Dad called «roughhousing» the Affentheater (ape theater) of his four sons in their «Sunday best» clothing in the backseat of the better of the family’s two cars on our merry way to our paternal grandparents’ house on Evergreen Road. Inside the Fort Pitt Tunnel, his offspring should have known to look up in anticipation of the light at the end of the tunnel across the Monongahela River: the «Point», the «Golden Triangle», the showpiece of the «Pittsburgh Renaissance». Then we crossed the Manchester Bridge and its replacement, the «Bridge to Nowhere», whose span over the Allegheny River was begun in 1963, finished in 1969. Farther on, there was no time for the Buhl Planetarium, Allegheny General Hospital, Allegheny Observatory and Perry Theater, though Dad, a doctor, could have remarked, if he were not inclined like his father to silence, that he was once a resident at Allegheny General and Grandpa was a carpenter, the hospital, Buhl Planetarium, Allegheny Observatory and Perry Theater might have a family association or be otherwise important and/or beautiful, though beautiful was not in his vocabulary, unless in rare moments he could bring himself to apply the word to my mother in the early, happy years of their marriage. Instead, his musings or teachings would have inclined toward the cruciform virtues of Catholic churches such as St. Bernard in Mt. Lebanon, where we lived south of the city, or St. Boniface, near Evergreen, dedicated in 1926 in a parish founded in 1884 by German Americans, saved in the 1980s from a highway project’s wrecking ball.
Let’s back up the car for a Christmas-season detour to Buhl Planetarium, Ingham & Boyd, constructed in 1938-9 with Indiana limestone, where we could stand in wonder at the model-train exhibition, before searching the parking lot for the indispensable automobile; and glimpse our smallness, while acting big (see «roughhousing»), under the 65-foot-high copper-topped dome in the «Theatre of the Stars»; and allow the 35-foot-tall Foucault Pendulum to hypnotize us, without lasting effect. Concrete Allegheny Center Mall, which opened in 1965, was a missed opportunity for our parents to abandon us to consumerism.
There you have me being «gathered to mine» (zu den Meinigen versammelt werden).
Known as «Val», short for Valentin, Grandpa was born in 1892 in the town of Eichenried near Fulda, a city in the state of Hesse, and died in 1971 in his adopted «Heimat» (homeland). U.S. Army Sergeant Hohman was not deployed «over there» during World War I. For decades Grandpa belonged to the Teutonia Männerchor, a fraternal society located near Evergreen whose 1888 building with steep roof and timber framing is in the National Register of Historic Places. Inside was a Ratskeller. The word Rat must have been funny to us. Rat does not mean rat. It means council/board, councillor and advice. The Hohmans assimilated under the clouds of World War I, World War II, Holocaust and «Communist» East Germany. While Grandma, a Pittsburgh native with German parents, must have known some Deutsch, Dad did not, nor did he encourage its acquisition. The undersigned is unable to see Immergrün in Evergreen. Grandpa did not return to his original Heimat. He is on the left in the family pic, beside his mother, Kunigunde.
With exceptions such as the Candle Keller (cellar), one of Dad’s favorite restaurants, the names of people, businesses and places in my Heimat did not scream German. The cognates didn’t either.
Adler, Bach, Berg, Braun, Daum, Eck, Falter, Feld, Goldberg, Graf, Gross, Hahn, Hammel, Hufnagel, Hug, Jung, Junker, Kaufmann, Klein, Kramer, Krebs, Laufer, Luft, Maier, Nuss, Reich, Schaffer, Schwartz, Schwarzwaelder, Snyder, Stein, Stern, Turner, Weber, Weiss, Zimmerman, Zug.
Eagle, stream, mountain, brown, thumb, corner, butterfly, field, gold mountain, count in (abolished) class system, big, tap or rooster, mutton, horseshoe nail, hug, young, another class title (not a «junker» car), businessman (literally «buying man»), small, hardware-store proprietor, cancer, runner, air, farmer, nut, rich, shepherd, black, Black Forest resident, tailor, stone, star, wood turner or gymnast, weaver, white, carpenter, train.
Most are simple translations of surnames, or their derivations, in my high-school yearbook, according to which I was a member of the german (sic) club. Belonging to the german (sic) club did not turn me into a girl magnet. A magnifying glass won’t find mich in the yearbook photo of the German Club. Were the terms Vergangenheitsbewältigung and Stasi taught? A kid named Eckenrode, I see now, might have ancestors from the same town as ours. Our second «n» was dropped at an unknown date. Because passion for genealogy does not run in my blood, I leave assigning a date and circumstance to a future generation. Unthinkable then, ordinary German expressions can resonate now more than any in English. They are my kind of genetics.
Gehabt Euch wohl.
Wir danken allen, die Greg freundschaftlich und wertschätzend begleitet haben.
And the aforesaid:
Zu den Meinigen versammelt werden.
The men of the Männerchor were not «mein», nor Aunt Rita’s. For years a piano accompanist there, she resigned over «das liebe Geld» (the almighty dollar). She was paid less than a male counterpart.
Nächste Haltestelle (Next Stop)
More landmarks of Hohmann Heimat/s, Mt. Lebanon Historic District and Sewickley area, which relate to my acquisition of the German language under two themes: 1. search for Heimat 2. search is connected with preservation.
Nächste Haltestelle
University College (now NUI) Galway’s German Society, including two of its annual plays: Lernziel Deutsch, a fragment by Ulrich Wünsch, a faculty member, words by Peter Hanke, and Absurda Comica oder Herr Peter Squenz (printed 1657, first performed 1668) by Andreas Gryphius. Plus close readings, or what passed for close readings in a general education setting: Leben des Galilei (1939) by Bertolt Brecht and «Katz und Maus» (1961) by Günter Grass.
Nächste Haltestelle
Hannover, wo das beste Hochdeutsch gesprochen wird, so der Ruf und Stolz. Hanover, where the best High German is spoken, or so go its reputation and pride. Studentenwohnheim Silo, Nachbar: Herrenhäuser Gärten. Regelmässig im Ballhof (Theater). Brechts Die Massnahme an der Uni. Why did aah-ja! (1974) by Wolf Biermann make a lasting impression? See Appendix for a translation-in-progress. Footnote: Penn State graduate program (German), a failure.
Nächste Haltestelle
San Diego I, erster Teil (part one). Gesprächspartner I: gruff dude (name?) in art dept at Union-Tribune, he dated a German, they married. Gesprächspartnerin II: Neighbor Erika, until she must escape from her son. When was my first Theater heute subscription?
Nächste Haltestelle
D’Schwiiz. 1. The in-laws are welcoming, especially Regula’s parents in St. Gallen and brother Martin and his partner Isa in «Glaibasel». 2. Hiltl, fleischlos seit 1898. 3. writers: Burger, Hürlimann, Laederach, Muschg, Widmer, u.a. Regula’s father is kind enough to use his influence to have a short play of mine read by Dramaturgin Frau Dr. Madeleine Herzog at Theater St. Gallen. A polite conversation with her follows. I cannot recall a single word of it, which tells me it was an impersonal letdown.
«Madeleine Herzog war Leiterin der Fachstelle Kultur des Kantons Zürich. Sie studierte Germanistik und Kunstgeschichte in Zürich und Berlin und war als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Deutschen Seminar der Universität Zürich tätig. Nach ihrer Promotion arbeitete sie als Dramaturgin und Chefdramaturgin am Theater St. Gallen sowie als Leiterin der Fachstelle Kultur der Stadt St. Gallen. Die 53-jährige Madeleine Herzog studierte in Zürich und Berlin Germanistik, Kunstgeschichte, Philosophie und Literaturkritik. Sie arbeitete als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin und Dozentin am Deutschen Seminar der Universität Zürich, als Dramaturgin und später als Chefdramaturgin am Theater St. Gallen, bevor sie 2005 die Leitung der Fachstelle Kultur der Stadt St. Gallen übernahm. Sie steht daneben der Arbeitsgruppe Literaturpolitik des nationalen Kulturdialogs vor und engagiert sich als Vorstandsmitglied der Städtekonferenz Kultur. Ausserdem hat sich Madeleine Herzog in verschiedenen Lehrgängen Wissen im Bereich des Kulturmanagements angeeignet. Sie blickt auf eine breite Erfahrung im Bereich der Kulturpolitik und der Kulturförderung zurück. Madeleine Herzog tritt ihr neues Amt am 1. Oktober an. Sie löst Susanna Tanner ab, die die Fachstelle Kultur nach 17 Jahren verlässt.»
Nächste Haltestelle
San Diego, zweiter Teil (part two). Gesprächspartnerin III: Nilmini, an international-energy law professor. Gesprächspartnerin IV: ___, coworker. What led to Jelinek and Schleef?
Nächste Haltestelle
Palm Desert. A €1,000 offer to translate more Schleef for book on European dramaturgy comes to nothing, describe the unprofessional episode without bitterness because it helps to explain reluctance to expend great effort in exchange for prestige and peanuts. Ex-wife chapter of my memoir is in German. Theater heute again. Genealogy started in 1995, finished (?) in 2025, with little-to-no activity in the interval.
Nächste Haltestelle
Warte mal, jetzt laufen wir: Bilderspaziergang. (Wait, let’s walk: Picture Walk.)
A German version of the foregoing is forthcoming.
Signed,
One Hohman|n
Appendix
Translation-in-progress of aah-ja! (1974) by Wolf Biermann. Listen here.
Die Finsterlinge, na grade die!
Reden vom Morgenrot
Vom lichten Morgenrot
Die Generäle, na grade die!
Reden vom Heldentod
Vom schönen Heldentod.
Aah-ja!
The little doomsayers, yeah, exactly them!
Talk about the final dawn
The bright final dawn.
The generals, yeah, exactly them!
Talk about heroic death
Beautiful heroic death.
Aah-yes!
Nach seinem Posten schreit, und wie!
Der kleinste Bürokrat
Gemeinste Bürokrat
Der Sozialismus hat gesiegt
Wenn er den Posten hat
Wenn er die Pfründe hat.
Aah-ja!
Screaming for his job, and how!
The smallest bureaucrat is
The most common bureaucrat.
Socialism has won
When he has his job
When he has his easy job.
Aah-yes!
Die faulsten Schweine, na grade die!
Nennen uns stinkend faul
So richtig stinkend faul
Die Lügner führen, na grade die!
Die Wahrheit stets im Maul
Die Wahrheit frech im Maul
Aah-ja!
The laziest pigs, yeah, exactly them!
Call us stinking lazy
So truly stinking lazy.
The liars, yeah, exactly them!
Always know the truth
Insolently know the truth.
Aah-yes!
Die dicke da sind, na und wie!
Mit Koch, Chauffeur und Haus
Mit Koch, Chauffeur und Haus
Der Kommunismus brach, und wie!
Für die schon herrlich aus
Für die schon gestern aus
Aah-ja!
The fat ones there, yeah and how!
With cook, chauffeur and house
With cook, chauffeur and house
Communism came, and how!
For them sure masterfully
For them yup yesterday
Aah-yes!
Die krummsten Hunde, na grade die!
Fordern Aufrichtigkeit
Von uns Aufrichtigkeit.
Die Mümmelgreise, na grade die!
Predigen neue Zeit
Die große neue Zeit
Aah-ja!
Die Mauer steht, na grade die!
Es konnt nicht anders sein
Konnt wohl nicht anders sein
Doch die Erfinder, na grade die!
Mauern sich selber ein
In Wandlitz doppelt ein.
Aah-ja!
Die Staatsanwälte nennen uns
Staatsfeinde und noch mehr
Staatsfeinde und noch mehr
Für Kommunisten, grad für uns!
Ist da ja eine Ehr′
Im Grunde große Ehr’
Aah-ja!
Die alten Götter, na grade die!
Sie liegen auf dem Schrott
Na endlich auf dem Schrott!
Mit neuen Göttern kommt uns nicht!
Wir brauchen keinen Gott
Auch keinen kleinen Gott
Aah-ja!
Die Bürger-Freiheit, na grade die!
Die ist hier abgeschafft
Na endlich abgeschafft
Die wahre Freiheit, sagen sie!
Die wär dafür in Kraft
Die wäre hier in Kraft
Aah-ja!
rev. August 25, 2026