Includes all German-speaking people, whether originally from Germany proper, Austria, Switzerland, or Luxemburg
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Germans in the United States Search: Submit Search Home Encyclopedia Summa Fathers Bible Library A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > G > Germans in the United States Germans in the United States Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99... Germans, either by birth or descent, form a very important element in the population of the United States. Their number is estimated at not less than twelve millions. Under the name Germans we here understand to be included all German-speaking people, whether originally from Germany proper, Austria, Switzerland, or Luxemburg. Germans in general The landing, in the autumn of 1683, of Franz Daniel Pastorius and his little band of Mennonite weavers, from Crefeld, marks the beginning of German-American history. These early immigrants founded Germantown, Pennsylvania, where they soon built themselves a church and established a school, taught by Pastorius, who wrote for it, and published, a primer, the first original school-book printed in Pennsylvania. To this place came the German settlers who gradually spread over Montgomery, Lancaster, and Berks Counties, among them, the so-called Rosicrucians (settled near Germantown), a colony of German Friends, Quaker converts made by William Ames and visited by Penn (founded Cresheim, from Kreigsheim near Worms), and the Dunkers (Conestoga, Aphrata). From these early Pennsylvania settlers and their descendants many Americans of note have sprung, as Bayard Taylor, James Lick, Charles Yerkes, John Fritz, John Wanamaker, Charles M. Schwab, and Henry C. Frick. In 1707, a small band of Lutherans, from the Palatinate, embarked for America. They landed at Philadelphia and settled in what is now known as Morris County. In the spring of the following year, another company of fifty-two Palatines, joined by three Holsteiners, went to England and appealed to Queen Anne, praying for transportation to America. The majority of these men were farmers and one was a Lutheran clergyman, Kockerthal; on arriving in the Colonies in the winter of 1709, they were settled in the district then known as Quassaick Creek and Thankskamir (part of the territory of the present Newburgh). Another, and far more extensive, migration took place in the same year and the following; about three thousand Palatines landed in America, by way of England. The severities of the winter of 1708-09 seem to have been the chief cause of this exodus. One company, under Christopher de Graffenried and Lewis Mitchell, settled at the junction of the Neuse River and the Trent (North Carolina) and in the neighbouring country. This colony included a considerable number of Swiss, and to their first settlement they gave the name, New Berne, in memory of the native city of the two Swiss partners, de Graffenried and Mitchell. Another company of Germans was settled about the same time, by Governor Spotswood, at Germanna in Virginia, whither, a little later, many of those who had established themselves in North Carolina are said to have removed. Some ten or fifteen years after Spotswood's retirement to Germanna, a company of Germans came into Virginia from Pennsylvania, doubtless Palatines from Berks County. They settled in the lower Shenandoah Valley and founded the town of Strasburgh, just over the mountain from Germanna. By far the largest expedition of Palatines left the shores of England towards the end of January, 1710. They were settled on the Hudson (Rhinebeck, Germantown, Newburgh, West Camp, Saugerties, etc.), whence many afterwards removed to the Schoharie Valley (Blenheim, Oberweiser, Dorp, Brunnen Dorp, etc.); the Government, however, refused to recognize their title to the Schoharie lands, and some of them at last migrated in disgust to the Mohawk Valley, where their increase and the stream of German immigration that followed made the Mohawk "for thirty miles, a German river" (Mannheim, Oppenheim, Newkirk, German Flats, Herkimer, etc.). But the greater portion removed from Schoharie in 1723 to Pennsylvania, where Governor Keith, on hearing of their afflictions and unrest, offered them an asylum from all persecution. Previously to this migration from New York to Pennsylvania, thousands of Germans had sailed directly to the latter territory, and so large was the Palatine element in these and the following immigrations that the natives of all other German States, coming with them, were called by the same name. Between 1720 and 1730 the German immigration to Pennsylvania became so large as to be looked upon by the other settlers with serious misgivings; Logan, Penn's secretary, suggested the danger of the province becoming a German colony, as the Germans "settled together, and formed a distinct people from His Majesty's subjects". As early as 1739, a German newspaper was published at Germantown, and another appeared at Philadelphia in 1743. The Germans became an important factor in the political life of Pennsylvania, usually uniting with the Quakers, and forming with them a conservative peace party. In 1734, the Schwenkfelders, followers of Casper Schofield, came to Pennsylvania and settled along the Perkiomen, in Montgomery County. About the same time a number of Germans established themselves near Frederick, Maryland, and between South Mountain and the Conococheague. The first German settlement in South Carolina was in 1731, at Purysburg on the Savannah. In 1734 Lutherans from Salzburg founded Ebenezer, the first settlement in Georgia. Seven years later, there were about 1200 Germans in Georgia. By the middle of the eighteenth century the mountain counties of North Carolina had numerous German settlements. Meantime, the Moravians, who in 1736 had settled in Georgia, had left that colony and secured a tract of land in Pennsylvania, to which they gave the name of Bethlehem. Zinzendorf came thither in 1741. More than twenty years earlier, German settlers had established themselves on the lower Mississippi. The "German Creoles" of Louisiana are descendants of these early colonists. During the war of the Revolution, thirty thousand German soldiers fought under the British flag. They had been sold to England by the petty princes of Germany, those "brokers of men and sellers of souls", as one of these soldiers rightly styled them. As Hesse furnished more than any other German State (twelve thousand) all these soldiers were called Hessians. Over one third of the thirty thousand never returned to Europe; some had died; many had deserted to Washington's army, "coming over in shoals", as Gates wrote in 1777; many thousands settled in the newly created States. On the eve of the Revolution there were fully a hundred thousand Germans in Pennsylvania. Their number was little increased during the next sixty years, since the great immigration period did not begin until about the year 1840. Among those who came to the United States before 1830 was Franz Lieber, accompanied by his two friends, Professors Carl Beck and Carl Follen. For nearly half a century Lieber stood in the front rank as an authority on public questions. The year 1848 brought to our shores those thousands of political refugees who belonged to the most educated of the German nation. To mention several, merely as typical of the rest, among these "Forty-Eighters" were Carl Schurz, Friedrich Hecker, Franz Sigel, Oswald Ottendorfer, Friedrich Kapp, Wilhelm Rapp, Gustav von Struve, and Lorenzo Brentano. Soon the number of German immigrants grew enormously, averaging over 800,000 for each of the six succeeding decades. They did not, however, settle in the Eastern States only, but the majority proceeded to the Middle West, whither many of the Germans, who had already been very numerous on the frontiers, had removed as soon as the new country was opened for colonizing. Owing to prosperity in the Fatherland, German immigration began to decline in the early nineties. During the period subsequent to 1848 the Germans settled chiefly in the following states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (especially the western parts), Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, California, Louisiana, Texas, North Dakota. They were never attracted to the New England States until about the middle of the nineteenth century. Even now New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine have practically no German population; in Massachusetts there are very few except around Boston. According to the twelfth census, taken in 1900, there was in that year, a German-born population of 2,663,418 in the United States (about three millions from Germany and German Austria). Since 1900 about 250,000 more have come over. Add to these the descendants of the immigrants from the earliest periods down to our time, and the large number of people of German descent who can now hardly be recognized as Germans, owing to the fact that they have assumed English names, it is safe to say that there are at present (1909) fully twelve million persons of German birth or descent in the United States. The early Germans were mostly farmers in their old country, and it was but natural that, after their arrival in the United States they should have chosen the same occupation. There is no need of pointing out the merits of the German farmers, since those merits have been generally admitted in Pennsylvania, the Mohawk Valley, and, later, the Middle West. In trade, industry, and commerce the Germans in the United States are second to none. Men like Spreckels, Havemeyer, A. Busch, Fred Pabst, Henry Miller, and Henry C. Frick, stand among the pillars of American Industry. Rockefeller is proud of his German descent. The Belmonts came from Alzey, the Astors from Walldorf near Heidelberg, the Iselins from Switzerland. The largest lumber-yard in the world, is owned by Fritz Weyerhäuser, a native of Hesse. The Roeblings are still prominent in their line of industry. Prominent as bankers are those bearing German names. But more important, thought less known, is the army of skilled mechanics in all different branches, designers, lithographers, etc., who, in their spheres, have made the German name honoured and respected. The Germans are known to be a hardworking, thrifty people, and, as a result, they are generally prosperous, and pauperism is hardly known among them. Americans have learned that wherever the Germans settle, prosperity and culture are pretty sure to follow. — "What the Germans so, they do well", has become a common saying among their neighbours. Puritanism never gained a foothold among the Germans. Though they cannot be charged with extravagance, they are fond of the quiet joys and amusements of social life, witness their many societies, which combine beneficial objects with recreation and amusement. Their fondness for children and family life is well known; as a rule they have large families. The industry and carefulness of the German housewife are proverbial. While there have not been any great political leaders among the Germans, with the exception, perhaps, of Carl Schurz, it cannot be denied that their influence on the political development of the country has been on the whole a very wholesome one. As adherents of a healthy and vigorous conservativism in politics, they are universally respected. Though anxious to preserve their language and customs, they have given ample proof of their loyalty to the land of their choice. The share taken by the Germans in the wars of the United States, was by no means limited to the War of the Revolution and the Civil War of 1861-65. From the very beginning of their settlement in this country, they always stood ready to take up arms in its defence. The early Germans of Pennsylvania and New York, responded freely to the summons to defend their new country against the French and their allies, the Indians. They gave freely of their men and means to the cause of liberty, in the War of the Revolution. The names of Generals de Kalb, F. W. A. Steuben, F. W. de Woedke, J. P.G. Muehlenberg, and George Weedon will always be mentioned with honour, among those who established the liberties of the country. Undoubtedly the ablest of them was General Steuben, the impetuous warrior who "took a mob and hammered it into an army". Nor should we forget to cite the name of Herkimer, than whom no braver man fought in the War for Independence. He was the son of a Palatine immigrant, and in the battle of Oriskany — "of all the battles of the Revolution, the most obstinate and murderous" — those whom Herkimer led were largely Palatines. To them and their brave leader belongs largely the credit of making possible the victory of Saratoga, by which the struggle for the Hudson was ended, and the vital union of the northern Colonies secured. The Germans also did their duty in full in the War of 1812 and in the Mexican War. What they did to keep the United States together, can be learned from an article by General Franz Sigel, which was published at St. Louis after his death. The General calls attention to the historical fact, that, three days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, when the City of Washington was in imminent peril of falling into the hands of the Confederates, this catastrophe was prevented by the arrival of a detachment of infantry and cavalry from Pennsylvania, the five companies of which were chiefly composed of Germans, both from the older and from the more recent immigrant stock. Again, when St. Louis was in extreme danger of falling into the hands of the Confederacy it was four regiments of volunteers, mainly German, and one regiment commanded by Sigel that surrounded the camp of the Confederates and made them prisoners. There were, during that war, not fewer than 176,767 Germans in the United States Army. Of the more than 5,000 officers of the German contingent, the following may here be mentioned: the exiled popular leader Friedrich Hecker, who was one of the first to form a volunteer regiment, Gustav von Struve, General Blanker, General Osterhaus, Jos. Fickler, Nepomuk Katzenmayer, General Alexander von Schimmelpfennig, General Max Weber, General Sigel, and Captain Albert Sigel, a brother of the General, August Willich, the commander of a regiment from Indiana, and especially General Carl Schurz, who commanded the eleventh corps at the battle of Gettysburg. It is deserving of mention that among the Germans, the advocates of the abolition of slavery were always prominent. The first German settlers in this country, were also signers of the first anti-slavery petition in America (1688). Although the first German colonists themselves, for the most part, had no higher education than what was to be acquired in the German village schools of that time, they considered it their duty to establish schools for their children, and therefore, as a rule, brought teachers over with them. School attendance was always looked upon as a serious matter, almost as serious as the teaching of religion, which was combines with elementary instruction, so that German colonies thus paved the way for compulsory education. Men like Muehlenberg and Schlatter did much in the way of improving the schools. The development of German literature in America, including thousands of publications, went hand in hand with this progress. The first German Bible published in the New World appeared in 1743, forty years before an English Bible was printed in America. The "Public Academy of the City of Philadelphia", not the University of Pennsylvania, is the first American school into which German was introduced. Gradually the language was introduced into the public schools of cities with a large German population, and numerous German private schools were established in the different parts of the country. And after educated Americans had become acquainted with German educational methods, German literature, and German science, either directly by attending German schools of learning, or indirectly from France through England, they enthusiastically advocated educational reform based upon the German models. It is no exaggeration to speak of a gradual "Germanization" of most of the greater American colleges. "Although Great Britain is generally regarded as the mother of the United States, Germany has, from an intellectual standpoint, become more and more the second mother of the American Republic. More than any other country, Germany has made the universities and colleges of America what they are today — a powerful force in the development of American Civilization" (Andrew D. White). The German Catholics in America A certain proportion of the Palatines who went to England were of the Catholic Faith, but they were not allowed to proceed to the American colonies, neither was the English government willing to permit their prolonged residence in England. They were therefore returned under government passports to the Palatinate. But of those who came later and directly to America, undoubtedly, a considerable number were Catholics. in 1741 the German Province of the Society of Jesus, sent out two priests to minister to the German Catholics in Pennsylvania. These were Father William Wappelet (born 22 January, 1711, in the Diocese of Mainz), co-founder of the mission of Conewago, and Father Theodore Schneider, a Palatine (born at Geinsheim, Diocese of Speyer, 7 April, 1703), who took up his residence at Goshenhoppen, in Berks County. Other German Jesuits came later on, among them Fathers James Frambach (died 1795 at Conewago), Luke Geissler (died at Lancaster, in 1786), Lawrence Graessel, who was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Carroll, but died in Philadelphia, of yellow fever, before consecration, James Pellentz, one of Bishop Carroll's vicars-general (died at Conewago in 1800), Matthias Sittensperger (changed his name to Manners), Ferdinand Steinmayr (Farmer), who, according to Bishop Carroll, founded the first Catholic congregation in New York (died in Philadelphia, 17 August, 1787, in the odour of sanctity). Father Farmer was a member of the famous Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and was made a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Philadelphia, when that institution was chartered in 1779. To these early missionaries may be added Father John Baptist de Ritter, who was a German, though a member of the Belgian Province. He died at Goshenhoppen, 3 February, 1787. Father Schneider was the pastor of the parish at Goshenhoppen for twenty-three years, ministering to the Catholics there and in the region for fifty miles around. Before he died, in 1764, he had the satisfaction of seeing the Church firmly established in Pennsylvania. His companion, Father Wappeler, founded the mission of the Sacred Heart at Conewago. Of him, Bishop Carroll wrote that "he was a man of much learning and unbounded zeal". Having remained about eight years in America, and converted or reclaimed many to the Faith of Christ, he was forced by bad health to return to Europe. His successor, Father Pellentz, built the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the first in the country under that title. It is not probable that there was any large, or indeed appreciable, number of German Catholics in any other colony at that time, with the exception of Louisiana, whose French inhabitants shared and honoured their religion, whereas most of the English colonies had severe laws against the "Papists". But gradually all were … truncated (51,117 more characters in archive)