Zuber named Oktoberfest parade grand marshal

AMANA — Carol Zuber, of East Amana, will be the parade marshal for the Oktoberfest parade Saturday, Oct. 5.

This year’s parade theme, Famous Frau, celebrates the women who have helped build the Amana community.

Zuber’s deep love for Amana has led her to work for the retention of German traditions in Amana, according to the Sept. 12 Amana Society Bulletin.

As a child, Zuber was part of the first Oktoberfest stage shows and later performed solo and choral pieces with adults, the Bulletin said.

Zuber was a founding member of Die Tiefen Keller Kinder, Amana’s German show band, which performed at the Smithsonian’s German American Heritage Celebration in Washington, D.D. in 1976.

Since 1978 the band has performed at Amana festivals. Zuber, who plays the clarinet, has been a regular member of the band for decades, the Bulletin said.

In the 1980s, Zuber was instrumental in keeping the Amana Oktoberfest singers on stage and finding music and dances from German sources for the Oktoberfest stage show.

In 1992 she formed the Amana Oktoberfest Children, a performance group that featured Amana children in German dress performing favorite folk songsand dances, the Bulletin said.

Zuber taught the songs and helped the children learn the German words.

In 1991 Zuber, her sister-in-law, Melissa Schuerer, and friends Mary Burgher and Linda Setzer, organized the first Amana Church Cookie Walk at Prelude to Christmas.

A fundraiser for the Amana Church Sunday school and summer Bible school program, the cookie walk is in its 33rd year.

Zuber was a founding member of the Amana Preservation Foundation and assisted in the creation of the Amana Landmark Study, the Bulletin said.

In 1985 Zuber edited and produced the original Amana Preservation Foundation Cookbook, Guten Appetit, the first ever collection of Amana contemporary recipes capturing Amana’s transition from a communal to a modern society.