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Alt Washingtonia members at the 29th Gaufest in Sandusky, Ohio

Dave Rosenberg and Rudy Poestrl -two of the founding members of SVAW

Alt Washingtonia Schuhplattler Verein

The Original Bavarian Dance Group of Washington, DC

Alt Washingtonia Schuhplattler Verein (SVAW) is a cultural 501C3 organization that celebrates the traditions, music, clothing, and dancing of the Alpine regions of Bavaria and Austria. Touting itself as a "living museum", SVAW has spent decades educating others about a culture, which has roots to so much of what is now the American culture.

​In the 1950's, Dave Rosenberg was a Navy leader in President Eisenhower's People to People program providing cultural instruction to Armed Forces personnel deploying to overseas assignments.  This love for learning about and sharing culture and traditions led Dave into the DC International Folk Dance club and many other cultural organizations.  Here he met Rudy Poelsterl and in 1965, the two were instrumental in the formation of the Gauverband Nordamerika, the North American umbrella organization for all the Schuhplattler groups across the USA and Canada.

Through the DC International Folk Dance club and membership in another Bavarian club, Dave and Rudy met many other families with the same love of keeping cultural traditions alive.   In 1976, the Rosenberg, Poelsterl, and Bruckbauer families, along with Betty Heyman met in the Ratskeller of the Olde Europe restaurant in Washington DC to discuss forming a local club dedicated to Bavarian and Austrian culture.  With the addition of friends the Edler and Hargreaves families, Alt Washingtonia was officially formed, joining the Gauverband Nordamerika in1978 under the sponsorship of S.G. Alpenland of Montreal.

Alt Washingtonia grew rapidly in the 1980's and performed traditional Bavarian and Austrian songs and dances all across the Mid-Atlantic region and was the resident dance group at Max Blob’s Bavarian Biergarten in Jessup, Maryland - home of America’s first Oktoberfest.

Over the years, members of Alt Washingtonia have had the opportunity to perform and educate at such notable events as the White House, the President’s Christmas Pageant of Peace, the Cherry Blossom Parade, the German and Australian Embassies, the Smithsonian Institution Folk Life Festival, the Munich Oktoberfest, festivals across North America and every year for schools, community associations, churches festivals, and fraternal organizations.

Today, over forty years after our founding, we continue to follow our founders' vision of spreading cultural knowledge to enhance understanding between countries, much like a living museum to the traditions of the Alpine region. At every event, we spend time teaching the audience about Bavarian and Austrian history and culture, helping to embody the motto of found Dave Rosenberg to "Never be a cultural coward."