Posted on 10/18/2017 9:20:01 AM PDT by Jewbacca
A fascinating collection of photos have resurfaced showing the hardships faced by German-Americans at the brutal height of the First World War. As Europe was ravaged by fighting, German immigrants in the US suffered harassment, internment, lynchings - and even the humiliation of being tarred and feathered.
Although a little-remembered part of history today, America was wracked by the fear and paranoia that swept from coast to coast during the Great War.
The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917 and helped lead the Allies to victory. But before that, many Americans were terrified of the German threat growing on the other side of the world.
This collection of pictures reveals the full extent of war hysteria and open hostility towards all things German that erupted across the nation.
Before the war broke out, America had welcomed German immigrants and regarded them highly. German was the second most widely spoken language in the country and there were over 100 million first and second-generation German-Americans living in the United States, with many of them involved in the thousands of German organizations across the country.
The United States embraced them and the German language became an established part of the high school curriculum.
But when the war broke out and Germany became the enemy of the Allies abroad, the American government began calling on its people to reject their German-American neighbors.
President Woodrow Wilson declared that German-Americans were to be treated as 'alien-enemies' and that they should reject their German identity if they were to be accepted in US society.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I’ll trade you Bill Clinton for LBJ!
Yes, give me a break. Everybody had a tough time. My great-grandmother was German, Grandmother was a young woman during this time. They were embarrassed to speak German, tried to hide their roots. AND??? She never complained, never dragged a burden of hatred or shame or hurt feelings. Honestly!! Where to start...
So inciting Mexico to attack the USA was “neutral”? The Second Reich was quite imperialist.
Refusing to avenge the Lusitania is an act of weakness. George Washington warned us that the USA must be “at all times ready for war” when it comes knocking.
The wounds from the Civil War run deep with some people.
President Wilson was from the South and had Confederate sympathies.
Americans of German Descent served in great numbers in the Union forces.
He was getting even.
And France and Britain weren’t Imperialist?
Yes, and vote Democrat!
There were ways to avenge the Lusitania that didn’t necessarily involve going to war.
Not like Germany, no. There’s a history there going back centuries, and here the Second Reich was deliberately flouting the Monroe Doctrine. Never mind what that iteration of the Reich did in its African colonies.
Besides, the left loves to take “imperialist” out of context. Remember, the US was and is still “imperialist” to them.
The City of Kitchener, Ontario was previously named Berlin. It was changed in 1916 by a referendum of local citizens. Canada had internment camps for immigrants from Germany, Ukraine and Austria-Hungary. We were in the war early and followed whatever Britain decided. Surprising that America went to the extent of internments given that Germany had no territorial designs on the US.
“It certainly seems to be that way.”
Perhaps now, but I am old enough to remember being taught the economical causes of the Civil War (now, it was all to free the slaves), and that the Crusades spread language and culture throughout Europe, as did Alexander the Great by marrying off his generals to conquered lands’ women.
At any rate, here’s an interesting essay towards your comment in reply to America having no business in WW I.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/what-if-america-never-entered-world-war-i-20056
Just a thought... would the US have gotten to the moon without entering WW I, and maybe without WW II?
Perhaps not first, or at all.
Shall we talk about King Leopold and the Belgians in Africa?
Thanks for posting. My great grandparents moved from Cologne to Danzig in the 1890s. My grandfather fought for the Germans in WW I, was captured by the Russians, escaped and walked back to Germany. Nine years after WW I ended, with the civil breakdown and hyperinflation in Germany, he packed up and took his young family to the US. My Dad was three when they arrived. He told me a lot of tales of living in tenements in NY CIty, how he had to fight all the time for some years because he was German. The hatred started in WW I took a long time to subside.
At least he was punished by his own government for that. What the Second Reich did had to be corrected from the outside.
Brits were aces at Propaganda, Goebbels learned a lot from them.
“Am I supposed to kneel for the anthem now that I’ve found oppressed ancestors?”
Only if you’re making $10+ million a year. :-)
Possibly, but none of them were taken. And non-war means are still weak when put up against a deliberate act of war besides.
Not Andrew Jackson.
“Am I supposed to kneel for the anthem now that I’ve found oppressed ancestors?”
Depends.
Are you an idiot who plays a child’s game for a living?
“Shall we talk about King Leopold and the Belgians in Africa?”
Got a link? I’ll read about it.
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