Robert E. Hanke

Hanke also participated in the amateur singing society Einklang, one of the more prestigious of the several German émigré singing societies that sprung up in American cities in the second half of the 19th century.  These amateur singing groups were common cultural institutions for recent immigrants, especially German ones. The singing societies offered music and also a social environment in which the members could speak their native tongue, consume traditional food and drink, and converse about matters of interest to their community. They helped to ease the transition into mainstream American life by providing a comfortable space in which to hold on to selected parts of their European past. Swedish immigrants had their own singing society in Providence, called Verdandi, and there also existed a much larger but shorter-lived group, unaffiliated with any single ethnicity, which was called the People’s Choral Association. This group emphasized music education more that socialization, though the mainly working-class participants undoubtedly thought of it as a social activity. Church choral groups continued to be popular throughout this period too, and there were groups of Civil War veterans who sang in groups such as the First Light Infantry Glee Club. Altogether these various groups offered Providence residents many opportunities for singing together.

​

The Einklang Society succeeded the Providence Liederkranz, started in 1857 and formally organized in 1861. Meeting at first at the home of Dr. William Gottschalk, and led by Jacob Brug, the Liederkranz was the premiere choral group in the area and received high marks for artistic achievement. In the later 1860s, the Leiderkranz organized a sangerfest in Providence, bringing other prominent German-American singing groups to the city for a several days of concerts. Prizes were offered in a contest held at Harrington’s Opera House (the venue at which Charles Dickens and Mark Twain both lectured, in 1868 and 1870, respectively, and since 1878 the site of Providence City Hall), where 1000 voices sang  together in a “grand chorus.” The Liederkranz struggled financially, especially after the expensive sangerfest, and it dissolved before 1890.

Some Liederkranz members continued to sing in the Einklang Society, which was founded on October 7, 1890 as the United German Club, but renamed three months later. Organized and led by Gustav Saacke, the club’s charter members also included Hanke and eleven other young German-American men. By its tenth anniversary, the club had 32 members and rehearsed once a week at Germania Hall, 155 Niagara Street in the Elmwood neighborhood of Providence. Following the anti-German hysteria of World War I, and also a demographic shift in Elmwood, in 1921 Germania Hall became Temple Beth Israel, and was home to that congregation until it was converted to a community center operated by the city in the early 1980s.