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....

[V K Lee]

50 percent German stock here (thanks to my dad), other 50 a mixture with part Cherokee blood. However A True USA Texan 100 percent Dad’s ancestors came thru Russia. Uncles lined up against their barn walls and shot by the Czars men when they refused to relinquish their horses. Dad’s parents were both German. They came to the country legally and departed the ship onto Ellis Island.

[nathanbedford]

please do

[dalereed]

My GG Grandfather came to So. California from Pennsylvania in 1857,

His parents came from Germany in the 1700s Since they were born into royalty they were automaticly in the military and he family name was Riedern Von Rieder. They dropped the Riedern Von upon arriving here and the er soon after. The current spelling is Reed but there has never been such a thing as Reed, it has derived from sloppy hand writing through the years. Just after WW-2 my grandfather got a check from the German Government from the proceeds of selling the castle.

[wastoute]

The Palatine Germans were brought to America by the Brits. Indentured servants (slaves). After their time was up they were “encouraged” to move along up the Hudson as a buffer between the Brits and the French.

[elcid1970]

Americans of German ancestry find that this often doesn’t go very far among Germans in Germany. I’m close to 50% myself.

When I was stationed there I spoke enough German to meet with the local Forstmeister whenever our unit went to the field. OTOH my colleague looked German with deutsche aufname & spoke the language fluently. He was appalled to find that local Germans didn’t regard him as a member of the `Volk’.

Years later another friend who is descended from Missouri German settlers went to an event at the German embassy in Washington for Americans of German ancestry. He was shocked at the cool reception he got.

“I walked into a room where a bunch of people were speaking German. They looked at me for a moment, then went back to speaking German.”

Then there’s that old saying: “Germans don’t like Poles, French, Italians or British. In fact, they don’t really like each other.”

[T-Bone Texan]

All Germans are not Teutonic just like all white people are not “Anglos”.

[ckilmer]

Yes, my family is from that earlier group. they are definitely not beer drinkers. To this day you can find taverns all over Wisconsin. But few in the Pennsylvania countryside.

[ckilmer]

The Palatine Germans. I am the descendant of one. We had two members of the family in the Revolution.
.............
Did they on the Lancaster County Militia rolls?

[ckilmer]

The Palatine Germans. I am the descendant of one. We had two members of the family in the Revolution.
.............
Did they on the Lancaster County Militia rolls?

[ckilmer]

One reason the population of the Palatinate was virtually exterminated—by the French— was because they were Calvinists.

The Calvinists were the great losers of the wars of the 18th century.

They all decamped to America.

The German & Dutch reformed churches were Calvinist. As were the English puritans and Scottish Presbyterians. And too the smaller groups of French Huguenots and Swedish Reformed Churches.

Calvinism was the majority theology at the time of the revolution. And the writers of the Constitution in Madison’s group were all Calvinists.

After the Revolution— Calvinism went into decline.

[wastoute]

They were on the New York rolls.

[Fiji Hill]

Today, the Rheinpfalz, or Palatine is solidly Lutheran—at least it was back in the 1980’s when I last visited. I was told that there are also some Mennonites in the area.

A small Jewish cemetery can be found outside of Kindenheim, where a friend of mine lives. The gravestones date back to the eighteenth century, and the newest grave is dated 1937.

[Fiji Hill]

Donald Trump’s ancestors were Palatines—from Kallstadt, on the Weinstrasse (Wine Highway), located just north of Bad Dürkheim.

[nathanbedford]

The Palatine Germans made huge contributions to colonial America right on through to today. I am a descendent as well.

I am fortunate that here in Bavaria there are at least two outdoor museums within easy driving distance which have several outbuildings, many of them original from the eighteenth century and even earlier, which offer the opportunity to inspect the kind of habitation that our German ancestors would have made in America as the eighteenth century began.

One can see the sturdy construction in the massive hand hewn beams, the dominant hearth, the Eckbänke (corner seats) and sturdy tables. The ceilings were low to conserve heat and the upstairs bedroom ceilings even lower. But the cabins were sturdy and cozy and one can imagine living in relative comfort and security behind the massive log walls. In America there was no doubt a flintlock rifle within handy reach to assure security.

I think I read in the Virginia Historical Society that one could readily determine the ancestry of the occupants of colonial homes by counting the chimneys. English settlers had two chimneys one on either end of the house and the Germans had one central chimney around which the family could gather for warmth.

I live in a house that was built in 1828 with massive stone walls and all of the charm and inconveniences of that era. Attached to the rear facing the weather is a barn with all the connections done by pegs. One can only imagine the man-hours that went into fashioning the beams in the house and the barn when all must be done by hand.

[Amity]

Not sure if my German ancestors on my mom’s side were Palantine or not, but they were in the Americas before the Revolution. They didn’t fight in it, however; they fled to Canada until things blew over! Not sure why they came back; my grandfather told tales on his grandmother, who was a Tory until she died, and who used to lecture her grandkids on how much better off they’d be if England had won.

OTOH, some of my English ancestors on dad’s side fought in the Revolution on the American side. When I first found out how differently my ancestors responded to the Revolution, it cracked me up, because to this day, dad’s side loves to fight and argue, while mom’s side avoids disputes like the plague.

[Benjamin David Steele]

Many of those German-Americans didn’t assimilate willingly. They had laws passed against them, were threatened, stolen from, persecuted, targeted by vigilante groups, put in internment camps, imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes killed.

Sometimes the cause of their being hated was their simply being different and being proud of being different. Many German-Americans spent their entire lives, generations even, only speaking the German language. They were the largest group of Americans and they assumed they had the freedom and liberty to live their lives as they chose, and that no centralized government had a right to tell them otherwise.

The centralized government, federal and state, sometimes disagreed. This was particularly true when German-Americans refused to pay taxes for what they considered oppressive acts of government. A number of German-American tax resisters were imprisoned and tortured, a few to the point of death.

After a couple of centuries of such treatment, eventually most of them had assimilated. But there remains many unassimilated German-American and German-speaking communities to this day: Amish, Hutterites, etc. They successfully resisted forced assimilation by sticking together and standing tall against government oppression. They are proud to be both Americans and German-Americans, because they understand what freedom and liberty means.