THE GERMAN
IN
BALTIMORE.
The German in Baltimore.
By Rev. J. G. Morris, D. D., L. L. D.
THE German, like the New Englander, or we may safely
say, the United States American, is found every where,
in all lands, in all climates and among all peoples, and
he can say of himself what Schiller puts into the mouth of
Emperor Charles V.
„In meinem Staate geht die Sonne nicht unter." (The sun
never sets in my dominions.)
In the cities of Mexico and South America there are more
German merchants, physicians, artists and mechanics of all sorts
than there are North Americans. The sea ports of West and
South Africa, of India and China and Australia—indeed in all
places of trade and progressive business and enterprise all the
world over—you will find the German industriously and success-
fully prosecuting his various pursuits. He seems to be the
world's merchant abroad as his country men are the world's
teachers at home.
One would almost think that Shakespeare (Taming of the
Shrew, Act 1, Scene 1) had the German prophetically in view
when he spoke of another man as being "A merchant of great
traffic through the world."
But my theme is "The German in Baltimore" and that
people must be an important factor in our city's economy
when we learn from the census of 1890 that of a population
of 434,439, 101,112 are Germans and that the present German
population, and including the first generation, cannot be less than
about 105,000, being over 23 per cent., and all of whom speak
the German language at their homes and with most of whom
12
it is the language of business and of social intercourse and of
worship. Add to these their immediate descendants born here
and yon have a population of Germans and of recent settlers
and their offspring of about 105,000. This cannot be said of
any foreign people resident here, although we have the repre-
sentatives of 24 foreign nations, all of whom use their own
original language as the medium of communication.
In 1893, I furnished the following synopsis for the
"Sun:"
GERMANIZING THE CITIES.
Milwaukee Heads the List, While Baltimore is 38th in Order.
German papers have lately been discussing the question
which of the cities in the United States that have over 25,000
inhabitants counts the largest percentage of Germans among
its population ? It is well known that New York and Chicago
figure highest in the number of their Teutonic residents. The
former, with its 583,154 Germans, ranks as the third greatest
"German" community in the world, since it is only surpassed
in this respect by Berlin and Vienna. But which is "the most
German city" in America, or, as our German-American fellow-
citizens put it, "welches ist die deutscheste Stadt in Amerika?"
From a list of 124 towns of the United States whose population
exceeds 25,000 it is seen that it is Milwaukee. Hoboken comes
next, New York only in the tenth, Chicago in the twelfth and
Baltimore in the thirty-eighth place.
The following is part of the above-mentioned list, taken from
the census of 1890, the numbers of the first column indicating
the order of percentage:
13
No.
City.
Population.
Germans.
Percentage.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
23
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
41
42
46
48
49
63
65
60
65
71
73
74
78
90
91
92
9i
95
97
98
99
102
103
106
108
112
113
114
115
Milwaukee
Hoboken ...
Davenport
Detroit .....
Buffalo ...... .
Cincinnati .
Cleveland ...
Dubuque ...
Quincy ......
New York . .
Toledo ......
Chicago .....
St. Louis ...
Newark.. ..
La Crosse. .
Fort Wayne
Long Island City ....
Allegheny .
Rochester
.
St. Paul ....
Saginaw ....
Covington
.
Dayton ......
Wheeling
..
Evansville
.
Pittsburg ..
Erie ..........
Akron
.......
Brooklyn ....
Peoria .......
Canton ......
.
Elisabeth City
Jersey City
... .
Syracuse
...
San Francisco
Utica
........
San Antonio .
Baltimore
..
Louisville ..
Galveston ..
Albany ......
Indianapolis .
Philadelphia .
St. Joseph, Mo .
Omaha
......
Reading
....
Denver...
..
Minneapolis
Kansas City, Mo
....
New Orleans .
Kansas City, Kans
.
Washington, D. C ...
Wilmington, Del ....
Harrisburg
Salt Lake ..
Memphis ...
Savannah
..
Charleston, S. C .
...
Boston
......
Mobile ......
Nashville ...
Richmond ..
Providence
Augusta, Ga .
Atlanta, Ga
Norfolk
....
Worcester, Mass
204,468
43,648
26,872
205,876
255,664
296,908
261,353
30,311
31,494
1,515,301
81,434
1,099,850
451,770
181,830
25,090
35,392
30,506
105,287
133,896
133,896
46,322
37,371
61,220
34,552
50,758
238,617
40,634
27,601
806,343
41,024
26,189
37,764
183,003
88,143
298,997
44,007
37,573
434,439
161,129
29,084
94,923
105,436
1,046,964
52,324
140,452
58,661
106,713
164,738
132,716
242,039
38,316
188,932
61,431
39,385
44,843
64,495
43,189
54,955
448,477
31,076
76,168
81,388
132,148
33,300
65,532
34,871
84,655
135,142
24,682
15,072
87,738
106,092
120,941
103,999
12,041
12,139
583,154
30,300
406,600
167,542
68,962
9,029
12,717
10,440
33,814
42,926
42,912
13,999
10,930
17,033
9,612
13,798
64,824
13,310
7,267
134,499
10,663
6,715
9,607
64,824
21,000
70,699
10,390
8,542
101,112
35,438
6,041
18,509
19,566
188,707
8,580
22,390
7,980
14,484
21,002
16,149
28,642
4,142
15,886
4,757
2.950
3,041
4,248
2,690
3,377
26,839
1,340
2,966
2,855
4,310
864
1,634
766
1,478
66.10
56.54
46.09
42,60
41.50
40.73
39.79
39.72
38.54
38.47
38.15
37.20
37.08
36.94
35.99
35.90
34.26
32.11
32.04
31.99
30.10
29.62
29.26
27.82
27.17
27.17
26.86
26.33
26.09
26.03
25.62
25.44
24.89
23.81
23.64
23.62
23.38
23.28
21.98
21.76
19.46
18.53
18.02
16.69
15.94
13.99
13.56
12.60
12.02
11.83
10.80
7.75
7.73
7.49
6.77
6.67
6.24
6.14
5.98
4.27
3.89
3.58
3.21
2.59
2.50
2.21
1.75
14
Some years ago I read a short paper before this Society
on the languages spoken in families and in business in this city,
and the German far exceeded all the rest of foreign languages,
and as it may perhaps be of a little interest to some of you,
I will here repeat the result of my enquiries into this subject
quite recently. From good and competent authority added to
my own research, I find that the following 24 languages and
dialects are spoken in families and in trade in this city:
English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Low Dutch, Danish,
Swedish, Norwegian, Bohemian, Polish, Slavakish, Moravian,
Lithuanian, Russian, Greek, Roumanian, Finnish, Hungarian,
Turkish, Welsh, Irish, Chinese, Japanese.
If any person is curious on this subject and wants what
may be called signal proof of the extent and influence of
foreigndom, especially German, let him look at the signs on
Baltimore street, between Eutaw and Gay, and he will find
over one half of foreign names, and if he should extend his
researches into Marsh Market Space or Harrison street he would
find a larger proportion.
I will not enter upon the early history of this people here—
I mean that of their immigration and settlement, but proceed
at once to consider the German of the present day in our
city—his character, pursuits, thrift, industry, influence, success
in every department of human activity, as far as is necessary
for illustration.
Between 1745—'48 some German emigrants settled in what
was then the village of Baltimore but they did not come
immediately from Germany but from York, Pa. Two of these,
Leonard and Samuel Barnitz, established the first brewery here
which was located at the place so familiar to us, the S. W.
corner of Baltimore and Hanover streets, and the name of
Barnitz remains with us to this day.
In this connection it may be as well to state that the first
glass blowing factory established in Maryland was by a Ger-
man named Amelung in Frederick Co., but it was subsequently
moved to Baltimore Co. and some specimens of his work are
still in the possession of his descendants in the city at present.
15
You are aware that the first paper maker in this country
was a German but not a Baltimorean; his name was Rittenhouse
of Germantown and a near relative of the Astronomer.
When the revolution broke out there were Germans enough
in Baltimore and the surrounding counties to make a full
regiment besides an artillery company who served with distinc-
tion under Gen. Smallwood. The famous "Maryland Line"
was composed largely of Germans. The battalions commanded
by Michael Cresop and Morgan consisted mainly of Germans
as well as Pulaski's and Armand's Legions.
But let me come to definite subjects.
The German tongue is tuned to melody and the German
language beautifully accords with song. The rich storehouses
of these incomparable harmonies have been conveyed by the
German beyond the borders of his fatherland and they are
heard and admired in every quarter of the civilized world.
Not only in the German bat in the English language the
full toned originally German notes ring out harmoniously.
The cultivation of music, vocal and instrumental, which
has been so wonderfully developed in the United States during
the past 50 years is incontestibly the result of German science,
taste and masterly instruction.
The Germans now lift the banner of music higher than
any other people. German song and singers are important
factors in the development of the beautiful art and in the
cultivation and ennobling of the lofty sentiments inspired by
soul enrapturing music.
Nearly all our great performers in concerts, in orchestras,
our music professors in Institutes and Academies, and wherever
else the art is taught or practised are Germans.
In Baltimore alone there are 15 distinct Singing Associa-
tions of high scientific and artistic character, and we can easily
conceive what an influence this combination of talent has upon
a community of which nearly every child is taught music from
its earliest youth and hears the sound of it in the family and
school every day.
16
We may all adopt the sentiment of the poet:
"God is its author and not man; He laid
The key-note of all harmonies; He planned
All combinations, and He made
Us so that we could hear and understand."
M. G. BRAINARD.
Pedagogy or the science of teaching has been cultivated
to a greater extent by the Germans than by any other people,
and that nation that claims without dispute to be the school-
master of Europe should know how to impart knowledge.
The Pestalozzi system is German—the Kindergarten by its name
betrays its origin, and here let me depart a little from the
text and say a few words of the transfer of German words
over into the English of which there are fewer than from
most other European languages—Kindergarten (Child's Garden)
or Infant School, or Child's School would have been to common,
but they call it Kindergarten. The few other German words
thus used as English are Sauerkraut, Lager Bier, Meerschaum,
Smear Kaes, Kohl Slaw, Zwieback.
Wherever the Germans settle the first public buildings
however humble, are a church and a school house, and so it
was in Baltimore. The first German school house established
in Baltimore was in 1758 at the S. E. corner of Holliday and
Saratoga streets. Since that day the school interest has been
vigorously maintained with various degrees of success, and
Scheib's, Knapp's, Deichmann's and other private or parochial
schools have been conducted with great success.
The Public schools have of course superseded many private
establishments, but does it not show a public influence of com-
manding force that our authorities were compelled to establish
English-German schools at the public expense. No other
people could now secure such privileges, but the benefit was
not intended to ensure to German children only in being taught
English, but to American children being taught German. This
proposition was at first vigorously opposed but gradually the
cause gained favor and the act was passed in March 1873, and
it is an interesting fact that the liberal design was first
proposed, and finally carried through by the persevering energy
of Anglo-Americans exclusively.
17
I see that John T. Ford was on the Committee. He was
in his boyhood a Sunday school scholar of mine, and it was in
that school he learned this broad philanthropy and enlightened
public spirit.
We all remember when French was the fashionable and of
course the predominant foreign tongue taught in the schools
and in private, and while French is very properly pursued by
those who have taste for language or who desire to acquire
enough of travellers' French to enable them to get their
baggage through a French custom house, German is the
language studied by all who see the business advantage of it
here at home or who intend to prosecute studies of the highest
order, for it is an accepted fact among men of advanced
education that the ability to read the German writers in their
own prolific language is an incalculable advantage.
I do not mean that a man cannot be proficient in history
art, science, linguistics, philosophy or theology, or in any other
branch of human knowledge without the German language,
far from it, but there must be some advantage gained from
the lectures of eminent professors in more than a dozen famous
universities, and it is the desire to sit at the feet and learn
from those mighty German Gamaliels, which leads so many
young American and even English students to frequent the
German universities.
The various benevolent and reformatory institutions founded
and supported by these people show their laudable public
spirit and their generous efforts towards alleviating the sufferings
of humanity.
The Orphan House in Aisquith street has secured the
sympathy of the whole German community of the city and is
a monument of charity of the loftiest character.
The Home for the Aged in W. Baltimore street is an
institution of the highest rank in that sphere of benevolence
in which a large number of aged destitute people are kindly
protected until their last day.
The Jewish Orphan House, also German, was founded by,
the liberal gift of $30,000 from W. S. Rayner and wife, but
18
was burned down in 1874 and rebuilt by the liberality of the
Israelitish people. (It is located in the Western suburbs on
what was called the old Alms House lot.)
The Jewish Hospital in East Baltimore is another noble
evidence of German humanity and is a proud monument of
the kindly feelings of that people towards their suffering
compatriots.
The German Society of Maryland is one of the oldest
institutions of that character in the city. It was founded in
1817 and among its original supporters and first officers are
the names of nearly all the most substantial German citizens
of those days.
I cannot specify the names of other Societies and Unions
which contemplate the relief of suffering humanity, but must
be satisfied with simply stating that besides those mentioned
there are fifteen other German Societies in Baltimore which aim
at the relief of the poor, the sick and the aged.
But there is one other on which I must dwell for a
moment because its purposes and pursuits are so analogous to
those of our own Association. It is the Society for the History
of the Germans in Maryland, which was founded on January
6th, 1886, and meets every month. It has published a volume
of transactions consisting of articles in both languages on
subjects intimately connected with the history of the Germans
in this state and it has abundant material on hand for another
volume.
It has published some interesting facts in relation to the
active and patriotic part which the Germans of Maryland
took in the war of Revolution, and how they distinguished
themselves in many a hard fought battle. It was through the
efforts of this Society that a long unknown muster roll of a
regiment known as the "German Rifles" was unearthed in the
State House at Annapolis and afterwards printed, and from
this and some other facts it was first made generally known
that the Germans shared largely in the revolutionary war.
The proceedings of this Society are bilingual. A paper
read in English may be criticized in German or vice versa.
19
A speaker may begin his remarks in German and finish them
in English or the contrary.
The Society has a fair library and has received some
donations from some German princes and other men of rank
and influence.
It also exchanges its publications with similar institutions
who seem to be very anxious to obtain them.
There are thirty-two places of worship in Baltimore in which
all the pulpit instruction is imparted in the German language.
There are five German Banks, three Fire Insurance Companies.
There are eight German Newspapers: Correspondent, Journal,
Sonntags-Post, Bayerisches Wochenblatt, Katholische Volks-
zeitung, Volksfreund und Biene, Wecker, Zions-Kirchenblatt;
five Bookstores, and a number of Club-houses with large
German libraries.
In every department of human activity, in every profession,
in commerce, trade, invention, education, legislation, in the
courts and in the church, in the professor's chair or at the
author's desk, in philosophy, theology, scholarship, music, paint-
ing, sculpture and sterling citizenship, in a word, in every
pursuit which ennobles human nature, the German maintains
an equal rank with the most exalted of all other nations.—
"The grand achievement of German brawn and brain in the
work of building up the American nation" and of perpetuat-
ing its glory are acknowledged by all intelligent persons.
Wherever German people have been settled long, their
influence as a thrifty, enterprising, educational race is univer-
sally felt, although every body may not be conscious of it
and that people who at home have done the thinking of the
educated world, as is claimed by men who understand this
subject, must wield a silent influence that is irresistible.
I have much more to say on this subject but I have not
time to day, and will conclude by quoting the words used
by President Gilman in an address to the Germans at the
Blunschli Commemoration in 1882:
"Ad illuminantes gentes, Germania!"
" Germany, the enlightener of the nations!"
 |