A German club near Philadelphia? Friendship, humour, art & culture.

If you are looking for a German club in or near Philadelphia, a place where German language, culture, good humour and real friendship come together, you have found one with a long history. Schlaraffia Filadelfia was founded in 1895 and is one of the oldest Schlaraffia chapters in North America. Today our club room, the Pennburg, is at the Vereinigung Erzgebirge in Warminster, Bucks County, and we welcome members and guests from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Warminster, Bucks County, Montgomery County, Doylestown and Greater Philadelphia / the Delaware Valley.

German has been at home in Pennsylvania since 1683

A German-language circle in Pennsylvania is nothing exotic. In 1683 German Quaker and Mennonite families, the first of whom had come by way of Krefeld, founded Germantown under the lawyer and poet Franz Daniel Pastorius. Five years later, four of them wrote the first condemnation of slavery in America. Out of the same immigration grew the community known today as the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Schlaraffia Filadelfia stands on that ground, but it is not a heritage society. It is a German-language cultural society whose one purpose is good company itself: friendship, art and laughter for their own sake. More on the background: German Philadelphia.

From Spring Garden Street to Warminster

For around four decades, until 2000, the chapter’s club room was in the house of the German Society of Pennsylvania at 611 Spring Garden Street. Founded in 1764, it is the oldest German cultural organisation in the United States, and people there still speak of the “Schlaraffenzimmer”.

Since 2000 our Pennburg has been at the Vereinigung Erzgebirge, 130 Davisville Road in Warminster, a club founded in 1931 by immigrants from the Ore Mountains. Events also take us back into the city, for example to the Cannstatter Volksfest-Verein, which has cultivated German heritage since 1873.

Friendship, humour and art

What holds a circle like ours together is not a programme but a feeling. The evenings belong to art (music, poetry and wit) and to humour that is never at anyone’s expense. Profession, rank and income stay at the door; here the person counts.

Our evenings are held in German, the common language of Schlaraffia worldwide. School German or simply a love of the language is enough to start.

Friendship when life gets quieter

Retirement, the loss of a spouse or of old friends, or years of caregiving can leave a silence that is hard to fill. Schlaraffia is not therapy and not a support group, it is simply good company: an evening of art, humour and warmth among men who are glad you came and notice when you are missing. A guest visit is the gentlest first step.

Frequently asked questions