Phoenix Club Rises Anew : Anaheim German-American Group Moving to Virtual Castle

The cars parked outside the Phoenix Club in Anaheim one recent evening were the first sign of the true feelings of Orange County’s German-American association and its 6,000-plus members.

Naturally, there was a fleet of stoic Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs. But there were just as many--if not more--American-made Cadillacs.

Inside the club, women in evening gowns and men in tuxedos--some of them sporting the Bundesverdienstkreuz, a medal for distinguished civil service to Germany--sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” first, followed by Germany’s national anthem.

“Most of the people are German people in their heritage and they are German people in their heart, but they are really Americanized,” said Phoenix Club president Paul Gunnemann, a Mission Viejo plumbing contractor and native of Drensteifurt near Munster.

This week, the 32-year-old Phoenix Club is being reborn with the grand opening of a new $8.1-million clubhouse--a virtual castle of fun--replacing its old home that was demolished to make way for the Anaheim arena.

The club’s reopening comes at a time when the Old Country is at a crossroads. Besides the expense of merging with former Communist East Germany, the new Germany is wrestling with a record number of immigrants seeking asylum and a surge in right-wing violence.

Germany’s problems, however, seem far away at the Phoenix Club where food and oom-pah-pah bands are used to to create a cultural refuge where generations come together to celebrate and experience a language, culture and tradition.

Every year, the club has fall celebrations including Oktoberfest and this month’s Fasching carnival. In December, a taste of Germany’s famous Christmas markets are brought to Anaheim. Nearly everything except the club’s membership meetings and an occasional dinner are open to the public.

The Loreley restaurant--serving Wiener schnitzel, sauerbraten and the like--was named after a Rhine river legend: History has it that a beautiful siren would sit atop a steep rock in the Rhine and lured ships to their destruction.

Besides the Loreley and a beer hall, Phoenix members participate in more than 20 different activities including soccer teams, ballet classes, air-rifle teams and a soaring group, which uses the club’s three glider planes.

Back in Germany, clubs usually are limited to a particular sport or hobby.

“Here everything is in one big club,” said Egon Kummetz, who emigrated from Bonn in 1984. “Throughout all of the years, the Phoenix Club has always strived for the ideal of preserving German heritage, German culture, German art and foremost, the German language,” Gunnemann said.

Since 40% of Phoenix members don’t speak German, language classes are made available to them.

“The only thing conducted in German is our membership meetings. We do speak English there if a member who does not speak German asks a question,” said Gunnemann, adding with a smile that “he absolutely will get an answer in English, as well.”

Though it was originally formed by 15 immigrant German families, the Phoenix Club emphasizes that everyone is welcome. In fact, only 35% to 40% of its members are German immigrants. The rest are either of German descent or are just interested in the country’s culture and way of life, such as American GIs once stationed in West Germany.

Tight U.S. immigration laws have severely reduced the number of Germans who today can come to Orange County. Still, the Phoenix Club has managed to replenish itself with children and grandchildren of its original members.

Tim Glastetter, 29, is typical of the new generation. His parents emigrated from Germany in 1957 and joined the Phoenix Club shortly thereafter. Glastetter began keeping score for the bowling club at age 7 and was sent to German school every Saturday morning.

“It was like a regular school. Instead of Dick and Jane books we had Ina and Udo,” Glastetter recalled.

The Orange electrician wants to be able to pass on German traditions to his children someday.

“Once these people die away, it’s up to us who have the interest to keep it going,” Glastetter said.

Anaheim City Councilman William D. Ehrle agrees.

“Every time I go there, it is kind of a rebirth of my heritage,” said Ehrle, whose grandparents emigrated from Heilbraum.

During the club’s Oktoberfest, one couldn’t help but notice the 5- and 6-year-old children performing Bavarian dances.

“Some of them have never seen Germany and are now performing in our dance group,” said Lisa Sarabyn, the Phoenix Club’s vice president.

Sarabyn fell in love with an American GI and agreed to come live in the United States in 1953.

“I married an American. I’m one of those,” she said, laughing. “I never regretted that I left Germany. I still like my country, but I like the States just as well.”

Though the Phoenix Club’s focus is social, it has hosted some of Germany’s leading political figures including the German ambassador and the mayor of Berlin at the time of the Wall’s demise.

Just last month, members sat silently as former Ministerpresident Lothar Spath of Baden-Wurttemberg--the German equivalent of a state--talked about the difficulties facing the new Germany.

To atone for the damage done by Adolf Hitler, Germany’s constitution includes one of the most liberal and generous refugee policies in the world. But with extremely high unemployment in the former East Germany, some Germans find it hard to accept a system that immediately provides food, shelter and, in some cases, pocket money for immigrants from all over the world.

These benefits continue until each immigrant wins the right to permanent resident status or is expelled, a process that can take years.

Germany’s right-wing radicals have begun to take the law into their own hands, beating up foreigners and burning down their hostels, reminding the world of Nazi atrocities during the 1930s and 1940s.

Gunnemann said the increasingly violent attacks are disgraceful.

“For us here, as German-Americans, this is hard to grapple with,” Gunnemann said. But “I do believe this thing will settle down too. They are all so tense over there right now spending so much money in the East,” on the rebuilding of the former communist nation.

Gerhard Gaertner, a Phoenix Club co-founder raised in Hildesheim near Hanover, said that he is saddened by the right-wing violence but that U.S. media often ignore similar episodes in other European countries.

“You don’t read in the paper that Germany sends a lot of food and clothing to Somalia. They only mention the skinheads or neo-Nazis. . . . Every country has these roughnecks,” said Gaertner, 65, a retired Orange meat company owner. “If you feel good about Germany or praise the country and its people, they call you right away a Nazi. That’s wrong. I think everybody should be proud of his country.”

Starting Thursday night and continuing through Saturday, Phoenix Club members are showing their pride in Germany and breaking in their new building in Anaheim at 1340 S. Sanderson Ave. with several parties.