German-Americans - The silent minority

The Economist ^ | February 7, 2015

[2ndDivisionVet]

America’s largest ethnic group has assimilated so well that people barely notice it.

KOHLER, WISCONSIN - ON A snow-covered bluff overlooking the Sheboygan river stands the Waelderhaus, a faithful reproduction of an Austrian chalet. It was built by the Kohler family of Wisconsin in the 1920s as a tribute to the homeland of their father, John Michael Kohler, who had immigrated to America in 1854 at the age of ten.

John Michael moved to Sheboygan, married the daughter of another German immigrant, who owned the local foundry, and took over his father-in-law’s business. He transformed it from a maker of ploughshares into a plumbing business. Today Kohler is the biggest maker of loos and baths in America. Herbert Kohler, the boss (and grandson of the founder), has done so well selling tubs that he has been able to pursue his other passion—golf—on a grand scale. The Kohler Company owns Whistling Straits, the course that will host the Ryder Cup in 2020.

German-Americans are America’s largest single ethnic group (if you divide Hispanics into Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, etc). In 2013, according to the Census bureau, 46m Americans claimed German ancestry: more than the number who traced their roots to Ireland (33m) or England (25m). In whole swathes of the northern United States, German-Americans outnumber any other group (see map). Some 41% of the people in Wisconsin are of Teutonic stock....

[2ndDivisionVet]

We are legion.

[headstamp 2]

Yep, and I share the name. I’m even a plumber. LOL

We come from a long line of charcoal makers.

[Luke21]

As a Sheboygan native, I enjoyed this.

[BigEdLB]

Bratwurst und Rotkohl soul food.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

OK FReepers, make a mental note - It's 1854. There are no roads, no bridges, and there sure as Hell weren't any planes, and surely Mr. Kohler had to either go across through treacherous land from when he got off the boat in NYC or navigated through the Great Lakes. And Sheboygan is in the mid-part of Eastern Wisconsin so he still had to go across more treacherous terrain, weather, and Indians.

Now how did he and other immigrants then survive and assimilated, but today's immigrants, with modern conveniences, travel, and gadgets up the wazoo, can't do the same?

[smokingfrog]

They don’t want to.

[Robert DeLong]

Waelderhaus - "a house in the woods" Construction 1929-1931 Architect: Kaspar Albrecht

[Mr. Dough]

Been doing Faceboot too long, I went looking for the “Like” button for your post!

[2ndDivisionVet]

Different country.

[centurion316]

Helping a friend with some World War I records for his family near Sheboygan, we came across a newspaper article about Mr. Kohler who was the local chairman for war bonds. He announced a quota for all households in the area and he promised to publish a list of anyone who failed to participate. He later followed up with his promise and published all the names of those who did not subscribe to the war bond drive. I guess being Anti Kaiser was good business.

[al_c]

German/Irish heritage here ... but full-blooded American.

And on top of all that ... Texan!

[nathanbedford]

The article omits a very important and very early German emigration which occurred about three quarters of a century before the Declaration of Independence. These Germans were mostly pilgrims in the sense that the Plymouth Rock Pilgrims of 1620 were religious refugees. About a century later, many Germans made the same trip, proceeding down the Rhine to Holland, wintering there and then proceeding on to America.

When they arrived they found that the English had taken most of the attractive and arable coastal lands so they moved inland. Many of them were Mennonites and Amish but most of them were yeomen farmers who pioneered homesteads and farmed typically without slaves. The German farmers were probably the most efficient and most successful farmers of that age. They maintained a bilingual culture in many places such as in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia which continued up until the first world war when the language as well as the German nation fell into disfavor. Of course the Amish still speak an interesting dialect of German to this day.

There is an interesting anecdote which appears in the Virginia Historical Society papers describing an incident in the Shenandoah Valley when a Confederate officer dispatched from Richmond stood on a wagon to harangue the crowd to secure volunteers for the Confederate Army. After he spoke a few words he was interrupted and told that he could speak English if he preferred.

[BuffaloJack]

My Mom was German. My Dad’s family was here from almost the beginning, 1607 Jamestown Colony.

[Lysandru]

At Oktoberfest in Fort Wayne, IN, I saw renactors for the 32nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The 32nd used German as its command language. Fort Wayne has one of the 2 Lutheran High Schools in the entire state of Indiana.

[2ndDivisionVet]

The Samuel, September 18, 1682, John Adey, master, one of Penn’s fleet.

[Lurker]

Germanic stock here, too. At least as far back as we can go on that side of the family.

L

[Art in Idaho]

We are legion and we Vote!

[conservative cat]

Exactly the same here. Dad is a Jamestown descendent and Mom is an ESL German.

[Disambiguator]

Been doing Faceboot too long

That's "Das Faceboot."

[IronJack]

Ja wohl.