55 Facts About German Americans

1.

German Americans are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry.

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2.

German Americans established the first kindergartens in the United States, introduced the Christmas tree tradition, and introduced popular foods such as hot dogs and hamburgers to America.

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3.

German Americans was followed in 1608 by five glassmakers and three carpenters or house builders.

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4.

German Americans Catholics did not arrive in number until after the War of 1812.

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5.

Less than 150 of those first indentured German Americans farmers made it to Louisiana and settled along what became known as the German Americans Coast.

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6.

German Americans's letter said "these 9, 000 Germans, who were raised in the Palatinate were in Arkansas.

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7.

In North Carolina, German Americans Moravians living around Bethlehem, Pennsylvania purchased nearly 100, 000 acres from Lord Granville (one of the British Lords Proprietor) in the Piedmont of North Carolina in 1753.

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8.

German Americans immigrants settled in other areas of the American South, including around the Dutch Fork area of South Carolina, and Texas, especially in the Austin and San Antonio areas.

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9.

German Americans farmers were renowned for their highly productive animal husbandry and agricultural practices.

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10.

Whereas half of German Americans immigrants settled in cities, the other half established farms in the Midwest.

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11.

Negatively influenced by the violation of their rights and cultural persecution by the Tsar, the Germans from Russia who settled in the northern Midwest saw themselves a downtrodden ethnic group separate from Russian Americans and having an entirely different experience from the German Americans who had emigrated from German lands; they settled in tight-knit communities who retained their German language and culture.

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12.

Sentiment among German Americans was largely anti-slavery, especially among Forty-Eighters.

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13.

German Americans helped secure the votes of German-Americans across the United States for Abraham Lincoln.

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14.

When Raster died the Chicago Tribune published an article regarding his service as a correspondent for America to the German states saying, "His writings during and after the Civil War did more to create understanding and appreciation of the American situation in Germany and to float U S bonds in Europe than the combined efforts of all the U S ministers and consuls.

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15.

Western railroads, with large land grants available to attract farmers, set up agencies in Hamburg and other German Americans cities, promising cheap transportation, and sales of farmland on easy terms.

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16.

Relatively few German Americans held office, but the men voted once they became citizens.

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17.

In 1900, many German Americans Democrats returned to their party and voted for Bryan, perhaps because of President William McKinley's foreign policy.

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18.

The German Americans had voted 80 percent for Lincoln in 1860, and strongly supported the war effort.

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19.

The German Americans were angered by a proposed Missouri state constitution that discriminated against Catholics and freethinkers.

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20.

Hugo Munsterberg, a German Americans psychologist, moved to Harvard in the 1890s and became a leader in the new profession.

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21.

German Americans was president of the American Psychological Association in 1898, and the American Philosophical Association in 1908, and played a major role in many other American and international organizations.

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22.

German Americans's Fortnightly Review was a major conservative voice read closely by church leaders and intellectuals from 1894 until 1934.

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23.

German Americans provided lengthy commentary regarding the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the anti-Catholic factor in the presidential campaign of 1928, the hardships of the Great Depression, and the liberalism of the New Deal.

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24.

One person was killed by a mob; in Collinsville, Illinois, German Americans-born Robert Prager was dragged from jail as a suspected spy and lynched.

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25.

Questions of German American loyalty increased due to events like the German bombing of Black Tom island and the U S entering World War I, many German Americans were arrested for refusing allegiance to the U S War hysteria led to the removal of German names in public, names of things such as streets, and businesses.

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26.

The Alien Registration Act of 1940 required 300, 000 German Americans-born resident aliens who had German Americans citizenship to register with the Federal government and restricted their travel and property ownership rights.

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27.

Many Americans of German ancestry had top war jobs, including General Dwight D Eisenhower, Admiral Chester W Nimitz, and USAAF General Carl Andrew Spaatz.

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28.

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.

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29.

Today, German Americans who immigrated after World WarII 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.

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30.

Four major US regions, German Americans was the most-reported ancestry in the Midwest, second in the West, and third in both the Northeast and the South.

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31.

German Americans was the top reported ancestry in 23 states, and it was one of the top five reported ancestries in every state except Maine and Rhode Island.

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32.

Today, most German Americans have assimilated to the point 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, Northern Kentucky, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, MinneapolisSaint Paul, Pittsburgh, and St Louis.

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33.

German Americans was used in local schools and churches, while numerous Vereine, associations dedicated to literature, humor, gymnastics, and singing, sprang up in German Americans American communities.

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34.

German Americans tended to support the German government's actions, and, even after the United States entered World WarI, they often voted for antidraft and antiwar candidates.

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35.

German Americans immigration was on the decline, and with subsequent generations integrating into English-speaking society, the German Americans language press began to struggle.

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36.

The Old Order Amish and a majority of the Old Order Mennonites still speak dialects of German Americans, including Pennsylvania German Americans, informally known as Pennsylvania Dutch.

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37.

Hutterites are another example of a group of German Americans who continue a lifestyle similar to that of their ancestors.

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38.

The German Americans speaking "Russian" Mennonites migrated during the same time as the Hutterites, but assimilated relatively quickly in the United States, whereas groups of "Russian" Mennonites in Canada resisted assimilation.

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39.

About 250, 000 German Americans Jews had arrived by the 1870s, and they sponsored reform synagogues in many small cities across the country.

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40.

The U S has no official language, but use of German was strongly discouraged during World WarI and fell out of daily use in many places.

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41.

Cynthia Moothart O'Bannon, writing about Fort Wayne, Indiana, states that before World WarI "German Americans was the primary language in the homes, churches and parochial schools" of German Americans American settlers.

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42.

German Americans's goes on to state that "The cultural influences were so strong, in fact, that the Chicago Tribune in 1893 declared Fort Wayne a 'most German town'.

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43.

Some public opinion surveys conducted before the war showed German Americans were even more highly regarded than immigrants from the mother culture, England".

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44.

German Americans states "A key indicator of the decline of "Deutschtum" in Chicago was the census: the number identifying themselves to the census-taker as German-born plummeted from 191, 000 in 1910 to 112, 000 in 1920.

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45.

German Americans-speaking taverns, beer gardens and saloons were all shut down by Prohibition; those that reopened in 1933 spoke English.

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46.

German Americans'storians have tried to explain what became of the German Americans and their descendants.

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47.

Kazal points out that German Americans have not had an experience that is especially typical of immigrant groups.

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48.

German Americans writes: "German-American identity fell victim not only to a peculiar set of events, but to an extraordinarily high level of internal diversity.

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49.

German Americans goes on to state that German Americans in St Louis "could not be relied upon to do much of anything as a group.

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50.

The resulting lack of a unified and clearly definable German-American community explains in part why only few Americans, including those of German descent, have any idea when Steuben Day or German-American Day falls, whereas the Irish St Patrick's Day is one of America's most popular celebrations, and Columbus Day, named after the Italian explorer, is a federal holiday".

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51.

Influence of German Americans cuisine is seen in the cuisine of the United States throughout the country, especially regarding pastries, meats and sausages, and above all, beer.

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52.

German Americans bakers introduced the pretzel, which is popular across the United States.

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53.

Later German immigrants figured prominently in the rebirth of craft brews following Prohibition, culminating in the microbrew movement that swept the U S beginning in the late 1980s.

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54.

German Americans have been influential in almost every field in American society, including science, architecture, business, sports, entertainment, theology, politics, and the military.

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55.

German Americans were famous American politicians, including Carl Schurz, Friedrich Hecker, Frederick Muhlenberg, Henry Morgenthau, Sr.

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