Report of the Society for the History of Germans in Maryland

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THE GERMAN AMERICANS: IMMIGRATION

AND INTEGRATION

By DIETER CUNZ¹

In 1507, a German cartographer

Martin Waldseemüller having just

completed a map of the then known

world and looking at the great un-

explored land behind the West Indian

islands wrote into this vast, white

space the word "America," to honor

the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

Martin Waldseemüller named the

continent which was to evoke the

greatest migration of nations known

in history.

In the centuries after this baptism

of a continent millions of Germans

decided to leave their country. When

they looked over their maps, their

eyes would stop at the country, which

more and more showed signs of carto-

graphical animation, whose map pre-

sented with each successive edition

more names, lines and dots, and from

which they had received encouraging

if not luring reports of friends who

had gone there before. Millions

packed their belongings, sailed down

the Rhine or the Elbe and started

out for the adventurous and trying

voyage to a new home.

I. SETTLERS AND IMMIGRANTS

When did the first Germans come

to America? The Germans had no

seafaring tradition; they did not take

part in the first explorations of the

continent; in fact, they cannot even

claim the legendary German sailor in

Columbus' crew. Some of the acts of

naturalization show that there were

individual Germans in the colonies in

the first half of the seventeenth cen-

tury. One of the first outstanding

Germans was John Lederer from

Hamburg who wrote his record into

early American history by exploring

the Alleghany regions of Virginia and

the Carolinas, and who later gained

a great reputation as a physician in

New England. This happened around

1670. Towards the end of the 17th

century, Jakob Leisler from Frank-

furt was the leader of a revolt against

a suppressive regime in the City of

New York.

However, the history of the Ger-

mans in America is not the story of

individuals, but the history of a mass

movement. This history began on

October 6, 1683 when the ship Con-

cord landed in Philadelphia, disem-

barking thirteen German families,

weavers from Krefeld who had come

to the New World with the professed

desire "to lead a quiet, godly and

honest life." The day of the arrival

of the Concord (often called the May-

flower of German immigrants) is con-

sidered by the German Americans as

marking the beginning of their his-

tory. This first group settled six miles

outside Philadelphia (today within

the city limits) and called their settle-

ment Germantown. The leader of the

group was Franz Daniel Pastorius, a

man of unusually broad education

and marked literary ability. For

many years he served as burgomaster

and town clerk of Germantown and

was the driving spirit in its public

affairs and educational matters. His

reports on the general conditions in

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 Maryland.

[29]

Pennsylvania which he sent home to

his father in Frankfurt represent a

valuable source for the history of the

early colonies.

The real mass migration started

around 1710, and it came primarily

from the Southwestern part of Ger-

many, particularly the so-called Pala-

tinate. Economic, political and re-

ligious reasons caused this exodus.

Between 1710 and 1720 about 3000

Germans settled in the present state

of New York. In sentimental attach-

ment to their old sovereign the Duke

of Pfalz-Neuburg (who had, however,

mistreated and exploited them when-

ever possible) they named their first

settlement Newburgh. The majority

of the Germans in New York settled

along the Schoharie and Mohawk

Rivers. Place names like New Paltz,

Rhinebeck, Oppenheim, Frankfort,

Herkimer still testify to the proveni-

ence of these early German settlers.

These Germans living along the

frontier were noted for the peaceful

relations they maintained with the

Indians. One of them, Conrad Weiser,

practically grew up with an Indian

tribe.² He spoke several Indian dia-

lects and knew their mentality so well

that the authorities employed him

repeatedly as a very skillful negotiator

in Indian affairs.

Unfortunately there was from the

beginning some tension between the

Germans and the New York authori-

ties. The friction grew to such an

extent that finally quite a number of

the settlers in the Mohawk valley

moved south to Pennsylvania which

during the entire eighteenth century

was the center of German immigra-

tion. Pennsylvania attracted the

greatest number of German new-

comers. They concentrated particu-

larly in the Southeastern part of the

state, in such counties as Lehigh,

Montgomery, Berks, Chester, Lan-

caster, York—the region which to the

present day is called the "Pennsyl-

vania Dutch" country.³ Folklorists

are divided into two feuding schools

of thought whether these people

should be called the Pennsylvania

Dutch or the Pennsylvania Germans.

Yet there is general agreement that

they were the best farmers of early

America and that their progressive

farming methods over two centuries

have made the soil more and more

fertile. The Pennsylvania Germans

retained stubbornly their old folk-

ways and customs. They even pre-

served in the midst of an English-

speaking country their peculiar Penn-

sylvania Dutch language, the dialect

of the Palatinate with naturally a

considerable admixture of English

words. In spite of this apparent re-

sistance to integration, the Pennsyl-

vania Germans belong into the pic-

ture of American history as much as

the New England Yankees, the Span-

ish in Florida or the French in

Louisiana.

During the eighteenth century the

American colonies between the Hud-

son and the Potomac (today often

called the Middle Atlantic states)

received the strongest influx of Ger-

man immigrants. Whereas New Eng-

land and the South were character-

ized through a distinct British texture,

the Hudson-Potomac section soon be-

gan to represent "that composite

nationality which the contemporary

United States exhibits, that juxta-

position of non-English groups." (F.

J. Turner) . The very presence of the

Germans helped to evolve the demo-

cratic system which has been the

basis of the country throughout its

history. The German immigrants

were the largest group of non-English

speaking settlers. None of them be-

longed to the official Anglican church;

thousands of them were sectarians.

The first in these states could live

with the newcomers only if this " New

World" was based on the funda-

ments of political and religious toler-

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).

Ralph Wood (ed.), The Pennsylvania Germans, (Princeton, N. J., Princeton University Press, 1942).

Fredric Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, (New York, MacMillan, 1950). See also the serial publications of

the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society.

[30]

ance. This society could exist only if

the settled majority would volun-

tarily established the rights of the

minority. To be sure, the Germans

were not very active in politics, but

through their mere presence they

contributed to the development of the

principles of American democracy.

From the original German popula-

tion reservoir in Southeastern Penn-

sylvania German farmers soon spread

out over the neighboring states.

Through careful estimates, we know

that on the eve of the American Rev-

olution there were a little more than

100,000 Germans in Pennsylvania,

that is to say, about one third of the

Pennsylvania population. Thousands

moved on to New Jersey, Delaware,

Maryland and Virginia. In Maryland

they deserve special credit for open-

ing the hinterland, for developing

grain production in a colony which so

far had a dangerously lopsided to-

bacco economy.

The Germans, com-

ing from Pennsylvania and moving

through "Western Maryland, pushed

forward through the Shenandoah Val-

ley in Virginia and they extended this

long wedge of German farmers along

the Alleghany mountains down into

the Carolinas.

It is no coincidence

that the German word "hinterland"

was adopted by the American lan-

guage. In most of the Atlantic states

the Germans settled not in the sea-

shore counties, but in the backwoods,

in the hinterland.

At the same time while the land

along the mountain range received

this influx of Pennsylvania German

stock, there was also immigration

coming directly from Germany.

Thousands of German immigrants

landed in Annapolis and from there

went to Baltimore or the Western

Maryland counties. In the South,

Charleston, S. C. became the distrib-

uting center of the new arrivals from

Central Europe. In North Carolina

Swiss and German settlers founded

New Bern. In the interior the Mora-

vians (in spite of this name a pre-

dominantly German sect, led to

America by the Silesian Count Zin-

zendorf) founded the colony of

Winston-Salem.

Bethlehem, Penn-

sylvania became the other center of

the Mährische Brüder (Moravian

Brethren). Their special contribution

to American culture consists in their

beautiful church music. The southern-

most German settlement in colonial

times was Ebenzer, Georgia, founded

by Protestant refugees from Salzburg

who became noted for their attempts

in the rearing of silkworms and the

manufacture of silk.

After the American Revolution the

German settlers participated in the

opening of the Transalleghany coun-

try; they pushed forward into Ken-

tucky and Tennessee and they spread

north over Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

David Zeisberger and his Moravian

missionaries converted the Indians in

the Eastern part of Ohio and estab-

lished settlements in Schönbrunn and

Gnadenhütten. Cincinnati and St.

Louis became the rallying points for

German immigrants to all the Central

states.

The first great wave of German

immigrants starting around 1710

came to an end at the time of the

Revolutionary War. A second wave

began after the Napoleonic wars,

around 1825. The first wave had been

absorbed by the Atlantic states; the

second wave went into the Midwest-

ern states, following the valleys of the

Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi.

"Whereas in the East the Germans

had come into established political

set-ups, in the Midwest their arrival

coincided with the civic and political

organization of the territories. In the

Midwestern states north of the Ohio

and east of the Mississippi the Ger-

mans constituted one of the basic

Dieter Cunz, The Maryland Germans, A History, (Princeton, N. J., Princeton University Press, 1948).

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).

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

comparable only to Pennsylvania and

Maryland in the seaboard states.

Wisconsin often has been called

"the" German state of the Union;

Milwaukee kept its distinct German

traits longer than any other American

city. Up to the present time there is

something like an irregularly shaped

"German quadrangle" on the map of

the United States, within the lines

New York—Minneapolis—St. Louis

—Baltimore. The Census of 1900

(taken at a time when the wave of

German immigration began to recede)

shows that of the fifteen cities with

the greatest percentage of German-

born, fourteen would be situated

within this "German quadrangle."

In the order of the size of the German

population they were: New York,

Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Min-

neapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, Cleve-

land, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Baltimore,

Detroit, Newark, Pittsburgh, Jersey

City—San Francisco being the only

one outside of the quadrangle. In

1900 the total population of those

fourteen cities was 10,284,710. Among

them there were 2,494,136 of German

parentage, (24.3 percent) and of

these 942,863 of German birth (9.2

percent).

We mentioned the population

figures of some big cities, yet we

should hasten to add that the Ger-

man immigrant of the nineteenth cen-

tury in general tended to go to small

towns and rural districts rather than

into large cities. Since 1830 an ever-

increasing stream of German immi-

grants flowed into the wide Mid-

western plains. Recent studies have

shown that the average German im-

migrant of the nineteenth century

was not by inclination or by choice a

frontiersman or pioneer. He settled

behind rather than along the Ameri-

can frontier, "and his function was

more often consolidation than it was

innovation." He wanted to establish

a permanent place of residence; he

invested money and labor in his land

which would yield interest perhaps

only to his sons or grandchildren; he

desired security before riches. Whereas

his neighbor of English or Irish de-

scent often stayed only a few years

and then followed the frontier, the

German would select a piece of land

and would then settle for good. He

would forget all westward moving

opportunities, but he would keep in

mind the benefits which the second

and third generation might reap from

his methods of soil conservation, from

intensive cultivation and fertilization,

from a well and a road, from a sturdy

barn and a solid stone residence. One

of the characteristics of the German

immigrant (true also of other nation-

alities) is that he sought an environ-

ment comparable to that of his home-

land; he settled preferably near a for-

est and near the water. The success-

ful farming of the Midwestern Ger-

man settler has often been noted.

"The relatively high proportion of

fully trained farmers, as well as of

skilled craftsmen among the Germans

..."

says the British historian John

A. Hawgood "naturally helped them

on the land, just as their relatively

high standard of education and large

proportion of qualified professional

men, made the Germans stand out

among the immigrants in American

cities."

Very often the Germans arrived in

groups, bound together by a common

idea, the desire to found a religious or

social Utopia. In 1805 a group of

Southern Germans, led by George

Rapp, settled at Harmony in Beaver

County, Pennsylvania, at the head of

the Ohio Valley, where they founded

a settlement in which all property

was held in common. Some years

later they moved on to the banks of

the Wabash in Indiana continuing

their communist principles, but they

later returned to Eastern Pennsyl-

vania, near Pittsburgh. An offspring

of the "Rappites" was another com-

munitarian settlement in German-

town, Louisiana. Similar German

utopian communities developed in

Zoar, Ohio; Communia, Iowa; Aurora,

Oregon; Peace Union and Teutonia,

[32]

Pennsylvania. Most of them were in-

fluenced by the teachings of Robert

Owen.

Other waves of group immigration

came about through some attempts

at founding a German state on North

American soil. The political events in

Germany have very distinct bearings

on the curves of German immigration

into the United States. When around

1830 liberal German elements began

to realize that there was little chance

for a democratic Germany, some of

them sought to realize their ideal by

founding New Germanies across the

seas. It was in essentials the desire to

transplant German civilization and

life to a region where it could develop

unhampered by the restrictions

(whether political, social or economic)

then obtaining in Germany and Eu-

rope generally, and in their new en-

vironment to keep the German set-

tlers racially distinct, geographically

isolated, and, as far as possible, politi-

cally and economically independent

of outside or alien influence or inter-

ference.

The most noteworthy of

these organized German immigrant

settlements occurred in Hermann,

Missouri and Fredericksburg and

New Braunfels, Texas,—all in the

thirties and forties of the nineteenth

century. These colonies attracted a

considerable number of German im-

migrants, and they preserved their

German characteristics for many dec-

ades. Yet, they proved to be a great

disappointment to the propagators

of the "New Germany" idea. To be

sure, these settlements became Ameri-

can towns with a predominantly Ger-

man population; however, they soon

cast off their ties to the German colo-

nization or settlement societies and

went their own ways, dictated by the

necessities of their American environ-

ment. These attempts are so interest-

ing because they show most impres-

sively that America was a "New

World," and not an extension of Old

World ideas and concepts.

A new type of German immigrant

appeared on the American scene after

the collapse of the liberal German

revolution of 1848.

The "Forty-

eighters" came to the United States

as political refugees; they considered

their sojourn a temporary exile and

planned to return at the moment

when a new democratic Germany

would emerge. However, they soon

were caught by the absorbent powers

of the new land and after a few years

most of them began to integrate

themselves into the realities of Ameri-

can life. Numerically this group

which arrived in the early fifties was

not remarkable. Yet, because they

arrived at a time when the political

fronts were being reorganized and be-

cause they were very articulate and

aggressive fighters, their intellectual

and political influence was out of pro-

portion to their small number. At no

other period did America receive a

wave of immigrants with so much

political consciousness and idealism.

Until 1850 the German immigrants

and settlers had not displayed much

interest in political life. They were

good citizens, but they took the eco-

nomic and political freedom of the

country for granted without doing too

much thinking about it. The Forty-

eighters considered it their task to

make their German-American lands-

leute conscious and alert in the mat-

ters of public life. Unlike the preced-

ing wave of German immigrants who

had a decided predilection for rural

surroundings, the Forty-eighters took

to the cities more readily than to the

countryside. Some stayed in the big

cities of the East; most of them went

to the Middle West. Here their ar-

rival coincided with the development

of the big urban centers and thus

they could here exert more political

influence than in the stable cities of

the Atlantic states. The Forty-eight-

John A. Hawgood, The Tragedy of German-America, (New York, G. P. Putnam, 1941), p. xv.

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

history of some cities such as Chicago,

St. Louis, Milwaukee and Davenport.

New-Ulm, Minnesota, was a pioneer

settlement founded by the Turner

(gymnastic societies) movement which

came to America in the wake of the

Forty-eighters. Since a great number

of the Forty-eighters were men ex-

perienced in politics and journalism,

they plunged immediately into politi-

cal life and became the flying squad-

rons of the newly founded Republican

Party. They persuaded thousands of

German voters to give up their al-

legiance to the Democratic Party

which traditionally had been the im-

migrant party, and to rally behind

the Republican banner. In 1860 they

had considerable influence on the

nomination and election of Abraham

Lincoln.

The last and highest wave of un-

restricted German immigration, arriv-

ing in America during the last third

of the nineteenth century, was not

canalized into any predominantly

German regions. It spread over the

whole country, into urban or rural

areas wherever an opportunity for

the immigrant arose. In fact, these

late German arrivals, with a high per-

centage of craftsmen, artisans, skilled

workers and small businessmen had a

greater tendency to stay in the cities.

During these decades after 1870, Lit-

tle Germany sections grew up in

many cities where the Germans had

their own newspapers, churches, so-

cieties, schools and other institutions.

One of the best known of these Little

Germanics is the one in New York

City, the Yorkville area between 70th

and 90th Streets on the Eastside.

Such sections in which one would

hear more German than English ex-

isted in many other cities: Chicago,

Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati,

Baltimore, to cite just a few.

The hundred years after 1830 were

the century of the greatest mass mi-

gration from Europe to the United

States. In the first sixty years, from

1830 to 1890, the Germans held the

leading place in this mass movement.

If we would draw a curve indicating

the ups and downs of American immi-

gration, we would see the curve of

total immigration from 1830 to 1895

roughly paralleled by the curve of

German immigration, ranging on a

correspondingly lower level. In 1854,

the first high peak in the total immi-

gration curve, the Germans furnished

about 50 percent of the total, in the

later fifties and sixties 35 percent,

later at least 33 percent. After 1895

the German share in total immigra-

tion decreased rapidly and at no time

thereafter exceeded 10 percent of the

total. Between 1830 and 1930 six mil-

lion Germans came to the United

States; five million out of these six

arrived before 1900. This shows

clearly that German immigration is

primarily a nineteenth century phe-

nomenon. Yet, as late as 1930 the

Germans with 1,600,000 held second

place (next to the Italians) among

the foreign born living in the United

States; in 1940 their number had de-

creased to 1,240,000; in 1950 to ap-

proximately 1,000,000.

German immigration declined rap-

idly after 1930; in 1933 it fell to a low

of 5 percent of the allotted quota.

Thereafter a new resurge followed.

The depression lifted, and at the same

time the Hitler regime in Germany

began to consolidate itself. Religious

persecution and political oppression

forced thousands of Germans to leave

their country. The immigration curve

began to rise again and reached its

peak in 1939 when 32,000 Germans

entered the United States. The total

of German immigration in the two

decades between 1930 and 1950 is

somewhat above 200,000. During the

twelve years of the Hitler regime

(1933-1945) more than 125,000 Ger-

mans found refuge in the United

States and integrated themselves into

the economic and social structure of

the country. The vast majority

among them became citizens. In the

decade after 1940 the number of nat-

uralizations of former German citi-

zens rose to 233,000. It is indicative

of the readiness of these late arrivals

[34]

to assimilate and to make the new

country a new home.

II. OLD WORLD HERITAGE, INTE-

GRATION AND ASSIMILATION

In the hearts of the immigrants a

many-faceted cultural heritage has

come over to the new continent. The

Germans, along with other immigrant

groups, tried for a long time to pre-

serve their old ways and to recon-

struct a cultural and social environ-

ment similar to the one they had left.

Language preserves longer than any-

thing else the national identity of an

immigrant group. Therefore the Ger-

man language press had an important

function as a bridge between the Ger-

man past and the American present

of the immigrant.

The German American press has a

long and distinguished history. Chris-

topher Sower, a German Quaker of

Germantown, Pennsylvania, began in

1739 the publication of the first Ger-

man paper in the country. John

Peter Zenger, a German immigrant

who published an English newspaper

in New York, became famous through

his fight for the freedom of press. The

number of German papers increased

steadily during the nineteenth cen-

tury. At the climax of German immi-

gration (1893-94) there were almost

800 German language papers in the

United States. In the century after

1830 the German press consistently

held first place among the foreign lan-

guage publications in the United

States. "The German press has out-

lasted German immigration more

tenaciously than the press of other

foreign-speaking groups has persisted

after their immigration peak."

The two decades after 1930 saw a

steady decline of the German lan-

guage press. In 1940 there were about

180 German language publications

(including all weeklies, quarterlies,

trade journals, periodicals on religion,

education, literature, etc.). In 1950

their number had been reduced to

sixty. The number of daily papers

shrank from 12 (1940) to 7 (1950).

Today daily German papers are pub-

lished in the following cities: New

York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleve-

land, Rochester and Omaha. New

York has the oldest and largest daily,

the New Yorker Staatszeitung und

Herold, which has been published un-

interruptedly since 1834. It has a

daily circulation of 25,000 with 45,000

on Sunday. The paper has been in

the hands of the Ridder family since

1900, Valentine J. Peter is the owner

of a chain of German newspapers

issued in Omaha, St. Paul, Bismarck,

Chicago, Denver, Buffalo, Baltimore

and San Francisco; one of his week-

lies is published in Lincoln, Nebraska,

for the Volga-German farmers in the

Central states. "The German press

was a vital factor in the Americaniza-

tion of hundreds of thousands of Ger-

man immigrants, and thereby ren-

dered to this nation a service which

cannot be measured in ordinary

terms," (Ludwig Oberndorf).

A bi-monthly periodical The Amer-

ican German Review (circulation

5,000) was founded in 1934 as a means

of preserving the cultural heritage of

the German element in the United

States and of promoting intercultural

relations between the old and the new

country. It is published by the Carl

Schurz Memorial Foundation in Phil-

adelphia which was founded 1930 and

was named in honor of the greatest

German American. During the last

two decades the Carl Schurz Founda-

tion has become a very important

point of crystallization for all the

widespread efforts to record the his-

tory of the Germans in the various

parts of the country.

Ever since the middle of the nine-

teenth century the Germans showed

a great inclination for the founding of

German societies. Most popular were

the Turnvereine and Sängerbünde,

i. e. the gymnastic and singing socie-

ties. The gymnastic movement, dat-

ing back to the Germany of the Na-

Robert E. Park, The Immigrant Press and its Control, (New York, Harper, 1922), p. 320.

[35]

poleonic era, was brought to the

United States by some of the early

liberal refugees such as Charles Follen

and Carl Beck. Later it was spread

widely through the efforts of the

Forty-eighters. After 1849 Turner so-

cieties were founded in Cincinnati,

Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York

and other cities. Theoretically they

propagated a harmoniously balanced

development of body and mind; prac-

tically they were more concerned

with physical exercises. In the be-

ginning the Turnvereine were an ex-

clusively German affair; towards the

end of the nineteenth century they

accepted more and more non-German

members. In many cities the Turner

societies were responsible for the in-

troduction of physical education in

public schools. The whole idea of

physical education then spread from

the Germans into the general Ameri-

can public by way of the YMCA

movement. The idea of physical edu-

cation which 100 years ago was up-

held only by these German American

societies has today a firmly estab-

lished place in our school curriculum;

the emphasis has shifted largely from

gymnastic exercises to competitive

games.

In a similar way the singing society

came to America. In 1835 and 1836

the two first singing societies were

founded by the Germans of Phila-

delphia and Baltimore. Thirty years

later there were singing societies in

every town and city with German

stock, and they continue to flourish

down to the present day. The singing

societies meet at irregular intervals

for big competitive singing festivals.

These societies have a musical as well

as a social function, and they are

perhaps the strongest instrument to

preserve a certain coherence among

the German Americans today. How-

ever, it may be added that the singing

society, originally a German and then

a German-American institution, has

been adopted by Americans of other

national origins. Thousands of glee

clubs all over the country may trace

their descent from the first German

American Männerchor in Philadelphia

and the Liederkranz in Baltimore.

Competitive gymnastic and singing

festivals were usually held on Sun-

days which was shocking to Sabba-

tarians of the old stock of native

Americans. The old German custom

of celebrating the Sunday with out-

ings, picnics and festivals set the Ger-

mans apart from the old Anglo-Saxon

elements. The battle between the

"Continental Sunday and the Puri-

tan Sabbath" stretched over a cen-

tury of German-American history.

What one party called the "joy of

living" was for the others "ungodly

behavior." The stubborn resistance

of the Germans against the American

Blue Laws never stopped, and it was

later carried over into the Dry-Wet

struggle, in which the Germans were

decidedly "wet," insisting that the

freedom to drink or not to drink was

one of their sacred constitutional

rights. It is interesting to see that a

map of the regions opposed to prohi-

bition coincides roughly with those

sections of the country which have

the densest settling of German immi-

grants.

It has often been acknowledged

that the buoyancy of the German ele-

ment left a distinct imprint on the

country in general. The German

Americans were always ready to start

some celebration at the slightest

provocation. On the outskirts of

many a city in the "German quad-

rangle" there was the Schützenpark

where thousands of people would

gather for rifle practice and other

amusements. Very often neighbors of

other nationalities took part, and this

contributed largely to spreading the

custom of the Continental Sunday to

the rest of the population.

The Germans brought over their

particular way of celebrating Christ-

mas. The old American custom to

celebrate the day resembled somewhat

Halloween pranks. Mischief, uproari-

ousness, dances and heavy drinking

were characteristic features. In Ger-

many all emphasis had been placed

on the domestic side of the feast, the

[36]

family gathering, the presents on

Christmas Eve, the big dinner on

Christmas Day, the goose and the

cookies, the carols, candles and

church service. The Germans intro-

duced the Christmas tree to the

Americans, and it is well known how

rapidly this custom, indeed the entire

German way of celebrating Christmas

(including their most beloved Christ-

mas song Stille Nacht) became popu-

lar throughout the whole country.

German folkways centering around

such blissful religious events were

readily accepted and adopted by

other Americans. But tension arose

when the Germans attacked organized

religion in a country which was still

close to its Puritan origins. Among

the German immigrants of the nine-

teenth century there was a large

percentage of anti-clerical elements.

Since in Germany the church had

identified itself with the monarchy

and other conservative institutions,

all German. American liberals were

either cool or even hostile towards

organized religion. They had a great

influence in the early socialist move-

ment in the United States; in fact the

early conventions of the American

socialists were conducted in English

and German. Karl Heinzen, Wilhelm

Weitling, Robert Reitzel and Joseph

Weydemeyer were the best known of

these German American radicals.

Early attempts to organize labor were

greatly accelerated through German

immigrants who came from a country

which for a long tune was the leader

in the labor union and social security

movement. However, it should be

pointed out that it was a very articu-

late but numerically small sector of

German immigration which adhered

to radical ideas. The majority of the

German Americans had—and have to

the present day—distinct conserva-

tive tendencies in economic as well as

in political matters.

It is impossible to establish for the

German Americans a trend towards

certain occupations and professions.

German American immigration his-

tory stretches over two and a half

centuries; millions of Germans have

integrated themselves into all walks

of American economy. The great

masses of German immigrants had no

special predilection for certain occu-

pations. In some professions there is

an unproportionately high number of

outstanding German individuals, such

as in music and in film production.

One branch of American business

which from its beginning was almost

100 percent in German hands is the

brewing industry. German cooking

and special German dishes found their

way into every American home and

restaurant. It is interesting to see that

most of the linguistic contributions of

the Germans to American speech cen-

ter around eating and drinking:

Frankfurter, Hamburger, sauerkraut,

sauerbraten, schnitzel, liverwurst,

pumpernickel, pretzel, zwieback, lie-

derkranz, lagerbeer, stein, seidel,

rathskeller, katzenjammer, gesund-

heit, etc.

The assimilation of the German

immigrants and their descendants has

advanced to such a degree that one

can hardly speak of the German

Americans as a distinct racial minor-

ity . Since German immigration is

part of the "old" immigration with

its peak in the nineteenth century,

most German Americans have been

"native" for two or three generations

and they have often lost the con-

sciousness of the national identity of

their forbears. There was a strong

anti-German feeling in the country

during the years 1917-1920. The first

World War broke through the psy-

chological barriers of the Little Ger-

manies; it was the last clash between

nativism and the German sector of

the population. Thereafter the aware-

ness of difference disappeared more

and more. Even the resurgence of

Carl Wittke, Against the Current, The Life of Karl Heinzen, (Chicago, University of Chicago Press,

1915). Carl Wittke, Utopian Communist, A Biography of Wilhelm Weitling, (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 Socialism, (New York, International Publishers, 1947).

[37]

German nationalism in 1933 had little

effect on the German Americans as a

whole.

The German Americans have been

in a predicament which no other ra-

cial or national minority experienced.

Twice within a generation they faced

a situation in which their country

went to war with the land from which

their ancestors had emigrated. Any-

one who comes to such a crossroad

has to make a painful decision. The

German Americans as a whole have

fulfilled their duties as citizens and

soldiers without any qualms and

doubts. In German American news-

papers of 1917 one often finds the

phrase: "Keep in mind that while

Germany is the land of our fathers,

this is the land of our children and

children's children. Yonder the past

—here the future." The fact that

both conflicts took place under Demo-

cratic administrations may have

brought German American votes to

the Republican Party, yet, the Ger-

man American resentment (as far as

there was one) never went beyond

the protest of the ballot box.

The only German group in the

country which still sets itself dis-

tinctly apart from the rest of the

population is found among rural ele-

ments in the Pennsylvania Dutch

counties. Whereas usually the Ger-

man Americans of the second genera-

tion gradually gave up German as a

medium of daily conversation, these

rural groups in Pennsylvania have re-

tained their Pennsylvania Dutch dia-

lect through two centuries up to the

present day. Though native Ameri-

can in the sixth or seventh generation

they have for religious, sociological

and economic reasons resisted a com-

plete integration. They form an eth-

nocentric community completely in-

dependent of and untouched by later

German immigration. Their speech,

their religious and cultural habits

have kept awake the awareness of

difference, yet it is in no way resented

by the surrounding population ele-

ments; in fact they are respected as

a venerable and precious institution

of American folklore. There is even

a long tradition of Pennsylvania

Dutch literature; the dialect poems of

Henry Harbaugh and John Birmelin

belong to the household goods of

many a Pennsylvania German fam-

ily.

Even after World War II, a

weekly The Pennsylvania Dutchman

was founded which is widely read

throughout the Middle Atlantic

states. Pennsylvania Dutch furniture,

china, earthenware, glass and iron-

work belong to the coveted posses-

sions of the antique collectors. The

Landis Valley Museum near Lan-

caster, Pennsylvania, founded by two

old Pennsylvania Dutchmen, Henry

and George Landis, has the most

representative collection of the physi-

cal evidence of the cultural and eco-

nomic development of the Pennsyl-

vania Dutch.

The waves of German immigration

that swept over the country have left

their mark on the map of almost

every state. Hundreds of place names

indicate the origin of their early set-

tlers: Frankfort, Kentucky; Potsdam,

New York; Bismarck, North Dakota;

Heidelberg, Pennsylvania; Anaheim,

California; Oldenburg, Indiana,—or

the many names which tell the story

of a German immigrant who here had

found and founded his "New World,"

such as New Berlin, Illinois; New

Munich, Minnesota; New Holstein,

Wisconsin; New Bremen, Ohio; New

Braunfels, Texas; New Germany,

Maryland.

III. CONTRIBUTIONS TO

AMERICAN LIFE

Any evaluation of this kind, con-

fined to a few pages, can give only a

few samples, a few representative

names which must stand for hundreds

and thousands of unknown or un-

named individuals. There seems to

be good reason to begin this enumera-

tion with the contributions of the

Earl F. Robacker, Pennsylvania German Literature, Changing Trends from 1683 to 1942, (Phila-

delphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1943).

[38]

Germans to the development of musi-

cal life and music appreciation in

America. We touched briefly on the

musical interest of the Mährische

Brüder to whom we owe the Bach

Festivals in Bethlehem, Pa., and we

mentioned the merits of the German

singing societies. The cultural climate

in early American was not conducive

to the growth of interest in music.

The austerity of the New England

Puritans receded gradually when the

love for music spread from the Ger-

man communities in the Middle At-

lantic states. Philadelphia with its

large German population produced

the first ambitious concert of classical

music in 1786. In Boston the Händel

and Haydn Society was founded in

1815. In the middle of the nineteenth

century New York followed with the

Philharmonic Society and the Ger-

mania Orchester. It was composed

mainly of German refugees of the

revolution of 1848; during the first six

years of its existence it gave almost

900 concerts in all parts of the coun-

try. German musicians such as Carl

Zerrahn, Gottlieb Graupner, Karl

Merz figure prominently in the his-

tory of nineteenth century American

music. George Henschel and Wilhelm

Gericke, both Germans, were the first

conductors of the Boston Symphony

Orchestra. Theodore Thomas estab-

lished his orchestra in Chicago. The

Damrosch family (Leopold, the father,

and his two sons Frank and Walter)

held a dominant position in our musi-

cal life for many decades. In our day

two of the greatest conductors, Bruno

Walter and Fritz Reiner, and some

outstanding composers such as Paul

Hindemith and Lukas Foss should be

mentioned. Many German names ap-

pear in the annals of the Metropolitan

Opera—the stage designer Joseph Ur-

ban and stage director Herbert Graf,

not to mention a great number of

singers.

In the history of the pictorial arts

there is also a distinct German in-

fluence. In the 1840's the Düsseldorf

school, and towards the end of the

century the Munich school, were

clearly represented among American

painters. Emmanuel Leutze's " Wash-

ington Crossing the Delaware" (1851)

is considered by most modern art his-

torians a mediocre painting, yet for a

century it has been the best known

and most popular of all American his-

torical pictures. Albert Bierstadt in-

troduced the Düsseldorf style into

American landscape painting; his

Western landscapes (such as " Storm

in the Rockies" or " Mount Corco-

ran") still have a strong appeal to-

day. One of the ablest American

painters of German stock was Frank

Duvenek whose "Whistling Boy,"

painted in the manner of the Munich

school, is still widely admired. The

percentage of American sculptors of

German birth or descent is dispro-

portionally large, from William H.

Rinehart, Elisabeth Ney, Karl Bitter

in the nineteenth century to Hans

Schuler and Henry Rox in more re-

cent years. Another field in which the

Germans excelled was that of carica-

ture drawing. The first great carica-

turist in America was a German im-

migrant, Thomas Nast, who in his

cartoons created the Republican ele-

phant, the Democratic donkey, the

Tammany tiger and other figures

which are still alive today. Two Ger-

man-American architects, John Smith-

meyer and Paul Pelz, drew the plans

for the Library of Congress. Alfred

Stieglitz is still revered as the father

of photographic art in America. Re-

cently a German immigrant, Fritz

Eichenberg, has become known as one

of the best book illustrators in the

country.

We mentioned before that there is

a great number of Germans in the

movie industry, not so much among

the actors as among the directors and

producers, from Carl Laemmle and F.

W. Murnau of the early days, down

to William Dieterle, Eric Pommer,

Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder.

Among the German-born dancers

Hanya Holm deserves mention as she

was instrumental in introducing

modern dancing in the United States.

In the history of American letters

[39]

some of the best known names belong

to writers of German stock: Theo-

dore Dreiser, Joseph Hergesheimer,

H.L. Mencken, John Steinbeck, Louis

Untermeyer, Peter Viereck. Thomas

Mann is the greatest representative

of the large number of outstanding

German writers who left their coun-

try at the beginning of the Hitler

regime and found refuge in America.

In the history of American educa-

tion German influence is especially

noticeable on the lowest and on the

highest level of our system: in the

kindergarten and the university.

Friedrich Fröbel, the originator of the

kindergarten had disciples and follow-

ers in Europe and America. The first

American kindergarten was founded

in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1856. In

the next year others followed in Co-

lumbus, Ohio, Hoboken, N. J., and

Washington, D.C. (all operated by

Germans), and soon others were es-

tablished all over the country.

The German university served as a

model when in the last quarter of the

nineteenth century the American

undergraduate college expanded into

a university and graduate school.

This influence is clearly felt in the

founding of the Johns Hopkins Uni-

versity and in the growth of the

major universities; however, it was

transmitted directly from the Ger-

man to the American institution with-

out the intermediate help of German

Americans. It is impossible to com-

pile the long roll of German scholars

who have taught in American univer-

sities, so we must confine ourselves

to a few representative names. The

president of Hunter College, George

N. Shuster, who descended from Ger-

man immigrants, is today one of the

foremost educators in the country.

Men of German descent or German

birth contributed to the growth of

scholarship in our universities: among

germanists Kuno Francke, Alexander

R. Hohlfeld and Karl Vietor; his-

torians Carl L. Becker, William L.

Langer and Carl Wittke; musicolo-

gists Alfred Einstein and Manfred

Bukofzer; Erich Auerbach and Hel-

mut Hatzfeld in romance philology;

Oscar Hagen and Erwin Panofsky in

art history; Reinhold Niebuhr, Wil-

helm Pauck and Paul Tillich in the-

ology; K. A. Wittfogel in sinology;

Herbert von Beckerath, Adolf Loewe

and Arthur Salz in economics; Walter

Gropius in architecture; Bernhard V.

Bothmer in archaeology; Ernst Levy

in jurisprudence; Robert Ulich in edu-

cation; Wolfgang Koehler in psychol-

ogy. In the field of psychiatry the

share of German immigrants and their

descendants is very conspicuous. The

fame of the psychiatric clinics of Karl

A. and William C. Menninger in To-

peka, Kansas has spread over the

whole world.

As a unique contribution of the

Germans we would like to mention

their share in the development of the

science of forestry, which always was

particularly cultivated in Germany

and for a long time was dangerously

neglected in the United States. Carl

Schurz during his years in the De-

partment of the Interior became in-

terested in this problem. Later Ger-

man foresters brought the idea of

community forests to America. The

most outstanding names in the his-

tory of American forestry (Joseph T.

Rothrock, Bernhard E. Fernow, Fili-

bert Roth) are German.

Trained German technicians and

engineers arriving during the nine-

teenth century in a country which

had no technical institutes soon occu-

pied leading positions in all technical

industries. The Brooklyn Bridge and

the suspension bridge over the Ni-

agara River testify to the ingenuity

of John A. Roebling. Two great

names figure in the history of electri-

cal engineering: Charles P. Steinmetz

and George Westinghouse. A Ger-

man engineer in Baltimore, Othmar

Mergenthaler, constructed the lino-

type machine, one of the most revolu-

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-

ing. We should mention a few out-

standing names in the development

of the chemical industry: Dohme,

Pfizer, Vogler; in the manufacture of

optical instruments: Bausch and

Lomb; in piano making: Steinway,

Knabe, Wurlitzer, Stieff; in car manu-

facturing: Chrysler, Studebaker, Kai-

ser; in the textile industry: Oberlaen-

der, Thun, Janssen; in the steel in-

dustry, Schwab; in the food and can-

ning business: Heinz, Schimmel; in

the brewing industry: Schlitz, Pabst,

Anhaeuser-Busch, Blatz, Ruppert,

Schaefer, Gunther, Heurich and many

others. Three German names hold a

prominent place in the opening of the

American Northwest: John Jacob

Astor who organized the fur trade,

Frederick Weyerhäuser who built up

the lumber empire and Henry Villard

who built and organized the railroads

in the Pacific Northwest.

Three of the major churches in

America were founded by Germans:

the Lutheran, the German Reformed

and the United Brethren. The Ger-

man immigrants of the eighteenth

century were extremely church con-

scious. Until the end of the nine-

teenth century the churches strength-

ened the forces of cohesiveness and

German group solidarity, even after

the church language had shifted to

English. Henry Melchoir Muhlen-

berg is generally considered the father

of Lutheranism in America; he is the

patriarch of a family which distin-

guished itself in various realms of

public life.

The United Brethren

were the most successful Indian mis-

sionaries. German Catholic immigra-

tion increased during the second half

of the nineteenth century. The most

prominent German American in the

Catholic hierarchy was Cardinal

George Mundelein. German sectari-

ans (Mennonites, Amish, Schwenk-

felders, Dunkards) were particularly

attracted to Pennsylvania but later

spread into other states such as Mary-

land, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas. A

unique type of German sectarians is

a group of Volga-Germans, the Hut-

terians, who objected to military ser-

vice in Russia. In 1874 they left their

old grounds at the mouth of the Volga

and settled in South Dakota and

Canada.

The influence of the German Amer-

icans in politics has never been

commensurate with their numerical

strength. Only the generation of the

Forty-eighters plunged into politics

soon after their arrival; otherwise the

first generation of the German Ameri-

cans usually refrained from active

participation in political battles. Two

political issues, however, consistently

evoked the antagonism of the Ger-

mans during the nineteenth century:

slavery and blue laws. German Amer-

ican historians have always proudly

pointed to the fact that the earliest

protest against Negro slavery came

from the Germantown settlers in the

year 1688, drawn by Franz Daniel

Pastorius and signed by the represen-

tatives of the first German colonists.

This anti-slavery sentiment was later

revived by the vast majority of Ger-

man immigrants and it partly explains

the fervor with which thousands of

them fought in the Union army. The

two most famous German immigrants

in the first half of the nineteenth cen-

tury joined the abolitionist move-

ment: Charles Follen, the first pro-

fessor of German at Harvard Univer-

sity, and Francis Lieber, the father

of Political Science in the United

States.¹*

German Americans of the second or

later generations frequently went into

politics and some of them made names

for themselves as mayors of big cities

where they fought for good govern-

ment and reform: W. F. Havemeyer

(New York), Rudolph Blankenburg

(Philadelphia), John Wagener

(Charleston), William F. Broening

Paul A. W. Wallace, The Muhlenbergs of Pennsylvania, (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania

Press, 1950).

G. 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

Francisco), Henry L. Yesler (Seat-

tle). On the gubernatorial level Gus-

tav Koerner and John Peter Altgeld

figure prominently in the annals of

the state of Illinois. Senator William

E. Borah of Idaho and Senator Robert

Wagner of New York held domi-

nant positions on Capitol Hill for

many years. Men of German extrac-

tion are to be found in cabinet posts

of various administrations since the

Civil War: John Wanamaker, George

von L. Meyer (Postmaster General),

Charles Nagel (Commerce), George

H. Dern (War), Lewis B. Schwellen-

bach (Labor), John W. Snyder

(Treasury), Carl Schurz, Harold L.

Ickes, Julius A. Krug (Interior). Carl

Schurz, who distinguished himself as

a general in the Civil War, as minister

to Spain, as senator from Missouri

and as one of the closest collaborators

of President Hayes, accomplished his

most creditable achievements in his

successful efforts to inaugurate the

long needed Civil Service reform.

"His pen and tongue were constantly

and vigorously active on behalf of hu-

man liberty and honest government,"

(Wendell L. Willkie) .

Carl Schurz

has long been considered by his Ger-

man American compatriots as the

symbol of civic virtue and as the ex-

emplary immigrant. We mentioned

previously that towards the end of

the nineteenth century German work-

ers were very active in the early

American labor movement, and one

of the best known labor leaders today,

Walter P. Reuther, is descended from

German immigrants.

No presidential candidate of Ger-

man descent was ever elected until

the election of 1952. Dwight D.

Eisenhower is the first President

whose ancestors of paternal and ma-

ternal lineage immigrated from Ger-

many.

In the histories of the wars of the

United States there is an abundance

of German names. A former Prussian

officer, General Frederick William

Steuben, has always been given credit

for welding the courageous but unor-

ganized guerilla troops of 1776 into a

disciplined, well drilled army. Con-

gress honored him through a statue in

Lafayette Park "in grateful recogni-

tion of his services to the American

people in their struggle for liberty."

Other German Americans lived up to

the Steuben tradition. General Jean

DeKalb also in the Revolutionary

War, General Franz Siegel in the Civil

War, Admiral Winfield Scott Schley

in the Spanish American War, General

John Pershing in the first World War.

The military leaders who headed the

three branches of our Armed Services

during the second World War are all

men of German descent: Dwight D.

Eisenhower, Chester W. Nimitz, Carl

A. Spaatz. German-born general Wal-

ter Krueger became famous for his

successful operations in the Pacific.

Krueger, Wagner, Schurz, Follen,

Steuben, Pastorius—the names of out-

standing Americans of German birth

are spread over almost three centuries

of American history. Those in the

limelight of history and those in the

obscurity of the masses of immigrants

integrated themselves into the rhythm

of the new country and did their

share to shape its fate. Wendell Will-

kie whose grandparents immigranted

from Germany said of Carl Schurz:

"His life proved that true American-

ism is a matter of spirit, not of birth."

We are sure that the great German

American would have accepted this

praise for himself and as the repre-

sentative of many millions of fellow

immigrants.

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

Politics, 1914-1917. Madison, Wisc.: Uni-

versity of Wisconsin Press, 1939. Discus-

sing in particular the activities of the

National German-American Alliance and

its part in the presidential election of

1916.

Cunz, Dieter, The Maryland Germans, A His-

tory. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer-

sity Press, 1948. Comprehensive history of

three hundred years of German immigra-

tion and settlements in Maryland.

Douglass, Paul P., The Story of German

Methodism. New York; Methodist Book

Concern, 1939. Methodist circuit riders

among nineteenth century German immi-

grants.

DuBois, Rachel and Schweppe, Emma, The

Germans in American Life. New York:

Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1936. Condensed

well written survey, written primarily for

high school students.

Faust, Albert B., The German Element in the

United States. Two volumes in one. New

York: Steuben Society of America, 1927.

The outstanding older work in this field,

indispensable for research in German-

American studies.

Fuess, Claude M., Carl Cchurz, Reformer.

New York: Dodd Mead & Co., 1932.

The most recent comprehensive biography

of Carl Schurz.

Hawgood, John A,, The Tragedy of German

America. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons,

1939. The story of the rise of German

immigration in the nineteenth century,

with particular emphasis on colonization

projects in Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin.

Klees, Fredric, The Pennsylvania Dutch. New

York: MacMillan Company, 1950. The

most comprehensive description of the his-

tory, traditions, customs and mores of the

people in the Pennsylvania Dutch or

Pennsylvania German counties in South-

eastern Pennsylvania.

Robacker, Earl F., Pennsylvania German Lit-

erature. Philadelphia: University of Penn-

sylvania Press, 1943. Surveying the chang-

ing trends of Pennsylvania Dutch litera-

ture from 1683 to 1942.

Rosengarten, J. G., The German Soldier in the

Wars of the United States. Philadelphia:

J. B. Lippincott, 1886. Useful collection

of material.

Schneider, C. E., The German Church on the

American Frontier. St. Louis: Eden Pub-

lishing Company, 1939. Lutheran church

history.

Schrader, F. F., Germans in the Making of

America. Boston: The Stratford Com-

pany, 1924. Popularizing treatment giving

a broad survey.

Walz, John A., German Influence in American

Education and Culture. Philadelphia:

Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation, 1936.

Important contribution to the history of

intercultural relations.

Wittke, Carl, German-Americans and the

World War. Columbus: Ohio State Ar-

chaeological and Historical Society, 1936.

A very thorough investigation, regionally

somewhat limited to Ohio, yet allowing

general conclusions.

"Wittke, Carl, Refugees of Revolution, The Ger-

man Forty-eighters in America. Philadel-

phia: University of Pennsylvania Press,

1952. A comprehensive history of this

important segment of German immigra-

tion, showing the impact of the Forty-

eighters on American civilization.

Wood, Ralph, The Pennsylvania Germans.

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University

Press, 1942. A symposium dealing with

various aspects of Pennsylvania German

life and history.

Zucker, A. E., The Forty-eighters, Political

Refugees of the German Revolution of

1848. New York: Columbia University

Press, 1950. A cooperative volume, eleven

scholars, discussing this phase of German

immigration, the part of the Forty-eighters

in American politics, turner movement,

Civil War etc., with a biographical index

of 300 outstanding Forty-eighters.

[43]