non-GLO in Chicago in the twenties?
 

Hi there I have a question to Chicago-greeks interested in history - maybe someone can help me with this.
I recently heard that there must have been a European style non-greek letter fraternity in Chicago in the twenties, wearing their colors as ribbons over their shoulder and having a fraternity hat in fraternity colors. Does anybody, by chance, has heard about something similar?
Best, Matthewg
http://www.kdstv-bodensee.de

Hi Matthew,
Guess what...I got a tour of a fraternity house in Heidelberg. I can't remember the name, but I remember seeing the duelling swords, etc. Es war toll!

My mother's family is from Latvia. My grandfather was in a Latvian Fraternity called "Ventonia" and my great-aunt was in a Latvian Sorority called "Dzintra". There are others as well, but I don't know the fraternity or sorority names.

Sorry, I hit "return" too soon. In my grandfather's Ventonia photos, I remember seeing photos of members wearing their colors as ribbons over their shoulder and having a fraternity hat in fraternity colors.
There is definitely a Latvian population in New York, don't know about Chicago. It would seem logical to me that other Baltic communities like Lithuania and Estonia may have similar type of groups, that were resurrected by those peoples when they arrived in America.

Me again! I forgot to mention that they sometimes call these groups "Student Corporations".
I found this page for you: http://www.lu.lv/e_strukt/citas/spk.html
which is "The Convent Of Students' Sororities of Latvia"

and this is the homepage for Ventonia: http://www.venta.vzd.org.lv/~diks/ventonia/fb.htm
(sorry, it is all in Latvian, which I don't speak)
here is a homepage for "Fraternitas Lettica" http://www.tech.swh.lv/~au/fratlett/

Homepage for "Fraternitas Metropolitana": http://come.to/metropolitana/

and a general webpage of student groups of which I found many of the above links! http://www.latnet.lv/WWWsites/societ...ons_groups.htm

I hope that this was interesting for you.

Hi CutiePie2000,
thanks for the info.

I found out some more about specific fraternities in Chicago that might be interesting for the historically interested community
There seem to have been at least three fraternities of this kind in Chicago:

1. "STEUBENSIA", a german fencing fraternity (Burschenschaft) ; founded 26.08.1926; colors white-red-gold; black hat
2. "FRAT. LIVONICA RIGA"; founded after 1945; colors blue-purple-gold
3. "TALAVIJA RIGA"; after. 1945; white-green-gold


By the way - nice that you have got an impression of Heidelberg fraternities - they have marvellous houses. Mine, however is non-fencing/duelling

Matt, www.kdstv-bodensee.de

One more thing,

there is a huge listing of fraternities and other student organizations all over Europe and the world at: http://www.studiant.org

Unfortunately there are only a few American fraternities and their chapters listed - maybe some of you guys submit your Chapter homepages.

[This message has been edited by matthewg (edited November 08, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by matthewg (edited November 08, 2000).]

Hi CutiePie2000,
thanks for the info.
My pleasure. Happy to help.

I found out some more about specific fraternities in Chicago that might be interesting for the historically interested community. There seem to have been at least three fraternities of this kind in Chicago:

1. "STEUBENSIA", a german fencing fraternity (Burschenschaft) ; founded 26.08.1926; colors white-red-gold; black hat
2. "FRAT. LIVONICA RIGA"; founded after 1945; colors blue-purple-gold
3. "TALAVIJA RIGA"; after. 1945; white-green-gold
"FRAT. LIVONICA RIGA" & "TALAVIJA RIGA" are definitely Latvian, as Riga is the capital city of Latvia.

the way - nice that you have got an impression of Heidelberg fraternities - they have marvellous houses. Mine, however is non-fencing/duelling
Thanks for pointing out that URL. I went there and found the house that I visited in Heidelberg...it was "Burschenschaft Vineta".

CutiePie,
what brought you to Heidelberg, how did you get in touch with that fraternity and when were you there?
If you like we can continue this on e-mail.
Best,
Matt

I just wrote to you on email!! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif