The Arion Steiners, Inc. of Syracuse, NY
The Stein Club’s first meeting—a gathering of twenty-one men in Bob Gang’s basement on Mertens Avenue in Syracuse on April 6, 1961—ended with the installation of the following officers: Bob Gang, President; Bernie Ritter, Vice President; Charlie Ansbach, Secretary; Jack Gang, Treasurer; and Harry Schaack, German Secretary. The original charter members were Willy Bechteler, Arthur Clarke, George Demmel, Ernest Groves, J. Edward Hill, Hans Kuttner, Everett Kempf, Albert Koerbs, Hans Prell, Klaus Raith, Arthur Spath, Werner Spingler, Eugene Tritt, and Richard Walser. (Rudy Schmid, Sr., and Robert Kraus, Sr., declined because of their age.)
On the 13th Anniversary of the Arion Stein Club, April 10, 1974, Bernie Ritter wrote:
“The idea of a Stein Club was originated in the early part of 1961 at a United German Society meeting being held at the Turner Hall, where Ed Hill and Bernie Ritter (then President of the Arion Singing Society) noted that the Turners had their own Stein Club. Gen Hill remarked that it would be nice if the Arion had one, too. The Society was just getting back on its feet after a long recession, and we were finally putting a little money in the bank. But Bernie’s personal fortune was not so good at the time and he was not gainfully employed. Ergo, he was spending quite a bit of his time at the Gang Memorial Chapel shooting the breeze with Jack Gang.
While discussing the fortunes of the Arion Singing Society and how to better its lot financially, the idea of a Stein Club struck Jack as a way to help the Mother Club, and he proposed that every member would have his own stein with his name on it, and whenever the Stein Club members appeared in public, they would always wear Trachten, thereby promoting German culture and the Club itself.
At a July meeting at Bob Gang’s camp on Otisco Lake it was decided to hold an Oktoberfest in the fall. Bernie Ritter would try to arrange the use of Hillcrest in Fayetteville for the event, and we ordered six dozen clay steins to sell. Willy Bechteler would take care of the music, P.A. system, and coordinate a group of people for the parade. Bernie Ritter invited the Bavarian Verein Alpengrün Schuhplattlers from Rochester to entertain. Emma Ritter would make Sauerbraten. We were to build a stage for the opening after the parade, and planned to set our club president—as Bürgermeister of München—on a barrel of beer and if his pants stuck it meant the beer was ready to drink! We obtained insurance and paid a premium against negligence and casualty. Our president, Bob Gang, said we were nuts, and that we would go bankrupt. He was nearly proved right.
The great day came—October 1, 1961—and the weather was beautiful. The parade went off without a hitch. Our president’s pants DID stick to the barrel! We sold out of beer and food. Everyone worked hard—especially the women. The Rochester Schuhplattlers somehow managed to break the toe of a young woman accompanying Bernie Ritter. She was out of work for a month, but was a good scout and didn’t sue us, which was quite advantageous seeing as how Bernie hadn’t paid the insurance premium anyway, considering it to be much too expensive. We had to tear down and move everything back to Syracuse during the night, when four folding tables borrowed from the Arion Club were stolen, and which we had to replace. After all was said and done, we managed to clear $100.
Nonetheless, because of the great publicity put out by Ed Hill, we’d had quite a good crowd, and were well on our way to making Oktoberfest a popular annual event.
Thirty years later, at our annual meeting in April 1992, the aging membership decided that it was time to dissolve the Arion Stein Club, which also meant the end of the “Original Oktoberfest.” Nevertheless, its reputation and success over the years encouraged the Arion Club to take over and carry on a now well established tradition. Nowadays Oktoberfest is sponsored by the German-American Society of Central New York.
The bonding and camaraderie of the former Stein Club is carried on in the form of an informal social group calling itself The Steiners and Steinettes, with Eric Gang, President; Ria Breu, Secretary; Herbert Marte, Treasurer; Karl von Knoblauch, Publicity Person; and Margaret Gang, Honorary President.
Old habits and good friends have a way of finding each other at a casual luncheon get-together every second Tuesday of the month.