2WSP0000HD DVD Extra The Freethinkers Transcript
 
[shouting and gunfire]

- Narrator: Many of the immigrants arriving in Sauk Prairie were refugees from a failed revolution, in what is now Germany.

- Michael Whaley: We generally categorize this group of people as ‘48ers-- people who came over because of the revolutions in Central Europe in the late 1840s.

- Narrator: Eduard Schroeter led a movement to reject the authority of the church, and give individuals the freedom to develop their own religious thoughts.

- Whaley: He had been pastor of a church for five years in what is now Central Germany. He had been expelled from Germany-- officially expelled. He was declared an alien and sent away.

- Narrator: Schroeter helped to establish a Freie Gemeinde, or free-thinking congregation in Sauk City.

- Whaley: He was kind of the eminence among Freethought leaders. This guy could have gone anywhere in the United States, so why did he stay here? He met a 23-year-old member of the group, Elise Cunradi Graepel; her husband had died young. They got married in the spring. He took over the leadership of the congregation in June. So, I like to think it was love. It was just love. And the congregation grew quite rapidly. It was founded by 89 German-speaking people, signed the foundation papers.- Narrator: For 35 years, Schroeter led the Freethinkers, who welcomed residents of all faiths to Park Hall, the scene of countless lectures, concerts, and celebrations.

- Whaley: They really built it as a community space. They put in a stage which has been the scene of many theatrics. The hall itself can seat easily 150 people. It's in a two-acre park. It was the first park that was platted in Sauk City, when the congregation bought it. They wanted it to serve their community. But I think the reason they flourished here and succeeded as much as they did-- I mean we're the only Freie Gemeinde left in the United States there were once 75-- is because it was a small community, and these were neighbors, and you had to get along. It was the frontier. It wasn't easy for anybody. You had to get along.