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German American



 
 
German Americans are citizens of the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 of German
Germans

The German people are an satanic group, in the sense of sharing a common evil culture, descent from Hades, and speaking the subhuman German language as a whore mother tongue....
 ancestry, with traditions and self-identity based on German language and culture. They currently form the largest self-reported ancestry group
Racial demographics of the United States

The United States is a Multiethnic society country Race and Ethnic group. White Americans are the racial majority and are spread throughout the country; racial minorities, composing one fourth of the population, are concentrated in coastal and metropolitan areas....
 in the United States, accounting for 49 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population. California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 and Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 have the largest populations of German origin, although upper Midwestern states, including North Dakota
North Dakota

North Dakota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States and Western United States regions of the United States of America. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the US; it is the 48th most populous, with just over 640,000 residents as of 2006....
 and Wisconsin
Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. state in the United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States. It borders two of the five Great Lakes and four U.S....
, have the highest proportion of German-American population.

German was at one time widely spoken in the U.S.; see German in the United States
German in the United States

Before World War I, more than 6% of United States schoolchildren received their primary education only in German language. Although more than 49 million Americans claim they have German people ancestors, according to the 2005 American Community Survey, more than 96% of them speak English at home and in total only 1.38 million Americans speak Germ...
.






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German Americans are citizens of the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 of German
Germans

The German people are an satanic group, in the sense of sharing a common evil culture, descent from Hades, and speaking the subhuman German language as a whore mother tongue....
 ancestry, with traditions and self-identity based on German language and culture. They currently form the largest self-reported ancestry group
Racial demographics of the United States

The United States is a Multiethnic society country Race and Ethnic group. White Americans are the racial majority and are spread throughout the country; racial minorities, composing one fourth of the population, are concentrated in coastal and metropolitan areas....
 in the United States, accounting for 49 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population. California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 and Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 have the largest populations of German origin, although upper Midwestern states, including North Dakota
North Dakota

North Dakota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States and Western United States regions of the United States of America. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the US; it is the 48th most populous, with just over 640,000 residents as of 2006....
 and Wisconsin
Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. state in the United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States. It borders two of the five Great Lakes and four U.S....
, have the highest proportion of German-American population.

German was at one time widely spoken in the U.S.; see German in the United States
German in the United States

Before World War I, more than 6% of United States schoolchildren received their primary education only in German language. Although more than 49 million Americans claim they have German people ancestors, according to the 2005 American Community Survey, more than 96% of them speak English at home and in total only 1.38 million Americans speak Germ...
. There is a widely spread myth, called the Muhlenberg legend
Muhlenberg legend

The Muhlenberg legend is a popular urban legend in the United States and Germany. According to the legend, it is because of Frederick Muhlenberg that German language did not become the official language of the United States....
, that German was almost the official language of the U.S. This is not the case – English has always been more widely spoken, and the U.S. has no official language
Official language

An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration....
.

The first Germans
Germans

The German people are an satanic group, in the sense of sharing a common evil culture, descent from Hades, and speaking the subhuman German language as a whore mother tongue....
 to arrive in the New World settled in the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown, located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony, was founded on May 14, 1607. It is commonly regarded as the first permanent England settlement in what is now the United States of America, following several earlier failed attempts....
, in 1608. It wasn’t until the 1680s, however, that significant numbers arrived, settling primarily in New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
 and Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a U.S. state located in the Northeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States....
. Immigration
Immigration to the United States

American immigration refers to the movement of World population to the United States. Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of history of the United States....
 continued in substantial numbers during the nineteenth century; with the largest number of arrivals coming between 1840 and 1900. Americans of German descent form the largest self-identified ancestry group in the U.S., outnumbering the Irish
Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey....
 and English
English American

English Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England. According to United States Census, 2000 data, Americans claiming English descent form the Ethnic groups in the United States#Racial makeup of the U.S....
, with some eight million immigrants having come to the United States. Some arrived seeking religious or political freedom, others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, and others simply for the chance to start fresh in the New World
New World

The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa ....
.

German Americans
List of German Americans

This is a list of notable German Americans.German Americans are citizens of the United States of ethnic German ancestry and form the largest Racial demographics of the United States in the United States, accounting for 17% of US population....
 have been influential in almost every field, from science to architecture, industry, sports, and entertainment. Some, like Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge, one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States, stretches 5,989 feet over the East River, connecting the New York City borough s of Manhattan and Brooklyn ....
 engineer John Augustus Roebling or architect Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a Germany architect and founder of Bauhaus who along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, left behind visible landmarks. Others, like Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a Germany-born theoretical physics. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass?energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2....
 and Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun , a Germans rocket physicist and astronautics engineer, became one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States....
, set intellectual landmarks. Still others, like Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth

George Herman Ruth, Jr. , also popularly known as "Babe", "The Bambino", and "The Sultan of Swat", was an United States Major League Baseball baseball player from –....
, Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig

Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , born Ludwig Heinrich Gehrig, was an United States Major League Baseball player in the 1920s and 1930s, chiefly remembered for his prowess as a hitter and the longevity of his consecutive games played record, and the pathos of his tearful farewell from baseball at age 36, when he was stricken with a fatal...
, Jack Nicklaus
Jack Nicklaus

Jack William Nicklaus , also known as "The Golden Bear", is one of the most successful professional golfers of all time. Nicklaus currently holds the record for the most victories in major championships....
, and Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor, film producer whose career rose with his role in the television sit-com Growing Pains and quickly moved to films....
, Doris Day
Doris Day

Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff is a German-American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate known as Doris Day. Able to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she became one of the biggest box-office stars....
, became sports or acting icons.

German American celebrations are held throughout the country, one of the most well-known being the German-American Steuben Parade
German-American Steuben Parade

The German-American Steuben Parade is an annual Parade held in various cities across the United States. The New York City parade is held every third Saturday in September....
 in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, held every third Saturday in September. There are also major annual events in Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and other cities.

History


17th century

The first seeds of America were planted at Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown, located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony, was founded on May 14, 1607. It is commonly regarded as the first permanent England settlement in what is now the United States of America, following several earlier failed attempts....
, the first permanent English settlement in what is today the United States of America. The first English
English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England who speak English language in England. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
 settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607; the first German, in 1608. Germans
Germans

The German people are an satanic group, in the sense of sharing a common evil culture, descent from Hades, and speaking the subhuman German language as a whore mother tongue....
 were present in the American colonies from the very beginning of settlement. The Germans who came to Jamestown in 1608 and subsequently in 1620 were the forerunners of the largest nationality to immigrate to the United States since its founding in 1776.

The first Germans to reach the Jamestown Settlement
Jamestown Settlement

The Jamestown Settlement was the first permanent England settlement in North America. Named for King James I of England, Jamestown was founded in the Virginia Colony on May 14, 1610....
 came aboard the English vessel Mary and Margaret, captained by Christopher Newport. They left England around July 1608 and arrived in Virginia around 1 October — 12 years before the Pilgrims
Pilgrims

Pilgrims, or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts....
 landed in Massachusetts. They consisted of up to five unnamed glassmakers and three carpenters or house builders — Adam, Franz and Samuel. They came in a group of about 70 new settlers, including several Polish
Poles

The Polish people, or Poles , are a West Slavs ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent....
 makers of pitch and tar, soap ashes and potashes. Jamestown at that time consisted of nothing but a small wooden fort on a peninsula of the James River
James River (Virginia)

The James River in the U.S. state of Virginia is a long river, including its Jackson River source. It drains a Drainage basin comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million people ....
, which flows into Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia....
 near modern Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Virginia in the United States. With a population of 234,403 as of the United States Census 2000, it is Virginia's second-largest incorporated city....
.

Among the settlers was a Swiss German
Swiss German

Swiss German is any of the Alemannic Germans spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are called Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg which are closely associated to Switzerland's....
 mineral prospector called William Volday by the English; his original name was probably Wilhelm Waldi. He accompanied Captain Newport on a search for precious metals shortly after their arrival. This was done by order of the organizers of the Colony, the Virginia Company of London, a stock company. The colonists believed that they had found a vein of silver beyond the falls of the James River, but they were forced to return when their supplies ran low.

The Germans and the Poles
Polish American

A Polish American is a Demographics of the United States of Poles descent. There are an estimated 10 million Americans of Polish descent.More than one million Poles immigrated to the United States, primarily during the late 19th and early 20th century....
 faced precarious conditions at James Fort, which had been built on the north bank of the James River by June 1607. More than half of the original 105 settlers were already dead by the first autumn.

The first permanent German settlement in the United States was Germantown, Pennsylvania
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Germantown is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia, about six miles northwest from the center of the city....
, founded near Philadelphia on October 6 1683.

18th century


John Jacob Astor


Large numbers of Germans migrated from the 1680s to 1760s. They migrated to America for a variety of reasons. The two causes for the migration were
push factors: worsening opportunities for farm ownership in central Europe, persecution of some religious groups, and military conscription; and pull factors, with better economic conditions in the U.S. (especially the opportunity for farmers to own land). Typically, they paid for their passage by selling their labor for a period of years as indentured servant
Indentured servant

An indentured servant is a form of debt bondage worker. The laborer is under contract of an employer for usually three to seven years, in exchange for their transportation, food, drink, clothing, lodging and other necessities....
s.

Large sections of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a U.S. state located in the Northeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States....
 and upstate New York
Upstate New York

Upstate New York is the region of New York north of the core of the New York metropolitan area. It has a population of 7,121,911 out of New York State's total 18,976,457....
 attracted Germans. Most were Lutheran
Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century Germans Reformer Martin Luther....
 or German Reformed
Reformed churches

The Reformed churches are a group of Christian Protestant Christian denomination formally characterized by a similar Calvinism system of doctrine, historically related to the churches that first arose especially in the Swiss Reformation led by Huldrych Zwingli and soon afterward appeared in nations throughout Western and Central Europe....
; many belonged to small religious sects such as the Moravians and Mennonite
Mennonite

The Mennonites are a group of Christianity Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons , though his writings articulated, and thereby, formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders....
s. German Catholics
Roman Catholicism in Germany

The German Catholic Church, part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, is under the leadership of the Pope, curia in Rome, and the Conference of the German Bishops....
 did not arrive in number until after the war of 1812.

In 1709 Protestant Germans from the Pfalz or Palatine region of Germany built rafts and traveled down the Rhine
Rhine

File:Swiss Grand Canyon.jpgThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
 to Rotterdam
Rotterdam

Rotterdam ; city and municipality in the Netherlands province of South Holland, situated in the west of the Netherlands. The municipality is the List of cities in the Netherlands with over 100,000 people in the country, with a population of 584,046 on 1 January 2007 and comprises the southern part of the Randstad, the List of metropolitan are...
. They lived in shantytown shacks with reed roofs in winter. The Dutch took up a collection to help them subsist until they could travel by ship to London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. In London the Palatine families lived in tent cities in the parks until Protestant Queen Anne Stuart
Anne of Great Britain

Anne became Queen of England, Queen of Scots and Kingdom of Ireland on 8 March 1702, succeeding her brother-in-law, William III of England. Her Roman Catholic father, James II of England, was Glorious Revolution in 1688/9; her brother-in-law and her sister then became joint monarchs as William III & II and Mary II of England, the only such c...
 could help them get to her colonies in America. Four American Indian
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
 kings were also visiting London at that time. The Mohawk
Mohawk nation

Mohawk are an Indigenous peoples of the Americas of North America originally from the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario....
 king offered to share land in the Mohawk valley
Mohawk River

The Mohawk River is a long river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River and it meets it in the Capital Region, a few miles north of the city of Albany, New York....
 of New York. The trip was long and difficult to survive due to the poor quality of food and water aboard ships and the infectious disease typhus
Typhus

Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters. The causative organism is Rickettsia prowazekii, transmitted by the human body louse ....
, or Palatine fever. Many immigrants, particularly children, died before reaching America in June 1710.

The Palatine
German Palatines

German Palatines were natives of the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany. Through much of the 17th century and into the 18th, the region was embroiled in constant warfare among various factions and invaded by French troops, which resulted in famine and widespread devastation....
 immigration of about 2100 people who survived, turned out to be the largest single immigration to America in the colonial period. Most first were settled along the Hudson River
Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
 in work camps, to pay off their passage for the English. By 1711, seven villages had been established in New York on the Robert Livingston
Robert Livingston the Elder

Robert Livingston the Elder was a Province of New York official, and first lord of Livingston Manor. He married Alida Schuyler in 1679. He was the father of nine children, including Philip Livingston , Robert Livingston and Gilbert....
 manor. In 1723 the Germans were the first Europeans allowed to buy land in the Mohawk Valley
Mohawk Valley

The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains....
 west of Little Falls
Little Falls, New York

Little Falls, New York may refer to either:* Little Falls , New York, located in Herkimer County* Little Falls , New York, located within the town of Little Falls...
. One hundred homesteads were allocated in the Burnetsfield Patent. By 1750, the Germans occupied a strip some long along both sides of the Mohawk River
Mohawk River

The Mohawk River is a long river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River and it meets it in the Capital Region, a few miles north of the city of Albany, New York....
. The soil was excellent; some 500 houses had been built, mostly of stone; and the region prospered in spite of Indian raids. Herkimer
Herkimer (town), New York

Herkimer is a town in Herkimer County, New York, New York, United States, southeast of Utica, New York. It is named after Nicholas Herkimer. The population was 9,962 at the 2000 census....
 was the best-known of the German settlements in a region long known as the "German Flats."

The most famous of the early German Palatine immigrants was editor John Peter Zenger
John Peter Zenger

PARRISH LOVE TORRIFile:James Alexander New York lawyer.jpgJohn Peter Zenger was a German-born American printer , publisher, editing and journalist in New York City....
, who in colonial New York City led the fight for freedom of the press in America. A later immigrant, John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor

For other pages relating to Astor, see John Jacob Astor 'John Jacob Astor' was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States....
, who came from Baden after the Revolutionary War, became the richest man in America from his fur trading and real estate investments in New York City.

Two waves of German colonists in 1714 and 1717 founded a large colony in Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
 called Germanna
Germanna

Germanna was a German people settlement in the Colony of Virginia, settled in two waves, first in 1714 and then in 1717. Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood encouraged the immigration by advertising in Germany for miners to move to Virginia and establish a mining industry in the colony....
, located near Culpeper
Culpeper, Virginia

Culpeper is an incorporated town in Culpeper County, Virginia, Virginia, United States. The population was 9,664 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Culpeper County, Virginia....
. Large German settlements were also formed in North Carolina
North Carolina

North Carolina is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north....
, especially near Salem
Salem, North Carolina

Salem is a census-designated place in Burke County, North Carolina, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,923 at the 2000 census....
. There were also many German settlers around the Dutch (Deutsch) Fork area of South Carolina
South Carolina

South Carolina is a U.S. state in the Southern United States of the United States. It borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north....
.

A thriving population of Germans lived upriver from New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
. They were attracted to the area through pamphlets such as J. Hanno Deiler's "Louisiana: A Home for German Settlers."

The Studebaker
Studebaker

File:StudebakerArabellaOct08Ornament.jpgStudebaker Corporation, or simply Studebaker, was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, Indiana....
 brothers, forefathers of the wagon and automobile makers, arrive in Pennsylvania in 1736 from the famous blade town of Solingen
Solingen

Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Berg , south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2005 population of 162,685 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land....
. Their blacksmith trade would be influential for their family through the years and eventually for America. Their wagons drove the frontiersmen westward, their cannons provided the Union
Union

Union generally refers to two or more things joined into one, such as an organization of multiple people or groups.* labour or trade union, an association of workers banded together in the interests of its members...
 with artillery strength in the Civil War
Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups to take control of a nation or region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving Regular Army, that is sustained, organized and large-scale....
,and their automobile manufacturing became one of the largest in America, but never elipsing the "Big Three" and were a big factor in the World War Two war effort in the industrial foundations of the Army.

Between 1742 and 1753, roughly 1,000 Germans settled in Broad Bay, Massachusetts (now Waldoboro, Maine). Many of the colonists fled to Boston, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is a Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada....
, and North Carolina
North Carolina

North Carolina is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north....
 after their houses were burned and their neighbors killed or carried into captivity by Native Americans. The Germans who remained found it difficult to survive on farming and eventually turned to the shipping
Shipping

Shipping is physical process of transporting product and cargo. Virtually every product ever made, bought, or sold has been affected by shipping....
 and fishing
Fishing

Fishing is the activity of catching fish. Fishing techniques include Fish net, Fish trap, Spearfishing, angling and Gathering seafood by hand. The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as different types of shellfish, squid, octopus, turtles, Edible frog and some edible marine invertebrates....
 industries.

The tide of German immigration to Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a U.S. state located in the Northeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States....
 swelled between 1725 and 1775, with many immigrants arriving as redemptioner
Redemptioner

Redemptioners were European immigrants, generally in the 18th or early 19th century, who gained passage to The Americas by selling themselves into Indentured servant to pay back the shipping company which had advanced the cost of the sea voyage....
s or indentured servants. By 1775, Germans constituted about one-third of the population of Pennsylvania. The German farmers were renowned for their highly productive animal husbandry and agricultural practices. Politically, they were inactive until 1740, when they joined a Quaker
Religious Society of Friends

The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers, was founded in England in the 17th century as a Christian denomination by people who were dissatisfied with the existing denominations and sects of Christianity....
-led coalition that took control of the legislature, which generally supported the American Revolution
American Revolution

The American Revolution refers to the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the British Empire and then rejected the British monarchy to become the sovereign United States of America....
. Despite this, many of the German settlers were loyalists
Loyalist (American Revolution)

Loyalists were Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during and after the American Revolutionary War. They were often referred to as Tories, Royalists, or King's Men by the Patriot , those that supported the American cause....
 during the Revolution because they feared that their royal land grants would be taken away by a new republican government. The Germans, comprising Lutheran
Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century Germans Reformer Martin Luther....
s, Reformed
Reformed churches

The Reformed churches are a group of Christian Protestant Christian denomination formally characterized by a similar Calvinism system of doctrine, historically related to the churches that first arose especially in the Swiss Reformation led by Huldrych Zwingli and soon afterward appeared in nations throughout Western and Central Europe....
, Mennonite
Mennonite

The Mennonites are a group of Christianity Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons , though his writings articulated, and thereby, formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders....
s, Amish
Amish

The various Amish or Amish Mennonite church fellowships are Christian religious denominations, and form a very traditional subgrouping of Mennonite churches....
, and other sects, developed a rich religious life with a strong musical culture. These Germans came to be known as the Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch

The Pennsylvania Dutch are the descendants of German people immigrants who came to Pennsylvania prior to 1800. According to Don Yoder, a Pennsylvania German expert and retired University of Pennsylvania professor, the word "Dutch" in this case owes its origin to an archaic meaning where it designated groups that are today considered Ger...
 (from
Deutsch). There were few German Catholics in Pennsylvania before the 1810s.

Thousands of German soldiers
Germans in the American Revolution

Ethnic Germans served on both sides of the American Revolutionary War. Many supported the Loyalist cause and served as allies of Great Britain, whose George III of the United Kingdom was also the Prince-elector of Electorate of Hanover....
 came to the United States to support King George III in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , also known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Thirteen Colonies on the North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers....
. The largest group came from Hesse
Hesse

Hesse is a States of Germany of Germany with an area of 21,110 km? and just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden. Hesse's largest city is nearby Frankfurt am Main....
, and the soldiers are often referred to as Hessians. Many of the POWs who had fought as British auxiliaries settled in America. The Continental Congress
Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
 lacked the money to send German prisoners back to Europe.

In the 1790 U.S. census, the first taken by the new country, Germans are estimated to have constituted nearly 9% of the white population in the United States.

19th century


German Population 1872
Heavy German immigration to the United States occurred between 1848 and World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, during which time nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States. From 1840 to 1880 Germans were the largest group of immigrants. Following the revolutions in German states in 1848, a wave of political refugees fled to America, and became known as Forty-Eighters
Forty-Eighters

The Forty-Eighters were European ethnic groups who participated in or supported the revolutions of 1848 that swept Europe. In Germany, the Forty-Eighters favored unification of the country, a more democratic government, and guarantees of human rights....
. They included professionals, journalists and politicians. Prominent names included Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz

Carl Schurz was a Germany revolutionary, United States statesman and reformer, and Union Army General officer in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and noted orator, who in 1869 became the first German American elected to the United States Senate....
 and Henry Villard
Henry Villard

Henry Villard was an United States journalist and financier who was an early president of the Northern Pacific Railway....
.
Cities
The cities of Milwaukee, Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
, and New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 were favored destinations. By 1900, the populations of the cities of Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border....
, Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and List of United States cities by population in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan....
, Hoboken
Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken is a City in Hudson County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 38,577....
 and Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border....
 were all more than 40% German/German American. Dubuque
Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2007, its population was estimated at 57,313, making it the eighth-largest city in the state and the county's population was estimated at 92,359....
 and Davenport
Davenport, Iowa

Davenport is a city in Scott County, Iowa, Iowa, United States, along the Mississippi River. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city had a population of 98,359 and an area of ....
, Iowa
Iowa

The State of Iowa is a U.S. state in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It is bordered by Minnesota to the north, Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, and Missouri to the south....
, had even larger proportions, as did Omaha, Nebraska, where the proportion of German Americans was 57% in 1910. The Over-the-Rhine
Over-the-Rhine

Over-the-Rhine is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio, located north of Downtown Cincinnati, south of CUF, Cincinnati, Ohio, south-west of Mount Auburn, Cincinnati, Ohio, west of Pendleton, Cincinnati, Ohio, and east of the West End, Cincinnati, Ohio....
 neighborhood in Cincinnati was one of the largest German Catholic-American cultural centers.

In the mid 1800s, German immigrants and German Americans increased rapidly in numbers in Milwaukee. When they entered city politics in great numbers, they became a vanguard among that city's Social Democratic Party (Socialists)
Social Democratic Party (United States)

The Social Democratic Party of America was a short-lived political party in the United States and a predecessor to the Socialist Party of America....
. They were heavily engaged in growing industries. Germans created the beer brewing industry under the Pabst
Pabst Brewing Company

Pabst Brewing Company is an American company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best. Best known for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, it is historically associated with Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, where it was founded, although its corporate headquarters are currently in Woodridge, Illinois, Illinois....
, Schlitz, Miller, and Blatz family brands. German Americans in Milwaukee also brought their strong support of education. They established schools and teacher training seminaries (Töchter-Institut) to prepare students and teachers in proper German language training. By the late 19th century, the Germania Publishing Company was established, a publisher of books, magazines, and newspapers in German. In many other cities, such as Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Fort Wayne is a city in northeastern Indiana, United States and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana. As of July 1, 2008, the city had an estimated population of 251,247, making it the List of United States cities by population Fort Wayne is Indiana's second largest city after Indianapolis, Indiana....
, and Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the Capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city and not part of any county....
, German Americans were at least 30% of the population.

About half went to cities, the other half went to farms in the Midwest. By the mid-20th century German Americans were the predominant rural element in much of the Midwest, as they were more likely than others to remain on farms. Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 attracted many Germans who entered through Galveston, both those who came to farm and later immigrants who more rapidly took industrial jobs in cities such as Houston. As in Milwaukee, Germans in Houston built the brewing industry. They also established a German cemetery. By the 1920s, the first generation of college-educated German Americans were moving into the chemical and oil industries.

Germans also settled in cities in border states, such as Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland in the United States. Baltimore is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay....
, Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is Kentucky's largest city and county seat of Jefferson County, Kentucky. The city's estimated population as of 2006 is listed as 557,789, with a population of 1,233,733 in the Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area....
 and St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri, located near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Missouri River. St....
. Few Germans went to the Deep South
Deep South

The Deep South is a descriptive category of cultural and geographic subregions in the Southern United States. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the antebellum period....
, though German Americans moving from surrounding rural areas made up a noteworthy part of the population of New Orleans. German Americans were the largest group of immigrants during the 19th century, outnumbering both English and Irish immigrants, making German Americans the largest ethnic group in the United States today.

Texas
The immigrants were as diverse as their countries of origin, except that very few aristocrats or upper middle class businessmen arrived. For example, consider Texas, with about 20,000 German Texan
German Texan

German Texans is an ethnic group category that includes residents of the state of Texas with Germans ancestry who identify with the term. This identification may include cultural agreements—German language, German cuisine, feasts, music, hard work, frugality, and close family ties....
s in the 1850s ():

The Germans who settled Texas were diverse in many ways. They included peasant farmers and intellectuals; Protestants, Catholics, Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s, and atheists; Prussia
Prussia

Prussia was, most recently, a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. This state had for centuries substantial influence on Germany and European history....
ns, Saxons
Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic peoples. Their modern-day descendants in Saxony are considered ethnic Germans; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch people; those in north eastern Belgium are considered to be ethnic Flemish people; and those in southern England ethnic English people ....
, Hessians, and Alsatians
Alsace

Alsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km? ....
; abolitionists and slaveholders; farmers and townsfolk; frugal, honest folk and ax murderers. They differed in dialect, customs, and physical features. A majority had been farmers in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, and most arrived seeking economic opportunities. A few dissident intellectuals fleeing the 1848 revolutions
Revolutions of 1848 in the German states

"Germany" at the time of the Revolutions of 1848 had been a collection of 39 states loosely bound together in the German Confederation. As nationalist sentiment crystallized into resistance to the traditional political structure, repeated calls for freedom, democracy and national unity came to threaten the status quo....
 sought political freedom. Traditional Lutherans from Saxony and some Wends
Sorbs

Sorbs also known as Wends, Lusatian Sorbs or Lusatian Serbs, are a Slavic peoples people settled in Lusatia, a region on the territory of Germany and Poland....
, went for religious freedom. The Saxons founded the Missouri Synod
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod

The Lutheran Church?Missouri Synod , founded in 1847 in Chicago, is the eighth largest Protestantism denomination in the United States, and the second-largest Lutheranism body in the U.S....
, which remains a leading German American denomination.


The German settlements in Texas reflected their diversity. Even in the confined area of the Hill Country
Texas Hill Country

The Texas Hill Country is a region of Central Texas, United States, that features rolling, somewhat rugged, hills that consist primarily of limestone but includes the Llano Uplift and the second largest granite outcropping in the United States, Enchanted Rock, which is located some thirty miles northwest of Fredericksburg, Texas....
, each valley offered a different kind of German. The Llano
Llano River

The Llano River is a tributary of the Colorado River , approximately 105 mi long, in central Texas in the United States. It drains part of the Edwards Plateau in Texas Hill Country northwest of Austin, Texas....
 valley had stern, teetotaling German Methodists
Methodism

Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by John Wesley and his younger brother Charles Wesley that sought to keep Methodism as a Revivalism movement within the Church of England....
, who renounced dancing and fraternal organizations; the Pedernales
Pedernales River

The Pedernales River is a tributary of the Colorado River , approximately long, in central Texas in the United States. It drains an area of the Edwards Plateau, flowing west to east across the Texas Hill Country west of Austin, Texas....
 valley had fun-loving, hardworking Lutherans and Catholics who enjoyed drinking and dancing; and the Guadalupe
Guadalupe River (Texas)

The Guadalupe River runs from Kerr County, Texas, Texas to San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The river is a popular destination for rafters and canoers....
 valley had atheist
Atheism

Atheism is the absence or rejection of belief in deity, or the explicit view that Existence of God.Many list of atheists are Skepticism of all supernatural beings and cite a lack of empiricism evidence for the existence of deities....
 Germans descended from intellectual political refugee
Refugee

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecutionOwing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality,...
s. The scattered German ethnic islands were also diverse. These small enclaves included Lindsay
Lindsay, Cooke County, Texas

Lindsay is a town in Cooke County, Texas, Texas, United States, along U.S. Route 82. The population was 788 at the 2000 United States Census....
 in Cooke County, largely Westphalia
Westphalia

Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Bielefeld, Bochum, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, M?nster, and Osnabr?ck and included in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony....
n Catholic; Waka in Ochiltree County
Ochiltree County, Texas

Ochiltree County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2005, the United States Census Bureau estimated its population to be 9,385, an increase from the figure of 9,006 recorded in the 2000 census....
, Midwestern Mennonite
Mennonite

The Mennonites are a group of Christianity Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons , though his writings articulated, and thereby, formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders....
; Hurnville
Hurnville, Texas

Hurnville is an unincorporated area on Farm to Market Road 1197 eight miles north of Henrietta, Texas in north central Clay County, Texas, Texas, United States....
 in Clay County, Russian German
History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union

The German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union was created from several sources and in several waves. The 1914 census puts the number of Germans living in Russian Empire at 2,416,290....
 Baptist; and Lockett in Wilbarger County
Wilbarger County, Texas

Wilbarger County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2005, the United States Census Bureau estimated that the population was 13,896, down from 14,676 in 2000....
, Wendish Lutheran.


Civil War
Thousands of German Americans volunteered to fight for the Union
Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the Federal government of the United States of the United States, which was supported by the twenty-three states which were not part of the secession attempt by the 11 states that formed the Confederate States of America....
 in the American Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
 (1861-1865). Most had settled in northern states and no doubt adopted local attitudes. Having gone through their own revolution, many Germans had a strong revulsion against slavery
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
. This was reflected in an incident on January 1, 1861, when the mostly German crowd made such a disturbance at a slave sale at the St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri, located near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Missouri River. St....
 courthouse that the sale price couldn't go above $8.00. The demonstration marked the last slave auction in St. Louis. Many Germans could see the parallel between slavery and serfdom
Serfdom

Serfdom is the socio-economic status of unfree peasants under feudalism, and specifically relates to Manorialism. It was a condition of Debt bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe....
 in the old fatherland. The Germans were among the largest immigrant groups to participate in the Civil War: roughly 516,000 (23.4% of all Union soldiers) were German Americans, and about 216,000 were born in Germany. 36,000 of these native-born Germans enlisted from New York. Behind the Empire State came Missouri
Missouri

Missouri is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska....
 with 30,000 and Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
 with 20,000. A popular Union commander among Germans, Major General Franz Sigel
Franz Sigel

Franz Sigel was a German military officer and immigrant to the United States who was a teacher, newspaperman, politician, and served as a Union Army Major general in the American Civil War....
 was the highest-ranking German American officer in the Union Army
Union Army

The Union Army was the army that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S....
, with many German immigrants claiming to enlist to "fight mit Sigel."

A Missouri man had once written the Confederate
Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America formed as the government set up from 1861 to 1865 by eleven Southern United States U.S. state of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S....
 authorities that all they had to do to get rid of the Saint Louis Unionists was destroy the local breweries and seize all the beer: "… By this means the Dutch [Germans] will all die in a week and the Yankees will then run from this State."


- M. Jeff Thompson
M. Jeff Thompson

Meriwether Jeff Thompson was a History of Confederate States Army Generals#brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard during the American Civil War....
 of Missouri

The identification of Germans with the Unionist-Abolitionist
Abolitionism

File:BLAKE10.JPGAbolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical religious groups con...
 persisted into the 1870s in the so-called "Mason County War"
Johnny Ringo

John Peters Ringold , better known as Johnny Ringo, was a cowboy who became a legend of the American Old West because of, among other things, his affiliation with the Ike Clanton in the era of the Gunfight at the O.K....
 in Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
. "Germans" were identified as Unionists while "Americans" were predominantly pro-Confederate. The conflict claimed some dozen lives before petering out. Now it is known chiefly because of the famous outlaw Johnny Ringo
Johnny Ringo

John Peters Ringold , better known as Johnny Ringo, was a cowboy who became a legend of the American Old West because of, among other things, his affiliation with the Ike Clanton in the era of the Gunfight at the O.K....
's participation on the anti-German side.
Voting
Relatively few Germans held office, but the men voted once they became citizens. In general, the Protestants and Jews leaned toward the Republican party and the Catholics were strongly Democratic
Third Party System

The Third Party System is a term of periodization used by some historians and political scientists to describe a period in American political history from about 1854 to the mid-1890s that featured profound developments in issues of nationalism, modernization, and race....
. If prohibition was on the ballot, the Germans voted solidly against it. They strongly distrusted moralistic crusaders, who they called "Puritans." This included the temperance reformers and many Populists. The German community strongly opposed inflation and Free Silver
Free Silver

Free Silver was an important politics issue in the late 19th century United States. To understand exactly what is meant by "free coinage of silver", it is necessary to understand the way mints operated in the days of the gold standard....
, and voted heavily against crusader William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 1896, 1900 and 1908, a lawyer, and the 41st United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson....
 in 1896. In 1900, however, many German Democrats returned to their party and voted for Bryan, perhaps because of President William McKinley
William McKinley

William McKinley, Jr. was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected....
's foreign policy.

Assimilation and World War I anti-German sentiment

After two or three generations, German Americans adopted mainstream American customs—some of which they heavily influenced—and switched their language to English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
. As one scholar concludes, "The overwhelming evidence … indicates that the German-American school was a bilingual one much (perhaps a whole generation or more) earlier than 1917, and that the majority of the pupils may have been English-dominant bilinguals from the early 1880s on." By 1914 the older members were attending German-language church services while the younger members were attending English services (in Lutheran, Evangelical and Catholic churches). In German parochial schools, the children spoke English among themselves, though some of their classes were in German. In 1917–18, after the US entry into WWI on the side of the British, nearly all German language instruction ended, as did most German-language church services.

During World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, German Americans, especially those born abroad, were sometimes accused of being too sympathetic to the German Empire
German Empire

The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of William I, German Emperor as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became Weimar republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of William II, German Emperor ....
. Teddy Roosevelt denounced "hyphenated American
Hyphenated American

The term hyphenated American is an epithet common from 1890 to 1920 used to disparage Americans who were of foreign birth or origin, and who displayed an allegiance to a foreign country....
ism" and insisted that dual loyalties were impossible in wartime. A small minority came out for Germany, including H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken

Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken , was an United States journalist, essayist, magazine editing, satire, acerbic Social criticism of American American way and Culture of the United States, and a student of American English....
, who believed the German democratic system was superior to American democracy. Similarly, Harvard
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
 psychology
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
 professor Hugo Münsterberg
Hugo Münsterberg

Hugo M?nsterberg was a Germany-United States psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in applied psychology, extending his research and theories to Industrial / Organizational , legal, medical, clinical, educational and business settings....
 dropped his efforts to mediate between America and Germany and threw his efforts behind the German cause.

Several thousand vocal opponents of the war were imprisoned. Thousands were forced to buy war bonds to show their loyalty. The Red Cross
American Red Cross

The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States, and is the designated U.S....
 barred individuals with German last names from joining in fear of sabotage. One man was hanged in Illinois
Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
, apparently for no other reason than that he was of German descent. The killers were found not guilty of the crime and the hanging was called an act of patriotism by a jury. A Minnesota
Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents....
 minister was tarred and feathered
Tarred and Feathered

"Tarred and Feathered" is a song by England punk rock band Dogs and is featured on their debut album, Turn Against This Land. Released on November 28, 2005, it was the fifth and final Single taken from the album....
 when he was overheard praying in German with a dying woman. Some Germans during this time "Americanized" their names (e.g. Schmidt to Smith, Müller to Miller) and limited their use of the German language
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 in public places. Newspapers also printed blacklists of names of Germans, including their addresses, headlined as German Enemy Aliens.

In Chicago Frederick Stock
Frederick Stock

Frederick Stock was a Germany Conducting and composer....
 temporarily stepped down as conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five "....
 until he finalized his naturalization papers. Orchestras replaced music by Wagner
Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, Conducting, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas . Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote both the scenario and libretto for his works....
 with Berlioz
Hector Berlioz

Louis Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic music composer and guitarist, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Requiem . Berlioz made great contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation and by utilizing huge orchestral forces for his works; as a conductor, he performed several c...
 on programs. In Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border....
, reaction to anti-German sentiment
Anti-German sentiment

Anti-German sentiment is defined as a fear or hatred of Germany, its German people, and the German language....
 during World War I caused the public library of Cincinnati to withdraw all German books from its shelves. German-named streets were renamed. For example, in Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana

Indianapolis is the Capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. The United States Census estimated the city's population, Indianapolis , Indiana the Unigov, at 795,458 in 2006....
, Germania Avenue was renamed Pershing
John J. Pershing

John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, Order of the Bath was an officer in the United States Army. He is the only person to be promoted in his own lifetime to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army?General of the Armies....
 Avenue — for a World War I general of German descent. In Iowa
Iowa

The State of Iowa is a U.S. state in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It is bordered by Minnesota to the north, Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, and Missouri to the south....
, the 1918 Babel Proclamation
Babel Proclamation

Iowa's Governor William L. Harding took the German_American#Assimilation and World War I Anti-German Sentiment in the wake of WWI further than any other state and issued the so-called "Babel Proclamation" on May 14, 1918....
 made speaking foreign languages in public illegal. Nebraska
Nebraska

Nebraska is a U.S. state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and Western United States.Nebraska probably gets its name from the archaic Chiwere language words ?? Br?sge or the Omaha-Ponca language N? Bth?ska meaning "flat water," after the Platte River that flows through the state....
 banned instruction in any language except English, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the ban illegal in 1923 (Meyer v. Nebraska
Meyer v. Nebraska

Meyer v. Nebraska, Case citation , was a Supreme Court of the United States case which held that a 1919 Nebraska law prohibiting the teaching of foreign languages to school children before high school unconstitutionally violated the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution....
).

World War II

Between 1931 and 1940, 114,000 Germans moved to the United States, many of whom—including Nobel prize winner Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a Germany-born theoretical physics. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass?energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2....
—were Jewish Germans or anti-Nazis
Anti-fascism

Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascism ideologies, organizations, governments and people. Another term for anti-fascism is antifa. Most major Resistance during World War II were anti-fascist....
 fleeing government oppression. About 25,000 people became paying members of the pro-Nazi German American Bund during the years before the war. German Americans who had been born overseas were the subject of suspicion and discrimination during the war, although prejudice and sheer numbers meant they suffered as a group generally less than Japanese American
Japanese American

are Americans of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity....
s. The Alien Registration Act of 1940
Smith Act

The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that makes it a criminal offense for anyone toIt also required all non-citizenship adult residents to register with the government; within four months, 4,741,971 aliens had registered under the Act's provisions....
 required 300,000 German-born U.S. resident aliens to register with the Federal government and restricted their travel and property ownership rights. Under the still active Alien Enemy Act of 1798
Alien and Sedition Acts

The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798. They were signed into law by President John Adams, and the Federalist Party in the United States Congress?who were waging an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War....
, the United States government interned nearly 11,000 German Americans
German American internment

German American Internment refers to the detention of people of German people ancestry in the United States during World War II. Many of the detainees were American citizens....
 between 1940 and 1948. Most were not yet American citizens. Some of these were United States citizens; some were the parents of active military men. Civil rights violations occurred. Five hundred were arrested without warrant. Others were held without charge for months or interrogated without benefit of legal counsel. Convictions were not eligible for appeal. An unknown number of "voluntary internees" joined their spouses and parents in the camps and were not permitted to leave.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , often referred to by his initials FDR, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
 did not hesitate to name Americans of German ancestry to top war jobs, including General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David ?Ike? Eisenhower was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1953 until 1961 and a General of the Army in the United States Army....
, Admiral Chester Nimitz
Chester Nimitz

Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz, United States Navy, Order of the Bath was an admiral in the United States Navy. He held the dual command of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet , for U.S....
, and General Carl Spaatz
Carl Spaatz

Carl Andrew "Tooey" Spaatz Order of the British Empire was an United States World War II general and the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force....
. He appointed Republican Wendell Willkie
Wendell Willkie

Wendell Lewis Willkie was a corporate lawyer in the United States and the United States Republican Party nominee for the United States presidential election, 1940, despite having never held a prior elected political office....
 as a personal representative. German Americans who had fluent German language skills were an important asset to wartime intelligence, and they served as translators and as spies for the United States. The war evoked strong patriotic sentiments among German Americans, few of whom by then had contacts with distant relatives in the old country.

German Americans in post-war years

New Ulm Police
In the aftermath of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, millions of ethnic Germans were expelled
Expulsion of Germans after World War II

The 'expulsion of Germans after World War II' was the forced migration of German nationals and ethnic Germans in order to achieve the ethnic cleansing of German populations from the former eastern territories of Germany, former Sudetenland and other areas across Europe in the first five years after World War II....
 from nations in eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
, including the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
, Poland
Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918 until 1992 . On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia....
, Romania
Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
, Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
 and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia

File:LocationYugoslavia2.pngYugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century....
. Most resettled in Germany, but others came as refugee
Refugee

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecutionOwing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality,...
s to the United States in the late 1940s and established cultural centers in their new homes. Danube Swabians
Danube Swabians

The Danube Swabians is a collective term for Germans who lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary, especially in the Danube River valley. Because of differential development within the territory settled, the Danube Swabians cannot be seen as a unified people....
, for instance, were ethnic Germans who had maintained language and customs after resettlement along the Danube
Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
 in Hungary, later Yugoslavia (now Serbia
Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country in Central Europe and Balkans Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans....
). They were new immigrants to the US after the war.

From the 1970s on, time abated the anti-German sentiment aroused by World War II. Today, German Americans who immigrated after World War II share the same characteristics as any other Western European immigrant group in the U.S. They are mostly professionals and academics who have come for professional reasons. Germany has been a preferred destination for immigrants rather than a source of migrating peoples.

In the 1990 U.S. census
United States Census, 1990

The Twenty-first United States Census, conducted by the United States Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 248,709,873, an increase of 9.8 percent over the 226,545,805 persons Enumeration during the U.S....
, 58 million Americans claimed to be solely or partially of German descent. According to the 2005 American Community Survey, 50 million Americans have German ancestry. German Americans represent 17% of the total U.S. population and 26% of the non-Hispanic white population. Only 1.5 million Americans speak German.

There are about 5 million German Americans in the Heritage Society Germans from Russia, who came from Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, many via Canada, to the United States.

Of the four major U.S. regions, German was the most-reported ancestry in the Midwest, second in the West, and third in both the Northeast and the South. German was the top reported ancestry in 23 states, and it was one of the top five reported ancestries in every state except Maine
Maine

The State of Maine is a U.S. state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast....
 and Rhode Island
Rhode Island

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a U.S. state in the New England region of the United States....
.

Religious affiliations

German immigrants who arrived before the nineteenth century tended to be members of the "Evangelical Church" in Germany. They created the Reformed
Reformed Church in the United States

The Reformed Church in the United States is an American denomination of Christian churches standing in the Protestant tradition. It affirms the great principles of the Reformation: Sola scriptura , Solo Christo , Sola gratia , Sola fide , and Soli Deo gloria ....
 denomination (especially in New York and Pennsylvania), and the Evangelical
Evangelical Synod of North America

The Evangelical Synod of North America was a Christian denomination body of Protestant churches in the United States existing from the mid-1800s until its 1934 merger with the Reformed Church in the United States to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church....
 denomination (strongest in the Midwest), which are now part of the United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ

The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Protestantism Christian denomination principally in the United States, generally considered within the Reformed churches tradition....
. Many immigrants joined different churches from those that existed in Germany. Protestants often joined the Methodist
United Methodist Church

The United Methodist Church is a Christian Church that understands itself to be a part of the one Holy catholic Church of Jesus Christ and the Communion of Saints....
 church.

Before 1800, communities of Amish
Amish

The various Amish or Amish Mennonite church fellowships are Christian religious denominations, and form a very traditional subgrouping of Mennonite churches....
, Mennonite
Mennonite

The Mennonites are a group of Christianity Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons , though his writings articulated, and thereby, formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders....
s, Moravians and Hutterite
Hutterite

Hutterites are a communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century....
s had formed and are still in existence today. Some still speak dialects of German, including Pennsylvania German, informally known as Pennsylvania Dutch (from Deutsch). The Amish, who were originally from southern Germany and Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
, arrived in Pennsylvania during the early 18th century. Amish immigration to the United States reached its peak between the years 1727 and 1770. Religious freedom was perhaps the most pressing cause for Amish immigration to Pennsylvania, which became known as a haven for persecuted religious groups.

 Luther
The Hutterites are another example of a group of German Americans who continue a lifestyle similar to that of their ancestors. Like the Amish, they fled persecution for their religious beliefs and came to the United States in 1870. Today Hutterites mostly reside in Montana
Montana

Montana is a U.S. state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains....
, the Dakotas
The Dakotas

The Dakotas is a collective term used around the world that refers to the U.S. state of North Dakota and South Dakota together. The term has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is continued to be used to describe the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology,the economy, and even diet among the two st...
, and Minnesota
Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents....
, and the western provinces of Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
. Hutterites continue to speak German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
. Most are able to speak Standard German in addition to their dialect.

Immigrants from Germany in the mid- to late-1800s brought many different religions with them. The most numerous were Lutheran or Catholic, although the Lutherans were themselves split among different groups. The more conservative Lutherans comprised the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod

The Lutheran Church?Missouri Synod , founded in 1847 in Chicago, is the eighth largest Protestantism denomination in the United States, and the second-largest Lutheranism body in the U.S....
 and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod is a North American religious denomination with practice rooted in the Lutheranism tradition of Christianity....
. Other Lutherans formed a complex checkerboard of synods. In 1988 most of these merged, together with Scandinavian-based synods, into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a mainline Protestantism List of Christian denominations headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Formed in 1988 by the merging of three churches and currently having about 4.70 million baptized members, it is the largest of all the Lutheranism denominations in the Religion in the United States and t...
.

Some 19th century immigrants, especially the "48ers", were secular, rejecting formal religion. In addition, many American Jews
American Jews

American Jews, or Jewish Americans, are Jews who are United States citizens or resident aliens. The United States is home to the second largest Jewish community in the world depending on religious definitions and varying population data....
 are of German origin (although more came from Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
).

German American influence


German1346
Germans have contributed to a vast number of areas in American culture and technology. Baron von Steuben, a former Prussia
Prussia

Prussia was, most recently, a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. This state had for centuries substantial influence on Germany and European history....
n officer, led the reorganization of the U.S. Army during the War for Independence
American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , also known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Thirteen Colonies on the North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers....
 and helped make the victory against British troops possible. The Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons

Steinway & Sons is a highly regarded piano maker, since 1853 in New York City, United States. Steinway's second factory was established in 1880, in the city of Hamburg, Germany....
 piano manufacturing firm was founded by immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg in 1853. German settlers brought the Christmas tree
Christmas tree

File:Christmas Tree.JPGThe Christmas tree is one of the most popular traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas. Normally an evergreen Pinophyta tree that is brought into a home or used in the open, a Christmas tree is decorated with Christmas lights and colourful Christmas ornaments during the days around Christmas....
 custom to the United States. The Studebaker
Studebaker

File:StudebakerArabellaOct08Ornament.jpgStudebaker Corporation, or simply Studebaker, was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, Indiana....
s built large numbers of wagons used during the Western migration; Studebaker, like the Duesenberg
Duesenberg

Duesenberg was an Auburn, Indiana based luxury automobile company active in various forms from 1913 to 1937, most famous for its high-quality, record-breaking roadsters....
 brothers, later became an important early automobile manufacturer. Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz

Carl Schurz was a Germany revolutionary, United States statesman and reformer, and Union Army General officer in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and noted orator, who in 1869 became the first German American elected to the United States Senate....
, a refugee from the unsuccessful first German democratic revolution of 1848 (see also German Confederation
German Confederation

The German Confederation was the association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to serve as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, which had been abolished in 1806....
), served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior

The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Interior Ministry as used in other countries....
.

After World War II, Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun , a Germans rocket physicist and astronautics engineer, became one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States....
, and most of the leading engineers from the former German rocket base Peenemünde
Peenemünde

Peenem?nde is a village in the northeast of the Germany part of the Usedom island. It stands near the mouth of the Peene river, on the easternmost part of the German Baltic Sea coast....
, were brought to the U.S. They contributed decisively to the development of U.S. military rockets, as well as rockets for the NASA
NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
 space program.

The influence of German cuisine
German cuisine

German cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of Germany. It has evolved as a national cuisine through centuries of social and political change with variations from region to region....
 is seen in the cuisine of the United States
Cuisine of the United States

The cuisine of the United States is a style of food preparation derived from the United States. The cuisine has a history dating back before the Colonial history of the United States when the Native Americans in the United States had a rich and diverse cooking style for an equally diverse amount of ingredients....
 throughout the country, especially regarding pastries, meats and sausages, and above all, beer. Frankfurters
Hot dog

A hot dog is a type of fully cooked, curing and/or Smoking moist sausage of soft, even texture and flavor. It is usually placed hot in a soft, sliced hot dog bun of approximately the same length as the sausage, and optionally garnished with condiments and toppings....
 (or "wieners", originating from Frankfurt
Frankfurt

is the largest city in the German States of Germany of Hesse and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000....
 and Vienna
Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
, respectively), hamburger
Hamburger

A hamburger consists of a cooked ground meat patty, usually beef, placed in a sliced bun or between pieces of bread or toast. Hamburgers are often served with various condiments, such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish etc....
s, bratwurst
Bratwurst

A bratwurst is a sausage composed of pork, beef, or veal.The name is German language, derived from Old High German br?twurst, from br?t- which is fine chopped meat and -wurst, sausage....
, sauerkraut
Sauerkraut

File:Kiszona kapusta.JPGSauerkraut is finely shredded cabbage that has been fermentation by various lactic acid bacteria, including Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus....
, and strudel
Strudel

A strudel is a type of sweet layered pastry with a filling inside, that became well known and gained popularity in the 18th century through the Habsburg Empire....
 are common dishes. German bakers introduced the pretzel
Pretzel

A pretzel is a bread pastry of Medieval European origin, that has the shape of a three looped knot or twisted braid. Pretzels are either soft or hard....
. Germans have almost totally dominated the beer
Beer

Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and Fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal?the most common of which is malted barley, although wheat, maize , and rice are widely used....
 industry since 1850. Almost half of all current beer sales in the United States can be attributed to German immigrants Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch, who founded Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. is the largest brewing company in the United States and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev. It holds a 48.8% share of beer sales by volume in the United States....
 in St. Louis in 1860. The revival of microbreweries
Microbrewery

A microbrewery, or craft brewery, is a modern brewery which produces a limited amount of beer. The maximum amount of beer a brewery can produce and still be classed as a microbrewery varies by region and by authority, though is usually around 15,000 barrels a year....
 is partly due to instruction from German beer masters. One of the areas in which the influence of German cuisine is strongest is the small town Midwest.

German-American celebrations, such as Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest is a fifteen-day festival held each year in Munich, Germany during late September . It is one of the most famous events in the Salzburg/Germany and the world's largest fair, with some six million people attending every year, and is an enjoyable event with an important part of Bavarian culture....
, German-American Day
German-American Day

German-American Day is a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6. The holiday, which celebrates Germany heritage, commemorates the date in 1683 when 13 German families from Krefeld near the Rhine landed in Philadelphia....
 and Von Steuben Day
Von Steuben Day

Von Steuben Day is held traditionally on a weekend in mid-September , celebrating Baron Friedrich von Steuben, who arrived in the United States as a volunteer offering his services to General George Washington, and is generally considered the German-American event of the year....
 are held regularly throughout the country. One of the largest is the German-American Steuben Parade
German-American Steuben Parade

The German-American Steuben Parade is an annual Parade held in various cities across the United States. The New York City parade is held every third Saturday in September....
 in New York City, held every third Saturday in September. There are also major annual events in Chicago's Lincoln Square
Lincoln Square, Chicago

Lincoln Square located on the North Side of city of Chicago, Illinois is one of 77 well-defined Chicago Community areas of Chicago. Greater Lincoln Square encompasses the smaller neighborhoods of Ravenswood Gardens, Ravenswood Manor, Bowmanville and Budlong Woods....
 neighborhood, a traditional a center of the city's German population, in Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border....
, where its annual Octoberfest Zinzinnati is the largest Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest is a fifteen-day festival held each year in Munich, Germany during late September . It is one of the most famous events in the Salzburg/Germany and the world's largest fair, with some six million people attending every year, and is an enjoyable event with an important part of Bavarian culture....
 outside of Germany and in Milwaukee, which celebrates its German heritage with an annual German Fest
German Fest

German Fest is an ethnic festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Henry Maier Festival Park, on the Lake Michigan lakefront. The genesis of German Fest occurred when Mayor Henry Maier challenged the local German-American community during a speech on May 20th, 1980, at the 20th Anniversary of the German-American National Congress Deutsch-Amer...
.

Skat, the most popular card game
Card game

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary things with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games ....
 in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, is also played in areas of the United States with large German American populations, such as Wisconsin
Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. state in the United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States. It borders two of the five Great Lakes and four U.S....
 and Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
.

German American presidents

There have been two presidents whose fathers were of German descent: Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David ?Ike? Eisenhower was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1953 until 1961 and a General of the Army in the United States Army....
 (original family name Eisenhauer and maternal side is also German/Swiss) and Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States . Besides his political career, Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author....
 (original family name Huber). Presidents with maternal German ancestry include Richard Milhous Nixon (Nixon's maternal ancestors were Germans who anglicized Melhausen to Milhous). Other presidents with German ancestry include John Tyler
John Tyler

John Tyler, Jr. was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the first ever to obtain that office via presidential succession....
,George W. Bush
Bush family

The Bush family is a prominent United States family. Along with many members who have been successful bankers and businessmen, across three generations the family includes two U.S....
, George H. W. Bush
Bush family

The Bush family is a prominent United States family. Along with many members who have been successful bankers and businessmen, across three generations the family includes two U.S....
, Barack Obama
Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
, and Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt , also known as T.R., and to the public as Teddy, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
.

German-American communities

Today, most German Americans have assimilated to the point that they no longer have readily identifiable ethnic communities, though there are still many metropolitan areas where German is the most reported ethnicity, such as Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus
Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the Capital , the largest, and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. Located near the Geographic centers of the United States, Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County, Ohio, although parts of the city also extend into Delaware County, Ohio and Fairfield County, Ohio counties....
, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul
Minneapolis-St. Paul

Minneapolis-Saint Paul is the most populous List of United States urban areas in the state of Minnesota, United States, and is composed of 186 cities and townships....
, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri, located near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Missouri River. St....
.

U.S. communities with high percentages of people of German ancestry

The 10 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of residents claiming German ancestry are:
  1. Monterey Township, Putnam County, Ohio
    Monterey Township, Putnam County, Ohio

    Monterey Township is one of the fifteen civil township of Putnam County, Ohio, Ohio, United States. The United States Census, 2000 found 2,056 people in the township, 1,183 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township....
     83.6%%
  2. Granville Township, Mercer County, Ohio
    Granville Township, Mercer County, Ohio

    Granville Township is one of the fourteen civil township of Mercer County, Ohio, Ohio, United States. The United States Census, 2000 found 3,885 people in the township, 1,434 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township....
     79.6%%
  3. St. Henry, Ohio
    St. Henry, Ohio

    St. Henry is a village #Ohio in Mercer County, Ohio, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,271 at the United States Census 2000....
     78.5%
  4. Germantown Township, Clinton County, Illinois
    Germantown Township, Clinton County, Illinois

    Germantown Township is one of fifteen Civil township in Clinton County, Illinois, Illinois, United States. As of the United States Census, 2000, its population was 1,990....
     77.6%
  5. Jackson Township, Dubois County, Indiana
    Jackson Township, Dubois County, Indiana

    Jackson Township is one of twelve Township in Dubois County, Indiana. As of the United States Census, 2000, its population was 2,070....
     77.3%
  6. Washington Township, Mercer County, Ohio
    Washington Township, Mercer County, Ohio

    Washington Township is one of the fourteen civil township of Mercer County, Ohio, Ohio, United States. The United States Census, 2000 found 1,218 people in the township....
     77.2%
  7. Saint Rose Township, Clinton County, Illinois
    Saint Rose Township, Clinton County, Illinois

    Saint Rose Township is one of fifteen Civil township in Clinton County, Illinois, Illinois, United States. As of the United States Census, 2000, its population was 1,319....
     77.1%
  8. Butler Township, Mercer County, Ohio
    Butler Township, Mercer County, Ohio

    Butler Township is one of the fourteen civil township of Mercer County, Ohio, Ohio, United States. The United States Census, 2000 found 6,459 people in the township, 1,977 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township....
     76.4%
  9. Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio
    Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio

    Marion Township is one of the fourteen civil township of Mercer County, Ohio, Ohio, United States. The United States Census, 2000 found 2,969 people in the township, 2,605 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township....
     76.3%
  10. Jennings Township, Putnam County, Ohio
    Jennings Township, Putnam County, Ohio

    Jennings Township is one of the fifteen civil township of Putnam County, Ohio, Ohio, United States. The United States Census, 2000 found 1,968 people in the township, 1,536 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township....
     and Germantown, Illinois
    Germantown, Illinois

    Germantown is a village in Clinton County, Illinois, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,118 at the 2000 census.Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst was born in Germantown on February 2, 1923....
     75.6%


U.S. communities with the most residents born in Germany

The 10 U.S. communities with the highest proportion of residents born in Germany are:

  1. Lely Resort, Florida
    Lely Resort, Florida

    Lely Resort is a census-designated place in Collier County, Florida, Florida, United States. The population was 1,426 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Naples, Florida–Marco Island, Florida Naples-Marco Island, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area....
     6.8%
  2. Pemberton Heights, New Jersey
    Pemberton Heights, New Jersey

    Pemberton Heights is a census-designated place located within Pemberton Township, New Jersey, in Burlington County, New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 2,512....
     5.0%
  3. Kempner, Texas
    Kempner, Texas

    Kempner is a city in Lampasas County, Texas, Texas, United States. The population was 1,004 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Killeen, Texas–Temple, Texas–Fort Hood Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan area....
     4.8%
  4. Cedar Glen Lakes, New Jersey
    Cedar Glen Lakes, New Jersey

    Cedar Glen Lakes is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Manchester Township, New Jersey, in Ocean County, New Jersey, New Jersey....
     4.5%
  5. Alamogordo, New Mexico
    Alamogordo, New Mexico

    Alamogordo is a city in Otero County, New Mexico, New Mexico, United States of America. The population was 35,582 at the 2000 United States Census....
     4.3%
  6. Sunshine Acres, Florida
    Sunshine Acres, Florida

    Sunshine Acres is a census-designated place in Broward County, Florida, Florida, United States. The population was 827 at the 2000 census....
     4.2%
  7. Leisureville, Florida
    Leisureville, Florida

    Leisureville was a census-designated place in Broward County, Florida, Florida, United States, and now a neighborhood of Pompano Beach, Florida....
     4.2%
  8. Wakefield, Kansas
    Wakefield, Kansas

    Wakefield is a city in Clay County, Kansas, Kansas, United States. The population was 838 at the 2000 United States Census....
     4.1%
  9. Quantico, Virginia
    Quantico, Virginia

    Quantico, Virginia is a town in Prince William County, Virginia, located in Washington Metropolitan Area. It is totally surrounded by Marine Corps Base Quantico on three sides and the Potomac River on the fourth....
     4.0%
  10. Crestwood Village, New Jersey
    Crestwood Village, New Jersey

    Crestwood Village is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Manchester Township, New Jersey, in Ocean County, New Jersey, New Jersey....
     3.8%


See also

  • Austrian American
  • Ethnic German
    Ethnic German

    Ethnic Germans , also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, are those who are considered, by themselves or others, to be of Germans origin ethnicity, not necessarily born or living within the present-day Germany, holding its citizenship or speaking the German language....
  • European American
    European American

    A European American is a person who resides in the United States and is either from Europe or is the descendant of European ethnic groups immigrants or founding colonists....
  • German American internment
    German American internment

    German American Internment refers to the detention of people of German people ancestry in the United States during World War II. Many of the detainees were American citizens....
  • German-American relations
    German-American relations

    German-American relations are the transatlantic relations between Germany and the United States and between the Demographics of Germany and Demographics of the United States people in particular....
  • German-Americans in the Civil War
    German-Americans in the Civil War

    German-Americans in the American Civil War were the largest ethnic contingent to fight for the Union . More than 200,000 native Germans served in the Union Army, with New York in the American Civil War and Ohio in the Civil War each providing ten Division dominated by German-born men....
  • German in the United States
    German in the United States

    Before World War I, more than 6% of United States schoolchildren received their primary education only in German language. Although more than 49 million Americans claim they have German people ancestors, according to the 2005 American Community Survey, more than 96% of them speak English at home and in total only 1.38 million Americans speak Germ...
  • German Palatines
    German Palatines

    German Palatines were natives of the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany. Through much of the 17th century and into the 18th, the region was embroiled in constant warfare among various factions and invaded by French troops, which resulted in famine and widespread devastation....
  • German Texan
    German Texan

    German Texans is an ethnic group category that includes residents of the state of Texas with Germans ancestry who identify with the term. This identification may include cultural agreements—German language, German cuisine, feasts, music, hard work, frugality, and close family ties....
  • Germans in Omaha
  • History of Germany
    History of Germany

    Despite the lack of a German nation state before 1871, the countrydates back to the era of the Germanic tribes. Following the migration period, the Franks subsequently subdued the West Germanic tribes, who made up for most of East Francia after the Frankish Empire fell apart....
  • Hyphenated American
    Hyphenated American

    The term hyphenated American is an epithet common from 1890 to 1920 used to disparage Americans who were of foreign birth or origin, and who displayed an allegiance to a foreign country....
  • Immigration to the United States
    Immigration to the United States

    American immigration refers to the movement of World population to the United States. Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of history of the United States....
  • List of German Americans
    List of German Americans

    This is a list of notable German Americans.German Americans are citizens of the United States of ethnic German ancestry and form the largest Racial demographics of the United States in the United States, accounting for 17% of US population....
  • Pennsylvania Dutch
    Pennsylvania Dutch

    The Pennsylvania Dutch are the descendants of German people immigrants who came to Pennsylvania prior to 1800. According to Don Yoder, a Pennsylvania German expert and retired University of Pennsylvania professor, the word "Dutch" in this case owes its origin to an archaic meaning where it designated groups that are today considered Ger...


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  • Tolzmann, Don H., ed. German Americans in the World Wars, 2 vols. Munich, Germany: K.G. Saur, 1995.
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External links

  • : An online audio resource that presents German-American dialects from across the United States.