“Teaching and Learning German at the Beginning and End of the 20th Century”

My first contact with German was at my great-aunt Elsie’s house. Both she and her housemate of many years, Elsie Lautner, were first-generation Americans and spoke German at home as children. They were also both teachers in Traverse City for over thirty years. In their bookshelves were many old books, including books in German. I remember looking at them with a sense of frustrated fascination: fascination because I love nearly anything printed in book form, and frustration because I couldn’t figure out what was written there.