The Sanford Museum recently held Sanford’s German Heritage, a historical storytelling event to remind people of the town’s connection to Germany from breweries to past residents, including town founder Henry Sanford.
Henry S. Sanford studied law abroad in 1848 at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, or what was then called the German Confederation. Sanford Museum Curator Brigitte Stephenson said Sanford attended the University during the Revolutions of 1848 and often complained about the protests for liberal reform.
“We know his tutor when he was at university, Dr. Levita, would eventually help him with the Florida Land Colonization company, which help make the town,” said Stephenson. “That being said Sanford admired more French culture, and he once complained to his friend to the effect of ‘Germans just drink beer and talk philosophy.’”
One of Sanford’s most prominent German former residents is Joseph Zapf. In 1895, Zapf owned a bottling plant where he bottled Anheuser-Busch beer.
Other prominent German, Sanford residents from the past include Charles Demont, Severin Rapp and Victor Schmaltz.
Demont owned a bakery on Sanford Avenue that later caught fire and burned down the town in 1886. Schmaltz was credited for making the first theme park in Central Florida, with the Woodland Park in what was then called Lake Monroe.
Rapp identified and collected lichen, a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria found in nature. Harvard and other universities identify Rapp as the collector of lichen samples in their collection.
“I think sadly there isn’t much of a continuous chain of German culture, since many of our Germans left Sanford for various reasons, such as the Great Freeze, the issue of if Sanford should be ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ (Mainly early German Sanfordites had saloons), other various economic hardships that hit the town,” said Stephenson. “The ones who did stay tended to assimilate with the various southern families in the area. We don’t really see a resurgence of that culture until Hollerbach’s set up in Sanford.”
Hollerbach’s is a German restaurant in downtown Sanford that serves authentic German food and drink.
“While we don’t have many references to our early German culture, other than the Ghost stories of the I-4 Dead Zone in connection to the mainly German St. Joseph’s colony, we do have a vibrant German culture here mainly due to the Hollerbachs who moved here and built a mini Germany here in Sanford catering to many German immigrants, or German descendants in Central Florida,” said Stephenson.
People can go to the Sanford Museum YouTube page or visit the museum in person if they wish to learn more about Sanford’s German heritage.
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