36 Years of Promoting and Preserving German

When University of Kansas students arrive for the Summer Language Institute in Holzkirchen, Germany, they are greeted by a band and parade in front of City Hall. In northern Germany, when KU study abroad students reach Hamburg, they are escorted by a fire brigade for the hour and a half journey to the small town of Eutin.

Andrea Meyertholen, assistant professor of German, credits these towns’ enthusiastic welcomes to the relationships Bill Keel has cultivated over the years. Since 1980, Keel, professor of German, has directed 36 Summer Language Institutes in Holzkirchen and Eutin.

“It’s hard to imagine either program would exist without Bill,” Meyertholen said of the institutes which have become a summer staple for the towns. “He has been instrumental in building programs and keeping connections. He is such a people person. He’s very good at finding opportunities for students and cultivating friendships.”

Keel retired at the end of the fall 2019 semester, leaving a legacy of work that has been equal parts promoting and preserving the German language. Keel was instrumental in fostering the Sister City relationship between the cities of Lawrence and Eutin. He also has spent much of his career traveling throughout Kansas and Missouri to record the fading German dialects spoken in small Midwestern towns settled by German immigrants.

“These are all things that take consistent work and not giving up, and that is where Bill’s involvement has been so crucial,” said Jim Morrison, lecturer and academic program associate at the German department. “The Sister City relationship, Summer Language Institutes, German dialect work, that’s really where his legacy stands. It is amazing what he has been able to achieve and in some ways preserve.”

At an early age, Keel’s interest in the German language was sparked during trips to his grandparents’ farm just outside of Jefferson City, Missouri. On a bookshelf inside their farmhouse were old German school books and the family Bible that were brought over to the United States by his great-great grandfather, a German immigrant from Switzerland. Keel began to learn German from these books. 
“I was looking for my roots,” Keel said.

Summer Language Institute

Keel began his teaching career at KU in 1978 and in 1980 led his first Summer Language Institute. His leadership in these roles has provided transformative study abroad experiences for students who may be unable to afford to study abroad for a full year or semester.

“Without these programs, there are so many students who would miss out on a study abroad experience,” Morrison said.

During her time at KU, Meyertholen has been impressed by the network of alumni that has formed around their Summer Language Institute experience and continues to remain in contact with Keel. 

“These former students want future students to have the same positive experience they did,” Meyertholen said. “We’ve received a lot of donor support to make it financially feasible to study abroad, and that’s a testament to the experience these former students have had.”
Sister City Relationship

During one of his early programs in Eutin, Keel recalls German colleague Helmut Scheewe remarking that the study abroad program was a one way street.

“He said, ‘you bring students over here, but we don’t bring any students to Lawrence,’” Keel recalled. 

The conversation ignited in Keel the idea of establishing a framework for broadening the cultural exchanges between the two cities. Several years later in the mid 1980s, while the city of Lawrence was looking to form a Sister City relationship, a suggestion was made for the city to send a proclamation of gratitude and friendship to mark the 25th anniversary of the Holzkirchen program. Since a proclamation was already being drafted for Holzkirchen, Keel said, a second one was added for Eutin.

“We took the proclamations to both cities. There wasn’t much hoopla in Holzkirchen, but in Eutin they took it seriously,” he said. 

The following year, two high school student ambassadors from Eutin visited Lawrence and the two communities began exploring a partnership in earnest. Keel, along with fellow KU German professors Frank Baron and Helmut Huelsbergen, formed the Friends of Eutin and began working on an application to form a Sister City relationship. In 1989, the Lawrence City Commission and Eutin’s city government approved a formal Sister City agreement. 

The partnership between the two cities has resulted in more than 2,000 exchanges, including participation from more than 500 high school exchange students, five marriages, five-year delegation visits from local dignitaries, internships and the sharing of art and music. 

“It really was and still is very important and Bill is a great part of that on both sides. It’s not just mere words, but deeds that he has put into this,” Morrison said. 

German Dialect Work

While a portion of Keel’s career has focused on promoting relationships between Lawrence and Germany, he has also worked diligently to preserve the German language and its culture in Kansas and the Midwest. Through his research, Keel has become the foremost authority on the German dialects spoken in Kansas and a major contributor to international research on German language speech islands throughout the world. 

Throughout the second half of the 19th century, waves of German-speaking immigrants settled in Kansas, bringing with them different dialects. Today, those dialects can still be heard in older generations of Kansans and Keel’s work has focused on re-cording them before the language disappears. 

With Keel as an advisor, Chris Johnson focused his dissertation in the 1990s on the Volga German dialect in Schoenchen, Kansas and continued to conduct research in Kansas and Missouri for the next 25 years.

On research trips, Johnson watched as Keel interacted with interviewees. He’s a natural in front of an audience, Johnson said, and never hesitates to engage with someone whom he suspects is a German speaker. 

“It’s the way we learned the Volga German term kihbladder, meaning cow pies, in a McDonald’s at the Russell, Kansas exit on I-70,” Johnson said. “He can connect like no other person to make the interviews enjoyable for everyone.” 

Over the years, German-speaking Midwesterners were surprised when Keel wanted to hear what they spoke in the barnyard. But, they were also appreciative of the interest he showed in their personal culture and history. 

“Language is the heart and soul of a culture,” Keel said. “As an endangered language, these German speakers are very aware their culture is fading from the scene as they lose 
the bond. Food, weddings, customs, it’s all interconnected in language.”

The digitized dialect recordings, along with several dissertations and papers, have been published on KU ScholarWorks for use by anyone who is interested in the German dialects of Kansas and Missouri.

Along with his research on dialects, Keel also has spoken throughout Kansas about the region’s German heritage, visiting nearly all of the state’s 105 counties. Keel plans to continue giving lectures through the KU Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, as well as editing the Yearbook of German-American Studies and serving as chair of the Sister Cities Lawrence Governing Board. 

“I’m just glad I was able to be in this type of profession when I was,” Keel said. “It was almost serendipitous. I came along just at the point that the German dialects were dying out, but could still be studied and just as the Sister City relationship was getting started and I was able to be there to help.”

Photo Caption: Bill Keel, front row far left, with study abroad students near Neuschwanstein Castle in Barvia. 

Photo Caption: Keel, far right, with students atop The Bundestag in Berlin.