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 ...
It's also interesting to show this as contrast when people claim the internment of Japanese was uniquely racist.
Nearly EVERYONE in America had a terrible time during WW I.
It’s pretty well documented by now that Woodrow Wilson used the Constitution as toilet paper. He harassed, locked-up, deported and drove into exile MANY people who opposed him.
I concur. The pictures, however, are fascinating.
And then everyone got the flu!
We had no business being in WWI.
>>He harassed, locked-up, deported and drove into exile MANY people who opposed him.
Quite the Quisling POS.
[Federal Reserve Act Signed by President Wilson]
https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/federal_reserve_act_signed
Anti-German sentiment was very strong. The city of Berlin, Ontario changed its name to Kitchener in 1916.
Woodrow Wilson, Andrew Jackson, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama will one day be recognized as America’s worst presidents.
It certainly seems to be that way.
Grandpa was a pretty smart guy, in hindsight.
My great-grandfather and his family immigrated to Minnesota from Prussia in the late 1800’s. During WWI, it became illegal to speak German in public, which put him and his family in great fear when traveling to Minneapolis, since his English was quite limited.
Furthermore, Britain should have stayed out, too. Why the sudden love for the French?
Britain might very well still have her Empire today had she stayed out.
I recall being told, that there was a brewery in Maryland called the Old German brewing company at that time. They changed their name to the Liberty brewing company during World War One.
An excuse to exact revenge.
So it would have been better for the Kaiser’s Second Reich to dominate Europe and even the Americas in the early part of the last century?
My family name was changed during WW1 because of the anti-German hysteria. We were from the area near the Hot Springs internment camp, so now I think I know why.
Am I supposed to kneel for the anthem now that I’ve found oppressed ancestors?
Stay out of what?
The Brits were dragged into the war by the attack on Belgium. To break their promises would have been to lose face and look like they were ripe to be attacked.
Not to mention, Wilson left the Lusitania unavenged for two years, and even worse, got re-elected on the craven slogan “He Kept Us Out Of War”.
Not to mention it was US policy to look the other way during the Armenian genocide in Turkey, taking place openly in the streets in plain view. The American press there at the time refused to cover it -- in cooperation with the US government.
Since when did the Kaiser care about the Americas? The “Zimmerman Note” was more an attempt to keep the US neutral, rather than a signal of German intentions to dominate the Americas. They weren’t stupid.
Britain should have “Brexited” back then. She had her Empire, why was she worried about the Continent?
Madison County roots! Good on’ya.
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