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The origins of the Verein can be traced back to the time when the Evil One was vanquished and peace was restored to Middle Earth. Gimli, the Zwerg, left a relatively unknown stipulation in his will, something which has been carried out to this day, namely that one member from each generation following him should devote their life to travel and intercultural exchange, especially to the dissemination of Zwergkunde, in order to prevent (every little bit helps) another Great War through understanding and compassion. Well, since that time, there have been many more wars, unfortunately; yet the line of Gimli assures us that they have sent an intrepid messenger out into the world every generation since the passing of Gimli. They tried their best, but Evil is a tough cookie to crack. The comforts of the modern era led to one significant portion of the Zwergs to abandon their Spartan life in the Mountain of *________ for a more comfortable life in certain parts of Europe, one of the garden variety. They have now become so comfortable and, dare we say, stuck in their new way of life that they have completely abandoned their axes for trowels, and very few of them bother nowadays to leave their plots at all. However, one adventurous Zwerg supposedly did just that in the mid 1990's, and the movie Die Fabelhafte Welt der Amelie was loosely based on this Zwerg's adventures. As decreed by the Council of Alterzwergs in the Mountain of *________, the duty stemming from Gimli's last will and testament fell upon a group of Gimli's descendents, Bavarian Gartenzwergs, in Autumn 1998. As the Gartenzwergs are a pretty sedentary lot, stuck in their soil and up to their ears in compost, it took some time, a few years in fact, for them to organize themselves and begin deliberations. In a humble, if not humiliating, nod to the modern times, the Bavarian Gartenzwergs, already somewhat preoccupied by the IKEA attack, acknowledged that none of them were fit enough to undertake travel and intercultural exchange on their own, as so many Zwergs had done before them. The Gartenzwergs submitted an official plea to the German Fulbright-Kommission for assistance, as the Fulbright program around the world has come to embody many of the same principles which have guided Gimli's line for so many years. Also, the Fulbright-Kommission happened to already have a delegation of respected scholars in Regensburg at the time of Concession, available to help with the deliberations. During these initial Fulbright-Gartenzwerg meetings, a cute little Zwerg named Gimlein caught the eye of Anna, a Fulbright representative from the Sopranos. She pursued Gimlein until he himself was ready to give up his garden ways and give his life over to the noble ideas of intercultural exchange, scholarship, education, and eventual peace and understanding. It is unclear, and forever may be an unfinished footnote in the annals of Zwergkunde, as to the exact reason for Anna's "seduction" of Gimlein. Whether it was budding romance, as it so seemed when they made their social debut at the Tuesday night pizza special, or simply because Anna saw something in Gimlein, perhaps the sparkle of Wanderlust in his eye, we shall never know. We do know that Anna and Gimlein quite unexpectedly parted ways on the same day that the Fellowship of Fulbright broke up. Nevertheless, we also know that Anna identified the right Gartenzwerg for the job. As this website hopes to display, the Fulbright-Gartenzwerg Verein is actively pursuing its idealistic goals through its full-fledged support of Gimlein the Gartenzwerg, expert in Zwergkunde and trusted companion of a growing number of Fulbright scholars. (* name withheld for security reasons) Let the adventure begin!
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