Culture with Schlaraffia in Washington, D.C. is homemade. At the Potomacburg on Wisconsin Avenue the members of the Washingtonia (197) bring their own verses, short talks, songs, tunes, parodies and impromptu replies, all in German, while guests sit back and listen. Laughter is the reward, and it is handed out generously.
Every motto is a dare
Each Sippung, as Schlaraffen call their evening, comes with a motto that works like a dare. One Schlaraffiade turns all members into art critics who must make a convincing case for a non-work of art. At the Jahresaustrieb, the last evening of the year, the assignment is wild tales of one's own, true or false, and nobody checks which. Before Christmas the Uhubaumfest asks for a fairy tale or the most peaceful memory of one's childhood, while a spring evening demands a confession in three parts: my first fainting fit, my second kiss and the third time I feared for my life. Any such piece of one's own making is called a Fechsung, and a good one is quoted for years, which is more than most speeches on Capitol Hill can claim.
Songs, strings and a missing glass of wine
An October evening took its title from a Viennese song that praises wine, women and song, struck out the wine and found that a surprising amount was left: the melody, the good humor and plenty of verse. A spring evening in honor of Elvis Presley came with a simple house rule: whoever does not speak, dances. The house itself has a musical pedigree. The Concord Club, on whose first floor the Potomacburg is found, is linked with the Washington Sängerbund, founded in 1851 out of the choir of the Concordia Church. In 1865 its singers formed the honor guard in song at President Lincoln's coffin.
Rivalry with a wink
In 1973 the Potomacburg hosted a feud between two visiting chapters, the Bostonia and the Totowa. In Schlaraffia a feud is a duel of wit and craftsmanship, and it ends in reconciliation, never in resentment. Even the prehistory of the Washingtonia has a soundtrack. When sixty Schlaraffen crossed the Atlantic in 1911, with the White House and the Library of Congress on their itinerary, a knight of the Nova Yorkia met their steamer in New York harbor aboard a motorboat called Lulu Praga and greeted the travelers with a tune on his brass instrument.
Small art in a city of grand collections
Washington holds culture on a national scale: the Smithsonian museums along the Mall, the Library of Congress, galleries that would take a lifetime to walk through. They collect and preserve; the Washingtonia, more modestly, creates. Since 1914 the Reych has cultivated the German language, humor and the arts in the capital, and many contributions are written for a single night, so each Sippung is an original that exists exactly once.
Your part is listening
Guests are not expected to contribute; an attentive ear is the most welcome gift. The mottos of the coming months appear in the calendar of the Washingtonia, and practical matters about a first visit are covered under frequently asked questions. The English network pages explain what Schlaraffia is and how Schlaraffen spend their evenings.
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