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Virginia Degen,…

Virginia Degen, 90, Holstein, Iowa – Kurzportrait / biographical sketch (for iBook, Best of Two Worlds): From Princess of Pigs to World Ambassador / Weltbürgerin aus dem Schweinestall

From left to right: Len Degen, Yogi Reppmann, and Virginia, 1983, Hamburg Airport. 42 farmers from Holstein, Iowa, had just arrived under the leadership of Virginia. We welcomed the ladies with red roses, and the men with a native brew, Flensburg Beer. Dee Eicke and Yogi Reppmann, graduate students at the time, traveled with their American friends on the tracks of their ancestors in Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein.

It’s difficult to imagine the tiny, delicate woman with the curly white hair and smiling eyes amidst a bunch of squealing and grunting pigs. But for decades, Virginia Degen was the mistress of more than two thousand pigs on the thriving hog farm she and her husband Leonard founded.

Photo: From left to right: Len Degen, Yogi Reppmann, and Virginia, 1983, Hamburg Airport. 42 farmers from Holstein, Iowa, had just arrived under the leadership of Virginia. We welcomed the ladies with red roses, and the men with a native brew, Flensburg Beer. Dee Eicke and Yogi Reppmann, graduate students at the time, traveled with their American friends on the tracks of their ancestors in Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Die kleine, zierlich gewachsene Frau mit weißgelocktem Haar und freundlichen Augen kann man sich nur schwerlich inmitten von quietschenden und grunzenden Säuen vorstellen. Und doch war es so. Virginia Degen war jahrzehntelang Herrscherin über mehr als 2000 Schweine. Zusammen mit ihrem Mann Leonard hatte sie den angesehenen Schweinemastbetrieb aufgebaut. Dabei gehörten in erster Linie Küche und Verwaltung zu ihrem Aufgabengebiet; die Arbeit in den Stallungen war dagegen Sache des Mannes.

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The question that confronts us today is the same as in 1931-32: Do our leaders have the capacity to reach beyond their grasp, to challenge us to seek the higher angels of nature, to choose "Be informed! Be informed!" rather than "Be afraid! Be afraid!" In the end, however, we know that world peace is too important to be left in the hands of our leaders. Peace starts in our own back yards when we speak our for understanding when their is disharmony, food security where there is hunger, health care where there is disease, education where there is illiteracy, conservation where there is environmental harm, sustainable development where there is poverty ... and when we write letters across border to build goodwill and better friendships. - William Tubbs (2019)

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