The Germania Musical Society (1848–1854) was an orchestra that performed in the United States in the mid-19th century. Its musicians emigrated from Germany after a successful tour of England.H. Earle Johnson. "The Germania Musical Society." Musical Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan. 1953) Carl Lenschow and Carl Bergmann served as directors."The Old Germania Orchestra." Scribner's Monthly, Nov. 1875 The group toured throughout the country. Concerts took place in the MelodeonDwight's Journal of Music, June 5, 1852 and the Music Hall, Boston;Dwight's Journal of Music, Nov. 27, 1852"Farewell concert." Dwight's Journal of Music, April 2, 1853 Brinley Hall and City Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts;American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1 Astor Opera House, New York City;Newman pg. 40 Metropolitan Hall, New York City; Ocean Hall, Newport, Rhode Island; Westminster Hall, Providence; and elsewhere.
The group met with particular success in Boston, where they performed Mendelssohn's "Overture" to A Midsummer Night's Dream 39 times at 22 concerts, and spent the summer in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1852 they settled in Boston and remained for three years before disbanding. They performed regularly in the oratorio performances of the Handel and Haydn Society, which gave Boston's first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Germania Orchestra under the baton of the Germania's conductor Carl Bergmann on April 2, 1853. A reviewer in the Journal of Music wrote: "It was the unanimous feeling that the 'Germanians' covered themselves with glory upon the occasion."H. Earle Johnson, Hallelujah, amen!: The Story of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston (Boston: Bruce Humphries, 1965), 66-7, 73-4, 75
By one account:
Band members, who had become U.S. citizens, settled in Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Syracuse and Chicago.
References
Further reading
Nancy Newman, Good Music for a Free People: The Germania Musical Society in Nineteenth-Century America, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2010