Kleindeutschland: the Lower East Side’s Forgotten Past

A Lecture by Peter Conolly Smith

Few New York neighborhoods have been home to as many immigrant groups as the Lower East Side. Focusing on the German community, this talk will walk you through one of the earliest and largest of these groups’ local histories. From beerhalls to anarchist clubs, from newspaper offices to ethnic theaters, and from the headquarters of singing groups to political meeting halls, this lecture explores the rich past of German New York, from its nineteenth-century height to its post world War I-decline and eventual disappearance. Peter Conolly-Smith teaches American history and culture at CUNY-Queens College and is the author of Translating America: An Ethnic Press Visualizes American Popular Culture, 1895-1918.