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Dr. Joachim "Yogi" Reppmann was born in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, in 1957. He attended the Altes Gymnasium and matriculated at the University of Kiel, where he studied history, American literature, and philosophy. In 1978 and fueled by his fascination with America from reading wild west fiction novels he traveled to the United States to learn everything he could about our country. In 1984, he completed his masters thesis entitled Transplanted Ideas: The Concept of Freedom and Democracy of the Schleswig-Holstein Forty-Eighters — Origins and Effects 1846-1856. He has written several books on notable Schleswig-Holstein emigrants and the mass migration to the United States; served as a professor of German at St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges in Northfield, Minnesota; and chaired several conferences on topics ranging from the Low German language to Forty-Eighter Hans Reimer Claussen. The Steuben Society of America’s History Award, 2014, has been presented to him for his research on the 1848 movement’s democratic impact in Germany, and the USA. A brief outline of the "Peace Pipe Proposal" continues by clicking Read More.
A brief outline of the Peace Pipe Proposal. The year is 1931. The results of the global economic crisis have an impact everywhere. Nationalism and ideologies that violate human dignity are on the rise. In the midst of this, the Rotary Club of Keokuk, Iowa sends out 496 letters in late December. On the model of the peace pipe ritual practiced by Indian tribes for dealing with conflict, the Rotarians of this small city on the Mississippi extend their hand to their Rotarian friends around the world.
The year is 2019. In view of its bonds across the Atlantic, this same Rotary Club repeats the gesture, sending out letters specifically to the German Rotarians who responded to its mailing of eighty-eight years before. The Iowa club feels that this is its duty. After all, the city of Keokuk is named after the Indian chief who chose not to take up the battle axe during times of conflict. The peace pipe letters of 1931-32 and 2019 symbolize international friendship and understanding.