Hiwwe wie Driwwe

400,000 Americans speak a Palatine dialect? In the documentary film “Hiwwe wie Driwwe” by Benjamin Wagener and Christian Schega, Douglas Madenford, born and raised in Pennsylvania, goes on a search for traces in his homeland and the Palatinate. Doug meets many people and learns what is left of the Palatine language and culture in America and how it has developed “hiwwe wie driwwe”, here in Germany and over in America. About 300 years ago many people from the Palatinate fled from political persecution as well as for economic reasons to the USA and settled mainly in and around Pennsylvania. They also brought their language and culture to the New World. Both have survived to this day in large parts. In America, people still speak their variant of the Palatine dialect: the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch.