Harmoniefest features faculty research

Thrall's Opera House will be the site of this year's Harmoniefest, New Harmony's annual community gathering in the tradition of the original Harmonie Society, at 6:30 p.m. Friday, February 7.

Harmoniefest commemorates when new members were welcomed into the Harmonie Society, a 19th century group of religious separatists from Germany who established the Southwest Indiana town of New Harmony in 1814. 

This year, two professors from the University of Southern Indiana will talk about their research into the Harmonie Society.

Dr. Silvia Rode, chair of the World Languages and Cultures Department and a board member of the Center for Communal Studies at USI, will introduce her book project on George Rapp's treatise Thoughts on the Destiny of Man (1824).

Dr. Bartell Berg, assistant professor of German, will discuss his work translating a literary/religious/communal text written and published by the Harmonie Society. The text, Fiery Coals, has never been translated and, even more interesting, has been attributed to Gertrude Rapp, George Rapp's granddaughter. Berg will discuss the text and the implications of it being written by a woman in an early 1800s communal society.

All are welcome to learn more about the Harmonists who founded New Harmony 200 years ago.

For more information, call Historic New Harmony at 800-231-2168

Harmoniefest is sponsored by Historic New Harmony, a unified program of the University of Southern Indiana and Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, and Harmonie Associates.