The easiest way to meet new people around Philadelphia is to show up at the same place, with the same faces, again and again. The Filadelfia (128) offers exactly that: German-speaking men meeting on Thursday evenings at the Pennburg in Warminster, with guests welcome free of charge and no performance required.
Why it is harder than it sounds
Greater Philadelphia is full of people, and yet many newcomers find that their social life stops at the office door. A job brings you to Center City or King of Prussia, you buy a house in Bucks County, and three years later your friends are still the ones you left behind. Retirement poses the same problem from the other end: the colleagues are gone, the calendar is suddenly blank, and a round of golf on Saturdays is pleasant but rarely leads to anything more.
What a regular evening does for you
Friendship is less a matter of one great conversation than of many ordinary ones. A Sippung, as Schlaraffen call their meeting, comes around on the same weekday at the same address, so nobody has to organize anything. By your third visit people know your name; by the sixth, someone notices when you are missing. The program gives everyone something to talk about: one member reads a poem, another sings, a third gives a short talk on a local curiosity. One evening, for instance, is devoted to the Wanamaker Organ in its Philadelphia department store and the bronze eagle that stands before it.
German company with deep local roots
German has been spoken in this region since Germantown was founded in 1683, and the Filadelfia has been part of that story since 1895. Its members kept meeting in German even during the First World War; a Junker was knighted in June 1916. Today the chapter welcomes anyone who speaks German or would like to brush it up, whether born in Bavaria or in Bucks County. Nobody expects you to perform. As a guest, or Pilger in Schlaraffen terms, you are free to sit back, listen and laugh along.
A good evening to start
A friendly first evening is one on which members bring their favorite contributions, so you hear the best the chapter has to offer in a single night. To understand the idea behind it all, read the English introduction Schlaraffia in a nutshell. Then choose a date from the events page and register as a guest.
Take the first step
Come along as a guest – free, without obligation and with no strings attached.
