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German-Americans paved Trumps road into few German-Americans resumed after decades the White House -- right through the rural of hibernating a public articulation of their and deindustrialized landscapes of Wisconsin, heritage. However, those who do connected to Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. When talking their heritage, have developed practices that bear about ethnicity and immigration background, little resemblance with what life looked like during we frequently use labels such as African-Amer- the migration period. Cultural heritage events ican, Asian-American, Italian-American and construct a coarse definition of Germanness that is Mexican-American. But despite the fact that centered around Beer, Bratwurst, and Lederhosen currently about 46 Million Americans claim and silences the liberal and progressive ideas and German ancestry and therefore constitute the actions of many ancestors. largest national heritage group in the United The shift from liberal to conservative views States, one hardly ever encounters the term Ger- can also be attributed to occupational patterns Dr Per Urlaub man-American. Who are the German-Americans, typical among German immigrants. Agriculture and why did they support Donald Trump? and entrepreneurial craftsmanship generated Associate Professor at the wealth that sustained families and communities for Department of Germanic Who are the German-Americans? more than a century until globalization under- Studies at the University of Millions of Germans arrived in the United States mined the economic sustainability of family farms Texas at Austin, USA between 1850 and 1890. Many settled in the Great and domestic manufacturing. Those who could, Lakes Region. As farmers and skilled workers left their rural communities and deindustrialized Email: [email protected] they transformed the mid-western wilderness and cities. Those who remained suffered twofold as fueled the industrialization with manpower and economic hardship coincided with the end of entrepreneurial spirit. Many German-Americans the lifestyle many German-Americans shared. were freethinkers, fighting against slavery and for Steady decline, the collapse of communal struc- women’s suffrage. They founded newspapers and tures, and the loss of a rich cultural heritage that labor unions. Socialist mayors Emil Seidel and provided a sense of being, made people receptive Frank Zeidler dominated Milwaukee politics in for Trump’s anti-establishment gestures and his the first half of the 20th century. So, how did a xenophobic messages. mostly progressive immigrant group that shaped the progressive era and set the stage for liberalism German-Americans are not just the ‘White Vote’ turn conservative? Analyzing the electoral patterns in the Great Lakes Region merely in terms of a ‘whitelash’ The German-American Trump Connection underlines the helplessness of political commen- David Huenlich After having initially claimed to be of Swed- tators in the efforts to explain the inaccuracy of ish-American ancestry, Donald Trump later polls, predictions, and probabilities. Despite the acknowledged his paternal grandfather’s birth- fact that political analysts routinely acknowledge PhD candidate in the place as Kallstadt, located in what had been the diversity within the Hispanic vote and differenti- Department of Germanic Kingdom of Bavaria in the 19th century. However, ate between, for example, Mexican-Americans in Studies at the University of arguing that German-Americans were attracted to Texas, Cuban-American in Florida, and Puerto Texas at Austin, USA the president-elect based on his German-Ameri- Ricans in New York, they treat the ‘white vote’ as can heritage is missing the point. The pro-Trump one monolithic block. Their models ignore specific Email: david.huenlich@ googlemail.com swing vote occurred in states that had been solidly voting behaviors and ideological QBUUFSOTthat are blue for a generation. This region, formerly known particular to German-Americans and – for that as the Blue-State Firewall, correlates with a high matter -- any other national heritage group that is concentration of German immigrant settlements in ‘ethnical- the 19th century as the census map shows. ly invisible’ in mainstream America. An undifferentiated perception on the Progressive German Immigrants turned Con- ‘white vote’ ignores the complex histories and the servative German-Americans super-diversity among Caucasian Americans. Today’s descendants of German immigrants in Instead, pollsters and pundits must pay fine- the American Midwest have lost an authentic link grained attention to migration experiences to the cultural heritage of their forefathers. This and voting motives of white Americans. They may happened through rapid assimilation, partly to realize that their predictions will become avoid stigmatization in the wake of two World more accurate, if they analyze voters of European Wars. German-Americans stopped using their descent with a higher level of nuance. We may be language. Their newspapers disappeared. They in for many surprises - and be less surprised on anglicized their names to become more American election night. more quickly than any other European immigrant population. Assimilation to conservativism was part of this process. Indifferent towards their heritage, 65