I'm An American -- Anton Lang

On May 25, 1940, Dr. Anton Lang spoke with Marshall E. Dimock, Second Assistant Secretary of Labor, on the NBC radio broadcast about the power of democracy. The two men discuss America’s resilience and its rating of “the happiest country in the world”. Lang reveals to Dimock, that unlike America, status and opportunities in Europe are fixed. To him and many other migrants, life in America can bring achievement and freedom. Dr. Lang states democracy is like religion because it is an experience. He says naturalized citizens are eager to learn new ways of living, however Americans criticize and question the foreign homeland instead of assisting in their neighbors adjustment. Dr. Lang shares an excerpt from a letter he received from a friend living in Germany in 1940. It reads: “We never knew how much our faith meant to us, until we had to suffer for it”. Dr. Anton Lang was born in Oberammergau, Germany. The Lang family is historically connected to the Oberammergau Passion Play, which was first performed in the 1634. Dr. Lang moved to United States in 1926 to further his education in language. He acquired degrees from universities in Massachusetts, Munich, France, and Germany, and returned to Washington, D.C. in 1932 as a language professor at Georgetown University. He taught German and literature for four decades. Dr. Lang went on to become the Institution’s Chairman of the Modern Languages Department.