Germania Hall is a historic community hall in Germania Township, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1917 as a practice and performing space for a community band.

Venue: Germania Hall
Town: Germania Township, US

Germania Hall is a historic community hall in Germania Township, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1917 as a practice and performing space for a community band. Later it served as a general event venue for its rural township. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 for having local significance in the themes of performing arts and social history. It was nominated for being a rare surviving example of a community band hall, and for its long service as the township's social and political center. Germania Hall is a simple one-story, wood-frame building with a gable roof. Its footprint measures 28 by 50 feet (8.5 by 15 m). It stands on a poured concrete foundation and has shiplap siding. The main entry is a single door centered on the western façade. The interior is a single room with a stage at the eastern end raised about three feet (0.9 m) above the hardwood floor. Around 1915, 20 area residents formed a brass band. This was a common hobby in the United States from the mid-19th century through about 1920. The instruments were easy to learn and demand for performances was high, as virtually any public gathering from fairs to grand opening ceremonies to funerals was considered incomplete without a brass band. The majority of the members of the newly formed Germania Cornet Band lived and worked on farms within three miles of each other. They were mostly young, American-born sons of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants who had come to the United States in the 1880s. However the oldest band member, 43-year-old Gustaf Peterson, had himself left Sweden in 1892 and settled in Germania Township in 1903. Several band members were siblings, and at least two were just 13 years old. As founding member Carl Peterson later recalled, "none of us had ever played an instrument-we didn't even know how to read notes, but we thought it would be fun to have a band." The group hired "Professor" George Mundy of nearby Eagle Bend, Minnesota, to be thei