HARMONY - The borough's roots are forever linked to the Germany thanks to George Rapp and his followers who trekked from Iptingen more than 200 years ago to the tiny borough to establish his communal group.

Those ties have been chronicled in a series of newspaper articles aimed at showcasing Harmony's roots and history and giving those in Rapp's former home region in Germany a better understanding of the Harmony Society.

Harmony borough has been featured in a series of articles in the Pforzheimer Zeitung. The latest was published on

Jan. 15

on what the borough will do for the 200th anniversary of the official charter of the Harmonist Society. Though the group was established a year earlier, it wasn't actually written down until a year later on Feb. 15, 1805, said John Ruch, president of Historic Harmony.

Ruch was interviewed extensively in most of the stories printed in the German daily newspaper.

The paper's reporter, Thomas Frei, comes to the United States once a year to write stories.

Pforzheim is about 15 miles west of Iptingen, the hometown of Harmony Society founder George Rapp. Pforzheimer is the largest city in the Black Forest region with more than 100,000 people.

It began as a fortified Roman camp, but became an important commercial center during the Middle Ages. It was rebuilt after the Allies bombed it and killed 17,000 people during World War II.

The city is known for clocks and jewelry.

The Pforzheimer Zeitung, the city's daily newspaper, has a circulation of 50,000.

The newspaper's reporter came to Harmony in August 2004 to gather information about topics with German roots. He came to research the borough's bicentennial and its connections to Iptingen and other towns near Pforzheim.

He also visited Old Economy Village in Ambridge, Beaver County.

"We didn't know he was coming; he (Frei) just showed up," said Ruch. "He toured the Harmony Museum and other buildings of historic interest."

Ruch said the stories tried to link Harmony's history to the history of several towns including Iptingen.

Ruch, who has visited Iptingen several times, said although he found George Rapp wasn't unknown in his hometown, the younger generation didn't seen to embrace their past history.

"My impression was that most people didn't know about their history 200 or 330 years ago," said Ruch. "It wasn't like they were unknown. But, when these people left (for the U.S.), it wasn't like they were missed. They were probably happy to get rid of the troublemakers."

The first articles appeared Aug. 28 and featured the overview history of Harmony and George Rapp's historic encounter with President Thomas Jefferson. A second series of articles on Sept. 25 also featured the historic beginnings of the Harmony Society.

On Nov. 20, the story centered around the Harmonist Cemetery, while a Dec. 4 story featured Christmas celebrations in Harmony, including the Weinachten Platz.

Ruch said George Rapp and the society would have felt like they were at home in Harmony as Iptingen has similar land features and contours as the borough.

"It's kind of in a bowl, like Harmony, with a small stream running next to the town," he said.

Harmony borough council president Jeff Smith, who was interviewed for one of the articles, said he hopes the series could lead to a better contact with the communities Harmony is historically linked to in Germany.

"Developing a 'sister city' relationship with Iptingen/Wiernsheim would be a terrific idea for a number of reasons. Such an association would provide residents of the Harmony area with a new perspective on the people who founded our town, and those of the Iptingen area with a greater understanding of the Western Pennsylvania community with which they are linked historically through the Wurttembergers who came here," said Smith.

"Culturally, residents of both areas would benefit from interaction made possible by a more organized, close relationship. And economically, both areas might experience enhanced tourism from greater interest generated by the greater attention a relationship would stimulate for residents of our region to visit Baden-Wurttemberg and for those of Baden-Wurttemberg to come to the Pittsburgh region."