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Home , Dieter Cunz, German Americans, Joseph Weydemeyer, Karl Heinzen, Pennsylvania Dutch

THE GERMAN : IMMIGRATION AND INTEGRATION

By DIETER CUNZ1

In 1507, a German cartographer tury. One of the first outstanding Martin Waldseemüller having just was John Lederer from completed a map of the then known Hamburg who wrote his record into world and looking at the great un- early American history by exploring explored land behind the West Indian the Alleghany regions of and islands wrote into this vast, white the Carolinas, and who later gained space the word "America," to honor a great reputation as a physician in the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. . This happened around Martin Waldseemüller named the 1670. Towards the end of the 17th continent which was to evoke the century, Jakob Leisler from Frank- greatest migration of nations known furt was the leader of a revolt against in history. a suppressive regime in the City of In the centuries after this baptism . of a continent millions of Germans However, the history of the Ger- decided to leave their country. When mans in America is not the story of they looked over their maps, their individuals, but the history of a mass eyes would stop at the country, which movement. This history began on more and more showed signs of carto- October 6, 1683 when the ship Con- graphical animation, whose map pre- cord landed in , disem- sented with each successive edition barking thirteen German families, more names, lines and dots, and from weavers from who had come which they had received encouraging to the New World with the professed if not luring reports of friends who desire "to lead a quiet, godly and had gone there before. Millions honest life." The day of the arrival packed their belongings, sailed down of the Concord (often called the May- the or the Elbe and started flower of German immigrants) is con- out for the adventurous and trying sidered by the as voyage to a new home. marking the beginning of their his- tory. This first group settled six miles I. SETTLERS AND IMMIGRANTS outside Philadelphia (today within When did the first Germans come the city limits) and called their settle- to America? The Germans had no ment Germantown. The leader of the seafaring tradition; they did not take group was Franz Daniel Pastorius, a part in the first explorations of the man of unusually broad education continent; in fact, they cannot even and marked literary ability. For claim the legendary German sailor in many years he served as burgomaster Columbus' crew. Some of the acts of and town clerk of Germantown and naturalization show that there were was the driving spirit in its public individual Germans in the colonies in affairs and educational matters. His the first half of the seventeenth cen- reports on the general conditions in

1 The greater part of this article was published previously as a contribution to a cooperative volume One America, The History, Contributions, and Present Problems of Our Racial and National Minorities, (New York, Prentice Hall, Inc., Third Edition, 1952), edited by Francis J. Brown and Joseph S. Roucek. We wish to express our appreciation to publisher and editors for their permission to reprint this article here.— The author wants to acknowledge his indebtedness to the writings of the four scholars who have made most outstanding contributions to German American historiography and whose writings were most helpful in the preparation of this article: the late Albert B. Faust of Cornell University, John A. Hawgood of the University of Birmingham, Carl Wittke of Western Reserve University and A. E. Zucker of the University of . [29] which he sent home to vania Dutch" country.3 Folklorists his father in represent a are divided into two feuding schools valuable source for the history of the of thought whether these people early colonies. should be called the Pennsylvania The real mass migration started Dutch or the Pennsylvania Germans. around 1710, and it came primarily Yet there is general agreement that from the Southwestern part of Ger- they were the best farmers of early many, particularly the so-called Pala- America and that their progressive tinate. Economic, political and re- farming methods over two centuries ligious reasons caused this exodus. have made the soil more and more Between 1710 and 1720 about 3000 fertile. The Pennsylvania Germans Germans settled in the present state retained stubbornly their old folk- of New York. In sentimental attach- ways and customs. They even pre- ment to their old sovereign the Duke served in the midst of an English- of Pfalz-Neuburg (who had, however, speaking country their peculiar Penn- mistreated and exploited them when- sylvania , the dialect ever possible) they named their first of the with naturally a settlement Newburgh. The majority considerable admixture of English of the Germans in New York settled words. In spite of this apparent re- along the Schoharie and Mohawk sistance to integration, the Pennsyl- Rivers. Place names like New Paltz, vania Germans belong into the pic- Rhinebeck, Oppenheim, Frankfort, ture of American history as much as Herkimer still testify to the proveni- the New England Yankees, the Span- ence of these early German settlers. ish in or the French in These Germans living along the . frontier were noted for the peaceful During the eighteenth century the relations they maintained with the American colonies between the Hud- Indians. One of them, , son and the Potomac (today often practically grew up with an Indian called the Middle Atlantic states) tribe.2 He spoke several Indian dia- received the strongest influx of Ger- lects and knew their mentality so well man immigrants. Whereas New Eng- that the authorities employed him land and the South were character- repeatedly as a very skillful negotiator ized through a distinct British texture, in Indian affairs. the Hudson-Potomac section soon be- Unfortunately there was from the gan to represent "that composite beginning some tension between the nationality which the contemporary Germans and the New York authori- exhibits, that juxta- ties. The friction grew to such an position of non-English groups." (F. extent that finally quite a number of J. Turner) . The very presence of the the settlers in the Mohawk valley Germans helped to evolve the demo- moved south to Pennsylvania which cratic system which has been the during the entire eighteenth century basis of the country throughout its was the center of German immigra- history. The German immigrants tion. Pennsylvania attracted the were the largest group of non-English greatest number of German new- speaking settlers. None of them be- comers. They concentrated particu- longed to the official Anglican church; larly in the Southeastern part of the thousands of them were sectarians. state, in such counties as Lehigh, The first in these states could live Montgomery, Berks, Chester, Lan- with the newcomers only if this " New caster, York—the region which to the World" was based on the funda- present day is called the "Pennsyl- ments of political and religious toler-

2 Paul A. W. Wallace, Conrad Weiser, 1696, Friend of Colonists and Mohawks, (Philadelphia, Univer- sity of Pennsylvania Press, 1945). Arthur D. Graeff, Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania Peacemaker, (Allentown, Pa., Pennsylvania German Folklore Society, 1945). 3 Ralph Wood (ed.), The Pennsylvania Germans, (Princeton, N. J., Princeton University Press, 1942). Fredric Klees, The , (New York, MacMillan, 1950). See also the serial publications of the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society. [30] ance. This society could exist only if Swiss and German settlers founded the settled majority would volun- New . In the interior the Mora- tarily established the rights of the vians (in spite of this name a pre- minority. To be sure, the Germans dominantly German sect, led to were not very active in politics, but America by the Silesian Count Zin- through their mere presence they zendorf) founded the colony of contributed to the development of the Winston-Salem.6 Bethlehem, Penn- principles of American democracy. sylvania became the other center of From the original German popula- the Mährische Brüder (Moravian tion reservoir in Southeastern Penn- Brethren). Their special contribution sylvania German farmers soon spread to American culture consists in their out over the neighboring states. beautiful church music. The southern- Through careful estimates, we know most German settlement in colonial that on the eve of the American Rev- times was Ebenzer, , founded olution there were a little more than by Protestant refugees from Salzburg 100,000 Germans in Pennsylvania, who became noted for their attempts that is to say, about one third of the in the rearing of silkworms and the Pennsylvania population. Thousands manufacture of silk. moved on to , , After the the Maryland and Virginia. In Maryland German settlers participated in the they deserve special credit for open- opening of the Transalleghany coun- ing the hinterland, for developing try; they pushed forward into Ken- grain production in a colony which so tucky and and they spread far had a dangerously lopsided to- north over , and . bacco economy.4 The Germans, com- David Zeisberger and his Moravian ing from Pennsylvania and moving missionaries converted the Indians in through "Western Maryland, pushed the Eastern part of Ohio and estab- forward through the Shenandoah Val- lished settlements in Schönbrunn and ley in Virginia and they extended this Gnadenhütten. and St. long wedge of German farmers along Louis became the rallying points for the Alleghany mountains down into German immigrants to all the Central the Carolinas.5 It is no coincidence states. that the German word "hinterland" The first great wave of German was adopted by the American lan- immigrants starting around 1710 guage. In most of the Atlantic states came to an end at the time of the the Germans settled not in the sea- War. A second wave shore counties, but in the backwoods, began after the Napoleonic wars, in the hinterland. around 1825. The first wave had been At the same time while the land absorbed by the Atlantic states; the along the mountain range received second wave went into the Midwest- this influx of Pennsylvania German ern states, following the valleys of the stock, there was also immigration Ohio, and . coming directly from . "Whereas in the East the Germans Thousands of German immigrants had come into established political landed in Annapolis and from there set-ups, in the Midwest their arrival went to or the Western coincided with the civic and political Maryland counties. In the South, organization of the territories. In the Charleston, S. C. became the distrib- Midwestern states north of the Ohio uting center of the new arrivals from and east of the Mississippi the Ger- Central . In mans constituted one of the basic

4 Dieter Cunz, The Maryland Germans, A History, (Princeton, N. J., Princeton University Press, 1948). 5 John W. Wayland, The German Element in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, (Charlottesville, Va., The author, 1907). Hermann Schuricht, History of the German Element in Virginia, (Baltimore, Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland, 1898-1900). 6 Adelaide L. Fries, Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, (Raleigh, N. C., Edward & Brough- ton, 1922-1947). A. L. Fries, The Road to Salem, (Chapel Hill, N. C., University of North Carolina Press, 1944). [31] population elements in its significance desired security before riches. Whereas comparable only to Pennsylvania and his neighbor of English or Irish de- Maryland in the seaboard states. scent often stayed only a few years often has been called and then followed the frontier, the "the" German state of the Union; German would select a piece of land kept its distinct German and would then settle for good. He traits longer than any other American would forget all westward moving city. Up to the present time there is opportunities, but he would keep in something like an irregularly shaped mind the benefits which the second "German quadrangle" on the map of and third generation might reap from the United States, within the lines his methods of soil conservation, from New York—Minneapolis—St. Louis intensive cultivation and fertilization, —Baltimore. The Census of 1900 from a well and a road, from a sturdy (taken at a time when the wave of barn and a solid stone residence. One German immigration began to recede) of the characteristics of the German shows that of the fifteen cities with immigrant (true also of other nation- the greatest percentage of German- alities) is that he sought an environ- born, fourteen would be situated ment comparable to that of his home- within this "German quadrangle." land; he settled preferably near a for- In the order of the size of the German est and near the water. The success- population they were: New York, ful farming of the Midwestern Ger- , Philadelphia, St. Louis, Min- man settler has often been noted. neapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, Cleve- "The relatively high proportion of land, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Baltimore, fully trained farmers, as well as of Detroit, Newark, , Jersey skilled craftsmen among the Germans City—San Francisco being the only ..." says the British historian John one outside of the quadrangle. In A. Hawgood "naturally helped them 1900 the total population of those on the land, just as their relatively fourteen cities was 10,284,710. Among high standard of education and large them there were 2,494,136 of German proportion of qualified professional parentage, (24.3 percent) and of men, made the Germans stand out these 942,863 of German birth (9.2 among the immigrants in American percent). cities." We mentioned the population Very often the Germans arrived in figures of some big cities, yet we groups, bound together by a common should hasten to add that the Ger- idea, the desire to found a religious or man immigrant of the nineteenth cen- social Utopia. In 1805 a group of tury in general tended to go to small Southern Germans, led by George towns and rural districts rather than Rapp, settled at Harmony in Beaver into large cities. Since 1830 an ever- County, Pennsylvania, at the head of increasing stream of German immi- the Ohio Valley, where they founded grants flowed into the wide Mid- a settlement in which all property western plains. Recent studies have was held in common. Some years shown that the average German im- later they moved on to the banks of migrant of the nineteenth century the Wabash in Indiana continuing was not by inclination or by choice a their communist principles, but they frontiersman or pioneer. He settled later returned to Eastern Pennsyl- behind rather than along the Ameri- vania, near Pittsburgh. An offspring can frontier, "and his function was of the "Rappites" was another com- more often consolidation than it was munitarian settlement in German- innovation." He wanted to establish town, Louisiana. Similar German a permanent place of residence; he utopian communities developed in invested money and labor in his land Zoar, Ohio; Communia, ; Aurora, which would yield interest perhaps ; Peace Union and Teutonia, only to his sons or grandchildren; he [32] Pennsylvania. Most of them were in- World," and not an extension of Old fluenced by the teachings of Robert World ideas and concepts. Owen. A new type of German immigrant Other waves of group immigration appeared on the American scene after came about through some attempts the collapse of the liberal German at founding a German state on North revolution of 1848.8 The "Forty- American soil. The political events in eighters" came to the United States Germany have very distinct bearings as political refugees; they considered on the curves of German immigration their sojourn a temporary exile and into the United States. When around planned to return at the moment 1830 liberal German elements began when a new democratic Germany to realize that there was little chance would emerge. However, they soon for a democratic Germany, some of were caught by the absorbent powers them sought to realize their ideal by of the new land and after a few years founding New Germanies across the most of them began to integrate seas. It was in essentials the desire to themselves into the realities of Ameri- transplant German civilization and can life. Numerically this group life to a region where it could develop which arrived in the early fifties was unhampered by the restrictions not remarkable. Yet, because they (whether political, social or economic) arrived at a time when the political then obtaining in Germany and Eu- fronts were being reorganized and be- rope generally, and in their new en- cause they were very articulate and vironment to keep the German set- aggressive fighters, their intellectual tlers racially distinct, geographically and political influence was out of pro- isolated, and, as far as possible, politi- portion to their small number. At no cally and economically independent other period did America receive a of outside or alien influence or inter- wave of immigrants with so much ference.7 The most noteworthy of political consciousness and idealism. these organized German immigrant Until 1850 the German immigrants settlements occurred in Hermann, and settlers had not displayed much Missouri and Fredericksburg and interest in political life. They were New Braunfels, ,—all in the good citizens, but they took the eco- thirties and forties of the nineteenth nomic and political freedom of the century. These colonies attracted a country for granted without doing too considerable number of German im- much thinking about it. The Forty- migrants, and they preserved their eighters considered it their task to German characteristics for many dec- make their German-American lands- ades. Yet, they proved to be a great leute conscious and alert in the mat- disappointment to the propagators ters of public life. Unlike the preced- of the "New Germany" idea. To be ing wave of German immigrants who sure, these settlements became Ameri- had a decided predilection for rural can towns with a predominantly Ger- surroundings, the Forty-eighters took man population; however, they soon to the cities more readily than to the cast off their ties to the German colo- countryside. Some stayed in the big nization or settlement societies and cities of the East; most of them went went their own ways, dictated by the to the Middle West. Here their ar- necessities of their American environ- rival coincided with the development ment. These attempts are so interest- of the big urban centers and thus ing because they show most impres- they could here exert more political sively that America was a "New influence than in the stable cities of the Atlantic states. The Forty-eight-

7 John A. Hawgood, The Tragedy of German-America, (New York, G. P. Putnam, 1941), p. xv. 8 A. E. Zucker (ed.),The Forty-eighters, Political Refugees of the German Revolution of 1848, (New York, Columbia University Press, 1950). Carl Wittke, Refugees of Revolution, The German Forty-eighters in America, (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952). [33] ers left a distinct mark on the early If we would draw a curve indicating history of some cities such as Chicago, the ups and downs of American immi- St. Louis, Milwaukee and Davenport. gration, we would see the curve of New-Ulm, , was a pioneer total immigration from 1830 to 1895 settlement founded by the Turner roughly paralleled by the curve of (gymnastic societies) movement which German immigration, ranging on a came to America in the wake of the correspondingly lower level. In 1854, Forty-eighters. Since a great number the first high peak in the total immi- of the Forty-eighters were men ex- gration curve, the Germans furnished perienced in politics and journalism, about 50 percent of the total, in the they plunged immediately into politi- later fifties and sixties 35 percent, cal life and became the flying squad- later at least 33 percent. After 1895 rons of the newly founded Republican the German share in total immigra- Party. They persuaded thousands of tion decreased rapidly and at no time German voters to give up their al- thereafter exceeded 10 percent of the legiance to the Democratic Party total. Between 1830 and 1930 six mil- which traditionally had been the im- lion Germans came to the United migrant party, and to rally behind States; five million out of these six the Republican banner. In 1860 they arrived before 1900. This shows had considerable influence on the clearly that German immigration is nomination and election of Abraham primarily a nineteenth century phe- Lincoln. nomenon. Yet, as late as 1930 the The last and highest wave of un- Germans with 1,600,000 held second restricted German immigration, arriv- place (next to the Italians) among ing in America during the last third the foreign born living in the United of the nineteenth century, was not States; in 1940 their number had de- canalized into any predominantly creased to 1,240,000; in 1950 to ap- German regions. It spread over the proximately 1,000,000. whole country, into urban or rural German immigration declined rap- areas wherever an opportunity for idly after 1930; in 1933 it fell to a low the immigrant arose. In fact, these of 5 percent of the allotted quota. late German arrivals, with a high per- Thereafter a new resurge followed. centage of craftsmen, artisans, skilled The depression lifted, and at the same workers and small businessmen had a time the Hitler regime in Germany greater tendency to stay in the cities. began to consolidate itself. Religious During these decades after 1870, Lit- persecution and political oppression tle Germany sections grew up in forced thousands of Germans to leave many cities where the Germans had their country. The immigration curve their own newspapers, churches, so- began to rise again and reached its cieties, schools and other institutions. peak in 1939 when 32,000 Germans One of the best known of these Little entered the United States. The total Germanics is the one in New York of German immigration in the two City, the Yorkville area between 70th decades between 1930 and 1950 is and 90th Streets on the Eastside. somewhat above 200,000. During the Such sections in which one would twelve years of the Hitler regime hear more German than English ex- (1933-1945) more than 125,000 Ger- isted in many other cities: Chicago, mans found refuge in the United Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, States and integrated themselves into Baltimore, to cite just a few. the economic and social structure of The hundred years after 1830 were the country. The vast majority the century of the greatest mass mi- among them became citizens. In the gration from Europe to the United decade after 1940 the number of nat- States. In the first sixty years, from uralizations of former German citi- 1830 to 1890, the Germans held the zens rose to 233,000. It is indicative leading place in this mass movement. of the readiness of these late arrivals [34] to assimilate and to make the new sixty. The number of daily papers country a new home. shrank from 12 (1940) to 7 (1950). Today daily German papers are pub- II. OLD WORLD HERITAGE, INTE- lished in the following cities: New GRATION AND ASSIMILATION York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleve- land, Rochester and Omaha. New In the hearts of the immigrants a York has the oldest and largest daily, many-faceted cultural heritage has the New Yorker Staatszeitung und come over to the new continent. The Herold, which has been published un- Germans, along with other immigrant interruptedly since 1834. It has a groups, tried for a long time to pre- daily circulation of 25,000 with 45,000 serve their old ways and to recon- on Sunday. The paper has been in struct a cultural and social environ- the hands of the Ridder family since ment similar to the one they had left. 1900, Valentine J. Peter is the owner Language preserves longer than any- of a chain of German newspapers thing else the national identity of an issued in Omaha, St. Paul, Bismarck, immigrant group. Therefore the Ger- Chicago, , Buffalo, Baltimore man language press had an important and San Francisco; one of his week- function as a bridge between the Ger- lies is published in Lincoln, , man past and the American present for the -German farmers in the of the immigrant. Central states. "The German press The German American press has a was a vital factor in the Americaniza- long and distinguished history. Chris- tion of hundreds of thousands of Ger- topher Sower, a German Quaker of man immigrants, and thereby ren- Germantown, Pennsylvania, began in dered to this nation a service which 1739 the publication of the first Ger- cannot be measured in ordinary man paper in the country. John terms," (Ludwig Oberndorf). Peter Zenger, a German immigrant A bi-monthly periodical The Amer- who published an English newspaper ican German Review (circulation in New York, became famous through 5,000) was founded in 1934 as a means his fight for the freedom of press. The of preserving the cultural heritage of number of German papers increased the German element in the United steadily during the nineteenth cen- States and of promoting intercultural tury. At the climax of German immi- relations between the old and the new gration (1893-94) there were almost country. It is published by the Carl 800 papers in the Schurz Memorial Foundation in Phil- United States. In the century after adelphia which was founded 1930 and 1830 the German press consistently was named in honor of the greatest held first place among the foreign lan- German American. During the last guage publications in the United two decades the Founda- States. "The German press has out- tion has become a very important lasted German immigration more point of crystallization for all the tenaciously than the press of other widespread efforts to record the his- foreign-speaking groups has persisted 9 tory of the Germans in the various after their immigration peak." parts of the country. The two decades after 1930 saw a Ever since the middle of the nine- steady decline of the German lan- teenth century the Germans showed guage press. In 1940 there were about a great inclination for the founding of 180 German language publications German societies. Most popular were (including all weeklies, quarterlies, the Turnvereine and Sängerbünde, trade journals, periodicals on , i. e. the gymnastic and singing socie- education, literature, etc.). In 1950 ties. The gymnastic movement, dat- their number had been reduced to ing back to the Germany of the Na-

9 Robert E. Park, The Immigrant Press and its Control, (New York, Harper, 1922), p. 320. [35] poleonic era, was brought to the American Männerchor in Philadelphia United States by some of the early and the Liederkranz in Baltimore. liberal refugees such as Competitive gymnastic and singing and Carl Beck. Later it was spread festivals were usually held on Sun- widely through the efforts of the days which was shocking to Sabba- Forty-eighters. After 1849 Turner so- tarians of the old stock of native cieties were founded in Cincinnati, Americans. The old German custom Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York of celebrating the Sunday with out- and other cities. Theoretically they ings, picnics and festivals set the Ger- propagated a harmoniously balanced mans apart from the old -Saxon development of body and mind; prac- elements. The battle between the tically they were more concerned "Continental Sunday and the Puri- with physical exercises. In the be- tan Sabbath" stretched over a cen- ginning the Turnvereine were an ex- tury of German-American history. clusively German affair; towards the What one party called the "joy of end of the nineteenth century they living" was for the others "ungodly accepted more and more non-German behavior." The stubborn resistance members. In many cities the Turner of the Germans against the American societies were responsible for the in- Blue Laws never stopped, and it was troduction of physical education in later carried over into the Dry-Wet public schools. The whole idea of struggle, in which the Germans were physical education then spread from decidedly "wet," insisting that the the Germans into the general Ameri- freedom to drink or not to drink was can public by way of the YMCA one of their sacred constitutional movement. The idea of physical edu- rights. It is interesting to see that a cation which 100 years ago was up- map of the regions opposed to prohi- held only by these German American bition coincides roughly with those societies has today a firmly estab- sections of the country which have lished place in our school curriculum; the densest settling of German immi- the emphasis has shifted largely from grants. gymnastic exercises to competitive It has often been acknowledged games. that the buoyancy of the German ele- In a similar way the singing society ment left a distinct imprint on the came to America. In 1835 and 1836 country in general. The German the two first singing societies were Americans were always ready to start founded by the Germans of Phila- some celebration at the slightest delphia and Baltimore. Thirty years provocation. On the outskirts of later there were singing societies in many a city in the "German quad- every town and city with German rangle" there was the Schützenpark stock, and they continue to flourish where thousands of people would down to the present day. The singing gather for rifle practice and other societies meet at irregular intervals amusements. Very often neighbors of for big competitive singing festivals. other nationalities took part, and this These societies have a musical as well contributed largely to spreading the as a social function, and they are custom of the Continental Sunday to perhaps the strongest instrument to the rest of the population. preserve a certain coherence among The Germans brought over their the German Americans today. How- particular way of celebrating Christ- ever, it may be added that the singing mas. The old American custom to society, originally a German and then celebrate the day resembled somewhat a German-American institution, has Halloween pranks. Mischief, uproari- been adopted by Americans of other ousness, dances and heavy drinking national origins. Thousands of glee were characteristic features. In Ger- clubs all over the country may trace many all emphasis had been placed their descent from the first German on the domestic side of the feast, the [36] family gathering, the presents on German Americans a trend towards Eve, the big dinner on certain occupations and professions. Christmas Day, the goose and the German American immigration his- cookies, the carols, candles and tory stretches over two and a half church service. The Germans intro- centuries; millions of Germans have duced the to the integrated themselves into all walks Americans, and it is well known how of American economy. The great rapidly this custom, indeed the entire masses of German immigrants had no German way of celebrating Christmas special predilection for certain occu- (including their most beloved Christ- pations. In some professions there is mas song Stille Nacht) became popu- an unproportionately high number of lar throughout the whole country. outstanding German individuals, such German folkways centering around as in music and in film production. such blissful religious events were One branch of American business readily accepted and adopted by which from its beginning was almost other Americans. But tension arose 100 percent in German hands is the when the Germans attacked organized industry. German cooking religion in a country which was still and special German dishes found their close to its Puritan origins. Among way into every American home and the German immigrants of the nine- restaurant. It is interesting to see that teenth century there was a large most of the linguistic contributions of percentage of anti-clerical elements. the Germans to American speech cen- Since in Germany the church had ter around eating and drinking: identified itself with the monarchy Frankfurter, , , and other conservative institutions, sauerbraten, schnitzel, liverwurst, all German. American liberals were pumpernickel, , zwieback, lie- either cool or even hostile towards derkranz, lagerbeer, stein, seidel, organized religion. They had a great rathskeller, katzenjammer, gesund- influence in the early socialist move- heit, etc. ment in the United States; in fact the The assimilation of the German early conventions of the American immigrants and their descendants has socialists were conducted in English advanced to such a degree that one and German. , Wilhelm can hardly speak of the German Weitling, Robert Reitzel and Joseph Americans as a distinct racial minor- Weydemeyer were the best known of ity . Since German immigration is these German American radicals.10 part of the "old" immigration with Early attempts to organize labor were its peak in the nineteenth century, greatly accelerated through German most German Americans have been immigrants who came from a country "native" for two or three generations which for a long tune was the leader and they have often lost the con- in the labor union and social security sciousness of the national identity of movement. However, it should be their forbears. There was a strong pointed out that it was a very articu- anti-German feeling in the country late but numerically small sector of during the years 1917-1920. The first German immigration which adhered World War broke through the psy- to radical ideas. The majority of the chological barriers of the Little Ger- German Americans had—and have to manies; it was the last clash between the present day—distinct conserva- and the German sector of tive tendencies in economic as well as the population. Thereafter the aware- in political matters. ness of difference disappeared more It is impossible to establish for the and more. Even the resurgence of

10Carl Wittke, Against the Current, The Life of Karl Heinzen, (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1915). Carl Wittke, Utopian Communist, A Biography of , (Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 1950). A. E. Zucker, Robert Reitzel, (Philadelphia, Americana Germanica Monograph Series, No. XXV, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1917). Karl Obermann, Joseph Weydemeyer, Pioneer of American , (New York, International Publishers, 1947). [37] German nationalism in 1933 had little ments; in fact they are respected as effect on the German Americans as a a venerable and precious institution whole. of American folklore. There is even The German Americans have been a long tradition of Pennsylvania in a predicament which no other ra- Dutch literature; the dialect poems of cial or national minority experienced. Henry Harbaugh and John Birmelin Twice within a generation they faced belong to the household goods of a situation in which their country many a Pennsylvania German fam- went to war with the land from which ily.11 Even after World War II, a their ancestors had emigrated. Any- weekly The Pennsylvania Dutchman one who comes to such a crossroad was founded which is widely read has to make a painful decision. The throughout the Middle Atlantic German Americans as a whole have fulfilled their duties as citizens and states. Pennsylvania Dutch furniture, soldiers without any qualms and china, earthenware, glass and - doubts. In German American news- work belong to the coveted posses- papers of 1917 one often finds the sions of the antique collectors. The phrase: "Keep in mind that while Landis Valley Museum near Lan- Germany is the land of our fathers, caster, Pennsylvania, founded by two this is the land of our children and old Pennsylvania Dutchmen, Henry children's children. Yonder the past and George Landis, has the most —here the future." The fact that representative collection of the physi- both conflicts took place under Demo- cal evidence of the cultural and eco- cratic administrations may have nomic development of the Pennsyl- brought German American votes to vania Dutch. the Republican Party, yet, the Ger- The waves of German immigration man American resentment (as far as that swept over the country have left there was one) never went beyond their mark on the map of almost the protest of the ballot box. every state. Hundreds of place names The only German group in the indicate the origin of their early set- country which still sets itself dis- tlers: Frankfort, ; Potsdam, tinctly apart from the rest of the New York; Bismarck, ; population is found among rural ele- Heidelberg, Pennsylvania; Anaheim, ments in the Pennsylvania Dutch ; Oldenburg, Indiana,—or counties. Whereas usually the Ger- the many names which tell the story man Americans of the second genera- of a German immigrant who here had tion gradually gave up German as a found and founded his "New World," medium of daily conversation, these such as New , Illinois; New rural groups in Pennsylvania have re- tained their Pennsylvania Dutch dia- Munich, Minnesota; New Holstein, lect through two centuries up to the Wisconsin; New Bremen, Ohio; New present day. Though native Ameri- Braunfels, Texas; New Germany, can in the sixth or seventh generation Maryland. they have for religious, sociological and economic reasons resisted a com- III. CONTRIBUTIONS TO plete integration. They form an eth- AMERICAN LIFE nocentric community completely in- Any evaluation of this kind, con- dependent of and untouched by later fined to a few pages, can give only a German immigration. Their speech, few samples, a few representative their religious and cultural habits names which must stand for hundreds have kept awake the awareness of difference, yet it is in no way resented and thousands of unknown or un- by the surrounding population ele- named individuals. There seems to be good reason to begin this enumera- tion with the contributions of the

11 Earl F. Robacker, Pennsylvania , Changing Trends from 1683 to 1942, (Phila- delphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1943). [38] Germans to the development of musi- clearly represented among American cal life and music appreciation in painters. Emmanuel Leutze's " Wash- America. We touched briefly on the ington Crossing the Delaware" (1851) musical interest of the Mährische is considered by most modern art his- Brüder to whom we owe the Bach torians a mediocre painting, yet for a Festivals in Bethlehem, Pa., and we century it has been the best known mentioned the merits of the German and most popular of all American his- singing societies. The cultural climate torical pictures. Albert Bierstadt in- in early American was not conducive troduced the Düsseldorf style into to the growth of interest in music. American landscape painting; his The austerity of the New England Western landscapes (such as " Storm Puritans receded gradually when the in the Rockies" or " Mount Corco- love for music spread from the Ger- ran") still have a strong appeal to- man communities in the Middle At- day. One of the ablest American lantic states. Philadelphia with its painters of German stock was Frank large German population produced Duvenek whose "Whistling Boy," the first ambitious concert of classical painted in the manner of the Munich music in 1786. In the Händel school, is still widely admired. The and Haydn Society was founded in percentage of American sculptors of 1815. In the middle of the nineteenth German birth or descent is dispro- century New York followed with the portionally large, from William H. Philharmonic Society and the Ger- Rinehart, Elisabeth Ney, Karl Bitter mania Orchester. It was composed in the nineteenth century to Hans mainly of German refugees of the Schuler and Henry Rox in more re- revolution of 1848; during the first six cent years. Another field in which the years of its existence it gave almost Germans excelled was that of carica- 900 concerts in all parts of the coun- ture drawing. The first great carica- try. German musicians such as Carl turist in America was a German im- Zerrahn, Gottlieb Graupner, Karl migrant, Thomas Nast, who in his Merz figure prominently in the his- cartoons created the Republican ele- tory of nineteenth century American phant, the Democratic donkey, the music. George Henschel and Wilhelm Tammany tiger and other figures Gericke, both Germans, were the first which are still alive today. Two Ger- conductors of the Boston Symphony man-American architects, John - Orchestra. Theodore Thomas estab- meyer and Paul Pelz, drew the plans lished his orchestra in Chicago. The for the Library of Congress. Alfred Damrosch family (Leopold, the father, Stieglitz is still revered as the father and his two sons Frank and Walter) of photographic art in America. Re- held a dominant position in our musi- cently a German immigrant, Fritz cal life for many decades. In our day Eichenberg, has become known as one two of the greatest conductors, Bruno of the best book illustrators in the Walter and Fritz Reiner, and some country. outstanding composers such as Paul We mentioned before that there is Hindemith and Lukas Foss should be a great number of Germans in the mentioned. Many German names ap- movie industry, not so much among pear in the annals of the Metropolitan the actors as among the directors and Opera—the stage designer Joseph Ur- producers, from and F. ban and stage director Herbert Graf, W. Murnau of the early days, down not to mention a great number of to William Dieterle, Eric Pommer, singers. Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder. In the history of the pictorial arts Among the German-born dancers there is also a distinct German in- Hanya Holm deserves mention as she fluence. In the 1840's the Düsseldorf was instrumental in introducing school, and towards the end of the modern dancing in the United States. century the Munich school, were In the history of American letters [39] some of the best known names belong Langer and Carl Wittke; musicolo- to writers of German stock: Theo- gists Alfred Einstein and Manfred dore Dreiser, Joseph Hergesheimer, Bukofzer; Erich Auerbach and Hel- H.L. Mencken, , Louis mut Hatzfeld in romance philology; Untermeyer, Peter Viereck. Thomas Oscar Hagen and Erwin Panofsky in Mann is the greatest representative art history; , Wil- of the large number of outstanding helm Pauck and in the- German writers who left their coun- ology; K. A. Wittfogel in sinology; try at the beginning of the Hitler Herbert von Beckerath, Adolf Loewe regime and found refuge in America. and Arthur Salz in economics; Walter In the history of American educa- Gropius in architecture; Bernhard V. tion German influence is especially Bothmer in archaeology; Ernst Levy noticeable on the lowest and on the in jurisprudence; Robert Ulich in edu- highest level of our system: in the cation; Wolfgang Koehler in psychol- and the university.12 ogy. In the field of psychiatry the Friedrich Fröbel, the originator of the share of German immigrants and their kindergarten had disciples and follow- descendants is very conspicuous. The ers in Europe and America. The first fame of the psychiatric clinics of Karl American kindergarten was founded A. and William C. Menninger in To- in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1856. In peka, has spread over the the next year others followed in Co- whole world. lumbus, Ohio, Hoboken, N. J., and As a unique contribution of the , D.C. (all operated by Germans we would like to mention Germans), and soon others were es- their share in the development of the tablished all over the country. science of forestry, which always was The German university served as a particularly cultivated in Germany model when in the last quarter of the and for a long time was dangerously nineteenth century the American neglected in the United States. Carl undergraduate college expanded into Schurz during his years in the De- a university and graduate school. partment of the Interior became in- This influence is clearly felt in the terested in this problem. Later Ger- founding of the Johns Hopkins Uni- man foresters brought the idea of versity and in the growth of the community forests to America. The major universities; however, it was most outstanding names in the his- transmitted directly from the Ger- tory of American forestry (Joseph T. man to the American institution with- Rothrock, Bernhard E. Fernow, Fili- out the intermediate help of German bert Roth) are German. Americans. It is impossible to com- Trained German technicians and pile the long roll of German scholars engineers arriving during the nine- who have taught in American univer- teenth century in a country which sities, so we must confine ourselves had no technical institutes soon occu- to a few representative names. The pied leading positions in all technical president of Hunter College, George industries. The Bridge and N. Shuster, who descended from Ger- the suspension bridge over the Ni- man immigrants, is today one of the agara River testify to the ingenuity foremost educators in the country. of John A. Roebling. Two great Men of German descent or German names figure in the history of electri- birth contributed to the growth of cal engineering: Charles P. Steinmetz scholarship in our universities: among and . A Ger- germanists Kuno Francke, Alexander man engineer in Baltimore, Othmar R. Hohlfeld and Karl Vietor; his- Mergenthaler, constructed the lino- torians Carl L. Becker, William L. type machine, one of the most revolu-

12 John A. Walz, German Influence in American Education and Culture, (Philadelphia, Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation, 1936). For the contributions of German refugees after 1933 see Maurice R. Davie, Refugees in America, (New York, Harper, 1947) and Stephen Duggan & Betty Drury, The Rescue of Science and Learning, (New York, Macmillan, 1948). [40] tionary inventions in the art of print- spread into other states such as Mary- ing. We should mention a few out- land, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas. A standing names in the development unique type of German sectarians is of the chemical industry: Dohme, a group of Volga-Germans, the Hut- , Vogler; in the manufacture of terians, who objected to military ser- optical instruments: Bausch and vice in Russia. In 1874 they left their Lomb; in piano making: Steinway, old grounds at the mouth of the Volga Knabe, Wurlitzer, Stieff; in car manu- and settled in and facturing: , , Kai- . ser; in the textile industry: Oberlaen- The influence of the German Amer- der, Thun, Janssen; in the steel in- icans in politics has never been dustry, Schwab; in the food and can- commensurate with their numerical ning business: , Schimmel; in strength. Only the generation of the the brewing industry: Schlitz, Pabst, Forty-eighters plunged into politics Anhaeuser-Busch, Blatz, Ruppert, soon after their arrival; otherwise the Schaefer, Gunther, Heurich and many others. Three German names hold a first generation of the German Ameri- prominent place in the opening of the cans usually refrained from active American Northwest: John Jacob participation in political battles. Two Astor who organized the fur trade, political issues, however, consistently Frederick Weyerhäuser who built up evoked the antagonism of the Ger- the lumber empire and mans during the nineteenth century: who built and organized the railroads and blue laws. German Amer- in the Pacific Northwest. ican historians have always proudly Three of the major churches in pointed to the fact that the earliest America were founded by Germans: protest against Negro slavery came the Lutheran, the German Reformed from the Germantown settlers in the and the United Brethren. The Ger- year 1688, drawn by Franz Daniel man immigrants of the eighteenth Pastorius and signed by the represen- century were extremely church con- tatives of the first German colonists. scious. Until the end of the nine- This anti-slavery sentiment was later teenth century the churches strength- revived by the vast majority of Ger- ened the forces of cohesiveness and man immigrants and it partly explains German group solidarity, even after the fervor with which thousands of the church language had shifted to them fought in the . The English. Henry Melchoir Muhlen- two most famous German immigrants berg is generally considered the father in the first half of the nineteenth cen- of in America; he is the tury joined the abolitionist move- patriarch of a family which distin- ment: Charles Follen, the first pro- guished itself in various realms of 13 fessor of German at Harvard Univer- public life. The United Brethren sity, and , the father were the most successful Indian mis- of Political Science in the United sionaries. German Catholic immigra- 1 tion increased during the second half States. * of the nineteenth century. The most German Americans of the second or prominent German American in the later generations frequently went into Catholic hierarchy was Cardinal politics and some of them made names George Mundelein. German sectari- for themselves as mayors of big cities ans (, , Schwenk- where they fought for good govern- felders, Dunkards) were particularly ment and reform: W. F. Havemeyer attracted to Pennsylvania but later (New York), Rudolph Blankenburg (Philadelphia), John Wagener (Charleston), William F. Broening

18 Paul A. W. Wallace, The Muhlenbergs of Pennsylvania, (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1950). 14G. W. Spindler, " Karl Follen, A Biographical Study," Jahrbuch der deutsch-amerikanischen. his- torischen Gesellschaft von Illinois, (Chicago, 1916), pp. 7-234. Frank Freidel, Francis Lieber, Nineteenth Century Liberal, (Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 1947). [41] (Baltimore), Adolph Sutro (San In the histories of the wars of the Francisco), Henry L. Yesler (Seat- United States there is an abundance tle). On the gubernatorial level Gus- of German names. A former Prussian tav Koerner and John Peter Altgeld officer, General Frederick William figure prominently in the annals of Steuben, has always been given credit the state of Illinois. Senator William for welding the courageous but unor- E. Borah of and Senator Robert ganized guerilla troops of 1776 into a F. of New York held domi- disciplined, well drilled army. Con- nant positions on Capitol Hill for gress honored him through a statue in many years. Men of German extrac- Lafayette Park "in grateful recogni- tion are to be found in cabinet posts tion of his services to the American of various administrations since the people in their struggle for liberty." Civil War: John Wanamaker, George Other German Americans lived up to von L. Meyer (Postmaster General), the Steuben tradition. General Jean Charles Nagel (Commerce), George DeKalb also in the Revolutionary H. Dern (War), Lewis B. Schwellen- War, General Franz Siegel in the Civil bach (Labor), John W. Snyder War, Admiral Winfield Scott Schley (Treasury), Carl Schurz, Harold L. in the Spanish American War, General Ickes, Julius A. Krug (Interior). Carl John Pershing in the first World War. Schurz, who distinguished himself as The military leaders who headed the a general in the Civil War, as minister three branches of our Armed Services to Spain, as senator from Missouri during the second World War are all and as one of the closest collaborators men of German descent: Dwight D. of President Hayes, accomplished his Eisenhower, Chester W. Nimitz, Carl most creditable achievements in his A. Spaatz. German-born general Wal- successful efforts to inaugurate the ter Krueger became famous for his long needed Civil Service reform. successful operations in the Pacific. "His pen and tongue were constantly Krueger, Wagner, Schurz, Follen, and vigorously active on behalf of hu- Steuben, Pastorius—the names of out- man liberty and honest government," standing Americans of German birth (Wendell L. Willkie) .15 Carl Schurz are spread over almost three centuries has long been considered by his Ger- of American history. Those in the man American compatriots as the limelight of history and those in the symbol of civic virtue and as the ex- obscurity of the masses of immigrants emplary immigrant. We mentioned integrated themselves into the rhythm previously that towards the end of of the new country and did their the nineteenth century German work- share to shape its fate. Wendell Will- ers were very active in the early kie whose grandparents immigranted American labor movement, and one from Germany said of Carl Schurz: of the best known labor leaders today, "His life proved that true American- Walter P. Reuther, is descended from ism is a matter of spirit, not of birth." German immigrants. We are sure that the great German No presidential candidate of Ger- American would have accepted this man descent was ever elected until praise for himself and as the repre- the election of 1952. Dwight D. sentative of many millions of fellow Eisenhower is the first President immigrants. whose ancestors of paternal and ma- ternal lineage immigrated from Ger- many.

15 Wendell L. Willkie, "They Were Giants in Those Days," American-German Review, IX (1942), ii, 4. [42] SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Child, Clifton J., The German-Americans in sylvania Press, 1943. Surveying the chang- Politics, 1914-1917. Madison, Wisc.: Uni- ing trends of Pennsylvania Dutch litera- versity of Wisconsin Press, 1939. Discus- ture from 1683 to 1942. sing in particular the activities of the Rosengarten, J. G., The German Soldier in the National German-American Alliance and Wars of the United States. Philadelphia: its part in the presidential election of 1916. J. B. Lippincott, 1886. Useful collection of material. Cunz, Dieter, The Maryland Germans, A His- tory. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer- Schneider, C. E., The German Church on the sity Press, 1948. Comprehensive history of American Frontier. St. Louis: Eden Pub- three hundred years of German immigra- lishing Company, 1939. Lutheran church tion and settlements in Maryland. history. Douglass, Paul P., The Story of German Schrader, F. F., Germans in the Making of Methodism. New York; Methodist Book America. Boston: The Stratford Com- Concern, 1939. Methodist circuit riders pany, 1924. Popularizing treatment giving among nineteenth century German immi- a broad survey. grants. Walz, John A., German Influence in American DuBois, Rachel and Schweppe, Emma, The Education and Culture. Philadelphia: Germans in American Life. New York: Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation, 1936. Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1936. Condensed Important contribution to the history of well written survey, written primarily for intercultural relations. high school students. Wittke, Carl, German-Americans and the Faust, Albert B., The German Element in the World War. Columbus: Ohio State Ar- United States. Two volumes in one. New chaeological and Historical Society, 1936. York: Steuben Society of America, 1927. A very thorough investigation, regionally The outstanding older work in this field, somewhat limited to Ohio, yet allowing indispensable for research in German- general conclusions. American studies. "Wittke, Carl, Refugees of Revolution, The Ger- Fuess, Claude M., Carl Cchurz, Reformer. man Forty-eighters in America. Philadel- New York: Dodd Mead & Co., 1932. phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, The most recent comprehensive biography 1952. A comprehensive history of this of Carl Schurz. important segment of German immigra- tion, showing the impact of the Forty- Hawgood, John A,, The Tragedy of German eighters on American civilization. America. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1939. The story of the rise of German Wood, Ralph, The Pennsylvania Germans. immigration in the nineteenth century, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University with particular emphasis on colonization Press, 1942. A symposium dealing with projects in Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin. various aspects of Pennsylvania German life and history. Klees, Fredric, The Pennsylvania Dutch. New York: MacMillan Company, 1950. The Zucker, A. E., The Forty-eighters, Political most comprehensive description of the his- Refugees of the German Revolution of tory, traditions, customs and mores of the 1848. New York: Columbia University people in the Pennsylvania Dutch or Press, 1950. A cooperative volume, eleven Pennsylvania German counties in South- scholars, discussing this phase of German eastern Pennsylvania. immigration, the part of the Forty-eighters in American politics, turner movement, Robacker, Earl F., Pennsylvania German Lit- Civil War etc., with a biographical index erature. Philadelphia: University of Penn- of 300 outstanding Forty-eighters.

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