Washington Journal., 1942-01-09
To My Fatherland
KOnrad Krez's Song of an Exile,
Translated by Frederick Franklin
Schydder

ranges,
No blade Of grass that grew within
your oranges,
And coldly you rejected my affection
Because in youth 1 did not understand
How selfshly to please you by deception,
And yet 1 love you, dearest Fatherland.
Where is the heart in which there does
not linger
The echo of a love-song and the singerf
Yet holier than any passion, or the fire
That love Of woman in my bosom
famed -
| More ardent than the love of maid and
squire,
My love for you, BELOVED Fatherland.
Reluctant heaven did bestow her bounties
In not too generous mede upon your
counties,
But tits enough. In all my worldwide
cruising
I viewed fair palms by many a tropic
strand,
But all despite, my heart would still be
choosing
The apple tree Of my dear FatherIand.
Land of my fathersI Mine, alas, no
longer.
Ny love, by absence only grown the
stronger,
To you my fondest memories still are
loyal,
And though no other ties formed a
uniting band,
The very dead would bind me to the soil
That screened them from the light,
my Fatherland.
Oh, could your stay-at-homes but ponder
The love your exiles bear you as they
wander,
Soon would your empire spread its
fedgling p%iniOns,
And all your children would go hand
in hand
To make you queen Of all the earth g
dominions,
AS you re the best Of homes, my Father.
land.
OF the many poems by German
Americans since the earliest immi-
grafton, Konrad Krez's IAN Mein
Vaterland", is generally conceded
to be the best. In its author our
country gained an ardent patriot,
who had imbibed his spirit Of indie
pendence and soldierly virtue from
the cradle up.
His father served and died in
Greece as a volunteer officer in the
support of the Bavarian Prince
Otto's call to the HELENE throne
about the time that Konrad was
born. The poet was born in Lam
dau on the Rhine on April ~,
1928. After graduation from the
high school of Speyer and the
University of Heidelberg, where he
studied law, Krez joined the free
corps of the -Bavarian Baron Won
der Tam, in the instruction of the
people of Schleswig-H olstein a.
gainst Denmark in the Spring of
l848. A born military adventurer,
Krez soon afterward joined in the
instruction that convulsed Baden
and the Palatinate in 1848-4o until
it was suppressed by Prussian inter
vention.
Krez was condemned to death in
1850 for high treason but succeeded
in making his escape. A placard
announcing his death sentence was
posted in Landau, but some friends
of Krez nevertheless paid a last
tribute to their townsnian by
wreathing the placard with laurels
under cover of the night.
Krez's Flight to America
The condemned rebel fed to
Switzerland and France, whence he
embarked for New York in the
winter of 1850. Here he found
friends in the home of a family
from the Palatinate named Stemm-
Ter. The father was a lawyer. Two
years later Krez married Stemm-
ler's daughter. Then, in 1854, he
and his wife settled in Sheboygan,
Wisconsin, where Krez rapidly
made friends as a practicing lawyer
and in a short time filed various
political positions.
A year after the outbreak of our
Civil War, Krez organized the 9th
Wisconsin volunteer regiment and
was commissioned its colonel at the
hands of the governor. He served
with his regiment under Kilnball in
the siege of Vicksburg, participated
in the Arkansas campaign under
Steele and commanded the 3rd
brigade of the 3rd division of the
18th Army Corps under Candy in
the Mobile campaign.
Lincoln Made Him q General
Col. Krez distinguished himself
by bravery in these bloody engage
ments, SO President Lincoln APP
pointed him Brigadier General.
With that rank he was ordered to
Texas, where he remained until the
end of the war and was mustered
out of the service.
Resuming his law practice in
| Chohoxxoon K~a~ toll ~ r1<s..a