeled and reopened . . . yummy cinnamon rolls in the cafeteria . . . the dance team doing “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice . . . no-holds-barred Powder Puff football . . . going to Mexican Village . . . huddling around the TV to watch Friends and ER . . . intramurals . . .

1998 Powder Puff football

1998 Homecoming

1995 Second floor Highland students

1998 Second floor Concord students

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2000s 2000s at a Glance 116 2 Pr Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama . . . September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks . . . War on Terror . . . wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. . . Hurricane Katrina . . . global financial crisis . . . euro adopted in 27-country European Union . . . I-35 bridge collapse . . .

Friends, ER, American Idol, Lost, and Survivor . . . YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, eBay, Wikipedia, Wii, PlayStation, XBox . . . personal cells, personal computers . . . hybrid cars . . . mad cow disease, bird flu, and swine flu (H1N1) . . . J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books . . . Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings . . . Eminem and Beyonce . . . Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods, and Lance Armstrong . . . Crocs and Ugg boots . . .

117 A City on a Hill—

a and a City within a City Though the school was always a “city on a hill,” it’s not been a city unto itself. (D)MLC sees itself as a contributing member of the New Ulm community.

2008 MLC Golf Classic community sponsors

In the 60s and 70s, President Conrad Frey was off the hill as often as on it. He made great friends in the community, taking leadership roles on boards and adding his voice to the city’s political conversations.

The presidents who followed, Lloyd Huebner, John Lawrenz, Ted Olsen, and Mark Zarling, have followed suit.

More recently, MLC and the greater New Ulm community have collaborated on a variety of projects: MLC is a partner in the “Heart of New Ulm Project,” seeking greater wellness for the New Ulm community. MLC students have complimentary memberships at Vogel Recreation Center. Community leaders golf at the MLC Golf Classic. The new MLC soccer pitch is funded and utilized jointly by the college and the community. MLC students have partnered with the LIONS Club to raise money for relief in Haiti. MLC students are sought as tutors in the public school system and as employees with local organizations that serve adults with disabilities. And the MLC cafeteria, open to the public, is one of best restaurants in town.

2009 Athletic Director Jim Unke and New Ulm Mayor Joel Albrecht at the dedication of MLC’s new soccer pitch

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Professor Darvin Raddatz notes that the quarter century since our centennial (1984) has been marked by symbiosis in a variety of areas, and one of the foremost is this: “the city’s and the school’s growing awareness of each other and their seeing each other as partners together in the creation of a mutually beneficial environment.”

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118 Daylight—

Working While It Is Day Daylight USA and Daylight International are two MLC programs that have taken off in the 2000s—and taken our students with them.

Daylight USA facilitates the placement of about 200 students a year in congregations all over the country. Often with the financial support of WELS Kingdom Workers, students offer ministerial assistance and humanitarian aid wherever it is needed. Between 2005 and 2007, for instance, almost 80 students assisted Hurricane Katrina victims.

MLC’s Daylight International program facilitates the one- and two-year teaching engagements of MLC students and graduates in international venues, including Albania, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malawi, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan, and Thailand. Some 40-50 of our students can be found teaching overseas every year. In addition to their classroom duties, they might assist missionaries, lead Bible classes, and evangelize in their neighborhoods or schools.

2006 Jeremiah Drews and other students assisted with clean-up in Nicollet, Minnesota, after an August 24 tornado.

MLC graduate Rachel Kionka spent a year in Malawi, teaching at an international school and an orphan school. She wrote of her Christian brothers and sisters in Malawi: “The joy hits before you even get out of the truck. The choir sways out of the small brick church, clapping and dancing. Then they begin to sing. It is a sound you’ve never heard before; the harmonies are more brilliant, more penetrating. Stepping down onto the dirt, you realize you will never be the same again.”

“Never the same again.” When our students return from their international experiences, they are different people—with a deeper understanding of the diversity of humankind, with new teaching methodologies picked up from professionals around the world, with an awareness of need, disease, and loneliness, and with a deeper knowledge of the world’s desperate need for Christ’s forgiveness.

2008 Rachel Kionka taught in Malawi for a year after her MLC graduation.

“Providing educational leadership with a global outlook” is part of MLC’s mission; Daylight International is one way we try to meet that goal.

2007 Zach Seeger submitted this photo to MLC’s annual Thalassa Prize competition. Zach and his wife, Becky, worked in China for three years after their graduation. In 2010, about 20 graduates are hoping to serve a year in China.

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2000s Beyond Graduation 119 B Si Since the first summer course was offered in 1946 under President Schweppe, MLC’s continuing education classes and workshops have grown exponentially. Over 900 students enrolled in 2009—more than our regular on-campus enrollment.

New in 2005 was our Master of Science in Education degree, a program designed specifically for Lutheran teachers. It began as brick-and-click (on-campus and online) and now is almost entirely online.

2008 First two grads in the master’s program, Aaron Hartwig and Brett Kriese

The first two graduates received their diplomas in May 2008.

“These graduates are demonstrating their commitment to lifelong learning,” said Vice President Dr. Dave Wendler. “Our Lutheran schools need educators who serve their students with excellence in teaching. Continual study of both Scripture and pedagogy is a post-baccalaureate goal for all education majors.”

In late 2009, enrollment in the master’s program numbered in the 70s.

120 A New Mascot—Sort Of Wh When the two colleges amalgamated, the NWC Trojan and the DMLC Lancer were mothballed and the MLC Knight was introduced as the official mascot. Before the 90s were over, however, the male cheerleaders led the student body to adopt an unofficial mascot: the kangaroo. A large inflated kangaroo found its way into skits, cheers, and students’ hearts. In 2010, it was retired and a new giant marsupial made its entrance.

2007 Roo Crew in action at the Homecoming football game

Fans of all ages are still joining the “Roo Crew,” cheering for MLC’s athletic teams and singing the Kangaroo Song—a fight song sung to the tune of “Go, Tell It on the Mountain” and accompanied by marsupial-like jumping.

We’re the Knights of MLC. We’re gonna run to victory!

We’re the Knights of MLC, The Red, the Black, the White.

On the field or on the court, We will run and play some sports.

If we win or if we lose, We will jump like Kangaroos! (start jumping) 2009 Roo Crew towels at a “White-Out” basketball game where all the fans wore white

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We’re the Knights of MLC . . .

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121 Still Kicking, Hitting, Shooting—

a and Booking Too Since the first DMLC students engaged in turning, or gymnastics, athletics has been a big hit on the hill. The college has consistently provided facilities for students to tone their muscles and hone their skills—from the 1901 Turnhalle, 1910 tennis courts, and 1911 Summit Hall basement gym to today’s gym, softball and baseball fields, football bowl, tennis courts, and fitness center. The latest venue, dedicated in 2009, is a state-of-the-art, state-of-theconference soccer pitch.

While DMLC and early MLC teams played in small-college leagues, the current 16 teams compete in NCAA Division 3, with about 200 students participating. The college’s teams have been consistently competitive—the latest triumph being the 2002 men’s soccer berth at the national NAIA tournament in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

But the interscholastic program is only part of the picture. Our 20+ intramural sports are enjoyed by about 400 students: that’s more than 50% of our student body, a percentage not many colleges can match.

2009 MLC Knight Chuqee Fletcher

And while turning, kicking, hitting, shooting, and running are a big part of our students’ lives, they’re overshadowed by “booking.” Our scholar-athletes are scholars first. The latest example: According to the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference records for fall 2009, MLC athletes outsmarted the other conference colleges in five of eight fall sports. The five teams’ GPAs were as follows: men’s cross country 3.587; volleyball 3.507; women’s soccer 3.397; men’s soccer 3.194; football 2.972. Individually, 54 MLC athletes in all eight fall sports posted GPAs of 3.50 or higher.

The whole campus family thanks God for the academic gifts he’s given MLC students—and for their faithfulness in using them.

2009 MLC Knight Renee Peters

2008 Intramural basketball team

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2000s MLC Lexicon 122 M In 2006, then-student Nicky Richmond created a facetious lexicon for incoming students. Read it with a wink and a smile.

The Sprinter: A grey, cement-looking statue of a scantily clad runner—wearing an old Northwestern jersey and intriguing pointy shoes—that used to belong to NWC. The Sprinter is now located in front of the main gymnasium entrance at MLC and serves as a landmark for tour groups and a prison for late-night Capture the Flag games.

2009 Students worshiping in the “chapeltorium”

Chapeltorium: Worship is held twice daily, and plays are performed at various times during the school year in this ingenious combination of chapel and auditorium. [Since the opening of the Chapel of the Christ in 2010, this facility is now officially just an auditorium.]

Lake Olsen: A small runoff lake affectionately named for President Theodore Olsen. If you feel rain on a sunny but windy day, it is usually from the spray generated by the “trinity” of fountains in the lake. Expansion of the lake in recent years has prompted the term “Ocean Olsen” to come into some usage. [Since President Olsen’s retirement, the pond is usually called “The Pond.”]

SPaM: Studies in Pastoral Ministry: A group of guys who signed up for eight years instead of the standard four or five. They have four more years to mature at the seminary in Mequon, Wisconsin, upon graduation from MLC.

2006 “Lake Olsen” is now simply “The Pond,” and it flanks the new Chapel of the Christ.

MRS: An unofficial—but recognizable—track of study at MLC. Open only to females, it is often considered parallel to SPaM. Walk: A walk is a walk. Nevertheless, consider yourself warned: if you go on a walk with a member of the opposite gender, you may receive pointed questions from friends about wedding dates when you return.

Hymnal Sharing: See Walk.

Old Main: The original “main” building. It’s kind of old.

Athletic Fields: Athletics by day, “stargazing” by night.

Mallcam: This camera is mounted on the Wittenberg Collegiate Center and is focused on the statue of Luther. A great way to say hi to your mom or spy on your friends via the World Wide Web.

2007 Preseminary students, a.k.a. Spammers

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Martin Luther: If Lutherans could canonize, this man would be the patron saint of MLC. Milwaukee: More than just a city in Wisconsin, at MLC it is known as the Mecca or Vatican City of the WELS. Pilgrimages to this town and lighting a candle at the synod offices or Northwestern Publishing will not—contrary to popular belief—get you to heaven faster.

Moodle: Not your great-aunt’s pet Schnauzer. Moodle allows WELS online learning and is a place for professors to have an online forum, post more homework, and hold discussion groups.

Minnesota Star City: A delineation given to cities based upon level of cleanliness, not population. New Ulm is a shining “star” in southern Minnesota.

Library: A building that transforms like Cinderella’s pumpkin: At 7 pm it magically changes from a library into a student union.

2006 The campus Martin Luther statue is timeless.

Male Cheerleaders: A select group of guys who perform at basketball games. They may be the only squad in the NCAA that does not have any female members. Most performances are beyond words—you really do need to see them to understand.

Kangaroo Song: Usually led by the male cheerleaders, this is the unofficial MLC fight song. More students know all the words to this song (sung to the tune of “Go, Tell It on the Mountain” while bouncing up and down on bleachers) than know the words (or even recognize) the actual MLC fight song.

Portal: Intranet service that provides daily news and directory information to everyone on campus. Also known as “StalkerNet.” 2007 The library becomes a social mecca at night.

Seal: A marble version of Luther’s Seal set in the middle of the mall.

The only things officially allowed to walk on it are ants and the occasional squirrel.

Flandrau State Park: Miles of hiking trails with lookouts, camping, and a public pool—an excellent place to take a date or go on an Amazon run.

Amazon Run: First popularized by the MLC cross country and track teams but now enjoyed by many of the student body, these runs consist of tearing through Flandrau State Park in groups, on foot, in shorts, and off trail—the more brush and bramble, the better. First one to bleed wins!

2010 Male cheerleaders in action

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2000s 123 2010 Grads Remember . . .

2009 Sophomore Lords and Ladies at Homecoming

2009 A student band at the year-end Swine Sizzler

2008 The cafeteria offers hot food till midnight.

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Op Open dorms on week nights . . . TVs, DVD players, and video game systems in almost every room . . . “Pokemon Tournaments” with our old Nintendo 64 . . . no curfews—hence many late-night trips to Perkins, Hy-Vee, and Mankato . . . walking to the new Wal-Mart for fun on weeknights . . . non-stop slumber party of Centennial Hall freshman year . . . getting a passing grade in Our Living World . . . Professor Lange still telling us “it’s a case where” . . . Dr. Whaley reminding us that “this is passion, not scolding” . . . Professor Roux showing us how to make the Luther seal out of any medium during Teaching Religion . . . pulling all-nighters in the computer lab to finish papers and projects . . . spring break and summer vacation Daylight USA trips all over the country to teach VBS and canvass . . . SPaM and SEM tracks . . . Steak Night, experimental pizza toppings, and midnight chicken and fries in the cafeteria . . . no dress code for class . . . never stepping on The Seal . . . getting into dorms first by typing entry codes, then just swiping ID cards . . . getting fined for late-night dorm “noise violations” . . . sophomore Lords and Ladies competition for freshmen during Homecoming . . . board games till dawn in the “Congustana” lobby . . . Winter Carnival Week: Mr. Concord Pageant, MLC vs. Seminary hockey game, Man-Hunt, class/dorm videos . . . lyceums: the “Extreme Team,” “ThinkFast” game show, The Divers . . . watching basketball games in Roo Crew shirts and being entertained by the antics of the male cheerleaders . . . Zumba class in the fitness center . . . President Zarling taking the time to know students and eating with us in the cafeteria . . . Christmas caroling to the neighborhoods on the hill . . . the encouraging and interesting Evangelism Day every January . . . raking on Arbor Day and going swimming in the still-freezing Lake Hanska afterwards . . . playing mud football on the torn-up practice field by the LSC . . . turning off the lights in our Augustana rooms and using a laser pointer to pester underclassman guys over in Concord . . . using the campus instant messaging system during freshman Computer Applications . . . Skyping with friends and classmates studying or serving all over the world . . . gathering to discuss the previous night’s COS . . . 100 Days till Graduation Party at Kegel . . . the class of ’10 never completing EFE I because of a snowstorm . . . the Chapel of the Christ opening in March 2010 . . . playing on the huge dirt piles from the chapel construction . . . intramurals . . . student teaching in both public and parochial schools . . . sharing one textbook among five people . . . helping out with Children’s Theater in spring to get out of classes for the day . . . celebrating when we passed our portfolio presentations . . . the Swine Sizzler at Luther Hollow . . .

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The Synod’s New Chapel 124 T Some So would say the Chapel of the Christ was 125 years in coming. Dedicated April 11, 2010, during the administration of President Mark Zarling, this chapel is the first dedicated worship space on campus. But it is not the college’s chapel. It belongs to the whole synod.

“In a very real sense, Martin Luther College belongs to every member of WELS. And since MLC belongs to all of us, so does this chapel,” said WELS President Mark Schroeder. “WELS members generously provided the funding for its construction. More important, here the same gospel that unites us as a spiritual family will be proclaimed. Here the young people who will someday serve us with the Word will be strengthened and equipped in their own faith by that Word. Here, as students sing God’s praises, the hearts and voices of all WELS people will echo that praise to a gracious God. We rejoice and thank God for MLC’s new house of worship— for our new chapel.”

WELS members built this chapel with their prayers, their encouragement, and their donations—just as their forebears built Old Main, Summit Hall, and the Aula.

2009 Chapel of the Christ under construction

2010 Chapel sanctuary

Those who have visited the chapel have seen the beautiful fruits of their gifts. They’ve touched the handcrafted furnishings—altar, baptismal font, ambo—that powerfully point worshipers to the gospel in Word and sacrament. They’ve sensed the reverent ambience created by the architecture and artwork. They’ve heard the 57-rank Schantz organ, which leads congregational music with depth and resonance, just as the Memorial Organ did for the chapel-auditorium from 1971 to the present.

But most important, they’ve worshiped the Christ Jesus in this chapel, worshiped him just as students and members of this church body have for 125 years, and just as they will for many years to come.

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2010 56-rank Schantz organ

2010 The Martin Luther College Choir sang Brahms’ German Requiem in the new chapel in April 2010.

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2000s From the Heart of the Prairie to 125 F the Hearts of the World

Though the name of this institution has changed, though some of the programs have been altered since 1884, the underlying purpose has remained constant: to prepare people to serve the ministerial needs of the church. For 125 years, here the gospel has been held tightly and shared generously—from the heart of the prairie to the hearts of the world.

“It’s a blessing our synod has this ‘little’ college tucked away on a hill in the middle of Minnesota,” said a graduate and faculty member of MLC. “I pray the Lord continues to bless those that both teach and learn here.

Whether my children and grandchildren enter the public ministry or not, I hope they will know the blessings of MLC—what it has meant to our synod . . . what it meant to my grandparents and parents . . . and what it means to this generation today.”

2009 Old Main

1885 Student body on steps of Old Main

2008 Graduates ready to take the gospel to the world

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