View source for German Americans

{{short description|Americans of German birth or descent}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = German Americans
| native_name      = {{Native name|de|Deutschamerikaner}}
| pop              = '''Alone (one ancestry)'''<br>'''15,447,670''' ([[2020 United States census|2020 census]])<ref name= "Ethnic groups by the 2020 US census">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/detailed-race-ethnicities-2020-census.html|title=Races and Ethnicities USA 2020|publisher=[[United States census]]|date= September 21, 2023|access-date=October 21, 2023}}</ref><br>4.66% of the total US population<br><br>'''Alone or in combination'''<br>'''44,978,546''' ([[2020 United States census|2020 census]])<ref name= "Ethnic groups by the 2020 US census"/><br>13.57% of the total US population
| popplace         = Nationwide, most notably in the [[Midwest]], though less common in [[New England]], [[California]], [[New Mexico]], and the [[Deep South]].<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url = http://www.businessinsider.com/maps-of-ancestry-groups-in-america-2013-9 |title = 6 Maps That Show How Ethnic Groups Are Divided Across America |website = [[Business Insider]] |date = September 8, 2013 |access-date = March 10, 2016 |archive-date = March 11, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160311070720/http://www.businessinsider.com/maps-of-ancestry-groups-in-america-2013-9 |url-status = live }}</ref><br /> Plurality in [[Pennsylvania]],<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/imde/germchro.html |title = The Germans in America |website = [[Library of Congress]] |date = April 24, 2014 |access-date = June 12, 2015 |archive-date = May 28, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230528125650/https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/imde/germchro.html |url-status = live }}</ref> [[Upstate New York]],<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.turkey-visit.com/new-york-population-ethnicity-map |title = New York Population Ethnicity Map |website = turkey-visit |date = August 1, 2007 |access-date = March 20, 2024}}</ref> [[Colorado]], the [[Southwestern United States|Southwest]],<ref name="census">{{cite web |url = https://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/files/pc80-s1-10/tab03.pdf |title = Ancestry of the Population by State: 1980 – Table 3 |access-date = November 11, 2012 |archive-date = February 24, 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120224233043/http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/files/pc80-s1-10/tab03.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref> and the [[Pacific Northwest]].
| languages        = [[American English]], [[German language|German]]
| religions        = {{flatlist|
* Christian
** 51% [[Protestant]], significantly [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]], [[Calvinism|Reformed]] and [[Anabaptism|Anabaptist]] but also multiple other branches
** 26% [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]]
* <1% Jewish
* 16% others including [[Atheism|atheist]]s<ref>''One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society'', p. 120.</ref>
}}
| flag_caption     = Hybrid [[flag of the US]] and [[Flag of Germany|Germany]]
| image            = Americans with German Ancestry by state.svg
| image_caption    = Americans with German Ancestry by state according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2020
| related          = {{flatlist|
*[[Germans]]
*[[Frisian Americans]]
*[[German Canadians]]
*[[Dutch Americans]]
*[[Austrian Americans]]
*[[Jewish Americans]]
*[[Swiss Americans]]
*[[Belgian Americans]]
*[[Norwegian Americans]]
*[[Danish Americans]]
*[[Swedish Americans]]
*[[Icelandic Americans]]
*[[British Americans]]
*[[English Americans]]
*[[Scottish Americans]]
*[[Scots-Irish Americans]]
}}
}}

'''German Americans''' ({{langx|de|link=no|Deutschamerikaner}}, {{IPA|de|ˈdɔʏtʃʔameʁɪˌkaːnɐ|pron}}) are [[Americans]] who have full or partial German ancestry.

According to the [[United States Census Bureau]]'s figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the population.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=US Census Bureau - German-American Day: October 6, 2023 |url=https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/german-american-day.html |access-date=2024-09-07 |website=Census.gov}}</ref> This represents a decrease from the 2012 [[census]] where 50.7 million Americans identified as German.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012 |title=Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012 |url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2011/compendia/statab/131ed/2012-statab.pdf |access-date=2024-09-07 |publisher=United States Census Bureau}}</ref> The census is conducted in a way that allows this total number to be broken down in two categories. In the 2020 census, roughly two thirds of those who identify as German also identified as having another ancestry, while one third identified as German alone.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 21, 2023 |title=Census Bureau Releases 2020 Census Population for More Than 200 New Detailed Race and Ethnicity Groups |url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-race-overview.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231012221711/https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-race-overview.html |archive-date=October 12, 2023 |accessdate=October 21, 2023}}</ref> German Americans account for about one third of the total population of people of [[German ancestry]] in the world.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.en.bmi.bund.de/nn_148248/Internet/Content/Themen/Auslaender__Fluechtlinge__Asyl__Zuwanderung/DatenundFakten/Deutsche__Auslaender__mit__Migrationshintergrund__en.html |title = Germans and foreigners with an immigrant background |publisher = The Federal Ministry of the Interior of the Federal Republic of Germany |date = 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504094914/http://www.en.bmi.bund.de/nn_148248/Internet/Content/Themen/Auslaender__Fluechtlinge__Asyl__Zuwanderung/DatenundFakten/Deutsche__Auslaender__mit__Migrationshintergrund__en.html |archive-date = May 4, 2009}} : 156 is the estimate which counts all people claiming ethnic German ancestry in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, and elsewhere.</ref><ref>"Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia" by Jeffrey Cole (2011), page 171.</ref>

The first significant groups of German immigrants arrived in the [[British America|British colonies]] in the 1670s, and they settled primarily in the colonial states of [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], [[Province of New York|New York]], and [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]]. The [[John Law's Company|Mississippi Company]] of France later transported thousands of Germans from Europe to what was then the [[German Coast, Orleans Territory]] in present-day Louisiana between 1718 and 1750.<ref>{{Cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aTP8fxliBI4C&q=%22mississippi+company%22+%22john+law%22+ships+prostitutes&pg=PA11 |title = Cat Island: The History of a Mississippi Gulf Coast Barrier Island |isbn = 9780786485789 |last1 = Cuevas |first1 = John |date = January 10, 2014 |publisher = McFarland |access-date = June 25, 2021 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130224721/https://books.google.com/books?id=aTP8fxliBI4C&q=%22mississippi+company%22+%22john+law%22+ships+prostitutes&pg=PA11#v=snippet&q=%22mississippi%20company%22%20%22john%20law%22%20ships%20prostitutes&f=false |url-status = live }}</ref> [[Immigration to the United States|Immigration to the U.S.]] ramped up sharply during the 19th century.

Pennsylvania, with 3.5&nbsp;million people of German ancestry, has the largest population of German-Americans in the U.S. and is home to one of the group's original settlements, the [[Germantown, Philadelphia|Germantown]] section of present-day [[Philadelphia]], founded in 1683. Germantown is also the birthplace of the [[1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery|American antislavery movement]], which emerged there in 1688. Germantown also was the location of the [[Battle of Germantown]], an [[American Revolutionary War]] battle fought between the [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]], led by [[William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe|William Howe]], and the [[Continental Army]], led by [[George Washington]], on October 4, 1777.

German Americans were drawn to colonial-era [[British America]] by its abundant land and religious freedom, and were pushed out of Germany by shortages of land and religious or [[political repression|political oppression]].<ref>{{cite book |author = Robert C. Nesbit |title = Wisconsin: A History |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=yVCoRShIIKMC&pg=PA155 |year = 2004 |publisher = [[University of Wisconsin Press]] |pages = 155–57 |isbn = 9780299108045 |access-date = October 16, 2015 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130224721/https://books.google.com/books?id=yVCoRShIIKMC&pg=PA155#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status = live }}</ref> Many arrived seeking religious or [[political freedom]], others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others for the chance to start fresh in the New World. The arrivals before 1850 were mostly farmers who sought out the most productive land, where their [[intensive farming]] techniques would pay off. After 1840, many came to cities, where German-speaking districts emerged.<ref>Zane L. Miller, "Cincinnati Germans and the Invention of an Ethnic Group", ''Queen City Heritage: The Journal of the Cincinnati Historical Society'' 42 (Fall 1984): 13–22</ref><ref>Bayrd Still, ''Milwaukee, the History of a City'' (1948) pp. 260–63, 299</ref><ref>On Illinois see, Raymond Lohne, "Team of Friends: A New Lincoln Theory and Legacy", ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society'' Fall/Winter2008, Vol. 101 Issue 3/4, pp 285–314</ref>

German Americans established the first [[kindergarten]]s in the United States,<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=1676&search_term=schurz |title = Schurz, Margarethe [Meyer] (Mrs. Carl Schurz) 1833 – 1876 |date = June 11, 2011 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110611083242/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=1676&search_term=schurz |archive-date = June 11, 2011 }}</ref> introduced the [[Christmas tree]] tradition,<ref>{{Citation |title = The History of Christmas |work = Gareth Marples |url = http://www.thehistoryof.net/the-history-of-christmas.html |access-date = December 2, 2006 |archive-date = June 28, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060628034631/http://www.thehistoryof.net/the-history-of-christmas.html |url-status = usurped }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/12.12/ProfessorBrough.html |title = Professor Brought Christmas Tree to New England |author = Harvard Office of News and Public Affairs |website = News.harvard.edu |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-date = August 23, 1999 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/19990823204728/http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/12.12/ProfessorBrough.html |url-status = dead }}</ref> and introduced popular foods such as [[hot dog]]s and [[hamburger]]s to America.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.homeofthehamburger.org/history.html |title = The Home of the Hamburger: History |access-date = March 18, 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090805083255/http://www.homeofthehamburger.org/history.html |archive-date = August 5, 2009 }}</ref>

The great majority of people with some German ancestry have become [[Americanization (immigration)|Americanized]]; fewer than five percent speak German. German-American societies abound, as do celebrations that are held throughout the country to celebrate German heritage of which the [[German-American Steuben Parade]] in New York City is one of the most well-known and is held every third Saturday in September. [[Oktoberfest celebrations#United States|Oktoberfest celebrations]] and the [[German-American Day]] are popular festivities. There are major annual events in cities with German heritage including Chicago, [[Cincinnati]], [[Milwaukee]], [[Pittsburgh]], [[San Antonio]], and [[St. Louis]]. There is a German belt consisting of areas with predominantly German American populations that extends across the United States from eastern Pennsylvania, where many of the first German Americans settled, to the [[Oregon]] coast.<ref name="Bryan 2004">{{cite book |last=Bryan |first=Nichol |url={{GBurl|id=Y2BLdzISARUC|pg=PA21}}|title=German Americans |publisher=Abdo Pub. |publication-place=Edina, Minn. |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-59679-064-3 |oclc=61768496 |page=21}}</ref>

Around 190,000 permanent residents from Germany were living in the United States in 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |date = January 13, 2015 |title = Auswandern in die USA – das Land der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten |url = https://www.wohin-auswandern.de/auswandern-usa |access-date = January 5, 2022 |website = Wohin-Auswandern.de |language = de-DE |archive-date = December 28, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211228014816/https://www.wohin-auswandern.de/auswandern-usa |url-status = live }}</ref>

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==History==
[[File:Waldseemuller map 2.jpg|thumb|World map of German [[cartography|cartographer]] [[Martin Waldseemüller]] (Germany, 1507), which first used the name [[Naming of the Americas#Earliest use of name|America]]<ref name=LoCmap />]]

The [[Germans]] included many quite distinct subgroups with differing religious and cultural values.<ref>Paul Kleppner, '' The Third Electoral System, 1853–1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures'' (1979) pp 147–58 maps out the political beliefs of key subgroups.</ref> Lutherans and Catholics typically opposed Yankee moralizing programs such as the prohibition of beer, and favored paternalistic families with the husband deciding the family position on public affairs.<ref>{{cite book |last = Richardson |first = Belinda |title = Christian Clergy Response to Intimate Partner Violence: Attitudes, Training, Or Religious Views? |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bMDCCBmzEsIC&pg=PA55 |year = 2007 |page = 55 |isbn = 9780549564379 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last = Michael A. Lerner |title = Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GyQqk-hxaO4C&pg=PA32 |year = 2009 |publisher = Harvard UP |pages = 31–32 |isbn = 9780674040090 |access-date = October 16, 2015 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212233/https://books.google.com/books?id=GyQqk-hxaO4C&pg=PA32#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status = live }}</ref> They generally opposed women's suffrage but this was used as argument in favor of suffrage when German Americans became pariahs during World War I.<ref>{{cite book |last = Rose |first = Kenneth D. |title = American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6uhcDrmgwlMC&pg=PA35 |year = 1997 |publisher = NYU Press |pages = 34–35 |isbn = 9780814774663 }}</ref> On the other hand, there were Protestant groups who emerged from European [[pietism]] such as the German Methodist and [[Moravian Church|United Brethren]]; they more closely resembled the Yankee Methodists in their moralism.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1171088 |title = Religion, Society, and Politics: A Classification of American Religious Groups |journal = Social Science History |volume = 5 |issue = 1 |pages = 3–24 |last1 = Vandermeer |first1 = Philip R. |year = 1981 |doi = 10.1017/S0145553200014802 |s2cid = 147478252 }}</ref>

===Colonial era===
The first English settlers arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, and were accompanied by the first German that was to settle in North America, physician and botanist Johannes (John) Fleischer (in South America [[Ambrosius Ehinger]] had already founded [[Maracaibo]] in 1529). He was followed in 1608 by five [[glassmakers]] and three carpenters or house builders.<ref>{{Citation |last = Grassl |first = Gary Carl |date = June–July 2008 |title = Tour of German-American Sites at James Fort, Historic Jamestown |journal = German-American Journal |volume = 56 |issue = 3 |page = 10 |url = http://www.dank.org/Files/NewspaperArchives/DANK%20Journal%2056-3%20LR.pdf |quote = About 1% of the more than 700,000 objects catalogued by archaeologists at Jamestown so far bear words. More than 90% of these words are in German }}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}; {{Citation |url = http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/08__Politics/03/02__Heritage/Jamestown.html |title = Where it All Began – Celebrating 400 Years of Germans in America |publisher = German Information Center |access-date = May 26, 2009 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081116093035/http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/08__Politics/03/02__Heritage/Jamestown.html |archive-date = November 16, 2008 }}; {{Citation |url = https://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS191760+25-Mar-2008+PRN20080325 |title = Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the First Germans in America, April 18 |date = March 25, 2008 |publisher = Reuters |access-date = May 26, 2009 |archive-date = January 21, 2010 |archive-url = https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20100121223446/http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS191760+25-Mar-2008+PRN20080325 |url-status = dead }};{{Citation |last = Jabs |first = Albert E. |date = June–July 2008 |title = 400 Years of Germans In Jamestown |journal = German-American Journal |volume = 56 |issue = 3 |pages = 1, 11 |url = http://www.dank.org/Files/NewspaperArchives/DANK%20Journal%2056-3%20LR.pdf }}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The first permanent German settlement in what became the United States was [[Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Germantown, Pennsylvania]], founded near [[Philadelphia]] on October 6, 1683.<ref name="First German-Americans">{{Citation |url = http://www.germanheritage.com/postal/germansettlers/ |title = First German-Americans |access-date = October 5, 2006 |archive-date = May 9, 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200509091415/http://www.germanheritage.com/postal/germansettlers/ |url-status = live }}</ref>

[[File:John Jacob Astor.jpg|thumb|upright|[[John Jacob Astor]], in an oil painting by [[Gilbert Stuart]], 1794, was the first of the [[Astor family]] dynasty and the first millionaire in the United States, making his fortune in the fur trade and New York City real estate.]]

Large numbers of Germans migrated from the 1680s to 1760s, with Pennsylvania the favored destination. They migrated to America for a variety of reasons.<ref name="First German-Americans" /> ''[[Human migration#Push and Pull|Push factors]]'' involved worsening opportunities for farm ownership in central Europe, persecution of some religious groups, and military conscription; ''[[Human migration#Push and Pull|pull factors]]'' were better economic conditions, especially the opportunity to own land, and religious freedom. Often immigrants paid for their passage by selling their labor for a period of years as [[indentured servant]]s.<ref>[http://www.faulkner.edu/academics/artsandsciences/socialandbehavioral/readings/hy/servitude.asp Gottlieb Mittleberger on Indentured Servitude] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201124624/http://www.faulkner.edu/academics/artsandsciences/socialandbehavioral/readings/hy/servitude.asp |date=February 1, 2009 }}, Faulkner University</ref>

Large sections of Pennsylvania, [[Upstate New York]], and the [[Shenandoah Germans|Shenandoah Valley]] of Virginia attracted Germans. Most were [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] or [[Calvinism|German Reformed]]; many belonged to small religious sects such as the [[Moravian Church|Moravians]] and [[Mennonite]]s. [[Roman Catholicism in Germany|German Catholics]] did not arrive in great number until after the [[War of 1812]].<ref name="Conzen">{{cite encyclopedia |last = Conzen |first = Kathleen |editor-last = Thernstrom |editor-first = Stephan |editor-link = Stephan Thernstrom |editor-last2 = Orlov |editor-first2 = Ann |editor-last3 = Handlin |editor-first3 = Oscar |editor-link3 = Oscar Handlin |title = Germans |page = 407 |encyclopedia = Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups |url = https://archive.org/details/harvardencyclope00ther |year = 1980 |publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] |isbn = 0674375122 |oclc = 1038430174 }}</ref>

====Palatines====
In 1709, Protestant Germans from the Pfalz or [[Palatinate (region)|Palatine]] region of Germany escaped conditions of poverty, traveling first to Rotterdam and then to London. [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] helped them get to the American colonies. The trip was long and difficult to survive because of the poor quality of food and water aboard ships and the infectious disease [[typhus]]. Many immigrants, particularly children, died before reaching America in June 1710.<ref name="Knittle">{{Citation |last = Knittle |first = Walter Allen |title = Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration |publisher = Dorrance |location = Philadelphia |year = 1937 }}</ref>

The Palatine immigration of about 2100 people who survived was the largest single immigration to America in the colonial period. Most were first settled along the [[Hudson River]] in work camps, to pay off their passage. By 1711, seven villages had been established in New York on the [[Robert Livingston the Elder|Robert Livingston]] manor. In 1723 Germans became the first Europeans allowed to buy land in the [[Mohawk Valley]] west of [[Little Falls (town), New York|Little Falls]]. One hundred homesteads were allocated in the Burnetsfield Patent. By 1750, the Germans occupied a strip some {{convert|12|mi|km}} long along both sides of the [[Mohawk River]]. The soil was excellent; some 500 houses were built, mostly of stone, and the region prospered in spite of Indian resistance. [[Herkimer (town), New York|Herkimer]] was the best-known of the German settlements in a region long known as the "German Flats".<ref name="Knittle"/>

They kept to themselves, married their own, spoke German, attended Lutheran churches, and retained their own customs and foods. They emphasized farm ownership. Some mastered English to become conversant with local legal and business opportunities. They tolerated slavery (although few were rich enough to own a slave).<ref>Philip Otterness, ''Becoming German: The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York'' (2004)</ref>

The most famous of the early German Palatine immigrants was editor [[John Peter Zenger]], who led the fight in colonial New York City for freedom of the press in America. A later immigrant, [[John Jacob Astor]], who came from [[Walldorf]], [[Electoral Palatinate]], since 1803 [[Baden]], after the Revolutionary War, became the richest man in America from his fur trading empire and real estate investments in New York.<ref>Axel Madsen, ''John Jacob Astor: America's First Multimillionaire'' (2001) [https://www.amazon.com/John-Jacob-Astor-Americas-Multimillionaire/dp/0471385034 excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210314065452/https://www.amazon.com/John-Jacob-Astor-Americas-Multimillionaire/dp/0471385034 |date=March 14, 2021 }}</ref>

====Louisiana====
{{more citations needed|section|date=October 2017}}<!--only last paragraph is cited-->

[[John Law (economist)|John Law]] organized the first colonization of Louisiana with German immigrants. Of the over 5,000 Germans initially immigrating primarily from the [[Alsace|Alsace Region]] as few as 500 made up the first wave of immigrants to leave France en route to the Americas. Less than 150 of those first indentured German farmers made it to Louisiana and settled along what became known as the German Coast. With tenacity, determination and the leadership of D'arensburg these Germans felled trees, cleared land, and cultivated the soil with simple hand tools as draft animals were not available. The German coast settlers supplied the budding City of New Orleans with corn, rice, eggs. and meat for many years following.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

The [[Mississippi Company]] settled thousands of German pioneers in French Louisiana during 1721. It encouraged Germans, particularly Germans of the [[Alsace|Alsatian]] region who had recently fallen under French rule, and the [[Swiss people|Swiss]] to immigrate. [[Alsace]] was sold to France within the greater context of the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–1648).{{cn|date=May 2025}}

The [[Jesuit]] [[Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix|Charlevoix]] traveled [[New France]] (Canada and Louisiana) in the early 1700s. His letter said "these 9,000 Germans, who were raised in the Palatinate (Alsace part of France) were in Arkansas. The Germans left Arkansas en masse. They went to [[New Orleans]] and demanded passage to Europe. The Mississippi Company gave the Germans rich lands on the right bank of the [[Mississippi River]] about {{convert|25|mi|km}} above New Orleans. The area is now known as 'the [[German Coast]]'."{{cn|date=May 2025}}

A thriving population of Germans lived upriver from [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, known as the [[German Coast]]. They were attracted to the area through pamphlets such as J. Hanno Deiler's "Louisiana: A Home for German Settlers".<ref name="J. Hanno Deiler">{{Citation |url = http://www.hnoc.org/collections/gerpath/gersect6.html |title = J. Hanno Deiler |access-date = November 30, 2007 |archive-date = April 11, 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110411195941/http://www.hnoc.org/collections/gerpath/gersect6.html |url-status = live }}</ref>
[[File:Carl-Schurz.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Carl Schurz]] was the first German born US Senator (Missouri, 1868) and later US Secretary of the Interior.]]

====Southeast====
Two waves of German colonists in 1714 and 1717 founded a colony in [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]] called [[Germanna]],<ref name="Germanna Foundation">{{Citation |url = http://www.germanna.org/history |title = Germanna History |access-date = August 2, 2009 |archive-date = March 3, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090303040633/http://www.germanna.org/history |url-status = live }}</ref> located near modern-day [[Culpeper, Virginia]]. Virginia Lieutenant Governor [[Alexander Spotswood]], taking advantage of the [[headright system]], had bought land in present-day [[Spotsylvania County, Virginia|Spotsylvania]] and encouraged German immigration by advertising in Germany for [[miner]]s to move to Virginia and establish a mining industry in the colony. The name "Germanna", selected by Governor [[Alexander Spotswood]], reflected both the German immigrants who sailed across the Atlantic to Virginia and the British queen, [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne]], who was in power at the time of the first settlement at Germanna. In 1721, twelve German families departed Germanna to found [[Germantown, Virginia|Germantown]]. They were swiftly replaced by 70 new German arrivals from the [[Palatinate (region)|Palatinate]], the start of a westward and southward trend of German migration and settlement across the [[Piedmont region of Virginia|Virginia Piedmont]] and [[Shenandoah Valley]] around the [[Blue Ridge Mountains]], where [[Palatine German language|Palatine German]] predominated. Meanwhile, in [[Southwest Virginia]], Virginia German acquired a [[Swabian German]] accent.<ref name="Fischer">{{cite book |first1 = David Hackett |last1 = Fischer |author-link1 = David Hackett Fischer |first2 = James C. |last2 = Kelly |date = 2000 |title = Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement |place = Charlottesville |publisher = [[University of Virginia Press]] |isbn = 978-0813917740 |oclc = 41278488 }}</ref><ref name="Dominion">{{cite book |first1 = Ronald L. |last1 = Heinemann |first2 = John G. |last2 = Kolp |first3 = Anthony S. |last3 = Parent |first4 = William G. |last4 = Shade |date = 2007 |title = Old Dominion, New Commonwealth : A History of Virginia, 1607–2007 |place = Charlottesville |publisher = [[University of Virginia Press]] |isbn = 978-0813926094 |oclc = 74964181 }}</ref><ref name="cradle">{{cite book |first = Peter |last = Wallenstein |date = 2014 |orig-date = 2007 |edition = 2nd |title = Cradle of America : A History of Virginia |place = Lawrence |publisher = [[University Press of Kansas]] |isbn = 978-0700619948 |oclc = 878668026 }}</ref>

In [[Province of North Carolina|North Carolina]], an expedition of German [[Moravian Church|Moravians]] living around [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania]], and a party from Europe led by [[August Gottlieb Spangenberg]], headed down the [[Great Wagon Road]] and purchased {{convert|98985|acre|km2}} from [[John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville|Lord Granville]] (one of the British Lords Proprietor) in the [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]] of North Carolina in 1753. The tract was dubbed {{lang|de|Wachau-die-Aue}}, Latinized [[Wachovia Tract|Wachovia]], because the streams and meadows reminded Moravian settlers of the [[Wachau]] valley in [[Austria]].<ref name="TarHeel">{{cite book |title = The Tar Heel State: A History of North Carolina |first = Milton |last = Ready |date = 2005 |publisher = [[University of South Carolina Press]] |location = Columbia |isbn = 978-1570035913 |oclc = 58976124 }}</ref><ref name="NC4Centuries">{{cite book |title = North Carolina through Four Centuries |first = William S. |last = Powell |author-link = William S. Powell |date = 1989 |publisher = [[University of North Carolina Press]] |location = Chapel Hill |isbn = 978-0807818503 |oclc = 18589517 }}</ref><ref name="NCAHistory">{{cite book |title = North Carolina: A History |first = William S. |last = Powell |author-link = William S. Powell |date = 1988 |orig-date = 1977 |edition = 2nd |publisher = [[University of North Carolina Press]] |location = Chapel Hill |isbn = 978-0807842195 |oclc = 18290931 }}</ref> They established German settlements on that tract, especially in the area around what is now [[Winston-Salem, North Carolina|Winston-Salem]].<ref>{{cite book |isbn = 0806302925 |title = The Moravians in North Carolina: An Authentic History |last1 = Reichel |first1 = Levin Theodore |year = 1968 |publisher = Genealogical Publishing Com }}</ref><ref name="Wachovia">{{cite web |url = https://www.ncpedia.org/wachovia |last = Surratt |first = Jerry L. |year = 2006 |title = Wachovia |access-date = October 7, 2022 |website = NCPedia |archive-date = October 8, 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221008034917/https://www.ncpedia.org/wachovia |url-status = live }}</ref> They also founded the transitional settlement of [[Bethabara, North Carolina]], translated as House of Passage, the first planned Moravian community in North Carolina, in 1759. Soon after, the German Moravians founded the town of [[Old Salem|Salem]] in 1766 (now a historical section in the center of Winston-Salem) and [[Salem College]] (an early female college) in 1772.

In the [[Province of Georgia|Georgia Colony]], Germans mainly from the [[Swabia]] region settled in Savannah, St. Simon's Island and [[Fort Frederica]] in the 1730s and 1740s. They were actively recruited by [[James Oglethorpe]] and quickly distinguished themselves through improved farming, advanced [[tabby (cement)]]-construction, and leading joint Lutheran-[[Anglicanism|Anglican]]-Reformed religious services for the colonists.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

German immigrants also settled in other areas of the [[Southern United States|American South]], including around the [[Dutch Fork|Dutch (Deutsch) Fork]] area of [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]],<ref name="Conzen"/> and Texas, especially in the [[Austin, Texas|Austin]] and [[San Antonio]] areas.

====New England====
Between 1742 and 1753, roughly 1,000 Germans settled in Broad Bay, Massachusetts (now [[Waldoboro, Maine]]). Many of the colonists fled to [[Boston]], Maine, Nova Scotia, and North Carolina after their houses were burned and their neighbors killed or carried into captivity by Native Americans. The Germans who remained found it difficult to survive on farming, and eventually turned to the shipping and fishing industries.<ref name="Faust">{{Citation |last = Faust |first = Albert Bernhardt |title = The German Element in the United States with Special Reference to Its Political, Moral, Social, and Educational Influence |publisher = Houghton-Mifflin |location = Boston |year = 1909 |title-link = The German Element in the United States }}</ref>

====Pennsylvania====
{{Main|Pennsylvania German}}

The tide of German immigration to Pennsylvania swelled between 1725 and 1775, with immigrants arriving as [[redemptioner]]s or indentured servants. By 1775, Germans constituted about one-third of the population of the state. German farmers were renowned for their highly productive animal husbandry and agricultural practices. Politically, they were generally inactive until 1740, when they joined a [[Religious Society of Friends|Quaker]]-led coalition that took control of the legislature, which later supported the [[American Revolution]]. Despite this, many of the German settlers were [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|loyalists]] during the Revolution, possibly because they feared their royal land grants would be taken away by a new republican government, or because of loyalty to a British German monarchy who had provided the opportunity to live in a liberal society.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://sciway3.net/clark/revolutionarywar/loyalists.html |title = Loyalists (Royalists, Tories) in South Carolina |website = Sciway3.net |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-date = March 8, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210308063550/https://sciway3.net/clark/revolutionarywar/loyalists.html |url-status = live }}</ref> The Germans, comprising [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]], [[Calvinism|Reformed]], [[Mennonite]]s, [[Amish]], and other sects, developed a rich religious life with a strong musical culture. Collectively, they came to be known as the [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] (from ''Deutsch'').<ref>{{cite book |last = Hostetler |first = John A. |author-link = John A. Hostetler |year = 1993 |title = Amish Society |url = https://archive.org/details/amishsociety00host_0 |url-access = registration |publisher = The [[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |location = Baltimore |page = [https://archive.org/details/amishsociety00host_0/page/241 241] |isbn = 9780801844423 }}</ref><ref>De Grauwe, Luc, "Emerging mother-tongues awareness in Dutch and German". In Linn & McLelland (eds). ''Standardization: Studies from the Germanic Languages''. p. 101, 104, passim.</ref>

Etymologically, the word Dutch originates from the Old High German word "diutisc" (from "diot" "people"), referring to the Germanic "language of the people" as opposed to Latin, the language of the learned (see also [[theodiscus]]). Eventually the word came to refer to people who speak a Germanic language, and only in the last couple centuries the people of the Netherlands. Other Germanic language variants for "deutsch/deitsch/dutch" are: Dutch "Duits" and "[[Diets]]", Yiddish "daytsh", Danish/Norwegian "tysk", or Swedish "[[Theodiscus#Etymology|tyska]]." The Japanese "ドイツ" (/doitsu/) also derives from the aforementioned "Dutch" variations.

The [[Studebaker]] brothers, forefathers of the wagon and automobile makers, arrived in Pennsylvania in 1736 from the famous blade town of [[Solingen]]. With their skills, they made wagons that carried the frontiersmen westward; their cannons provided the [[Union Army]] with artillery in the [[American Civil War]], and their automobile company became one of the largest in America, although never eclipsing the "Big Three", and was a factor in the [[war effort]] and in the industrial foundations of the Army.<ref>Patrick Foster, ''Studebaker: The Complete History'' (2008)</ref>

===American Revolution===
{{Main|Germans in the American Revolution}}
[[File:Baron Steuben by Peale, 1780.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben]], "father of the American military"<ref>https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/NCO-Journal/Archives/2015/September/01-18-Steuben/</ref>]] 
Great Britain, whose [[George III of the United Kingdom|King George III]] was also the [[Prince-elector|Elector]] of [[Electorate of Hanover|Hanover]] in Germany, hired 18,000 [[Hessian (soldier)|Hessians]]. They were mercenary soldiers rented out by the rulers of several small German states such as Hesse to fight on the British side. Many were captured; they remained as prisoners during the war but some stayed and became U.S. citizens.<ref>Edward J. Lowell, ''The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries'' (1965)</ref> In the American Revolution the Mennonites and other small religious sects were neutral pacifists. The Lutherans of Pennsylvania were [[Patriot (American Revolution)|on the patriot side]].<ref>Charles Patrick Neimeyer, ''America Goes to War: A Social History of the Continental Army'' (1995) pp 44=64 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qg7q2 complete text online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725173005/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qg7q2 |date=July 25, 2020 }}</ref> The Muhlenberg family, led by Rev. [[Henry Muhlenberg]] was especially influential on the Patriot side.<ref>Theodore G. Tappert, "Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and the American Revolution." ''Church History'' 11.4 (1942): 284–301. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3160373 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802213629/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3160373 |date=August 2, 2020 }}.</ref> His son [[Peter Muhlenberg]], a Lutheran clergyman in Virginia became a major general and later a Congressman.<ref>Henry Augustus Muhlenberg, ''The Life of Major-General Peter Muhlenberg: Of the Revolutionary Army'' (1849). [https://archive.org/details/lifemajorgenera02muhlgoog online]</ref><ref>Theodore G. Tappert, "Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and the American Revolution." ''Church History'' 11.4 (1942): 284–301. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3160373 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802213629/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3160373 |date=August 2, 2020 }}</ref> However, in upstate New York, many Germans were neutral or supported the [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] cause.

From names in the 1790 U.S. census, historians estimate Germans constituted nearly 9% of the white population in the United States.<ref>American Council of Learned Societies Devoted to Humanistic Studies. Committee on Linguistic and National Stocks in the Population of the United States. (1969), ''Surnames in the United States Census of 1790: An Analysis of National Origins of the Population'', Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co.</ref>

===Colonial German American population by state===
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"
|+ Estimated German American population in the United States as of the [[1790 United States census|first U.S Census]] of 1790<ref name="ACLS1929">{{cite book |author = American Council of Learned Societies. Committee on Linguistic and National Stocks in the Population of the United States |date = 1932 |title = Report of the Committee on Linguistic and National Stocks in the Population of the United States |publisher = [[U.S. Government Printing Office]] |location = Washington, D.C. |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DVA42JB6IYsC&pg=PA101 |author-link = American Council of Learned Societies |oclc = 1086749050 |access-date = October 12, 2022 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212204/https://books.google.com/books?id=DVA42JB6IYsC&pg=PA101#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status = live }}</ref>
|-  
! colspan=1 rowspan=2 style="text-align:center; background-color:#C8E5EE;"|'''State or Territory'''|| colspan=2 rowspan=1 style="text-align:center; background:#C8E5EE;"|[[Germans]]  
|-
! style="background-color:#C8E5EE;"|#
! style="background-color:#C8E5EE;"|%
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[Connecticut]]
|align="right"|{{nts|697}}
|align="right"|0.30% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[Delaware]]
|align="right"|{{nts|509}}
|align="right"|1.10% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]
|align="right"|{{nts|4,019}}
|align="right"|7.60% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[District of Kentucky|Kentucky]] & [[Southwest Territory|Tennessee]] 
|align="right"|{{nts|13,026}}
|align="right"|14.00% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[District of Maine|Maine]]
|align="right"|{{nts|1,249}}
|align="right"|1.30% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[Maryland]]
|align="right"|{{nts|24,412}}
|align="right"|11.70% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[Massachusetts]]
|align="right"|{{nts|1,120}}
|align="right"|0.30% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[New Hampshire]]
|align="right"|{{nts|564}}
|align="right"|0.40% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[New Jersey]]
|align="right"|{{nts|15,636}}
|align="right"|9.20% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[New York (state)|New York]]
|align="right"|{{nts|25,778}}
|align="right"|8.20% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[North Carolina]]
|align="right"|{{nts|13,592}}
|align="right"|4.70% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[Pennsylvania]]
|align="right"|{{nts|140,983}}
|align="right"|33.30% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[Rhode Island]]
|align="right"|{{nts|323}}
|align="right"|0.50% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[South Carolina]]
|align="right"|{{nts|7,009}}
|align="right"|5.00% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[Vermont]]
|align="right"|{{nts|170}}
|align="right"|0.20% 
|-
|border = "1"; align="left"|[[Virginia]]
|align="right"|{{nts|27,853}}
|align="right"|6.30% 
|- bgcolor="lightgrey"
|border = "1"; align="left"|{{Sort|1790 Area Enumerated|'''''[[1790 United States census|1790 Census Area]]'''''}} 
|align="right"|'''''{{nts|276,770}}'''''
|align="right"|'''''8.73%'''''
|- bgcolor="#EEF0F0"
|border = "1"; align="left"|''[[Northwest Territory]]''
|align="right"|''{{nts|445}}''
|align="right"|''4.24%''
|- bgcolor="#EEF0F0"
|border = "1"; align="left"|''[[Vermont]]''
|align="right"|{{nts|170}}
|align="right"|0.20% 
|-
|}

The brief [[Fries's Rebellion]] was an anti-tax movement among Germans in Pennsylvania in 1799–1800.<ref>Birte Pfleger, "'Miserable Germans' and Fries's Rebellion: Language, Ethnicity, and Citizenship in the Early Republic," ''Early American Studies: an Interdisciplinary Journal'' 2004 2#2: 343–361</ref>

===19th century===
[[File:German population 1872.jpg|thumb|German population density in the United States, 1872]]

{|class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left:1em; font-size:88%;"
|-
! colspan="4" |German Immigration to United States (1820–2004)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Yearbook_Immigration_Statistics_2008.pdf |title=Yearbook of Immigration Statistics |access-date=November 20, 2019 |archive-date=December 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212121455/https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Yearbook_Immigration_Statistics_2008.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
! Immigration<br />period || Number of<br />immigrants || Immigration<br />period || Number of<br />immigrants
|-
| 1820–1840 || style="text-align:right;"|160,335|| 1921–1930 || style="text-align:right;"|412,202
|-
| 1841–1850 || style="text-align:right;"|434,626|| 1931–1940 || style="text-align:right;"|114,058
|-
| 1851–1860|| style="text-align:right;"|951,667|| 1941–1950 || style="text-align:right;"| 226,578
|-
| 1861–1870|| style="text-align:right;"|787,468|| 1951–1960|| style="text-align:right;"| 477,765
|-
| 1871–1880|| style="text-align:right;"| 718,182 || 1961–1970|| style="text-align:right;"|190,796
|-
| 1881–1890 || style="text-align:right;"| 1,452,970 || 1971–1980 || style="text-align:right;"| 74,414
|-
| 1891–1900 || style="text-align:right;"|505,152 || 1981–1990 || style="text-align:right;"| 91,961
|-
| 1901–1910 || style="text-align:right;"|341,498 || 1991–2000 || style="text-align:right;"| 92,606
|-
| 1911–1920 || style="text-align:right;"| 143,945|| 2001–2004 || style="text-align:right;"| 61,253
|-
! colspan="4" |Total: 7,237,594
|}

The largest flow of German immigration to America occurred between 1820 and [[World War I|World War{{nbsp}}I]], during which time nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States. From 1840 to 1880, they were the largest group of immigrants. Following the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the German states]], a wave of political refugees fled to America, who became known as [[Forty-Eighters]]. They included professionals, journalists, and politicians. Prominent Forty-Eighters included [[Carl Schurz]] and [[Henry Villard]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Easum |first=Chester V. |date=December 1, 1952 |title=Refugees of Revolution; The German Forty-Eighters in America. By Carl Wittke. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952. ix + 384 pp. Index. $6.00.) |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1895032 |journal=Journal of American History |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages= |doi=10.2307/1895032 |jstor=1895032 |hdl=2027/uiug.30112064439976 |issn=0021-8723 |hdl-access=free |access-date=June 27, 2022 |archive-date=November 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212221/https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/39/3/563/719230?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Germans-emigrate-1874.jpg|thumb|"From the Old to the New World" shows German emigrants boarding a steamer in Hamburg, to New York. ''Harper's Weekly,'' (New York) November 7, 1874.]]

"Latin farmer" or [[Latin Settlement]] is the designation of several settlements founded by some of the [[Dreissiger]] and other refugees from Europe after rebellions like the [[Frankfurter Wachensturm]] beginning in the 1830s—predominantly in Texas and Missouri, but also in other U.S. states—in which German intellectuals ([[freethinkers]], {{langx|de|link=no|Freidenker}}, and [[Latinist]]s) met together to devote themselves to the [[German literature]], [[German philosophy|philosophy]], science, classical music, and the [[Latin language]]. A prominent representative of this generation of immigrants was [[Gustav Koerner]] who lived most of the time in [[Belleville, Illinois]] until his death.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

====Jewish Germans====
{{main|History of the Jews in the United States}}

A few [[German Jews]] came in [[History of the Jews in Colonial America|the colonial era]]. The largest numbers arrived after 1820, especially in the mid-19th century.<ref>Naomi Wiener Cohen, ''Encounter with Emancipation: The German Jews in the United States, 1830–1914'' (Varda Books, 2001).</ref> They spread across the North and South (and California, where [[Levi Strauss]] arrived in 1853). They formed small German-Jewish communities in cities and towns. They typically were local and regional merchants selling clothing; others were livestock dealers, agricultural commodity traders, bankers, and operators of local businesses. [[Henry Lehman]], who founded [[Lehman Brothers]] in Alabama, was a particularly prominent example of such a German-Jewish immigrant. They formed [[Reform Judaism|Reform synagogues]]<ref>Zev Eleff, ''Who Rules the Synagogue?: Religious Authority and the Formation of American Judaism'' (Oxford Up, 2016).</ref> and sponsored numerous local and national philanthropic organizations, such as [[B'nai B'rith]].<ref>Cornelia Wilhelm, ''The Independent Orders of B'nai B'rith and True Sisters: Pioneers of a New Jewish Identity, 1843–1914'' (2011).</ref> This German-speaking group is quite distinct from the Yiddish-speaking East-European Jews who arrived in much larger numbers starting in the late 19th century and concentrated in New York.

====Northeastern cities====
{{Further|History of the Germans in Baltimore}}
{{multiple image
| header    = Late-19th-century German-American buildings in Manhattan(former [[Little Germany, Manhattan|Little Germany]])
| align     = right
| caption_align = center
| image1    = Freie Bibliothek and Deutsches Dispensary.jpg
| width1    = 170
| caption1  = ''Freie Bibliothek und Lesehalle'' (Free Library and Reading Hall) and ''Deutsches Dispensary'' (German Dispensary), both by William Schickel (1883–1884) on [[Second Avenue (Manhattan)|Second Avenue]] at St Mark's Place in the [[East Village, Manhattan|East Village]]
| image2    = Little Germany House.jpg
| width2    = 120
| caption2  = ''Deutsch-Amerikanische Schützen Gesellschaft'' (German-American Shooting Society) by William C. Frohne (1885) on St. Mark's Place in the East Village
| image3    = Scheffel_Hall_190_Third_Avenue.jpg
| width3    = 108
| caption3  = Scheffel Hall by Weber and Drosser (1894) on [[Third Avenue (Manhattan)|Third Avenue]] between [[17th Street (Manhattan)|17th]] and [[18th Street (Manhattan)|18th]] Streets, near [[Gramercy Park]]
}}

The port cities of New York City, and [[History of the Germans in Baltimore|Baltimore]] had large populations, as did [[Hoboken, New Jersey]].

====Cities of the Midwest====
{{Further|Germans in Chicago|Germans in Milwaukee|Germans in Omaha, Nebraska|History of the Germans in Louisville}}

In the 19th century, German immigrants settled in Midwest, where land was available. Cities along the Great Lakes, the Ohio River, and the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers attracted a large German element. The [[Midwestern United States|Midwestern]] cities of [[Milwaukee]], [[Cincinnati]], [[St. Louis]], [[Chicago]] were favored destinations of German immigrants. The [[Northern Kentucky]] and [[History of the Germans in Louisville|Louisville]] area along the [[Ohio River]] was also a favored destination. By 1900, the populations of the cities of [[Cleveland]], [[Milwaukee]], and [[Cincinnati]] were all more than 40% German American. [[Dubuque, Iowa|Dubuque]] and [[Davenport, Iowa]] had even larger proportions, as did [[Omaha]], Nebraska, where the proportion of German Americans was 57% in 1910. In many other cities of the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]], such as [[Fort Wayne, Indiana]], German Americans were at least 30% of the population.<ref name="Faust" /><ref>Census data from Bureau of the Census, ''Thirteenth census of the United States taken in the year 1910'' (1913)</ref> By 1850 there were 5,000 Germans, mostly [[Schwabian]]s living in, and around, [[Ann Arbor, Michigan]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stephenson |first1=Orlando |title=Ann Arbor the First Hundred Years |date=1927 |publisher=Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce |location=Ann Arbor |page=81 |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moaatxt;idno=3933400.0001.001 |access-date=February 25, 2016 |format=Hardcover |archive-date=March 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316181433/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moaatxt;idno=3933400.0001.001 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Many concentrations acquired distinctive names suggesting their heritage, such as the "[[Over-the-Rhine]]" district in Cincinnati, "[[Dutchtown, St. Louis|Dutchtown]]" in South St Louis, and "[[German Village]]" in Columbus, Ohio.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://germanvillage.com/index.php |title=German Village Society |access-date=November 19, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509124022/http://www.germanvillage.com/index.php |archive-date=May 9, 2008}}</ref>

A particularly attractive destination was [[Milwaukee]], which came to be known as "the German [[Athens]]". Radical Germans trained in politics in the old country dominated the city's [[Social Democratic Party (United States)|Socialists]]. Skilled workers dominated many crafts, while entrepreneurs created the brewing industry; the most famous brands included [[Pabst Brewing Company|Pabst]], [[Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company|Schlitz]], [[Miller Brewing Company|Miller]], and [[Valentin Blatz Brewing Company|Blatz]].<ref>Trudy Knauss Paradis, et al. ''German Milwaukee'' (2006)</ref>

Whereas half of German immigrants settled in cities, the other half established farms in the [[Midwest]]. From Ohio to the Plains states, a heavy presence persists in rural areas into the 21st century.<ref name="Conzen" /><ref>Richard Sisson, ed. ''The American Midwest'' (2007), p. 208; Gross (1996); Johnson (1951).</ref>

====Deep South====
{{Further|Germans in Alabama}}

Few German immigrants settled in the [[Deep South]], apart from [[New Orleans]], the [[German Coast]], and Texas.<ref name="German Settlers in Louisiana and New Orleans">{{Citation |url=http://www.hnoc.org/collections/gerpath/gersect1.htm |title=German Settlers in Louisiana and New Orleans |access-date=November 30, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204103934/http://www.hnoc.org/collections/gerpath/gersect1.htm |archive-date=December 4, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

====Texas====
{{Main|Texas Germans}}
[[File:WahrenbergerHouseAustinTX.JPG|thumb|The [[Wahrenberger House]] in [[Austin, Texas|Austin]] served as a German-American school.<ref name="UTGermanAm">[http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/germanic/_files/pdf/community/10Kwalk.pdf A 10K Walk Through German-Texas Heritage in Austin, Texas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204220217/http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/germanic/_files/pdf/community/10Kwalk.pdf |date=December 4, 2010 }}. [[The University of Texas at Austin]]. 3/6. Retrieved on November 15, 2009.</ref>]]

Texas attracted many Germans who entered through [[Galveston, Texas|Galveston]] and [[Indianola, Texas|Indianola]], both those who came to farm, and later immigrants who more rapidly took industrial jobs in cities such as Houston. As in [[Milwaukee]], Germans in Houston built the brewing industry. By the 1920s, the first generation of college-educated German Americans were moving into the chemical and oil industries.<ref name="Conzen"/>

Texas had about 20,000 German Americans in the 1850s. They did not form a uniform bloc, but were highly diverse and drew from geographic areas and all sectors of European society, except that very few aristocrats or upper middle class businessmen arrived. In this regard, Texas Germania was a microcosm of the Germania nationwide.

<blockquote>The Germans who settled Texas were diverse in many ways. They included peasant farmers and intellectuals; Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and atheists; Prussians, Saxons, and Hessians; abolitionists and slave owners; farmers and townsfolk; frugal, honest folk and ax murderers. They differed in dialect, customs, and physical features. A majority had been farmers in Germany, and most arrived seeking economic opportunities. A few dissident intellectuals fleeing the 1848 revolutions sought political freedom, but few, save perhaps the Wends, went for religious freedom. The German settlements in Texas reflected their diversity. Even in the confined area of the Hill Country, each valley offered a different kind of German. The Llano valley had stern, teetotaling German Methodists, who renounced dancing and fraternal organizations; the Pedernales valley had fun-loving, hardworking Lutherans and Catholics who enjoyed drinking and dancing; and the Guadalupe valley had freethinking Germans descended from intellectual political refugees. The scattered German ethnic islands were also diverse. These small enclaves included Lindsay in Cooke County, largely Westphalian Catholic; Waka in Ochiltree County, Midwestern Mennonite; Hurnville in Clay County, Russian German Baptist; and Lockett in Wilbarger County, Wendish Lutheran.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/png02 |title=GERMANS |work=Handbook of Texas Online |date=2010-06-15 |access-date=January 2, 2016 |archive-date=August 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130807115513/http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/png02 |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>

====Germans from Russia====
{{see also|Russian Germans in North America|}}
[[File:Volga-Germans-US.jpg|thumb|left|Temporary quarters for [[Volga Germans]] in central Kansas, 1875]]

[[Russian Germans in North America|Germans from Russia]] were the most traditional of German-speaking arrivals. They were Germans who had lived for generations throughout the [[Russian Empire]], but especially along the [[Volga River]] and the [[Black Sea]]. Their ancestors had come from all over the German-speaking world, invited by [[Catherine the Great]] in 1762 and 1763 to settle and introduce more advanced German agriculture methods to rural Russia. They had been promised by the manifesto of their settlement the ability to practice their respective Christian denominations, retain their culture and language, and retain immunity from conscription for them and their descendants. As time passed, the Russian monarchy gradually eroded the ethnic German population's relative autonomy. Conscription eventually was reinstated; this was especially harmful to the Mennonites, who practice pacifism. Throughout the 19th century, pressure increased from the Russian government to culturally assimilate. Many Germans from Russia found it necessary to emigrate to avoid conscription and preserve their culture. About 100,000 immigrated by 1900, settling primarily in the [[Great Plains]].{{cn|date=April 2025}}

Negatively influenced by the violation of their rights and cultural persecution by the [[Tsar]], the Germans from Russia who settled in the northern [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] saw themselves as a downtrodden ethnic group separate from Russian Americans and having an entirely different experience from the German Americans who had emigrated from German lands. They settled in tight-knit communities who retained their German language and culture. They raised large families, built German-style churches, buried their dead in distinctive cemeteries using cast iron grave markers, and sang German hymns. Many farmers specialized in the production of sugar beets and wheat, which are still major crops in the upper Great Plains. During World War{{nbsp}}I, their identity was challenged by [[anti-German sentiment]]. By the end of World War{{nbsp}}II, the German language, which had always been used with English for public and official matters, was in serious decline. Today, German is preserved mainly through singing groups, recipes, and educational settings. While most descendants of Germans from Russia primarily speak English, many are choosing to learn [[Standard German|German]] in an attempt to reconnect with their heritage. Germans from Russia often use [[loanword]]s, such as ''Kuchen'' for cake. Despite the loss of their language, the ethnic group remains distinct, and has left a lasting impression on the American West.<ref>Elwyn B. Robinson, ''History of North Dakota'' (1966) pp. 285–87, 557; Gordon L. Iseminger, "Are We Germans, or Russians, or Americans? The McIntosh County German-Russians During World War{{nbsp}}I", ''North Dakota History'' 1992 59(2): 2–16.</ref>

Musician [[Lawrence Welk]] (1903–1992) became an iconic figure in the German-Russian community of the northern Great Plains—his success story personified the American dream.<ref>Timothy J. Kloberdanz, "Symbols of German-Russian Ethnic Identity on the Northern Plains." ''Great Plains Quarterly'' 8#1 (1988): 3–15 [https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1519&context=greatplainsquarterly online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801010702/https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1519&context=greatplainsquarterly |date=August 1, 2020 }}.</ref>

====Civil War====
{{main|German Americans in the American Civil War}}

Sentiment among German Americans was largely anti-slavery, especially among Forty-Eighters.<ref name="Wittke">{{Citation |last=Wittke |first=Carl |title=Refugees of Revolution |year=1952 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}</ref> Notable Forty-Eighter [[Hermann Raster]] wrote passionately against slavery and was very pro-Lincoln. Raster published anti-slavery pamphlets and was the editor of the most influential German language newspaper in America at the time.<ref>"Inventory of the Hermann Raster Papers". The Newberry Library.</ref> He helped secure the votes of German-Americans across the United States for Abraham Lincoln. When Raster died the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' published an article regarding his service as a correspondent for America to the German states saying, "His writings during and after the Civil War did more to create understanding and appreciation of the American situation in Germany and to float U.S. bonds in Europe than the combined efforts of all the U.S. ministers and consuls."<ref>"Honor Herman Raster." ''Chicago Tribune'' August 12, 1891: 2. Print.</ref> Hundreds of thousands of German Americans volunteered to fight for the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] in the [[American Civil War]] (1861–1865).<ref name="Keller">Christian B. Keller, "Flying Dutchmen and Drunken Irishmen: The Myths and Realities of Ethnic Civil War Soldiers", ''Journal of Military History'', Vol/ 73, No. 1, January 2009, pp. 117–145; for primary sources see Walter D. Kamphoefner and Wolfgang Helbich, eds., ''Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home'' (2006).</ref> The Germans were the largest immigrant group to participate in the Civil War; over 176,000 U.S. soldiers were born in Germany.<ref>The number of Confederate soldiers born in Germany is not known. Faust, page 523. Quoting from an 1869 ethnicity study by B. A. Gould; [https://books.google.com/books?id=J2Q6RgAJTsgC&q=intitle:german+intitle:element+inauthor:faust online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419021414/https://books.google.com/books?id=J2Q6RgAJTsgC&q=intitle:german+intitle:element+inauthor:faust |date=April 19, 2023 }}.</ref> A popular Union commander among Germans, Major General [[Franz Sigel]] was the highest-ranking German officer in the [[Union Army]], with many German immigrants claiming to enlist to "fight ''mit'' Sigel".<ref>{{Citation |last=Poole |first=John F. |title=I'm Going to Fight Mit Sigel |publisher=H. de Marsan |location=New York}}</ref>

[[File:Germans1900.jpg|thumb|upright|The German vote in 1900 was in doubt; they opposed the "repudiation" policy of [[William Jennings Bryan|Bryan]] (right poster), but also disliked the overseas expansion [[William McKinley|McKinley]] had delivered (left poster).]]

Although only one in four Germans fought in all-German regiments, they created the public image of the German soldier. Pennsylvania fielded five German regiments, New York eleven, and Ohio six.<ref name="Keller" />

====Farmers====
Western railroads, with large land grants available to attract farmers, set up agencies in Hamburg and other German cities, promising cheap transportation, and sales of farmland on easy terms. For example, the Santa Fe railroad hired its own commissioner for immigration, and sold over {{convert|300000|acre|km2}} to German-speaking farmers.<ref>C. B. Schmidt, "Reminiscences of Foreign Immigration Work for Kansas," ''Kansas Historical Collections, 1905–1906'' 9 (1906): 485–497; J. Neale Carman, ed. and trans., "German Settlements Along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway," ''[[Kansas Historical Quarterly]]'' 28 (Autumn 1962): 310–16; cited in Turk, "Germans in Kansas," (2005) p 57.</ref>

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the German Americans showed a high interest in becoming farmers, and keeping their children and grandchildren on the land. While they needed profits to stay in operation, they used profits as a tool "to maintain continuity of the family".<ref>Sonya Salamon, ''Prairie Patrimony: Family, Farming, and Community in the Midwest'' (U. of North Carolina Press, 1992) pp. 53, 101</ref> They used risk averse strategies, and carefully planned their inheritances to keep the land in the family. Their communities showed smaller average farm size, greater equality, less absentee ownership and greater geographic persistence. As one farmer explained, "To protect your family has turned out to be the same thing as protecting your land."<ref>Salamon, ''Prairie Patrimony'' p 101</ref>

Germany was a large country with many diverse subregions which contributed immigrants. Dubuque was the base of the ''Ostfriesische Nachrichten'' ("East Frisian News") from 1881 to 1971. It connected the 20,000 immigrants from East Friesland (Ostfriesland), Germany, to each other across the Midwest, and to their old homeland. In Germany East Friesland was often a topic of ridicule regarding backward rustics, but editor Leupke Hündling shrewdly combined stories of proud memories of Ostfriesland. The editor enlisted a network of local correspondents. By mixing local American and local German news, letters, poetry, fiction, and dialogue, the German-language newspaper allowed immigrants to honor their origins and celebrate their new life as highly prosperous farmers with much larger farms than were possible back in impoverished Ostfriesland. During the world wars, when Germania came under heavy attack, the paper stressed its humanitarian role, mobilizing readers to help the people of East Friesland with relief funds. Younger generations could usually speak German but not read it, so the subscription base dwindled away as the target audience Americanized itself.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=27501458 |title=Heimat in the Heartland: The Significance of an Ethnic Newspaper |journal=Journal of American Ethnic History |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=78–98 |last1=Lindaman |first1=Matthew |year=2004 |doi=10.2307/27501458 |s2cid=254494566}}</ref>

====Politics====
Relatively few German Americans held office, but the men voted once they became citizens. In general during the [[Third party System]] (1850s–1890s), the Protestants and Jews leaned toward the [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican party]] and the Catholics were strongly [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]. When [[prohibition]] was on the ballot, the Germans voted solidly against it. They strongly distrusted moralistic crusaders, whom they called "Puritans", including the temperance reformers and many [[Populist Party (United States)|Populists]]. The German community strongly opposed [[Free Silver]], and voted heavily against crusader [[William Jennings Bryan]] in 1896. In 1900, many German Democrats returned to their party and voted for Bryan, perhaps because of President [[William McKinley]]'s foreign policy.<ref name="Jensen1971">{{cite book |author=Richard J. Jensen |title=The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpCgCNZwpvoC&q=McKinley%27s+inclusive+appeal |year=1971 |publisher=Richard Jensen |isbn=978-0-226-39825-9 |page=292 |access-date=January 15, 2017 |archive-date=November 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212235/https://books.google.com/books?id=XpCgCNZwpvoC&q=McKinley%27s+inclusive+appeal |url-status=live }}</ref>

At the local level, historians have explored the changing voting behavior of the German-American community and one of its major strongholds, St. Louis, Missouri. The German Americans had voted 80 percent for Lincoln in 1860, and strongly supported the war effort. They were a bastion of the Republican Party in St. Louis and nearby immigrant strongholds in Missouri and southern Illinois. The German Americans were angered by a proposed Missouri state constitution that discriminated against Catholics and freethinkers. The requirement of a special loyalty oath for priests and ministers was troublesome. Despite their strong opposition the constitution was ratified in 1865. Racial tensions with the blacks began to emerge, especially in terms of competition for unskilled labor jobs. Germania was nervous about black suffrage in 1868, fearing that blacks would support puritanical laws, especially regarding the prohibition of beer gardens on Sundays. The tensions split off a large German element in 1872, led by Carl Schurz. They supported the Liberal Republican party led by [[Benjamin Gratz Brown]] for governor in 1870 and [[Horace Greeley]] for president in 1872.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=27501880 |title=German Americans, African Americans, and the Republican Party in St. Louis, 1865–1872 |journal=Journal of American Ethnic History |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=34–51 |last1=Anderson |first1=Kristen L. |year=2008 |doi=10.2307/27501880 |s2cid=254486844}}</ref>

Many Germans in late 19th century cities were communists; Germans played a significant role in the labor union movement.<ref>{{cite book |author=Dorothee Schneider |title=Trade Unions and Community: The German Working Class in New York City, 1870–1900 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATL_3v4_PkwC&pg=PA36 |year=1994 |page=36 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252020575 |access-date=February 13, 2016 |archive-date=November 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212217/https://books.google.com/books?id=ATL_3v4_PkwC&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Hartmut Keil, and John B. Jentz, eds., ''German Workers in Industrial Chicago, 1850–1910: A Comparative Perspective'' (1983).</ref> A few were anarchists.<ref>{{cite web |last=Goyens |first=Tom |title=Beer and Revolution: Some Aspects of German Anarchist Culture in New York, 1880–1900 |url=http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/tom-goyens-beer-and-revolution-some-aspects-of-german-anarchist-culture-in-new-york-1880-1900 |publisher=Social Anarchism journal |access-date=July 8, 2012 |archive-date=October 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003181855/http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/tom-goyens-beer-and-revolution-some-aspects-of-german-anarchist-culture-in-new-york-1880-1900 |url-status=live }}</ref> Eight of the forty-two anarchist defendants in the [[Haymarket Affair]] of 1886 in Chicago were German.

===World Wars===

====Intellectuals====
[[File:Hugo Munsterberg.jpg|thumb|upright|Hugo Münsterberg, Harvard professor of psychology]]

[[Hugo Münsterberg]] (1863–1916), a German psychologist, moved to Harvard in the 1890s and became a leader in the new profession. He was president of the American Psychological Association in 1898, and the [[American Philosophical Association]] in 1908, and played a major role in many other American and international organizations.<ref>Jutta Spillmann, and Lothar Spillmann. "The rise and fall of Hugo Münsterberg." ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences'' 29#4 (1993): 322–338.</ref>

[[Arthur Preuss]] (1871–1934) was a leading journalist, and theologian. A layman in St Louis. His ''Fortnightly Review'' (in English) was a major conservative voice read closely by church leaders and intellectuals from 1894 until 1934. He was intensely loyal to the Vatican. Preuss upheld the German Catholic community, denounced the "Americanism" heresy, promoted the [[Catholic University of America]], and anguished over the anti-German America hysteria during World War{{nbsp}}I. He provided lengthy commentary regarding the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the anti-Catholic factor in the presidential campaign of 1928, the hardships of the Great Depression, and the liberalism of the New Deal.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 25154032 |title = Arthur Preuss, German-Catholic Exile in America |journal = U.S. Catholic Historian |volume = 12 |issue = 3 |pages = 41–62 |last1 = Conley |first1 = Rory T. |year = 1994 }}</ref><ref>Rory T. Conley, ''Arthur Preuss: Journalist and Voice of German and Conservative Catholics in America, 1871–1934'' (1998).</ref>

====World War I anti-German sentiment====
{{see also|American entry into World War I|Internment of German Americans}}
[[File:German American internment sites during World War II.jpg|left|thumb|623x623px|Map of German American internment sites in WWII]]
During World War I, German Americans were often accused of being too sympathetic to Imperial Germany. Former president [[Theodore Roosevelt]] denounced "[[hyphenated American]]ism", insisting that dual loyalties were impossible in wartime. A small minority came out for Germany, such as [[H. L. Mencken]]. Similarly, Harvard psychology professor [[Hugo Münsterberg]] dropped his efforts to mediate between America and Germany, and threw his efforts behind the German cause.<ref>Jutta Spillmann and Lothar Spillmann. "The rise and fall of Hugo Münsterberg." ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences'' 29.4 (1993) 322–338.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.earlham.edu/~dominel/obituary.htm |title = Untitled Document |website = Earlham.edu |access-date = August 28, 2017 |archive-date = December 28, 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101228010415/http://www.earlham.edu/~dominel/obituary.htm |url-status = dead }}</ref> There was also some Anti-German hysteria like the killing of [[Edmund Kayser|Pastor Edmund Kayser]].

The Justice Department prepared a list of all German aliens, counting approximately 480,000 of them, more than 4,000 of whom were imprisoned in 1917–18. The allegations included spying for Germany or endorsing the German war effort.<ref>[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/comment/yockel.htm The War Department: Keeper of Our Nation's Enemy Aliens During World War I] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060912000808/http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/comment/yockel.htm |date=September 12, 2006 }} by [[Mitchell Yockelson]]. Presented to the Society for Military History Annual Meeting, April 1998.</ref> Thousands were forced to buy war bonds to show their loyalty.<ref>{{Citation |url = http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/1/ |title = Get the Rope! Anti-German Violence in World War I-era Wisconsin |access-date = August 1, 2008 |work = History Matters |publisher = George Mason University |archive-date = June 11, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160611050419/http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/1/ |url-status = live }}</ref> The [[American Red Cross|Red Cross]] barred individuals with German last names from joining in fear of sabotage. One person was killed by a mob; in [[Collinsville, Illinois]], German-born [[Robert Prager]] was dragged from jail as a suspected spy and lynched.<ref name=Hickey>{{Citation |last = Hickey |first = Donald R. |title = The Prager Affair: A Study in Wartime Hysteria |journal = Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society |pages = 126–127 |date = Summer 1969 }}</ref> A Minnesota minister was [[tarred and feathered]] when he was overheard praying in German with a dying woman.<ref>{{Citation |last = Brinkley |first = Alan |title = Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis |journal = Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences |issue = Winter 2006 |pages = 26–29 |access-date = November 19, 2009 |url = http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2006/brinkley.pdf |archive-date = November 13, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181113073201/http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2006/brinkley.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref> Questions of German American loyalty increased due to events like the German [[Black Tom explosion|bombing of Black Tom island]]<ref>{{cite news |url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1916/07/31/104683616.pdf |title = How Eyewitnesses Survived Explosion: Police and Men on Craft Dodged Death on Land and Water to Save Themselves and Others |work = The New York Times |date = July 31, 1916 |access-date = July 30, 2010 |archive-date = February 24, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210224224438/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1916/07/31/104683616.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref> and the U.S. entering World War I, many German Americans were arrested for refusing allegiance to the U.S.<ref>{{cite news |last = Robbins |first = Jim |url = https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C17FC355B0C708CDDAC0894DE404482 |title = Silence Broken, Pardons Granted 88 Years After Crimes of Sedition |work = The New York Times |date = May 3, 2006 |access-date = July 30, 2010 |archive-date = May 12, 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110512052756/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C17FC355B0C708CDDAC0894DE404482 |url-status = live }}</ref> War hysteria led to the removal of German names in public, names of things such as streets,<ref name="cincy">Kathleen Doane. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140120043547/http://cincinnati.com/blogs/ourhistory/2012/06/06/anti-german-hysteria-swept-cincinnati-in-1917/ "Anti-German hysteria swept Cincinnati in 1917"] . ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'', June 6, 2012. Accessed February 15, 2013.</ref> and businesses.<ref>[http://www.guardianlife.com/glife11pp/groups/camp_internet/@stellent_camp_website_glife_corpcomm_edits/documents/report/guardian2009annualreportfin.pdf Guardian 2009 Annual Report]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, p. 2; Anita Rapone, The Guardian Life Insurance Company, 1860–1920: A History of a German-American Enterprise (New York: New York University Press, 1987); Robert E. Wright and George David Smith, Mutually Beneficial: The Guardian and Life Insurance in America (New York: New York University Press, 2004).</ref> Schools also began to eliminate or discourage the teaching of the German language.<ref>[http://digital-archives.ccny.cuny.edu/archival-collections/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Archival-Finding-Aid.pdf CCNY Archival Finding Aid] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225156/http://digital-archives.ccny.cuny.edu/archival-collections/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Archival-Finding-Aid.pdf |date=March 3, 2016 }}, p. 81.</ref>

In Chicago, [[Frederick Stock]] temporarily stepped down as conductor of the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]] until he finalized his naturalization papers. Orchestras replaced music by German composer [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] with French composer [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]]. In [[Cincinnati]], the public library was asked to withdraw all German books from its shelves.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.enquirer.com/century/loc_cincinnatis_century5.html |title = Cincinnati's Century of Change – May |website = Enquirer.com |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212235/https://www.cincinnati.com/ |url-status = live }}</ref> German-named streets were renamed. The town, Berlin, Michigan, was changed to [[Marne, Michigan]] (honoring those who fought in the Battle of Marne). In Iowa, in the 1918 [[Babel Proclamation]], the governor prohibited all foreign languages in schools and public places. Nebraska banned instruction in any language except English, but the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled the ban illegal in 1923 (''[[Meyer v. Nebraska]]'').<ref>''Meyer v. Nebraska'', [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=262&page=390 262 U.S. 390] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628182529/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=262&page=390 |date=June 28, 2011 }} (1923).</ref> The response of German Americans to these tactics was often to "[[Americanization|Americanize]]" names (e.g., Schmidt to Smith, Müller to Miller) and limit the use of the German language in public places, especially churches.<ref name="Hawgood"/>

<gallery>
File:WWIHunNatlArchives.jpg|American wartime propaganda depicted the bloodthirsty German "Hun" soldier as an enemy of civilization, with his eyes on America from across the Atlantic.
John Meintz, punished during World War I - NARA - 283633 - restored.jpg|German American farmer John Meints of Minnesota was [[Tarring and feathering|tarred and feathered]] in August 1918 for allegedly not supporting war bond drives.
</gallery>

====World War II====
[[File:Marlene Dietrich ww2 47.jpg|thumb|[[Marlene Dietrich]] signing a soldier's cast (Belgium, 1944)]]

Between 1931 and 1940, 114,000 Germans moved to the United States, many of whom—including Nobel prize winner [[Albert Einstein]] and author [[Erich Maria Remarque]]—were [[History of the Jews in Germany|Jewish Germans]] or [[anti-Nazi]]s fleeing government oppression.<ref>[http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/GermAmChron.htm A German-American Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513133642/http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/GermAmChron.htm |date=May 13, 2012 }}, adapted from: ''The German Americans: An Ethnic Experience'' by LaVern J. Rippley and Eberhard Reichmann.</ref> About 25,000 people became paying members of the pro-Nazi [[German American Bund]] during the years before the war.<ref>[http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005684 German American Bund] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090506074059/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005684 |date=May 6, 2009 }}, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.</ref> German aliens were the subject of suspicion and discrimination during the war, although prejudice and sheer numbers meant they suffered as a group generally less than [[Japanese American]]s. The [[Smith Act|Alien Registration Act of 1940]] required 300,000 German-born resident aliens who had German citizenship to register with the Federal government and restricted their travel and property ownership rights.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://judiciary.senate.gov/member_statement.cfm?id=964&wit_id=85 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080829095922/http://judiciary.senate.gov/member_statement.cfm?id=964&wit_id=85 |url-status = dead |title = Statement of Senator Russell D. Feingold |archive-date = August 29, 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h109-3198 |title = Text of H.R. 3198 (109th): Wartime Treatment Study Act (Introduced version) – GovTrack.us |work = GovTrack.us |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-date = February 5, 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120205104622/http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h109-3198 |url-status = live }}</ref> Under the still active [[Alien and Sedition Acts|Alien Enemy Act of 1798]], the United States government [[German American internment|interned nearly 11,000 German citizens]] between 1940 and 1948. Civil rights violations occurred.<ref name="real_people">{{cite web |url = http://www.gaic.info/real_people.html |title = German American Internee Coalition |access-date = March 17, 2015 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150305075021/http://www.gaic.info/real_people.html |archive-date = March 5, 2015 }}</ref> An unknown number of "voluntary internees" joined their spouses and parents in the camps and were not permitted to leave.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1153895 |title = German Internment Camps in World War II (thing) |website = Everything2.com |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-date = March 22, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210322054819/https://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1153895 |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3607871.stm |title = BBC NEWS – Americas – The lost voices of Crystal City |website = News.bbc.co.uk |access-date = March 17, 2015 |date = April 8, 2004 |archive-date = March 22, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210322054822/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3607871.stm |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.traces.org/timeline.aftermath.html |title = German Internees Time Line |website = Traces.org |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150321113005/http://www.traces.org/timeline.aftermath.html |archive-date = March 21, 2015 |url-status = dead }}</ref>
Many Americans of German ancestry had top war jobs, including General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], Admiral [[Chester W. Nimitz]], and [[USAAF]] General [[Carl Andrew Spaatz]]. Roosevelt appointed Republican [[Wendell Willkie]] (who ironically ran against Roosevelt in the [[1940 United States presidential election|1940 presidential election]]) as a personal representative. German Americans who had fluent German language skills were an important asset to wartime intelligence, and they served as translators and as spies for the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.traces.org/wartimepolicies.htm |title = Wartime Policies |website = Traces.org |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150325071110/http://www.traces.org/wartimepolicies.htm |archive-date = March 25, 2015 |url-status = dead }}</ref> The war evoked strong pro-American patriotic sentiments among German Americans, few of whom by then had contacts with distant relatives in the old country.<ref name="Conzen"/><ref>Tischauser, (1990); Tolzmann, (1995)</ref>
{{Bar chart
| title       = Number of German Americans
| label_type  = Year
| data_type   = Number
| bar_width   = 15
| width_units = em
| data_max    = 60000000
| float       = right
| label1      = 1980<ref>{{Citation |title = Rank of States for Selected Ancestry Groups with 100,00 or more persons: 1980 |url = https://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/files/pc80-s1-10/tab04.pdf |publisher = [[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date = November 30, 2012 |archive-date = January 16, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190116175346/https://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/files/pc80-s1-10/tab04.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref>
| data1       = 49,224,146
| label2      = 1990<ref>{{Citation |title = 1990 Census of Population Detailed Ancestry Groups for States |url = https://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/cp-s/cp-s-1-2.pdf |publisher = [[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date = November 30, 2012 |date = September 18, 1992 |archive-date = July 27, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170727091052/https://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/cp-s/cp-s-1-2.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref>
| data2       = 57,947,374
| label3      = 2000<ref>{{Citation |title = Ancestry: 2000 |url = http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_00_SF3_QTP13&prodType=table |archive-url = https://archive.today/20200212213043/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_00_SF3_QTP13&prodType=table |url-status = dead |archive-date = February 12, 2020 |publisher = [[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date = November 30, 2012 }}</ref>
| data3       = 42,885,162
| label4      = 2010<ref>{{Citation |title = Total ancestry categories tallied for people with one or more ancestry categories reported 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates |url = http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_B04003&prodType=table |archive-url = https://archive.today/20150118121537/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_B04003&prodType=table |url-status = dead |archive-date = January 18, 2015 |publisher = [[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date = November 30, 2012 }}</ref>
| data4       = 47,911,129
| data5       = 44,978,546
| label5      = 2020<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-race-overview.html|title= Census Bureau Releases 2020 Census Population for More Than 200 New Detailed Race and Ethnicity Groups|date= September 21, 2023|accessdate= October 21, 2023|archive-date= October 12, 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231012221711/https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-race-overview.html|url-status= live}}</ref>
}}

===Contemporary period===
[[File:New ulm police.jpg|thumb|Parking meter checker stands by his police vehicle which is imprinted with the German word for police (Polizei). It is part of the town's highlighting its German ethnic origins. [[New Ulm, Minnesota]], July 1974.]]
[[File:Mathilda Wehmeyer German-American Kindergarten School -- Galveston.jpg|left|thumb|German American kindergarten building in [[Galveston, Texas|Galveston TX]]]]
In the aftermath of World War II, millions of [[Expulsion of Germans after World War II|ethnic Germans were forcibly expelled]] from their homes within the redrawn borders of Central and Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia. Most resettled in Germany, but others came as refugees to the United States in the late 1940s, and established cultural centers in their new homes. Some [[Danube Swabians]], for instance, [[ethnic Germans]] who had maintained language and customs after settlement in Hungary and the Balkans, immigrated to the U.S. after the war.

After 1970, the anti-German sentiment aroused by World War II faded away.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.germany.info/relaunch/politics/new/pol_German_US_Survey_4_2007.html |title = German Missions in the United States – Home |website = Germany.info |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080904225106/http://www.germany.info/relaunch/politics/new/pol_German_US_Survey_4_2007.html |archive-date = September 4, 2008 |url-status = dead }}</ref> Today, German Americans who immigrated after World War{{nbsp}}II share the same characteristics as any other Western European immigrant group in the U.S.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shadows of War |url=http://rs6.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/german8.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090506125040/http://rs6.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/german8.html |archive-date=May 6, 2009 |access-date=March 17, 2015 |website=Teacher Resources – [[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> 
[[File:Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.jpg|thumb|U.S. Ancestries by County, Germany in light blue, {{as of|2000|lc=y}} census]] The German American community supported reunification in 1990.<ref>Lukas Schemper,  "Diasporas and American debates on German unification." ''Journal of Transatlantic Studies'' 15.1 (2017): 41–60 [https://www.academia.edu/download/51054251/Schemper_-_Diasporas_and_American_debates_on_German_unification_-_2016.pdf online]{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}.</ref>

In the [[1990 United States census|1990 U.S. Census]], 58 million Americans claimed to be solely or partially of German descent.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/imde/germchro.html |title = Chronology : The Germans in America (European Reading Room, Library of Congress) |website = Loc.gov |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-date = May 28, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230528125650/https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/imde/germchro.html |url-status = live }}</ref> According to the 2005 American Community Survey, 50 million Americans have German ancestry. German Americans represent 17% of the total U.S. population and 26% of the non-Hispanic white population.<ref name="US Census Bureau, German population">{{Citation |url = http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-reg=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201:535;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR:535;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T:535;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR:535&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-TABLE_NAMEX=&-ci_type=A&-redoLog=false&-charIterations=047&-geo_id=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en |author = United States Census Bureau |title = US demographic census |access-date = April 15, 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20090403034514/http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-reg=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201:535;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR:535;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T:535;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR:535&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-TABLE_NAMEX=&-ci_type=A&-redoLog=false&-charIterations=047&-geo_id=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en |archive-date = April 3, 2009 }}</ref>

''The Economist'' magazine in 2015 interviewed Petra Schürmann, the director of the German-American Heritage Museum in Washington D.C. for a major article on German-Americans. She notes that all over the United States, celebrations such as German fests and Oktoberfests have been appearing.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

==Demographics==
[[File:Distribution of Americans claiming German Ancestry by county in 2018.png|thumb|Distribution of Americans claiming German Ancestry by county in 2018]]

States with the highest proportions of German Americans tend to be those of the upper Midwest, including Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and [[the Dakotas]]; all at over 30%.<ref name="ACS2020">{{cite web |title=Table B04006 – People Reporting Ancestry – 2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates |url=https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Ancestry&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713211542/https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Ancestry&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006 |archive-date=July 13, 2022 |access-date=October 12, 2022 |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]}}</ref>

Of the four major U.S. regions, German was the most-reported ancestry in the [[Midwest]], second in the [[Western United States|West]], and third in both the [[Northeastern United States|Northeast]] and the [[Southern United States|South]]. German was the top reported ancestry in 23 states, and it was one of the top five reported ancestries in every state except Maine and Rhode Island.<ref name = "ACS2020" />

===German-speakers and German-Americans of color===
During the 1800s, there were a number of German-speaking African-Americans, including Black [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] people. A few German-speaking African-Americans were [[African-American Jews|Jewish]]. Some German-speaking African-Americans were adopted by white German-American families. Other Black German-Americans were immigrants from [[Afro-Germans|Germany]]. In the [[1870 United States census|1870 Census]], 15 Black immigrants from Germany were listed living in New Orleans. Afro-German immigrants were also listed on the census living in Memphis, New York City, Charleston, and Cleveland.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mkifriends.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/MKI_Summer-2021_Newsletter.pdf |title=African Americans and the German Language in America |publisher=[[Max Kade Institute]] |accessdate=2023-05-23 |archive-date=May 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230523061417/https://mkifriends.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/MKI_Summer-2021_Newsletter.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In Texas, many [[Tejanos]] have German ancestry.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/mexican-america/history |title=Mexican America |publisher=[[National Museum of American History]] |accessdate=2023-05-23 |archive-date=May 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230523061823/https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/mexican-america/history |url-status=live }}</ref> Tejano culture, particularly Tejano music, has been deeply influenced by German immigrants to Texas and Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/accordiondreams/cultures/index_alt.html |title=Tejanos |publisher=[[PBS]] |accessdate=2023-05-23 |archive-date=May 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230523062131/https://www.pbs.org/accordiondreams/cultures/index_alt.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In German-speaking parts of Texas during the 19th and 20th centuries, many African-Americans spoke German. Many Black people who were enslaved by white German-Americans, as well as their descendants, learned to speak German.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ids-mannheim.de/en/zfo/soer/german-across-the-world/schwarze-deutschsprecher-in-texas/ |title=Black German Speakers in Texas |publisher=[[Leibniz Institute for the German Language]] |accessdate=2023-05-23 |archive-date=November 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231102212144/https://www.ids-mannheim.de/en/zfo/soer/german-across-the-world/schwarze-deutschsprecher-in-texas/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===German American population by state===
[[File:Americans with German Ancestry by state.svg|thumb|Americans with German Ancestry by state according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2020]]
As of 2020, the distribution of German Americans across the 50 states and DC is as presented in the following table:  
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ {{small|{{flagicon|Germany}}Estimated German American population by state{{flagicon|USA}}}}<ref name="ACS2020states">{{cite web |url = https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?g=0100000US%240400000&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006 |title = Table B04006 – People Reporting Ancestry – 2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, All States |publisher = [[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date = October 12, 2022 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220717015112/https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?g=0100000US%240400000&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006 |archive-date = July 17, 2022 }}</ref><ref name="ACS2020" />
!  style="text-align:center; background-color:#9dbec3;"|'''State'''
!  style="text-align:center; background-color:#9dbec3;"|'''Number'''
!  style="text-align:center; background-color:#9dbec3;"|'''Percentage'''
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Alabama}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|303,109}}
|align="right"|6.19%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Alaska}}
|align="right"|{{nts|105,160}}
|align="right"|14.27%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Arizona}}
|align="right"|{{nts|913,671}}
|align="right"|12.74%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Arkansas}}
|align="right"|{{nts|279,279}}
|align="right"|9.27%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|California}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|2,786,161}}
|align="right"|7.08%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Colorado}}
|align="right"|{{nts|1,039,001}}
|align="right"|18.28%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Connecticut}}
|align="right"|{{nts|300,323}}
|align="right"|8.41%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Delaware}}
|align="right"|{{nts|116,569}}
|align="right"|12.05%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|District of Columbia}}
|align="right"|{{nts|51,073}}
|align="right"|7.28%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Florida}}
|align="right"|{{nts|1,943,171}}
|align="right"|9.16%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flagcountry|Georgia (U.S. state)}}
|align="right"|{{nts|669,497}}
|align="right"|6.37%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Hawaii}}
|align="right"|{{nts|82,087}}
|align="right"|5.78%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Idaho}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|291,509}}
|align="right"|16.62%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Illinois}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|2,175,044}}
|align="right"|17.10%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Indiana}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|1,378,584}}
|align="right"|20.59%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Iowa}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|1,016,154}}
|align="right"|32.26%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Kansas}}
|align="right"|{{nts|703,246}}
|align="right"|24.14%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Kentucky}}
|align="right"|{{nts|585,036}}
|align="right"|13.11%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Louisiana}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|312,583}}
|align="right"|6.70%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Maine}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|105,181}}
|align="right"|7.84%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Maryland}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|728,155}}
|align="right"|12.06%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Massachusetts}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|384,109}}
|align="right"|5.59%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Michigan}}  
|align="right"|{{nts|1,849,636}}
|align="right"|18.54%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Minnesota}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|1,753,612}}
|align="right"|31.31%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Mississippi}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|143,117}}
|align="right"|4.80%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Missouri}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|1,366,691}}
|align="right"|22.32%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Montana}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|256,295}}
|align="right"|24.14%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Nebraska}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|623,006}}
|align="right"|32.38%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Nevada}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|303,225}}
|align="right"|10.01%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|New Hampshire}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|117,188}}
|align="right"|8.65%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|New Jersey}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|867,285}}
|align="right"|9.76%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|New Mexico}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|166,848}}
|align="right"|7.96%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flagcountry|New York (state)}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|1,809,206}}
|align="right"|9.27%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|North Carolina}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|997,739}}
|align="right"|9.61%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|North Dakota}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|280,834}}
|align="right"|36.93%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Ohio}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|2,730,617}}
|align="right"|23.39%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Oklahoma}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|483,973}}
|align="right"|12.25%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Oregon}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|721,995}}
|align="right"|17.29%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Pennsylvania}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|2,915,171}}
|align="right"|22.78%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Rhode Island}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|53,192}}
|align="right"|5.03%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|South Carolina}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|471,940}}
|align="right"|9.27%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|South Dakota}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|314,246}}
|align="right"|35.74%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Tennessee}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|612,083}}
|align="right"|9.04%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Texas}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|2,429,525}}
|align="right"|8.48%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Utah}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|326,656}}
|align="right"|10.37%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Vermont}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|63,376}}
|align="right"|10.15%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Virginia}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|876,286}}
|align="right"|10.30%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flagcountry|Washington (state)}}
|align="right"|{{nts|1,177,478}}
|align="right"|15.67%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|West Virginia}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|282,257}}
|align="right"|15.62%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Wisconsin}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|2,195,662}}
|align="right"|37.81%
|-
|border = "1"|{{flag|Wyoming}}
|align="right"|{{nts|131,730}}
|align="right"|22.66%
|- class="sortbottom" bgcolor="lightgrey"
|border = "1"|'''{{flag|United States}}'''
|align="right"|'''{{nts|42,589,571}}'''
|align="right"|'''13.04%'''
|}

===German-American communities===
Today, most German Americans have assimilated to the point they no longer have readily identifiable ethnic communities, though there are still many metropolitan areas where German is the most reported ethnicity, such as [[Cincinnati]], [[Northern Kentucky]], [[Cleveland]], [[Columbus, Ohio|Columbus]], [[Indianapolis]], [[Milwaukee]], [[Minneapolis – Saint Paul]], [[Pittsburgh]], and [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]].<ref name="Zeitlin"/><ref>U.S. Census Bureau. [http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en American FactFinder] {{dead link|date=June 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

====Communities with highest percentages of people of German ancestry====
The 25 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of residents claiming German ancestry are:<ref>{{Citation |url = http://www.epodunk.com/ancestry/German.html |title = Ancestry Map of German Communities |publisher = Epodunk.com |access-date = August 12, 2008 |archive-date = July 29, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160729024532/http://www.epodunk.com/ancestry/German.html |url-status = dead }}</ref>
# [[Monterey Township, Putnam County, Ohio|Monterey, Ohio]] 83.6%
# [[Granville Township, Mercer County, Ohio|Granville Township, Ohio]] 79.6%
# [[St. Henry, Ohio]] 78.5%
# [[Germantown Township, Clinton County, Illinois|Germantown Township, Illinois]] 77.6%
# [[Jackson Township, Dubois County, Indiana|Jackson, Indiana]] 77.3%
# [[Washington Township, Mercer County, Ohio|Washington Township, Ohio]] 77.2%
# [[Saint Rose Township, Clinton County, Illinois|St. Rose, Illinois]] 77.1%
# [[Butler Township, Mercer County, Ohio|Butler, Ohio]] 76.4%
# [[Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio|Marion Township, Ohio]] 76.3%
# [[Jennings Township, Putnam County, Ohio|Jennings, Ohio]] and [[Germantown, Illinois|Germantown, Illinois (village)]] 75.6%
# [[Coldwater, Ohio]] 74.9%
# [[Jackson, Ohio]] 74.6%
# [[Union, Ohio]] 74.1%
# [[Minster, Ohio]] and [[Kalida, Ohio]] 73.5%
# [[Greensburg Township, Putnam County, Ohio|Greensburg, Ohio]] 73.4%
# [[Aviston, Illinois]] 72.5%
# [[Teutopolis, Illinois|Teutopolis, Illinois (village)]] 72.4%
# [[Teutopolis Township, Effingham County, Illinois|Teutopolis, Illinois (township)]] and [[Cottonwood Township, Brown County, Minnesota|Cottonwood, Minnesota]] 72.3%
# [[Dallas Township, Michigan|Dallas, Michigan]] 71.7%
# [[Gibson Township, Mercer County, Ohio|Gibson Township, Ohio]] 71.6%
# [[Marshfield, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin|Town of Marshfield, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin]] 71.5%
# [[Santa Fe Township, Clinton County, Illinois|Santa Fe, Illinois]] 70.8%
# [[Recovery Township, Mercer County, Ohio|Recovery Township, Ohio]] 70.4%
# [[Brothertown, Wisconsin|Town of Brothertown, Wisconsin]] 69.9%
# [[Herman, Dodge County, Wisconsin|Town of Herman, Dodge County, Wisconsin]] 69.8%

====Large communities with high percentages of people of German ancestry====
Large U.S. communities with a high percentage of residents claiming German ancestry are:<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.epodunk.com/ |title = City & County Information, Town & Community Information |publisher = ePodunk |access-date = August 10, 2014 |archive-date = February 13, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190213124029/http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genealogyInfo.php?locIndex=279015 |url-status = live }}</ref>
# [[Bismarck, North Dakota]] 56.1%
# [[Dubuque, Iowa]] 43%
# [[St. Cloud, Minnesota]] 38.8%
# [[Fargo, North Dakota]] 31%
# [[Madison, Wisconsin]] 29%
# [[Green Bay, Wisconsin]] 29%
# [[Levittown, Pennsylvania]] 22%
# [[Erie, Pennsylvania]] 22%
# [[Cincinnati]], Ohio 19.8%
# [[Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania 19.7%
# [[Columbus, Ohio]] 19.4%
# [[Beaverton, Oregon]] 17%

====Communities with the most residents born in Germany====
The 25 U.S. communities with the most residents born in Germany are:{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}
# [[Lely Resort, Florida]] 6.8%
# [[Pemberton Heights, New Jersey]] 5.0%
# [[Kempner, Texas]] 4.8%
# [[Cedar Glen Lakes, New Jersey]] 4.5%
# [[Alamogordo, New Mexico]] 4.3%
# [[Sunshine Acres, Florida]] and [[Leisureville, Florida]] 4.2%
# [[Wakefield, Kansas]] 4.1%
# [[Quantico, Virginia]] 4.0%
# [[Crestwood Village, New Jersey]] 3.8%
# [[Shandaken, New York]] 3.5%
# [[Vine Grove, Kentucky]] 3.4%
# [[Burnt Store Marina, Florida]] and [[Boles Acres, New Mexico]] 3.2%
# [[Allenhurst, Georgia]], [[Security-Widefield, Colorado]], [[Grandview Plaza, Kansas]], and [[Fairbanks Ranch, California]] 3.0%
# [[Standing Pine, Mississippi]] 2.9%
# [[Millers Falls, Massachusetts]], [[Marco Island, Florida]], [[Daytona Beach Shores, Florida]], [[Radcliff, Kentucky]], [[Beverly Hills, Florida]], [[Davilla, Texas]], [[Annandale, New Jersey]], and [[Holiday Heights, New Jersey]] 2.8%
# [[Fort Riley North, Kansas]], [[Copperas Cove, Texas]], and [[Cedar Glen West, New Jersey]] 2.7%
# [[Pelican Bay, Florida]], [[Masaryktown, Florida]], [[Highland Beach, Florida]], [[Milford, Kansas]], and [[Langdon, New Hampshire]] 2.6%
# [[Forest Home, New York]], Southwest Bell, Texas, [[Vineyards, Florida]], [[South Palm Beach, Florida]], and [[Basye-Bryce Mountain, Virginia]] 2.5%
# [[Sausalito, California]], [[Bovina, New York]], [[Fanwood, New Jersey]], [[Fountain, Colorado]], [[Rye Brook, New York]] and [[Desoto Lakes, Florida]] 2.4%
# [[Ogden, Kansas]], [[Blue Berry Hill, Texas]], [[Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida]], [[Sherman, Connecticut]], [[Leisuretowne, New Jersey]], [[Killeen, Texas]], [[White House Station, New Jersey]], [[Junction City, Kansas]], [[Ocean Ridge, Florida]], [[Viola, New York]], [[Waynesville, Missouri]] and [[Mill Neck, New York]] 2.3%
# [[Level Plains, Alabama]], [[Kingsbury, Nevada]], [[Tega Cay, South Carolina]], [[Margaretville, New York]], [[White Sands, New Mexico]], [[Stamford, New York]], [[Point Lookout, New York]], and [[Terra Mar, Florida]] 2.2%
# [[Rifton, New York]], [[Manasota Key, Florida]], [[Del Mar, California]], Yuba Foothills, California, [[Daleville, Alabama]]. [[Tesuque, New Mexico]], [[Plainsboro Center, New Jersey]], [[Silver Ridge, New Jersey]] and [[Palm Beach, Florida]] 2.1%
# [[Oriental, North Carolina]], [[Holiday City-Berkeley, New Jersey]], [[North Sea, New York]], [[Ponce Inlet, Florida]], [[Montgomery County, Tennessee|Woodlawn-Dotsonville, Tennessee]], [[West Hurley, New York]], [[Littlerock, California]], [[Felton, California]], [[Laguna Woods, California]], [[Leisure Village, New Jersey]], [[Readsboro, Vermont]], [[Nolanville, Texas]], and [[Groveland-Big Oak Flat, California]] 2.0%
# [[Rotonda, Florida]], [[Grayson, California]], [[Shokan, New York]], [[The Meadows, Florida]], Southeast Comanche, Oklahoma, [[Lincolndale, New York]], [[Fort Johnson South, Louisiana]], and [[Townsend, Massachusetts]] 1.9%
# [[Pine Ridge, Citrus County, Florida|Pine Ridge, Florida]], [[Boca Pointe, Florida]], [[Rodney Village, Delaware]], [[Palenville, New York]], and [[Topsfield, Massachusetts]] 1.8%

==Culture==
{{see also|List of German restaurants}}
[[File:MONUMENT AND STATUE OF HERMANN-ARMINIUS, GERMAN PATRIOT WHICH WAS ERECTED IN NEW ULM, MINNESOTA, IN 1888. THE TOWN... - NARA - 558113.jpg|thumb|right|upright|The [[Hermann Heights Monument]] in [[New Ulm, Minnesota]]. Erected by the [[Sons of Hermann]], it is the 3rd largest copper statue in the United States after the [[Statue of Liberty]] and ''[[Portlandia (statue)|Portlandia]]''. Historians have regarded [[Arminius|Hermann]]'s victory over Roman troops in 9{{nbsp}}CE as Rome's greatest defeat,<ref>{{cite book |last = Murdoch |first = Adrian |date = December 1, 2012 |title = Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Pao7AwAAQBAJ |publisher = [[The History Press]] |isbn = 978-0752494555 |access-date = March 20, 2019 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212206/https://books.google.com/books?id=Pao7AwAAQBAJ |url-status = live }}</ref> and in the 19th century he became a symbol of unity for German immigrants facing [[anti-German sentiment]] in the United States.<ref>Albert Clark Stevens, ''The Cyclopædia of Fraternities'', 2nd ed., New York: Treat, 1907, [https://books.google.com/books?id=H-K3AAAAIAAJ&dq=Philip+Merkel&pg=PA282 p. 283] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510204958/https://books.google.com/books?id=H-K3AAAAIAAJ&dq=Philip+Merkel&pg=PA282 |date=May 10, 2023 }}</ref>]]

The Germans worked hard to maintain and cultivate their language, especially through newspapers and classes in elementary and high schools. German Americans in many cities, such as [[Milwaukee]], brought their strong support of education, establishing German-language schools and teacher training seminaries (''Töchter-Institut'') to prepare students and teachers in German language training. By the late 19th century, the Germania Publishing Company was established in Milwaukee, a publisher of books, magazines, and newspapers in German.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uwm.edu/~margo/sympapers/Ortlepp.htm|title=Deutsch-Athen Revisited{{nbsp}}...|website=Uwm.edu|access-date=August 28, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207173929/http://www.uwm.edu/~margo/sympapers/Ortlepp.htm|archive-date=December 7, 2008}}</ref>

"Germania" was the common term for German American neighborhoods and their organizations.<ref>Noel Iverson, ''Germania, U.S.A.'' (1966).</ref> ''Deutschtum'' was the term for transplanted German nationalism, both culturally and politically. Between 1875 and 1915, the German American population in the United States doubled, and many of its members insisted on maintaining their culture. German was used in local schools and churches, while numerous ''Vereine'', associations dedicated to literature, humor, gymnastics, and singing, sprang up in German American communities. German Americans tended to support the German government's actions, and, even after the United States entered World War{{nbsp}}I, they often voted for antidraft and antiwar candidates. 'Deutschtum' in the United States disintegrated after 1918.<ref>Andrew Yox, "The German-American Community as a Nationality, 1880–1940", ''Yearbook of German-American Studies'' 2001 36: 181–193; Kazal (2004)</ref>

===Music===
Beginning in 1741, the German-speaking [[Moravian Church]] Settlements of [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania|Bethlehem]], [[Nazareth, Pennsylvania|Nazareth]] and [[Lititz, Pennsylvania|Lititz]], Pennsylvania, and [[Wachovia, North Carolina|Wachovia]] in North Carolina had highly developed musical cultures. Choral music, Brass and String Music and Congregational singing were highly cultivated. The Moravian Church produced many composers and musicians. [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]]'s ''Creation'' had its American debut in Bethlehem in the early 19th century.

The spiritual beliefs of Johann Conrad Beissel (1690–1768) and the Ephrata Cloister—such as the asceticism and mysticism of this Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, group – are reflected in Beissel's treatises on music and hymns, which have been considered the beginning of America's musical heritage.<ref>Lucile E. Hackett, "Johann Conrad Beissel: Early German-American Mystic and Musician", ''Studies in Puritan American Spirituality'' 1995 5: 95–121</ref>

In most major cities, Germans took the lead in creating a musical culture, with popular bands, singing societies, operas and symphonic orchestras.<ref>Philip V. Bohlman ([[Philip Bohlman]]) and [[Otto Holzapfel]], eds. ''Land without Nightingales: Music in the Making of German-America.'' (U. of Wisconsin Press, 2002)</ref>

A small city, [[Wheeling, West Virginia]] could boast of 11 singing societies—Maennerchor, Harmonie, Liedertafel, Beethoven, Concordia, Liederkranz, Germania, Teutonia, Harmonie-Maennerchor, Arion, and Mozart. The first began in 1855; the last folded in 1961. An important aspect of Wheeling social life, these societies reflected various social classes and enjoyed great popularity until anti-German sentiments during World War{{nbsp}}I and changing social values dealt them a death blow.<ref>Edward C. Wolf, "Wheeling's German Singing Societies", ''West Virginia History'' 1980–1981 42(1–2): 1–56</ref>

The Liederkranz, a German-American music society, played an important role in the integration of the German community into the life of [[Louisville, Kentucky]]. Started in 1848, the organization was strengthened by the arrival of German liberals after the failure of the revolution of that year. By the mid-1850s the Germans formed one-third of Louisville's population and faced nativist hostility organized in the Know-Nothing movement. Violent demonstrations forced the chorus to suppress publicity of its performances that included works by composer Richard Wagner. The Liederkranz suspended operations during the Civil War, but afterward grew rapidly, and was able to build a large auditorium by 1873. An audience of 8,000 that attended a performance in 1877 demonstrated that the Germans were an accepted part of Louisville life.<ref>Erna Ottl Gwinn, "The Liederkranz in Louisville, 1848–1877", ''Filson Club History Quarterly'' 1975 49(3): 276–290,</ref>

The Imperial government in Berlin promoted German culture in the U.S., especially music. A steady influx of German-born conductors, including Arthur Nikisch and Karl Muck, spurred the reception of German music in the United States, while German musicians seized on Victorian Americans' growing concern with 'emotion'. The performance of pieces such as Beethoven's ''Ninth Symphony'' established German serious music as the superior language of feeling.<ref>Jessica C. E. Gienow-Hecht, "Trumpeting down the Walls of Jericho: The Politics of Art, Music and Emotion in German-American Relations, 1870–1920", ''Journal of Social History'' 2003 36(3): 585–613,</ref>

===Turners===
[[Turners|Turner societies]] in the United States were first organized during the mid-19th century so German American immigrants could visit with one another and become involved in social and sports activities. The National Turnerbund, the head organization of the Turnvereine, started drilling members as in militia units in 1854. Nearly half of all Turners fought in the Civil War, mostly on the Union side, and a special group served as bodyguards for President Lincoln.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

By the 1890s, Turners numbered nearly 65,000. At the turn of the 21st century, with the ethnic identity of European Americans in flux and Americanization a key element of immigrant life, there were few Turner groups, athletic events were limited, and non-Germans were members. A survey of surviving groups and members reflects these radical changes in the role of Turner societies and their marginalization in 21st-century American society, as younger German Americans tended not to belong, even in strongholds of German heritage in the Midwest.<ref>Annette R. Hofmann, "Transformation and Americanization: The American Turners and Their New Identity", ''International Journal of the History of Sport'' 2002 19(1): 91–118</ref>

===Media===
{{main|German American journalism}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 137-005795, Deutsche Zeitungen in Nordamerika.jpg|thumb|upright|German newspapers in North America, 1922]]

As for any immigrant population, the development of a foreign-language press helped immigrants more easily learn about their new home, maintain connections to their native land, and unite immigrant communities.<ref>Carl Wittke, ''The German-Language Press in America'' (1957)</ref> By the late 19th century, Germania published over 800 regular publications. The most prestigious daily newspapers, such as the ''[[New Yorker Staats-Zeitung]]'', the ''[[Anzeiger des Westens]]'' in St. Louis, and the ''[[Illinois Staats-Zeitung]]'' in Chicago, promoted middle-class values and encouraged German ethnic loyalty among their readership.<ref>Peter Conolly-Smith, "Transforming an Ethnic Readership Through "Word and Image": William Randolph Hearst's Deutsches Journal and New York's German-Language Press, 1895–1918", Volume 19, Number 1, 2009 in [[Project MUSE]]; Peter Conolly-Smith, ''Translating America: An Ethnic Press Visualizes Popular American Culture, 1895–1918'' (2004); Carl Wittke, ''The German-Language Press in America'' (1957).</ref> The Germans were proud of their language, supported many German-language public and private schools, and conducted their church services in German.<ref>Richard Jensen, ''The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896'' (1971) ch. 5</ref> They published at least two-thirds of all foreign language newspapers in the U.S. The papers were owned and operated in the U.S., with no control from Germany. As Wittke emphasizes, press. it was "essentially an American press published in a foreign tongue". The papers reported on major political and diplomatic events involving Germany, with pride but from the viewpoint of its American readers.<ref>Wittke, ''The German-Language Press in America.'' p. 6</ref><ref>Shore, "Introduction". in ''The German-American Radical Press''.</ref> For example, during the latter half of the 19th century, at least 176 different German-language publications began operations in the city of Cincinnati alone. Many of these publications folded within a year, while a select few, such as the ''[[Cincinnati Freie Presse]]'', lasted nearly a century.<ref>Arndt, ''The German Language Press of the Americas''</ref> Other cities experienced similar turnover among immigrant publications, especially from opinion press, which published little news and focused instead on editorial commentary.<ref>Wittke, ''The German-Language Press in America''</ref>

By the end of the 19th century, there were over 800 German-language publications in the United States.<ref>La Verne Rippley, ''The German Americans'', Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1984, p. 164.</ref> German immigration was on the decline, and with subsequent generations integrating into English-speaking society, the German language press began to struggle.<ref name="Dobbert, G.A 1914">Dobbert, G.A. "German-Americans between New and Old Fatherland, 1870-1914." ''American Quarterly''. 19.4 (1967): 663-680.</ref> The periodicals that managed to survive in immigrant communities faced an additional challenge with [[anti-German sentiment]] during World War{{nbsp}}I<ref>Shell, Marc. "Hyphens: Between Deitsch and American." Multilingual America. Ed.. Werner Sollors. New York City: New York University Press, 1998.</ref> and with the [[Espionage Act of 1917|Espionage]] and [[Sedition Act of 1918|Sedition Acts]], which authorized censorship of foreign language newspapers.<ref>Thomas Adam (Ed.), ''Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History'', Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 319.</ref> [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] also had a destabilizing impact on the German immigrant communities upon which the German-language publications relied.<ref name="Dobbert, G.A 1914"/> By 1920, there were only 278 German language publications remaining in the country.<ref>Rippley, p. 166.</ref> After 1945, only a few publications have been started. One example is [[Hiwwe wie Driwwe]] (Kutztown, PA), the nation's only [[Pennsylvania German]] newspaper, which was established in 1997.

===Athletics===
Germans brought organized gymnastics to America, and were strong supporters of sports programs. They used sport both to promote ethnic identity and pride and to facilitate integration into American society. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the [[Turners|Turner]] movement offered exercise and sports programs, while also providing a social haven for the thousands of new German immigrants arriving in the United States each year. Another highly successful German sports organization was the [[Buffalo Germans]] basketball team, winners of 762 games (against only 85 losses) in the early years of the 20th century. These examples, and others, reflect the evolving place of sport in the assimilation and socialization of much of the German-American population.<ref>Annette R. Hofmann, "Between Ethnic Separation and Assimilation: German Immigrants and Their Athletic Endeavours in Their New American Home Country", ''International Journal of the History of Sport'' 2008 25(8): 993–1009</ref> Notable German Americans include [[Babe Ruth]] and [[Lou Gehrig]], both native German speakers.

===Religion===
[[File:US census map of Lutheran churches - 1850.jpg|thumb|This 1850 census map shows the Lutheran population. Nearly all were German, since few Scandinavians had arrived yet.]]

German immigrants who arrived before the 19th century tended to have been members of the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Germany, and created the Lutheran Synods of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New York. The largest Lutheran denominations in the U.S. today—the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]], the [[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]], and the [[Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod]]—are all descended from churches started by German immigrants among others. [[Calvinist]] Germans founded the [[Reformed Church in the United States]] (especially in New York and Pennsylvania), and the [[Evangelical Synod of North America]] (strongest in the Midwest), which is now part of the [[United Church of Christ]]. Many immigrants joined different churches from those that existed in Germany. Protestants often joined the [[United Methodist Church|Methodist]] church.<ref name="Conzen"/> In the 1740s, [[Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf|Count Nicolas von Zinzendorf]] tried to unite all the German-speaking Christians—(Lutheran, Reformed, and Separatists)—into one "Church of God in the Spirit". The [[Moravian Church]] in America is one of the results of this effort, as are the many "Union" churches in rural Pennsylvania.

Before 1800, communities of [[Amish]], [[Mennonite]]s, [[Schwarzenau Brethren]] and [[Moravian Church#Missions|Moravians]] had formed and are still in existence today. The Old Order Amish and a majority of the [[Old Order Mennonite]]s still speak dialects of German, including Pennsylvania German, informally known as [[Pennsylvania Dutch]]. The Amish, who were originally from southern Germany and Switzerland, arrived in Pennsylvania during the early 18th century. Amish immigration to the United States reached its peak between the years 1727 and 1770. Religious freedom was perhaps the most pressing cause for Amish immigration to Pennsylvania, which became known as a haven for persecuted religious groups.<ref name="The Amish">{{Citation |url = http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/amish.html |title = The Amish |access-date = October 6, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061107190410/http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/amish.html |archive-date = November 7, 2006 |url-status = dead }}</ref>

The Hutterites are another example of a group of German Americans who continue a lifestyle similar to that of their ancestors. Like the Amish, they fled persecution for their religious beliefs, and came to the United States between 1874 and 1879. Today, Hutterites mostly reside in Montana, [[the Dakotas]], and Minnesota, and the western provinces of Canada. Hutterites continue to speak [[Hutterite German]]. Most are able to understand Standard German in addition to their dialect.<ref name="National Geographic, the Hutterites">{{Citation |last = Allard |first = William Albert |year = 2006 |title = Hutterite Sojourn |publisher = National Geographic Society |location = Washington, D.C. }}</ref> The German speaking [[Russian Mennonites|"Russian" Mennonites]] migrated during the same time as the Hutterites, but assimilated relatively quickly in the United States, whereas groups of "Russian" Mennonites in Canada resisted assimilation.<ref>Donald B. Kraybill and Nelson Hostetter: ''Anabaptist World USA'', 2001, Scottdale, PA, and Waterloo, ON, page 115.</ref>

Immigrants from Germany in the mid-to-late-19th century brought many different religions with them. The most numerous were Lutheran or [[Catholic Church in the United States|Catholic]], although the Lutherans were themselves split among different groups. The more conservative Lutherans comprised the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Other Lutherans formed various synods, most of which merged with Scandinavian-based synods in 1988, forming the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.<ref>{{Citation |last = Almen |first = Lowell |title = One Great Cloud of Witnesses |publisher = Augsburg Fortress |location = Minneapolis |year = 1997 }}</ref> [[Catholic Germans]] started immigrating in large numbers in the mid to latter 19th century, spurred in particular by the ''[[Kulturkampf]]''.

Some 19th-century immigrants, especially the "Forty-Eighters", were secular, rejecting formal religion. About 250,000 German Jews had arrived by the 1870s, and they sponsored reform synagogues in many small cities across the country. About two million Central and Eastern European Jews arrived from the 1880s to 1924, bringing more traditional religious practices.<ref>Edward S. Shapiro, "Jews", in Elliott Barkan, ed. ''A Nation of Peoples'' (1999) 330–36.</ref>

===Language===
{|class="wikitable floatright"
|+ German speakers in the U.S.
|-
! Year
! Speakers
|-
| 1910{{ref|foreignborn|a|}}
| style="text-align: right" | 2,759,032
|-
| 1920{{ref|foreignborn|a|}}
| style="text-align: right" | 2,267,128
|-
| 1930{{ref|foreignborn|a|}}
| style="text-align: right" | 2,188,006
|-
| 1940{{ref|foreignborn|a|}}
| style="text-align: right" | 1,589,040
|-
| 1960{{ref|foreignborn|a|}}
| style="text-align: right" | 1,332,399
|-
| 1970{{ref|foreignborn|a|}}
| style="text-align: right" | 1,201,535
|-
| 1980<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/Table2.xls |title = Appendix Table 2. Languages Spoken at Home: 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2007. |publisher = [[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date = August 6, 2012 |archive-date = September 18, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180918051629/https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/Table2.xls |url-status = live }}</ref>
| style="text-align: right" | 1,586,593
|-
| 1990<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/census/table5.txt |title = Detailed Language Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for Persons 5 Years and Over --50 Languages with Greatest Number of Speakers: United States 1990 |year = 1990 |publisher = [[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date = July 22, 2012 |archive-date = July 18, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180718105948/https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/census/table5.txt |url-status = live }}</ref>
| style="text-align: right" | 1,547,987
|-
| 2000<ref>{{cite web |url = http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_00_SF3_QTP16&prodType=table |archive-url = https://archive.today/20200212212514/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_00_SF3_QTP16&prodType=table |url-status = dead |archive-date = February 12, 2020 |title = Language Spoken at Home: 2000 |publisher = [[United States Bureau of the Census]] |access-date = August 8, 2012 }}</ref>
| style="text-align: right" | 1,383,442
|-
|2007<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/ACS-12.pdf |title = Language Use in the United States:2007 |publisher = [[United States Bureau of the Census]] |access-date = June 24, 2014 |archive-date = June 14, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130614060228/http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/ACS-12.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref>
| style="text-align: right" | 1,104,354
|-
| 2011<ref>{{cite web |title = Detailed Languages Spoken at Home by English-Speaking Ability for the Population 5 Years and Over: 2011 |url = https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acs-22/acs-22.pdf |website = census.gov |publisher = [[US Census Bureau]] |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190908175914/https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acs-22/acs-22.pdf |archive-date = September 8, 2019 |page = 3 }}</ref>
| style="text-align: right" | 1,083,637
|-
|colspan="2"|{{note|foreignborn|a|<small>Foreign-born population only<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab06.html |title = Mother Tongue of the Foreign-Born Population: 1910 to 1940, 1960, and 1970 |date = March 9, 1999 |publisher = [[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date = August 6, 2012 |archive-date = June 2, 2000 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000602111328/https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab06.html |url-status = live }}</ref></small>}}
|}

After two or three generations, most German Americans adopted mainstream American customs – some of which they heavily influenced – and switched their language to English. As one scholar concludes, "The overwhelming evidence{{nbsp}}... indicates that the German-American school was a bilingual one much (perhaps a whole generation or more) earlier than 1917, and that the majority of the pupils may have been English-dominant bilinguals from the early 1880s on."<ref>{{cite web |url = http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/gachurch/biggac.html |title = Language loyalty in the German-American Church: the Case of an Over-confident Minority. |website = Ccat.sas.upenn.edu |access-date = March 17, 2015 |archive-date = July 9, 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110709124147/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/gachurch/biggac.html |url-status = live }}</ref> By 1914, the older members attended German-language church services, while younger ones attended English services (in Lutheran, Evangelical and Catholic churches). In German parochial schools, the children spoke English among themselves, though some of their classes were in German. In 1917–18, after the American entry into World War{{nbsp}}I on the side of the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]], nearly all German language instruction ended, as did most German-language church services.<ref name="Hawgood">{{Citation |last = Hawgood |first = John |title = The Tragedy of German-America |publisher = Arno Press |location = New York |date = 1970 }}</ref>

About 1.5&nbsp;million Americans speak German at home, according to the 2000 census. From 1860 to 1917, German was widely spoken in German neighborhoods; see [[German in the United States]]. There is a false claim, called the [[Muhlenberg legend]], that German was almost the official language of the U.S. There was never any such proposal. The U.S. has no [[official language]], but use of German was strongly discouraged during World War{{nbsp}}I and fell out of daily use in many places.<ref>see [http://usa.usembassy.de/germanamericans-language.htm U.S. State Department, "German Language in the U.S"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330055644/http://usa.usembassy.de/germanamericans-language.htm |date=March 30, 2009 }}</ref>

There were fierce battles in Wisconsin and Illinois around 1890 regarding proposals to stop the use of German as the primary language in public and parochial schools. The [[Bennett Law]] was a highly controversial state law passed in Wisconsin in 1889 that required the use of English to teach major subjects in all public and private elementary and high schools. It affected the state's many German-language private schools (and some Norwegian schools), and was bitterly resented by German American communities. The German Catholics and Lutherans each operated large networks of parochial schools in the state. Because the language used in the classroom was German, the law meant the teachers would have to be replaced with bilingual teachers, and in most cases shut down. The Germans formed a coalition between Catholics and Lutherans, under the leadership of the Democratic Party, and the language issue produced a landslide for the Democrats, as Republicans dropped the issue until World War{{nbsp}}I. By 1917, almost all schools taught in English, but courses in German were common in areas with large German populations. These courses were permanently dropped.<ref>Robert J. Ulrich, ''The Bennett Law of Eighteen Eighty-Nine: Education and Politics in Wisconsin'' (1981).</ref>

==Assimilation==

===Apparent disappearance of German American identity===
German Americans are no longer a conspicuous ethnic group.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.economist.com/united-states/2015/02/05/the-silent-minority |title = The silent minority |newspaper = The Economist |date = February 5, 2015 |access-date = July 15, 2018 |archive-date = July 16, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180716025356/https://www.economist.com/united-states/2015/02/05/the-silent-minority |url-status = live }}</ref> As Melvin G. Holli puts it, "Public expression of German ethnicity is nowhere proportionate to the number of German Americans in the nation's population. Almost nowhere are German Americans as a group as visible as many smaller groups. Two examples suffice to illustrate this point: when one surveys the popular television scene of the past decade, one hears Yiddish humor done by comedians; one sees Polish, Greek, and East European detective heroes; Italian-Americans in situation comedies; and blacks such as the Jeffersons and Huxtables. But one searches in vain for quintessentially German-American characters or melodramas patterned after German-American experiences.{{nbsp}}... A second example of the virtual invisibility is that, though German Americans have been one of the largest ethnic groups in the Chicago area (numbering near one-half million between 1900 and 1910), no museum or archive exists to memorialize that fact. On the other hand, many smaller groups such as Lithuanians, Poles, Swedes, Jews, and others have museums, archives, and exhibit halls dedicated to their immigrant forefathers".<ref name="Holli">{{cite book |editor-last1 = Holli |editor-first1 = Melvin G. |editor-last2 = Jones |editor-first2 = Peter d'A. |title = Ethnic Chicago: A Multicultural Portrait |last = Holli |first = Melvin G. |chapter = German American Ethnic and Cultural Identity from 1890 Onward |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2JbU1d9Xil0C |year = 1995 |publisher = William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |isbn = 9780802870537 |access-date = May 16, 2020 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212218/https://books.google.com/books?id=2JbU1d9Xil0C |url-status = live }}</ref>{{rp|93–94}}{{efn|Similarly, W. Bruce Leslie has written that "German American invisibility in contemporary society and in history is an anomaly deserving attention. By standard statistical measurement, the Germans were the largest immigrant group. Yet historians have been far more interested in Italian, Irish, Polish, and Eastern European Jewish immigration and culture. Irish bars, Italian restaurants, and Jewish humor abound. German language is rarely studied in high schools or colleges and German restaurants are an endangered culinary species. The blending of so many millions into the American mainstream with barely a trace is one of the major untold stories in American history".<ref>{{cite book |editor-last = Parish |editor-first = Peter J. |title = Reader's Guide to American History |last = Leslie |first = W. Bruce |entry = German Americans |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uYyunEndulsC |year = 1997 |publisher = Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers |isbn = 9781134261895 |access-date = May 16, 2020 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212618/https://books.google.com/books?id=uYyunEndulsC |url-status = live }}</ref>{{rp|294}}}}

But this inconspicuousness was not always the case. By 1910, German Americans had created their own distinctive, vibrant, prosperous German-language communities, referred to collectively as "Germania". According to historian Walter Kamphoefner, a "number of big cities introduced German into their public school programs".<ref name="Ludden">{{cite web |author = Ludden, Jennifer |url = https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102523977 |title = German |publisher = [[National Public Radio]] |date = April 1, 2009 |access-date = December 23, 2012 |archive-date = December 24, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131224020152/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102523977 |url-status = live }}</ref> [[Indianapolis]], [[Cincinnati]], [[Cleveland]] and other cities "had what we now call two-way immersion programs: school taught half in German, half in English".<ref name="Ludden" /> This was a tradition which continued "all the way down to World War{{nbsp}}I".<ref name="Ludden" /> According to Kamphoefner, German "was in a similar position as the Spanish language is in the 20th and 21st century"; it "was by far the most widespread foreign language, and whoever was the largest group was at a definite advantage in getting its language into the public sphere".<ref name="Ludden" /> Kamphoefner has come across evidence that as late as 1917, a German version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was still being sung in public schools in Indianapolis.<ref name="Ludden" />

Cynthia Moothart O'Bannon, writing about [[Fort Wayne, Indiana]], states that before World War{{nbsp}}I "German was the primary language in the homes, churches and parochial schools"<ref name="Fort Wayne">{{cite news |title = WWI altered the German accent of Allen County |first = Cynthia |last = Moothart O'Bannon |work = fortwayne.com |url = http://fwn-egen2.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/2000/1910/ind1.php |access-date = August 2, 2018 |archive-date = August 2, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180802101654/http://fwn-egen2.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/2000/1910/ind1.php |url-status = live }}</ref> of German American settlers. She states that "Many street signs were in German. (Main Street, for instance, was Haupt Strasse.) A large portion of local industry and commercial enterprises had at its roots German tooling and emigres. (An entire German town was moved to Fort Wayne when Wayne Knitting Mills opened.) Mayors, judges, firefighters and other community leaders had strong German ties. Social and sporting clubs and Germania Park in St. Joseph Township provided outlets to engage in traditional German activities".<ref name="Fort Wayne" /> She goes on to state that "The cultural influences were so strong, in fact, that the Chicago Tribune in 1893 declared Fort Wayne a 'most German town'."<ref name="Fort Wayne" /> Melvin G. Holli states that "No continental foreign-born group had been so widely and favorably received in the United States, or had won such high marks from its hosts as had the Germans before World War{{nbsp}}I. Some public opinion surveys conducted before the war showed German Americans were even more highly regarded than immigrants from the mother culture, England".<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|106}} Holli states that the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]] once "had so many German-American musicians that the conductor often addressed them in the German language",<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|101}} and he states that "No ethnic theater in Chicago glittered with such a classy repertory as did the German-American theater, or served to introduce so many European classical works to American audiences".<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|102}}

=== Impact of World War I ===
The transition to the English language was abrupt, forced by federal, state and local governments, and by public opinion, when the U.S. was at war with Germany in 1917–18. After 1917, the German language was seldom heard in public; most newspapers and magazines closed; churches and parochial schools switched to English. Melvin G. Holli states, "In 1917, the Missouri Synod's Lutheran Church conference minutes appeared in English for the first time, and the synod's new constitution dropped its insistence on using the language of [[Martin Luther|Luther]] only and instead suggested bilingualism. Dozens of Lutheran schools also dropped instruction in the German language. English-language services also intruded themselves into parishes where German had been the ''lingua franca''. Whereas only 471 congregations nationwide held English services in 1910, the number preaching in English in the synod skyrocketed to 2,492 by 1919. The German Evangelical Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other states also anglicized its name by dropping German from the title".<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|106}} Writing about Fort Wayne, Indiana, Cynthia Moothart O'Bannon states that, in the First World War, "Local churches were forced to discontinue sermons in German, schools were pressured to stop teaching in German, and the local library director was ordered to purchase no more books written in German. The library shelves also were purged of English-language materials deemed sympathetic to or neutral on Germany. Anti-German sentiment forced the renaming of several local institutions. Teutonia Building, Loan & Savings became Home Loan & Savings, and The German-American bank became Lincoln National Bank & Trust Co."<ref name="Fort Wayne" /> She continues that "in perhaps the most obvious bend to prevailing trends, Berghoff Brewery changed its motto from "A very German brew" to "A very good brew," according to "Fort Wayne: A Most German Town," a documentary produced by local public television station WFWA, Channel 39".<ref name="Fort Wayne" /> Film critic [[Roger Ebert]] wrote how "I could hear the pain in my German-American father's voice as he recalled being yanked out of Lutheran school during World War{{nbsp}}I and forbidden by his immigrant parents ever to speak German again".<ref>{{cite news |date = April 12, 2002 |last = Ebert |first = Roger |author-link = Roger Ebert |url = https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maryam-2002 |title = I could hear the pain in my German-American father's voice |newspaper = [[Chicago Sun-Times]] |access-date = September 19, 2019 |archive-date = November 9, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191109081455/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maryam-2002 |url-status = live }}</ref>

Melvin G. Holli states, regarding Chicago, that "After the Great War it became clear that no ethnic group was so de-ethnicized in its public expression by a single historic event as German Americans. While Polish Americans, Lithuanian Americans, and other subject nationalities underwent a great consciousness raising, German ethnicity fell into a protracted and permanent slump. The war damaged public expression of German ethnic, linguistic, and cultural institutions almost beyond repair".<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|106}} He states that, after the war, German ethnicity "would never regain its prewar public acclaim, its larger-than-life public presence, with its symbols, rituals, and, above all, its large numbers of people who took pride in their Teutonic ancestry and enjoyed the role of Uncle Sam's favored adopted son".<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|107}} He states "A key indicator of the decline of "Deutschtum" in Chicago was the census: the number identifying themselves to the census-taker as German-born plummeted from 191,000 in 1910 to 112,000 in 1920. This drop far exceeds the natural mortality rate or the number who might be expected to move. Self-identifiers had found it prudent to claim some nationality other than German. To claim German nationality had become too painful an experience".<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|106}} Along similar lines, Terrence G. Wiley states that, in Nebraska, "around 14 percent of the population had identified itself as being of German-origin in 1910; however, only 4.4 percent made comparable assertions in 1920. In Wisconsin, the decline in percentage of those identifying themselves as Germans was even more obvious. The 1920 census reported only 6.6. percent of the population as being of German-origin, as opposed to nearly 29 percent ten years earlier{{nbsp}}... These statistics led Burnell{{nbsp}}... to conclude that: "No other North American ethnic group, past or present, has attempted so forcefully to officially conceal their{{nbsp}}... ethnic origins. One must attribute this reaction to the wave of repression that swept the Continent and enveloped anyone with a German past"".<ref>{{cite book |editor-last = Kibbee |editor-first = Douglas A. |title = Language Legislation and Linguistic Rights |last = Wiley |first = Terrence G. |chapter = What Happens After English is Declared the Official Language of the United States? |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vURAAAAAQBAJ |year = 1998 |publisher = John Benjamins Publishing Company |isbn = 9789027275073 |access-date = May 16, 2020 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212619/https://books.google.com/books?id=vURAAAAAQBAJ |url-status = live }}</ref>

The Catholic high schools were deliberately structured to commingle ethnic groups so as to promote ethnic (but not interreligious) intermarriage.<ref>Edward R. Kantowicz, ''Corporation Sole: Cardinal Mundelein and Chicago Catholicism'' (1983)</ref> German-speaking taverns, beer gardens and saloons were all shut down by Prohibition; those that reopened in 1933 spoke English.

=== Impact of World War II ===
[[File:Anastasy Vonsyatsky marching with the German American Bund.jpg|thumb|[[Anastasy Vonsiatsky|Anastasy Vonsyatsky]] marching with the [[German American Bund]] in 1939]]
While its impact appears to be less well-known and studied than the impact which World War{{nbsp}}I had on German Americans, World War{{nbsp}}II was likewise difficult for them and likewise had the impact of forcing them to drop distinctive German characteristics and assimilate into the general U.S. culture.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://loyolanotredamelib.org/php/report05/articles/pdfs/report44Holian81-98.pdf |title = FRAGILE AND BELEAGUERED ARE THE MANY:THE RECURRENCE OF ANTI-GERMAN ACTIVITIES DURING WORLD WAR II |website = loyolanotredamelib.org |access-date = August 25, 2020 |archive-date = March 8, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210308212229/https://loyolanotredamelib.org/php/report05/articles/pdfs/report44Holian81-98.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/12405/31295019381176.pdf?sequence |title = ALLEGIANCE AND HERITAGE: THE GERMAN-AMERICANs OF FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS IN THE NAZI ERA, 1933–1945 |last = McIntyre |first = Jennifer |date = 2004 |website = ttu-ir.tdl.org |format = PDF |access-date = August 25, 2020 |archive-date = July 6, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180706103926/https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/12405/31295019381176.pdf?sequence |url-status = live }}</ref> According to Melvin G. Holli, "By 1930, some German American leaders in Chicago felt, as Dr. Leslie Tischauser put it, 'the damage done by the wartime experience had been largely repaired'. The German language was being taught in the schools again; the German theater still survived; and German Day celebrations were drawing larger and larger crowds. Although the assimilation process had taken its toll of pre-1914 German immigrants, a smaller group of newer postwar arrivals had developed a vocal if not impolitic interest in the rebuilding process in Germany under [[Nazism]]. As the 1930s moved on, Hitler's brutality and Nazi excesses made Germanism once again suspect. The rise of Nazism, as Luebke notes, 'transformed German ethnicity in America into a source of social and psychological discomfort, if not distress. The overt expression of German-American opinion consequently declined, and in more recent years, virtually disappeared as a reliable index of political attitudes{{nbsp}}...'"<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|108}}

Holli goes on to state that "The pain increased during the late 1930s and early 1940s, when Congressman [[Martin Dies Jr.|Martin Dies]] held public hearings about the menace of Nazi subversives and spies among the German Americans. In 1940, the Democratic party's attack on anti-war elements as disloyal and pro-Nazi, and the advent of the war itself, made German ethnicity too heavy a burden to bear. As Professor Tischauser wrote, "The notoriety gained by those who supported the German government between 1933 and 1941 cast a pall over German-Americans everywhere. Leaders of the German-American community would have great difficulty rebuilding an ethnic consciousness{{nbsp}}... Few German-Americans could defend what Hitler{{nbsp}}... had done to millions of people in pursuit of the 'final solution', and the wisest course for German-Americans was to forget any attachment to the German half of their heritage.""<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|108–109}}

A notable example which highlights the generational effect of this de-germanization on German-American cultural identity is [[Donald Trump|U.S. President Donald Trump's]] erroneous assertion of Swedish heritage as late as 1987 in [[The Art of the Deal]].<ref name="CNN Swedish" /><ref>{{cite news |title = Donald Trump claimed he was of Swedish ancestry – but it's a lie |first = Vilhelm |last = Carlström |date = November 28, 2017 |work = [[Business Insider]] |url = https://nordic.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-told-the-world-he-was-of-swedish-ancestry---but-its-a-lie-2016-8 |access-date = July 26, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190418085603/https://nordic.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-told-the-world-he-was-of-swedish-ancestry---but-its-a-lie-2016-8 |archive-date = April 18, 2019 |url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title = For Donald Trump's Family, an Immigrant's Tale With 2 Beginnings |first = Jason |last = Horowitz |date = August 21, 2016 |work = [[The New York Times]] |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/us/politics/for-donald-trumps-family-an-immigrants-tale-with-2-beginnings.html |access-date = July 26, 2018 |archive-date = August 15, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180815192005/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/us/politics/for-donald-trumps-family-an-immigrants-tale-with-2-beginnings.html |url-status = live }}</ref> This error stems from Donald Trump's father, [[Fred Trump]], who was of German heritage but attempted to pass himself off as Swedish amid the anti-German sentiment sparked by World War{{nbsp}}II, a claim which would continue to mislead his family for decades.<ref name="CNN Swedish">{{cite news |title = Trump's family denied German heritage for years |first = Jennifer |last = Hansler |date = November 28, 2017 |work = [[CNN]] |url = https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politics/trump-family-heritage/index.html |access-date = July 6, 2018 |archive-date = September 28, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180928021526/https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politics/trump-family-heritage/index.html |url-status = live }}</ref>

By the 1940s, Germania had largely vanished outside some rural areas and the Germans were thoroughly assimilated.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 2169006 |title = Revisiting Assimilation: The Rise, Fall, and Reappraisal of a Concept in American Ethnic History |journal = The American Historical Review |volume = 100 |issue = 2 |pages = 437–471 |last1 = Kazal |first1 = Russell A. |year = 1995 |doi = 10.2307/2169006 }}</ref> According to Melvin G. Holli, by the end of World War{{nbsp}}II, German Americans "were ethnics without any visible national or local leaders. Not even politicians would think of addressing them explicitly as an ethnic constituency as they would say, Polish Americans, Jewish Americans, or African Americans."<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|109}} Holli states that "Being on the wrong side in two wars had a devastating and long-term negative impact on the public celebration of German-American ethnicity".<ref name="Holli" />{{rp|106}}

Historians have tried to explain what became of the German Americans and their descendants. Kazal (2004) looks at Germans in Philadelphia, focusing on four ethnic subcultures: middle-class ''Vereinsdeutsche'', working-class socialists, Lutherans, and Catholics. Each group followed a somewhat distinctive path toward assimilation. Lutherans, and the better situated ''Vereinsdeutsche'' with whom they often overlapped, after World War{{nbsp}}I abandoned the last major German characteristics and redefined themselves as old stock or as "Nordic" Americans, stressing their colonial roots in Pennsylvania and distancing themselves from more recent immigrants. On the other hand, working-class and Catholic Germans, groups that heavily overlapped, lived and worked with [[Irish Americans|Irish]] and other European ethnics; they also gave up German characteristics but came to identify themselves as White ethnics, distancing themselves above all from African American recent arrivals in nearby neighborhoods. Well before World War{{nbsp}}I, women in particular were becoming more and more involved in a mass consumer culture that lured them out of their German-language neighborhood shops and into English-language downtown department stores. The 1920s and 1930s brought English-language popular culture via movies and radio that drowned out the few surviving German language venues.<ref name="Kazal">Russell A. Kazal, ''Becoming Old Stock: The Paradox of German-American Identity'' (2004).</ref>

===Factors favoring assimilation===
Kazal points out that German Americans have not had an experience that is especially typical of immigrant groups. "Certainly, in a number of ways, the German-American experience was idiosyncratic. No other large immigrant group was subjected to such strong, sustained pressure to abandon its ethnic identity for an American one. None was so divided internally, a characteristic that made German Americans especially vulnerable to such pressure. Among the larger groups that immigrated in the country after 1830, none – despite regional variations – appears to have muted its ethnic identity to so great an extent."<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|273}} This quote from Kazal identifies both external pressures on German Americans and internal dividedness among them as reasons for their high level of assimilation.

Regarding the external pressures, Kazal writes: "The pressure imposed on German Americans to forsake their ethnic identity was extreme in both nature and duration. No other ethnic group saw its 'adoptive fatherland' twice enter a world war against its country of origin. To this stigma, the Third Reich added the lasting one of [[the Holocaust]]. In her study of ethnic identity in the 1980s, sociologist Mary Waters noted that the 'effect of the Nazi movement and World War{{nbsp}}II was still quite strong' in shaping 'popular perceptions of the German-American character', enough so that some individuals of mixed background often would acknowledge only the non-German part of their ancestry."<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|273}}{{efn|In the book that Kazal appears to be quoting here, Waters states "Many people cited various political or social events as having an effect on their consciousness and degree of ethnic identity. I have already noted Laurie Jablonski's stronger identification with her Polish than with her German ancestry, a fact she attributed to the influence her surname had on how others reacted to her. When I asked about times when the relative influence of one or the other side might be stronger, she revealed that political events in Germany and Poland had a lot to do with how she chose to identify herself".<ref name="Waters">{{cite book |title = Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America |last = Waters |first = Mary C. |url = https://archive.org/details/ethnicoptionscho0000wate |url-access = registration |year = 1990 |publisher = University of California Press |isbn = 9780520070837 }}</ref>{{rp|83}} Waters goes on to state that "The association of being German with being a Nazi is still strong for Laurie, forty years after World War{{nbsp}}II. A similar story to Laurie's is related in a description by Hinda Winawer-Steiner and Norbert Wetzel of a workshop for family therapists on ethnicity and family therapy. The therapists were supposed to talk about their ethnicity and how it might influence their work. A discussion of a German-American family revealed that two of the therapists who had identified themselves as Polish-American at the beginning of the workshop were, in fact, half German. It turned out that they were suppressing their German identity because of the negative connotations associated with being German. "When asked, one explained that she simply considered herself Polish. The other, after some reflection, said that in a group that was half Jewish, she had been reluctant to acknowledge her German heritage" (Winawer-Steiner and Wetzel 1982, 253)".<ref name="Waters" />{{rp|84}}}} Kazal contrasts this experience with the experiences of the Japanese, Poles, Czechs, Lithuanians, Italians, east European Jews, and Irish. "Japanese Americans, of course, suffered far more during the Second World War",<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|273}} but until at least the 1950s, the pressure on Japanese Americans "ran toward exclusion from, rather than inclusion in, the nation".<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|273}} "The state and many ordinary European Americans refused to recognize Asians as potentially American. In contrast, they pressured Germans to accept precisely that American identity in place of a German one".<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|273}}

Kazal goes on to state "The burden of "enemy" status made those pressures far greater for Germans than for other European ethnic groups. To some extent, American intervention in World War{{nbsp}}I actually helped fuel ethnic nationalism in the United States among Poles, Czechs, Lithuanians, Italians, and east European Jews, who felt their desires for existing or prospective homelands stood to gain from an Allied victory. Indeed, some historians have depicted the following decade as one when immigrants transcended local or regional homeland affiliations to craft or further consolidate national identities as Poles, Czechs, and Italians. Such groups escaped the fury of "100 percent Americanism" during the war, in part because of their obvious stake in the defeat of the Central Powers".<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|273–274}} As for Irish Americans, Kazal states that the lack of enthusiasm of many of them for helping England made them "vulnerable to the wartime "antihyphen" climate",<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|274}} but that "Irish nationalist activity intensified during and immediately after that war, as many Irish Americans became swept up in the events leading to the creation of the Irish Free State",<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|274}} and that "It made a difference for the long-term viability of Irish-American identity that the Irish homeland not only did not go to war with the United States but, in fact, emerged during the interwar years as a sovereign nation".<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|274}}

Kazal then goes on to discuss the internal dividedness. He writes: "German-American identity fell victim not only to a peculiar set of events, but also to an extraordinarily high level of internal diversity. All ethnic groups have internal divides, whether of class, religion, gender, politics, or homeland region. What distinguished German America was that it incorporated not just some but ''all'' of these divisions. Irish Americans, for example, had lost their status as primarily a proletarian group by 1900, yet they were united by religion and politics. "Irish American" had come to mean Irish Catholic; the vast majority of Irish Americans subscribed to some form of Irish nationalism conflated with American patriotism; and Irish-American voters were overwhelmingly Democrats.

The power of this synthesis, Kerby Miller argued, explains the survival of Irish-American identity despite the ebbing of organized Irish-American nationalism after the Free State's founding. For German Americans, religion and party politics were sources of division rather than of unity".<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|274}} Kazal goes on to state that "The subcultures of German America, meanwhile, had ample opportunity for contact, however testy, with non-German counterparts. The latter beckoned as destinations when the cost of being German-American rose too high".<ref name="Kazal" />{{rp|274}} It is not just Kazal who has pointed out the internal dividedness of the German American community. Kathleen Neils Conzen has pointed it out; David Peterson states that Conzen, "along with many others, concludes that German-Americans' heterogeneity, particularly in religion, hampered their ability to build socially and politically stable ethnic communities",<ref name="Peterson">{{cite journal |journal = Journal of American Ethnic History |volume = 11 |issue = 2 |pages = 27–55 |jstor = 27500930 |last1 = Peterson |first1 = David |title = "From Bone Depth": German-American Communities in Rural Minnesota before the Great War |year = 1992 }}</ref>{{rp|27}} and that Conzen "stresses that German Americans assimilated relatively rapidly and that their diversity played a key role in that assimilation".<ref name="Peterson" />{{rp|47}}{{efn|Peterson himself seems not to fully agree with this, stating "Most community studies have examined very large, heterogeneous German-American urban populations that assimilated relatively quickly or, less commonly, large, homogeneous rural ones that did not. Hence, German-Americans' diversity has emerged as perhaps the crucial variable accounting for their assimilationist propensities. Otter Tail County, certainly a rural area, had German-American communities that were diverse and small, and these communities succeeded in maintaining crucial ethnic boundaries into the twentieth century. The persistence of these heterogeneous, lightly populated German-American communities suggest that place of residence was the key factor in the rate of German-American assimilation. Urban orientation may have corroded German-American ethnic boundaries more than diversity did, though the two variables were not unrelated".<ref name="Peterson" />{{rp|47–48}}}} (Conzen is also drawn upon by Joy Kristina Adams, who cites Conzen when she (Adams) states that "The diversity and size of the German settlements made them susceptible to long-term Americanization by fostering factionalism, increasing contacts between Germans and non-Germans, and weakening unified leadership".)<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Adams |first1=Joy Kristina |date=2006 |title=Going ''Deutsch'': Heritage Tourism and Identity in German Texas |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=University of Texas at Austin |url=https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/2652/adamsj55244.pdf |hdl=2152/2652 |page=45 |access-date=August 9, 2018 |archive-date=November 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113073133/https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/2652/adamsj55244.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The ''Encyclopedia of the Great Plains'' also stresses the internal dividedness, stating "One of the distinguishing characteristics of the German population in North America (especially in comparison to other immigrant groups) has been its relative degree of cultural diversity, reflected especially in the number of Christian denominations to which Germans belonged. In part this reflects patterns that had developed over centuries in Germany, whose population came to include nearly every variety of Christianity–from Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed groups to more radical Anabaptist pietistic movements such as Amish, Mennonites, Schwenkfelders, and the Moravian church. It is not surprising, then, that nearly all of these denominations were represented among the German immigrant population in North America."<ref>{{cite web |url = http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.ea.013 |title = Encyclopedia of the Great Plains – GERMANS |website = plainshumanities.unl.edu |access-date = August 1, 2018 |archive-date = January 25, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190125132746/http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.ea.013 |url-status = live }}</ref>

Robert Paul McCaffery points out that "Despite their numbers{{nbsp}}... and unlike many immigrant groups, Germans never united as a powerful ethnic block. Religious disputes brought from the old country prevented them from uniting in the new. The two strongest denominations, Catholics and Lutherans, could not come together; and the Free Thinkers distrusted and shunned them both."<ref name="McCaffery">{{cite thesis |last1=McCaffery |first1=Robert Paul |date=1994 |title=Islands of ''Deutschtum'': German Americans in Manchester, New Hampshire and Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1870–1942 |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=University of New Hampshire |url=https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1790/ |access-date=April 15, 2023 |archive-date=April 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415205904/https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1790/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|4}} "These divisions ran so deep that German-Americans could neither unite to fend off attacks engendered by World War{{nbsp}}I, nor elect German candidates for political office".<ref name="McCaffery" />{{rp|4}} McCaffery states that "Discussions of the disunity of the Germans are many",<ref name="McCaffery" />{{rp|15}} giving a work by Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan and a work by Kathleen Neils Conzen as examples,<ref name="McCaffery" />{{rp|15}} and he states that Leslie V. Tischauser "maintains that neither World War{{nbsp}}I, political questions of importance to Germans, nor German candidates could unite the German-Americans of Chicago".<ref name="McCaffery" />{{rp|16}} Jason Todd Baker, meanwhile, writes that "Divided by imported regional prejudices, religious differences, political affiliations, and spread in pockets across the city, the Germans in nineteenth-century [[St. Louis]] comprised the city's largest immigrant ethnicity and possibly its least cohesive".<ref name="Baker">{{cite book |editor-last1 = Schulze |editor-first1 = Mathias |editor-last2 = Skidmore |editor-first2 = James M. |editor-last3 = John |editor-first3 = David G. |editor-last4 = Liebscher |editor-first4 = Grit |editor-last5 = Siebel-Achenbach |editor-first5 = Sebastian |title = German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration and Loss |last = Baker |first = Jason Todd |chapter = Pulitzer, Preetorius, and the German American Identity Project of the ''Westliche Post'' in St. Louis |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jEHzS8W1oY8C |year = 2008 |publisher = Wilfrid Laurier University Press |isbn = 9781554580279 |access-date = May 16, 2020 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212729/https://books.google.com/books?id=jEHzS8W1oY8C |url-status = live }}</ref>{{rp|95}}

He goes on to state that German Americans in St. Louis "could not be relied upon to do much of anything as a group. St. Louis served (and still does) as the seat of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, a conservative American Lutheran confession, and their local strength led to friction with Germans of other faiths. These Lutherans did not traffic much with the sizable German Catholic population of the city, who often shared their houses of worship and political stances with the Irish. The small rabbinical German Jewish community remained insular. The Freethinkers, atheists, socialists, et al., had little use for any of these groups. In addition, the Germans, while heavily concentrated in a few pockets of north and south St. Louis, were spread across the city proper and into the larger countryside".<ref name="Baker" />{{rp|99}} And according to the [[Max Kade]] Institute for German-American Studies, "The diversity of religious expression among German-speaking immigrants was paralleled by a high degree of heterogeneity stemming from differences in regional and linguistic origins. This situation differed from that of other nineteenth-century immigrant groups, notably the Irish, but also Italians and people of other European backgrounds. The resulting lack of a unified and clearly definable German-American community explains in part why only few Americans, including those of German descent, have any idea when Steuben Day or German-American Day falls, whereas the Irish St. Patrick's Day is one of America's most popular celebrations, and Columbus Day, named after the Italian explorer, is a federal holiday".<ref name="Max Kade Institute">{{cite web |url = https://mki.wisc.edu/content/how-german-american-building-communities |title = How German Is American? Building Communities – Max Kade Institute |website = mki.wisc.edu |access-date = August 21, 2018 |archive-date = August 22, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180822050146/https://mki.wisc.edu/content/how-german-american-building-communities |url-status = dead }}</ref>{{efn|A similar statement about the diversity of German Americans has been made by Andrew R. L. Cayton: "In the process of participating in the public culture of Ohio, some Germans struggled to keep connections with their birthplaces. A coherent community was difficult to maintain, however. Proud as they were of 'Deutschthum', or the sum of Germanness, it became increasingly vague. Germans were too diverse in terms of religion and politics. 'Wherever four Germans gathered,' observed the ''Deutsche Pionier'' in 1879, 'they will find four different ideas.'"<ref>{{cite book |title = Ohio: The History of a People |last = Cayton |first = Andrew R. L. |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tC9d4JVvefIC |year = 2002 |publisher = The Ohio State University Press |isbn = 9780814208991 |access-date = May 16, 2020 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212730/https://books.google.com/books?id=tC9d4JVvefIC |url-status = live }}</ref>{{rp|155}} Another similar statement about the diversity of German Americans has been made by Randall M. Miller. Writing about [[New Orleans]], Miller states "During the nineteenth century, the Irish and Germans provided the largest numbers of mmigrants and gave the city its immigrant cast. The Irish and Germans differed in their ethnic cohesiveness and interactions with the host culture(s)".<ref name="Miller">{{cite book |editor-last = Stolarik |editor-first = M. Mark |title = Forgotten Doors: The Other Ports of Entry to the United States |last = Miller |first = Randall M. |chapter = Immigration through New Orleans: A Comment |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SHM12rk4h0cC |year = 1988 |publisher = Associated University Presses |isbn = 9780944190005 |access-date = May 16, 2020 |archive-date = November 30, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212658/https://books.google.com/books?id=SHM12rk4h0cC |url-status = live }}</ref>{{rp|129}} Miller then states that "German immigrants{{nbsp}}... lacked sufficient cultural and social unity to impose a single powerful German imprint on the city. They were widely dispersed throughout the Second and Third Municipalities, and in Carrollton and Lafayette, and they were fragmented by differences in religion, region of origin, and class. The proliferation of German clubs, associations, and institutions bespoke the Germans' numerical significance in the city, but it also attested to their divisions, for such organizations tended to cater to very specific groups rather than bind the various German strands together. To be sure, distinct concentrations of Germans existed in various parts of the city, wherein various German cultural values survived and influenced the culture of non-Germans in their midst, and German ''Gemütlichkeit'' was easily accommodated in the city's genial public culture. But, overall, Germans were too diverse and divided to dominate the city".<ref name="Miller" />{{rp|129}} Miller contrasts this situation with the situation of Irish Americans in New Orleans: "Irish immigrants had greater cohesion and wider influence than the Germans. In the great waves of late antebellum immigration, the vast majority of Irish immigrants entering New Orleans came from a few select counties in Ireland. They shared a common faith, poverty, and national identity.{{nbsp}}... New Orleans was small enough so that dispersal did not diminish Irish power; in fact, Irish immigrants everywhere shared so many common cultural and class interests that dispersion served to broaden Irish influence on the city's culture".<ref name="Miller" />{{rp|129}}}}

=== Persistence of German language ===
Despite the remarkable level of language assimilation reached by German Americans, distinct German usage survived well into the mid-to-late-20th century in some places. Writing about the town of [[Hustisford, Wisconsin]], Jennifer Ludden discusses Mel Grulke, who was born in 1941, with German his first language at home; "Grulke's great-grandparents immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1880s, yet three generations later, his farmer parents still spoke German at home, attended German language church services and chatted in German with shopkeepers when they brought their farm eggs into town to sell".<ref name="Ludden" />

To this day, German speakers can be found in the United States among long-established [[Anabaptist]] groups – the [[Amish|Old Order Amish]] and most [[Old Order Mennonite]]s speak [[Pennsylvania Dutch language|Pennsylvania Dutch]] (or [[Bernese German]] or [[Alsatian language|Alsatian]] by a minority of Amish) along with [[High German]] to various degrees (though they are generally fluent in English).<ref>{{cite book |last = Skutsch |first = Carl |title = Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities |year = 2005 |publisher = Routledge |page = 101 }}</ref> All [[Hutterite]]s speak [[Hutterite German]] and many [[Russian Mennonite|"Russian" Mennonites]] speak [[Plautdietsch]], a [[Low German]] dialect coming originally from the area around [[Danzig]]. The three Amish dialects as well as Hutterite German are still learned by all children of the group, whereas Plautdietsch-speakers tend much more to switch to English. Another group of German-speakers can be found in the [[Amana Colonies]] in Iowa; according to the website Statistical Atlas, all the residents of [[East Amana, Iowa|East Amana]] speak German at home, and only 67.7% can speak English "very well".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://statisticalatlas.com/place/Iowa/East-Amana/Languages |title=Languages in East Amana, Iowa (Unincorporated Place) – Statistical Atlas |access-date=August 2, 2018 |archive-date=July 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170720020812/http://statisticalatlas.com/place/Iowa/East-Amana/Languages |url-status=live }}</ref>

It has been shown that cultural differences between the attitudes towards farming of German Americans, on the one hand, and of British-ancestry "Yankees", on the other, lasted into the 1980s and have to some extent lasted into the 21st&nbsp;century; German Americans have tended to see farming in a more family-oriented manner than Yankees.<ref>{{cite magazine |author = Fischer, Claude S. |url = http://bostonreview.net/blog/claude-fischer-midwest-farms-german-family-culture |title = Family Farms vs. Americanism |magazine = [[Boston Review]] |date = May 4, 2015 |access-date = January 31, 2019 |archive-date = March 18, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190318100707/http://bostonreview.net/blog/claude-fischer-midwest-farms-german-family-culture |url-status = live }}</ref>

==German-American influence==
{{Main|German language in the United States}}

===Cuisine and beers===
{{multiple image
| header            = Influence of [[German cuisine]] on the [[cuisine of the United States]]
| align             = right
| caption_align     = center
| image1            = Hamburg steak.jpg
| width1            = 170
| caption1          = [[Hamburg steak]] has been known as "[[Frikadelle]]" in Germany since the 17th century.
| image2            = Hot dog with mustard.png
| width2            = 260
| caption2          = [[Hot dog|Frankfurters]] originated from [[Frankfurt am Main]].
| image3            = Bud and Budvar.jpg
| width3            = 170
| caption3          = [[American lager]], here [[Budweiser]], came to America by German immigrants.
}}

The influence of [[German cuisine]] is seen in the [[cuisine of the United States]] throughout the country, especially regarding pastries, meats and sausages, and above all, beer. [[Hot dog|Frankfurters]] (or "wieners", originating from [[Frankfurt am Main]] and [[Vienna]], respectively), [[hamburger]]s, [[bratwurst]], [[sauerkraut]], and [[strudel]] are common dishes. German bakers introduced the [[pretzel]], which is popular across the United States. Germans introduced America to [[lager]], the most-produced beer style in the United States, and have been the dominant ethnic group in the beer industry since 1850.<ref name="Conzen"/><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.pghmannerchor.com/teutonia-mannerchor-friday-lunch-menu/ |title = Friday Lunch Menu &#124; Teutonia Männerchor in Pittsburgh (Deutschtown), PA |access-date = July 30, 2013 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130730185253/http://www.pghmannerchor.com/teutonia-mannerchor-friday-lunch-menu/ |archive-date = July 30, 2013 }}</ref>

The oldest extant brewery in the United States is [[Yuengling|D. G. Yuengling & Son]] of [[Pottsville, Pennsylvania]] (approximately 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia), founded in 1829 by an immigrant from [[Aldingen]] in what is today [[Baden-Württemberg]]; the brewery's flagship product remains a 19th-century German-style amber lager.<ref name="beerhistory">''BeerHistory.com''. "[http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/yuengling.shtml Yuengling of Pottsville: America's Oldest Brewery] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112035242/http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/yuengling.shtml |date=November 12, 2020 }}". Retrieved December 8, 2006.</ref> By the late 19th century, [[Milwaukee]], with a large population of German origin, was once the home to four of the world's largest breweries owned by ethnic Germans (Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Miller) and was the number one beer producing city in the world for many years. Almost half of all current beer sales in the United States can be attributed to German immigrants, Capt. A. Pabst, Eberhard Anheuser, and Adolphus Busch, who founded [[Anheuser-Busch]] in [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] in 1860.<ref name="Amy Mittelman 2007"/> Later German immigrants figured prominently in the rebirth of craft brews following [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]], culminating in the [[microbrewery|microbrew]] movement that swept the U.S. beginning in the late 1980s.

===Festivals===
[[File:Brat Eating Contest at Oktoberfest Zinzinnati.jpg|thumb|right|[[Bratwurst#United States|Brat]] Eating Contest at [[Oktoberfest Zinzinnati]] 2012]]

German and German-American celebrations, such as [[Oktoberfest]], [[Carnival in Germany, Switzerland and Austria|Rhenish Carnival]], [[German-American Day]], and [[Von Steuben Day]] are held regularly throughout the country. One of the largest is the [[German-American Steuben Parade]] in New York City, held every third Saturday in September. There are also major annual events in Chicago's [[Lincoln Square, Chicago|Lincoln Square]] neighborhood, a traditional a center of the city's German population, in [[Cincinnati]], where its annual ''[[Oktoberfest Zinzinnati]]''<ref name="Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati USA">{{cite web |url = http://www.oktoberfest-zinzinnati.com |title = Oktoberfest Zinzinnati |website = Oktoberfest-zinzinnati.com |access-date = August 28, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110207043757/http://www.oktoberfest-zinzinnati.com/ |archive-date = February 7, 2011 |url-status = dead }}</ref> is the largest [[Oktoberfest]] outside of Germany<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.oktoberfestzinzinnati.com/okt.aspx?menu_id=256&id=8468&ekmensel=3ed1b7ac_256_0_8468_2 |title = About Oktoberfest – Oktoberfest Zinzinnati |website = Oktoberfestzinzinnati.com |access-date = August 28, 2017 |archive-date = June 27, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170627083816/http://www.oktoberfestzinzinnati.com/okt.aspx?menu_id=256&id=8468&ekmensel=3ed1b7ac_256_0_8468_2 |url-status = dead }}</ref> and in Milwaukee, which celebrates its German heritage with an annual [[German Fest]].<ref name="Zeitlin">{{Citation |last = Zeitlin |first = Richard |title = Germans in Wisconsin |publisher = State Historical Society of Wisconsin |location = Madison |year = 2000 }}</ref> Many of the immigrants from Germany and other German-speaking countries came to Pennsylvania to what was then "[[Allegheny, Pennsylvania|Allegheny City]]" (now part of the [[North Side (Pittsburgh)|North Side]] of the City of [[Pittsburgh]]). So many German speakers arrived, the area became known as "[[East Allegheny (Pittsburgh)|Deutschtown]]" and has been revived as such.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.pghmannerchor.com/about-the-teutonia-mannerchor/ |title = About the Teutonia Männerchor &#124; Teutonia Männerchor |access-date = January 14, 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120117054053/http://www.pghmannerchor.com/about-the-teutonia-mannerchor/ |archive-date = January 17, 2012 }}"'About the Teutonia Männerchor' – THE EARLY 1800s – Around the early and the mid-1800s and through the end of the 20th century, there was a mass immigration from all across Europe to the United States. Many of the immigrants from Germany and other German-speaking countries came to Pennsylvania to what was then "Allegheny City" (now the Northside) – just across the river from the City of Pittsburgh. So many German speakers arrived, the area became known as 'Deutschtown'."</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.deutschtown.org/about/history.html |title = Pittsburgh?s historic Deutschtown – Our Neighborhood Rich in History |access-date = November 3, 2011 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111126051416/http://deutschtown.org/about/history.html |archive-date = November 26, 2011 }}</ref> Within Deutschtown and since 1854, [[Teutonia Maennerchor Hall|The Teutonia Männerchor]] has been promoting and furthering German cultural traditions.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.pghmannerchor.com/activities/ |title = Recurring Activities &#124; Teutonia Männerchor |access-date = May 17, 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120306220300/http://www.pghmannerchor.com/activities/ |archive-date = March 6, 2012 }}"MÄNNERCHOR, DAMENCHOR, GEMISCHTER CHOR, ALPEN SCHUHPLATTLER UND TRACHTENVEREIN, PITTSBURGH DISTRICT KINDERCHOR, SCHÜTZENKAMERADEN, TEUTONIA HAUSKAPELLE, LUSTIGEN MUSIKANTEN, and 66 CARD LEAGUE"</ref>

[[Skat (card game)|Skat]], the most popular [[card game]] in Germany, is also played in areas of the United States with large German American populations, such as Wisconsin and Texas.<ref name="Zeitlin"/>

==Education==
The following German international schools are in operation in the United States, serving German citizens, Americans, and other U.S. residents:
* [[German International School Boston]]
* [[German School New York]]
* [[German American School of Portland]]
* [[German International School of Silicon Valley]]
* [[German School Washington, D.C.]]

==Notable people==
{{main list|List of German Americans}}

German Americans have been influential in almost every field in American society, including science, architecture, business, sports, entertainment, theology, politics, and the military.

German American general/flag military officers [[Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben|Baron von Steuben]], [[George Armstrong Custer]], [[John Pershing]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], [[Chester W. Nimitz]], [[Carl Andrew Spaatz]] and [[Norman Schwarzkopf]] commanded the [[United States Army]] in the [[American Revolutionary War]], [[American Civil War]], [[Indian Wars]], [[World War I|World War{{nbsp}}I]], [[World War II|World War{{nbsp}}II]], and the [[Persian Gulf War]], respectively.

German Americans were famous American politicians, including [[Carl Schurz]], [[Friedrich Hecker]], [[Frederick Muhlenberg]], [[Henry Morgenthau, Sr.]], [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.]], [[John Boehner]], and [[Donald Trump]]. [[Henry Kissinger]] was a famous diplomat.

[[File:Walt Disney 1946.JPG|thumb|right|80px|[[Walt Disney]]]]
Many German Americans have played a prominent role in American industry and business, including [[Henry J. Heinz]] ([[H. J. Heinz Company]]), [[Harvey S. Firestone]] ([[Firestone Tire and Rubber Company]]), [[Frank Seiberling]] ([[Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company]]), [[Walt Disney]] ([[Disney]]), [[John D. Rockefeller]] ([[Standard Oil]]), [[William Boeing]] ([[The Boeing Company]] and [[United Airlines]]), [[Walter Chrysler]] ([[Chrysler Corporation]]), [[Fred Duesenberg|Frederick]] and [[August Duesenberg]] ([[Duesenberg|Duesenberg Automobile Corporation]]), [[Studebaker|Studebaker brothers]] ([[Studebaker|Studebaker Automobile Corporation]]), [[George Westinghouse]] ([[Westinghouse Electric Corporation]]), [[Mark Zuckerberg|Mark Zuckerburg]] ([[Meta Platforms]]), [[Levi Strauss]] ([[Levi Strauss & Co.]]), [[Charles Guth]] ([[PepsiCo Inc.]]), [[Bill Gates]] ([[Microsoft|Microsoft Corporation]]), [[Jawed Karim]] ([[YouTube]]), [[Elon Musk]] ([[SolarCity]], [[SpaceX]] and [[Tesla Motors]]), [[James L. Kraft]] ([[Kraft Foods Inc.]]), [[Henry E. Steinway]] ([[Steinway & Sons]]), [[Charles Pfizer]] ([[Pfizer, Inc.]]), [[John Jacob Astor]] ([[Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts]]), [[Conrad Hilton]] ([[Hilton Hotels & Resorts]]), [[Guggenheim family]] ([[Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation]]), ([[Guggenheim Partners]]), [[Marcus Goldman]] and [[Samuel Sachs]] ([[The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.]]), [[Lehman Brothers]] ([[Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.]]), [[Charles Diebold]] ([[Diebold Nixdorf]]), [[Bernard Kroger]] ([[Kroger]]), [[Carl Laemmle]] ([[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]]), [[Marcus Loew]] ([[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.]]), [[Harry Cohn]] ([[Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.]]), [[Herman Hollerith]] ([[International Business Machines Corporation|International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)]]), [[Steve Jobs]] ([[Apple Inc.]]),<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/09/170940.html |title = Archived copy |access-date = May 2, 2013 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131015152300/http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/09/170940.html |archive-date = October 15, 2013 }}</ref> [[Michael Dell]] ([[Dell Inc.]]), [[Eric Schmidt]] ([[Google Inc.]] and [[Alphabet Inc.]]), [[Peter Thiel]] ([[PayPal|PayPal Inc.]]), [[Adolph Simon Ochs]] and [[Arthur Ochs Sulzberger]] (''[[The New York Times]]''), [[Charles Bergstresser]] (''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''), [[Al Neuharth]] (''[[USA Today]]''), [[Eugene Meyer (financier)|Eugene Meyer]] (''[[The Washington Post]]'') etc.

German Americans were pioneers and dominated [[beer brewing]] for much of American history, beginning with breweries founded in the 19th century by German immigrants [[August Schell]] ([[August Schell Brewing Company]]), [[Christian Moerlein]] ([[Christian Moerlein Brewing Co.]]), [[Eberhard Anheuser]] and [[Adolphus Busch]] ([[Anheuser-Busch]], currently part of [[AB InBev]]), [[Adolph Coors]] ([[Molson Coors Brewing Company]]), [[Frederick Miller]] ([[Miller Brewing Company]]), [[Frederick Pabst]] ([[Pabst Brewing Company]]), [[Stroh's|Bernhard Stroh]] ([[Stroh Brewery Company]]) and [[Joseph Schlitz]] ([[Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company]]).<ref name="Amy Mittelman 2007">Amy Mittelman, ''Brewing Battles: A History of American Beer'' (2007)</ref>

[[File:Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan.jpg|thumb|right|80px|[[Brooklyn Bridge]] by [[John A. Roebling]]]]
[[Brooklyn Bridge]] engineer [[John A. Roebling]] and architects [[Walter Gropius]] and [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe]], left behind visible landmarks. [[Thomas Ustick Walter]] designed the famous [[United States Capitol dome]].

[[American literature]] have been greatly enriched by German-American authors such as [[William Dean Howells]], [[Theodore Dreiser]], [[Wallace Stevens]], [[Henry Miller]], [[Pearl S. Buck]], [[Thomas Wolfe]], [[John Steinbeck]], [[Charles Bukowski]], [[Patricia Highsmith]], [[Kurt Vonnegut]], and [[Sylvia Plath]]. [[L. Frank Baum]] and [[Dr. Seuss]] were popular children's authors, while [[H. L. Mencken]], [[Walter Lippmann]], and [[Lee Miller]] were famous journalists.

[[File:Hollerith.jpg|thumb|right|80px|[[Herman Hollerith]], founder of [[IBM]]]]
[[David Rittenhouse]] was an important scientist, inventor and astronomer of [[Province of Pennsylvania|colonial Pennsylvania]]. His nephew [[Benjamin Smith Barton]], was an early naturalist and publisher of the first botanical textbook in the United States. [[Adam Kuhn]], [[Michael Leib]], and [[Caspar Wistar (physician)|Caspar Wistar]] were noted physicians. The 19th century saw pioneering inventions by [[Isaac Singer]] ([[Singer Corporation|sewing machines]]), [[Ottmar Mergenthaler]] ([[Linotype machine|Linotype]]), [[Herman Hollerith]] ([[tabulating machine]]), and [[John Froelich]] ([[Tractor|gasoline-powered tractor]]). [[Howard H. Aiken]], [[George Stibitz]], [[Claude Shannon]], [[Joseph Weizenbaum]], [[Douglas Engelbart]], and [[Donald Knuth]] made significant contributions to the field of [[computing]]. The [[Wright brothers]] invented the world's first successful airplane in 1903.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1903 Wright Flyer {{!}} National Air and Space Museum |url=https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/1903-wright-flyer/nasm_A19610048000 |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=airandspace.si.edu |date=June 2, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Famous German-American scientists include [[Albert A. Michelson]], [[Albert Einstein]], [[Joseph Erlanger]], [[Herbert Spencer Gasser]], [[Otto Stern]], [[Hermann Joseph Muller]], [[John H. Northrop]], [[Arthur H. Compton]], [[Harold C. Urey]], [[Charles Richter]], [[Linus Pauling]], [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]], [[Maria Goeppert-Mayer]], [[Hans Bethe]], [[Paul Flory]], [[Polykarp Kusch]], and [[Norman Ramsey Jr.]], among others.

[[File:Wernher von Braun.jpg|thumb|right|80px|[[Wernher von Braun]]]]
After World War II, [[Wernher von Braun]], and most of the leading engineers from the former German V-2 rocket base at [[Peenemünde]], were brought to the U.S. They contributed decisively to the development of U.S. military rockets, as well as rockets for the [[NASA]] space program and the initiation of the [[Apollo program]] to land on the Moon. Similarly, fellow German aviation technologist [[Siegfried Knemeyer]], the former top aviation technologist within the [[Reich Air Ministry]] during World War{{nbsp}}II, was brought to the United States through a similar path to von Braun, and served as a civilian employee of the [[USAF]] for over twenty years. [[Neil Armstrong]] was the first human to land on the moon.<ref>Roger D Launius, '' Reaching for the Moon: A Short History of the Space Race'' (2019) [https://www.amazon.com/Reaching-Moon-Short-History-Space/dp/030023046X/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707121622/https://www.amazon.com/Reaching-Moon-Short-History-Space/dp/030023046X |date=July 7, 2022 }}</ref>

[[File:Sandra Bullock in July 2013.jpg|thumb|left|80px|[[Sandra Bullock]]]]
There were many celebrities. [[MrBeast|James Stephen Donaldson]] (commonly known as MrBeast), [[Bruce Willis]], [[George Eyser]], [[Babe Ruth]], [[Lou Gehrig]], [[Johnny Depp]], [[Jack Nicklaus]], [[Michael Keaton]], [[Dale Earnhardt]], [[Doris Day|Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff (Doris Day)]], [[Grace Kelly]], [[Clark Gable]], [[Marlene Dietrich]], [[Deborah Ann Woll]], [[Johnny Weissmuller]], [[Ernst Lubitsch]], [[Walter Damrosch]], [[John Denver|Henry John Deutschendorf (John Denver)]], [[Hailee Steinfeld]], [[John Kay (musician)|John Kay]], [[Jesse Eisenberg]], [[Heidi Klum]], [[Meryl Streep]], [[Marlon Brando]], [[Kim Basinger]], [[Kevin Costner]], [[Michelle Pfeiffer]], [[Ebon Moss-Bachrach]], [[Bryan Cranston]], [[Sandra Bullock]], [[David Hasselhoff]], [[Leonardo DiCaprio]], [[Kirsten Dunst]], [[Evan Peters]], [[Bridgit Mendler]], [[Zazie Beetz]], [[Kevin James|Kevin George Knipfing (Kevin James)]] and [[Sabrina Carpenter]]; became prominent athletes, actors, film directors or artists.<ref>{{cite web |title = Rating the Top Baseball Players of All Time |url = http://baseballguru.com/egartman/analysisericgartman01.html |website = Baseballguru.com |access-date = November 28, 2007 |archive-date = March 4, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210304041829/http://baseballguru.com/egartman/analysisericgartman01.html |url-status = live }}</ref>

===U.S. presidents===
[[File:Donald Trump official portrait (3x4 cropped 2).jpg|thumb|right|80px|[[Donald Trump]]]]
There have been three presidents whose fathers were of German descent: [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] (original family name ''Eisenhauer'' and maternal side is also German/Swiss), [[Herbert Hoover]] (original family name ''Huber''), and [[Donald Trump]] (original family name ''Drumpf'';<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/trump-family-tree | title=Donald Trump Family Tree &#124; CTV News }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/us/politics/donald-drumpf-a-funny-label-but-is-it-fair.html | title=Donald Drumpf: A Funny Label, but is It Fair? | work=The New York Times | date=March 2, 2016 | last1=Victor | first1=Daniel }}</ref> his paternal grandparents, [[Frederick Trump]] and [[Elizabeth Christ Trump]] immigrated from [[Kallstadt]] in 1902).

Presidents with maternal German ancestry include [[Harry Truman]], whose maternal grandfather Solomon Young was a descendant of Johann Georg Jung and Hans Michael Gutknecht, who emigrated from Germany together in 1752,<ref>ROOTED IN HISTORY: The Genealogy of Harry S. Truman, Harry S. Truman Library Genealogy https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/genealogy/index.php?m=g_essay {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608091159/https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/genealogy/index.php?m=g_essay |date=June 8, 2020 }}</ref> [[Richard Nixon|Richard Milhous Nixon]], whose maternal ancestors were Germans who anglicized ''Melhausen'' to Milhous,<ref>Stephen E. Ambose ''Nixon'' chapter 1 (1987)</ref> and [[Barack Obama]], whose maternal family's ancestry includes German immigrants from the South German town of [[Besigheim]]<ref>{{Citation |url = https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-04-obama-roots_N.htm |work = USA Today |title = Researchers: Obama has German roots |date = June 4, 2009 |access-date = August 28, 2017 |archive-date = May 13, 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110513040600/http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-04-obama-roots_N.htm |url-status = live }}</ref> and from [[Bischwiller]] in the historically culturally Germanic [[Alsace]] region that is now part of France; both families came to America around 1750.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html |title = Ancestry of Barack Obama |access-date = October 9, 2008 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081203132159/http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html |archive-date = December 3, 2008 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Germany|United States}}
* [[Americans in Germany]]
* [[German Canadians]]
* [[German diaspora]]
* [[German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA]]
* [[German language in the United States]] 
* [[German Puerto Rican]]
* [[Germany–United States relations]], covers diplomacy, trade and culture
* [[Hyphenated American]]
* [[Nativism (politics) in the United States#Anti-German]]
* [[Ellis County, Kansas#English and Russian-German immigrants]]

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{further|German Americans in the Civil War#Further reading}}

{{Refbegin}}
* Adams, Willi Paul. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20100628085017/http://www-lib.iupui.edu/kade/adams/toc.html The German-Americans: An Ethnic Experience]'' (1993). 
* Bade, Klaus J. "From emigration to immigration: The German experience in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." ''Central European History'' 28.4 (1995): 507–535.
* Bade, Klaus J. "German emigration to the United States and continental immigration to Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." ''Central European History'' 13.4 (1980): 348–377.
* Bank, Michaela. ''Women of Two Countries: German-American Women, Women's Rights and Nativism, 1848–1890'' (Berghahn, 2012).
* Baron, Frank, "Abraham Lincoln and the German Immigrants: Turners and Forty-Eighters," ''Yearbook of German-American Studies,'' 4 (Supplemental Issue 2012), 1–254.
* Barry, Colman J. ''The Catholic Church and German Americans''. (1953).
* Bronner, Simon J. and Joshua R. Brown, eds. ''Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia'' (: Johns Hopkins UP, 2017), xviii, 554 pp. 
* Brancaforte, Charlotte L., ed. ''The German Forty-Eighters in the United States''. (1989).
* Bungert, Heike, Cora Lee Kluge, & Robert C. Ostergren (eds.). ''Wisconsin German Land and Life''. Madison, Wis.: Max Kade Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006.
* Coburn, Carol K. ''Life at Four Corners: Religion, Gender, and Education in a German-Lutheran Community, 1868–1945''. (1992).
* Conzen, Kathleen Neils. "German-Americans and ethnic political culture: Stearns County, Minnesota, 1855—1915" (JOHN F. KENNEDY-INSTITUT FÜR NORDAMERIKASTUDIEN Abteilung für Geschichte WORKING PAPER No. 16/1989) pp, 1–12. [https://thestacks.libaac.de/server/api/core/bitstreams/c2271cbf-a7d1-404a-8313-f9e011fcb65b/content major scholarly paper online]
* Conzen, Kathleen Neils. "Germans" in [[Stephan Thernstrom|Thernstrom, Stephan]]; Orlov, Ann; [[Oscar Handlin|Handlin, Oscar]], eds. [https://archive.org/details/harvardencyclope00ther ''Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups'']. Harvard University Press. {{isbn|0674375122}}. (1980). pp.&nbsp;405–425.
* Conzen, Kathleen Neils. ''Germans in Minnesota''. (2003).
* Conzen, Kathleen Neils. ''Immigrant Milwaukee, 1836–1860: Accommodation and Community in a Frontier City''. (1976).
* DeWitt, Petra. ''Degrees of Allegiance: Harassment and Loyalty in Missouri's German-American Community during World War{{nbsp}}I'' (Ohio University Press, 2012).
* Dobbert, Guido A. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2710894 German-Americans between New and Old Fatherland, 1870–1914] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319012451/http://www.jstor.org/stable/2710894 |date=March 19, 2017 }}". ''[[American Quarterly]]'' 19 (1967): 663–680.
* Efford, Alison Clark. ''German Immigrants: Race and Citizenship in the Civil War Era.'' (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
* Ellis, M. and P. Panayi. "German Minorities in World War{{nbsp}}I: A Comparative Study of Britain and the USA", ''[[Ethnic and Racial Studies]]'' 17 (April 1994): 238–259.
* Emmerich, Alexander. ''[[John Jacob Astor]] and the First Great American Fortune''. (2013), he was an immigrant from Germany
* Ernst, Robert. ''Immigrant Life in New York City, 1825–1863'' (1949), detailed coverage of Germans and Irish.
* Faust, Albert Bernhardt. ''The German Element in the United States with Special Reference to Its Political, Moral, Social, and Educational Influence''. 2 vol (1909). [https://books.google.com/books?id=J2Q6RgAJTsgC&pg=PP1 vol. 1], [https://archive.org/details/germanelementin03fausgoog <!-- quote=The German Element in the United States. --> vol. 2]
* Fogleman, Aaron. ''Hopeful Journeys: German Immigration, Settlement, and Political Culture in Colonial America, 1717–1775'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996)
* [[German Historical Institute]]. ''[http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/ Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230804022304/https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/ |date=August 4, 2023 }}''. (2010, updated continually)
* Gross, Stephen John. "Handing down the farm: Values, strategies, and outcomes in inheritance practices among rural German Americans", ''Journal of Family History'', (1996) 21: 2, 192–217.
* Grubb, Farley. '' German Immigration and Servitude in America, 1709–1920'' (Routledge Explorations in Economic History) (2011).
* Guenther, Karen. "A Question of Loyalty: German Churches in Reading During the First World War," ''Pennsylvania History'' (2017) 84#3:325-53 [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/663965 online]
* Hawgood, John. ''The Tragedy of German-America''. (1940).
* Iverson, Noel. ''Germania, U.S.A.: Social Change in New Ulm, Minnesota''. (1966). emphasizes Turners.
* Jensen, Richard. ''The Winning of the Midwest, Social and Political Conflict 1888–1896''. (1971). Voting behavior of Germans, prohibition, language, and school issues.
* Johnson, Hildegard B. "[https://www.jstor.org/pss/2561181 The Location of German Immigrants in the Middle West]". ''Annals of the Association of American Geographers'' 41 (1951): 1–41.
* Jordon, Terry G. ''German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-century Texas''. (1966).
* Kamphoefner, Walter D. and Wolfgang Helbich, eds. ''German-American Immigration and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective''. Madison, Wisconsin: [[Max Kade Institute]], [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] (2004).
* Kamphoefner, Walter D., "Uprooted or Transplanted? Reflections on Patterns of German Immigration to Missouri," ''Missouri Historical Review,'' 103 (January 2009), 71–89.
* Kamphoefner, Walter D. "Immigrant Epistolary and Epistemology: On the Motivators and Mentality of Nineteenth-Century German Immigrants." ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (2009): 34–54. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40543427 in JSTOR] 
* Kamphoefner, Walter D. ''Germans in America: A Concise History.'' Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2021.
* Kazal, Russell A. ''Becoming Old Stock: The Paradox of German-American Identity''. (2004). a major study of Philadelphia
* Keil, Hartmut and Jentz, John B., eds. ''German Workers in Industrial Chicago, 1850–1910: A Comparative Perspective'' (1983). 252 pp.
* Keller, Christian B. "Flying Dutchmen and Drunken Irishmen: The Myths and Realities of Ethnic Civil War Soldiers," ''[[Journal of Military History]]'', 73 (January 2009), 117–145.
* Keller, Phyllis. ''States of Belonging: German-American Intellectuals and the First World War''. (Harvard UP, 1979).
* Kibler, Amanda. "Speaking like a 'good American': National identity and the legacy of German-language education." ''Teachers College Record'' 110.6 (2008): 1241–1268. [https://doi.org/10.1177/016146810811000604 online]
* Krawatzek, Félix, and Gwendolyn Sasse. "Integration and Identities: The Effects of Time, Migrant Networks, and Political Crises on Germans in the United States." ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'' 60.4 (2018): 1029–1065. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gwendolyn-Sasse/publication/328005527_Integration_and_Identities_The_Effects_of_Time_Migrant_Networks_and_Political_Crises_on_Germans_in_the_United_States/links/5c44c537a6fdccd6b5bc6716/Integration-and-Identities-The-Effects-of-Time-Migrant-Networks-and-Political-Crises-on-Germans-in-the-United-States.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706102109/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gwendolyn-Sasse/publication/328005527_Integration_and_Identities_The_Effects_of_Time_Migrant_Networks_and_Political_Crises_on_Germans_in_the_United_States/links/5c44c537a6fdccd6b5bc6716/Integration-and-Identities-The-Effects-of-Time-Migrant-Networks-and-Political-Crises-on-Germans-in-the-United-States.pdf |date=July 6, 2022 }}
* Kulas, S. John. ''Der Wanderer of St. Paul: The First Decade, 1867–1877: a Mirror of the German-Catholic Immigrant Experience in Minnesota'' (Peter Lang, 1996), newspaper history
* Levine, Bruce. ''The Spirit of 1848: German Immigrants, Labor Conflict, and the Coming of the Civil War''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.
* Luebke, Frederick C. ''Bonds of Loyalty: German Americans During World War{{nbsp}}I''. (1974).
* Luebke, Frederick C., ed. ''Ethnic Voters and the Election of Lincoln''. (1971).
* Luebke, Frederick C. ''Germans in the New World''. (1990).
* Luebke, Frederick. ''Immigrants and Politics: The Germans of Nebraska, 1880–1900''. (1969).
* Nadel, Stanley. ''Little Germany: Ethnicity, Religion, and Class in New York City, 1845–80'' (1990).
* O'Connor, Richard. ''German-Americans: an Informal History''. (1968), popular history
* Otterness, Philip. ''Becoming German: The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York'' (2004) 235 pp.
* Pickle, Linda. ''Contented among Strangers: Rural German-Speaking Women and Their Families in the Nineteenth-Century Midwest'' (1996).
* Pochmann, Henry A. and Arthur R. Schultz; ''German Culture in America, 1600–1900: Philosophical and Literary Influences''. (1957).
* Rippley, LaVern J. "German Americans." ''Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America,'' edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 2, Gale, 2014, pp.&nbsp;207–223) [https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3273300078/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=dbb88516 Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130212624/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=wikipedia&id=GALE%7CCX3273300078&v=2.1&it=r&sid=GPS&asid=dbb88516 |date=November 30, 2023 }}
* Ritter, Luke, "Sunday Regulation and the Formation of German American Identity in St. Louis, 1840–1860," ''Missouri Historical Review,'' (2012), vol. 107, no. 1, pp.&nbsp;23–40.
* Roeber, A. G. ''Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America''. (1998).
* Salamon, Sonya. ''Prairie Patrimony: Family, Farming, and Community in the Midwest'' ([[U of North Carolina Press]], 1992), focus on German Americans.
* Salmons, Joseph C. ''The German Language in America, 1683–1991''. Madison, Wis.: Max Kade Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993.
* Schiffman, Harold. [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/gachurch/biggac.html "Language loyalty in the German-American Church: The Case of an Over-confident Minority] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709124147/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/gachurch/biggac.html |date=July 9, 2011 }}" (1987).
* Schirp, Francis. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06475c.htm "Germans in the United States] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322054859/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06475c.htm |date=March 22, 2021 }}". ''[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]''. Vol. 6. New York: Appleton, 1909.
* Schlossman, Steven L. "Is there an American tradition of bilingual education? German in the public elementary schools, 1840–1919." ''American Journal of Education'' (1983): 139–186. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1085040 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319012437/http://www.jstor.org/stable/1085040 |date=March 19, 2017 }}
* Tatlock, Lynne and Matt Erlin, eds. ''German Culture in Nineteenth-Century America: Reception, Adaptation, Transformation''. (2005).
* Tischauser, Leslie V. ''The Burden of Ethnicity: The German Question in Chicago, 1914–1941''. (1990).
* Tolzmann, Don H., ed. ''German Americans in the World Wars'', 2 vols. Munich, Germany: K.G. Saur, (1995).
* Tolzmann, Don H. ''German-American Literature'' (Scarecrow Press, 1977).
* Trommler, Frank & Joseph McVeigh, eds. ''America and the Germans: An Assessment of a Three-Hundred-Year History''. (2 vol 1985); vol 1: ''Immigration, Language, Ethnicity''; vol 2: ''The Relationship in the Twentieth Century''. Essays by scholars covering broad themes.
* Turk, Eleanor L. "[http://kshs.org/publicat/history/2005spring_turk.pdf Germans in Kansas: Review Essay] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423214137/https://kshs.org/publicat/history/2005spring_turk.pdf |date=April 23, 2023 }}". ''[[Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains]]'' 28 (Spring 2005): 44–71.
* van Ravenswaay, Charles. ''The Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri: A Survey of a Vanishing Culture'' (1977; reprint University of Missouri Press, 2006).
* Walker, Mack. ''Germany and the Emigration, 1816–1885'' (1964).
* ''[http://www.films.com/ecTitleDetail.aspx?TitleID=6834&r= Where Have All the Germans Gone?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618031605/http://www.films.com/ecTitleDetail.aspx?TitleID=6834&r= |date=June 18, 2016 }}''. New York: Films Media Group, 1976.
* Wilkerson, Miranda E., and Heather Richmond. ''Germans in Illinois'' (Southern Illinois UP, 2019) [https://books.google.com/books?id=PLObDwAAQBAJ&dq=Germans+in+Illinois+by+Miranda+E.+Wilkerson,+Heather+Richmond&pg=PP1 online].
* [[Carl Frederick Wittke|Wittke, Carl Frederick.]] ''The German-Language Press in America''. (1957).
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* [[Carl Frederick Wittke|Wittke, Carl Frederick.]] ''We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant''. (1939), ch. 6, 9.
* Wood, Ralph, ed. ''The Pennsylvania Germans''. (1942).
* Zeitlin, Richard. ''Germans in Wisconsin''. Madison: [[Wisconsin Historical Society]], (2000).

===Online PhD dissertations===

* Beckmann, Sterling.   "The Language of Legitimacy: Interventionism and German-American Nativism in U.S. Political Rhetoric, 1850–1876" (Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2019. 27665629) rhetoric used by German Americans to assert American identity.
*  Boyd, James.  "An investigation into the structural causes of German-American mass migration in the nineteenth century" (Cardiff University (United Kingdom); ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2013. U604309).
* Craig, Sarah M.   "The Hun in the Heartland: Three Missouri German-American Communities During the Great War" (University of Central Missouri; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2015. 31746937).
*  DeWitt, Petra. "Searching for the roots of harassment and the meaning of loyalty: A study of the German-American experience in Missouri during World War I" (University of Missouri - Columbia; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2005. 3235136).
*  Holian, Timothy J.   "The German-American community during the World War II era, with a focus on Cincinnati, Ohio" (University of Cincinnati; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1995. 9541663).
*  Johnson, Charles Thomas.  "The National German-American Alliance, 1901-1918: Cultural politics and ethnicity in peace and war" (Western Michigan University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1997. 9817115).
* Knarr, Mary L. "Faith, frauen, and the formation of an ethnic identity: German Lutheran women in south and central Texas, 1831–1890". (Ph.D. dissertation, Texas Christian U. 2009). [http://txcwcivilian.fatcow.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/german_lutheran.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818115243/http://txcwcivilian.fatcow.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/german_lutheran.pdf |date=August 18, 2016 }}
* Krause, Scott H.   "Outpost of Freedom: A German-American Network's Campaign to bring Cold War Democracy to West Berlin, 1933-66" (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2016. 10119977).
*  Maischak, Lars.  "A cosmopolitan community: Hanseatic merchants in the German-American Atlantic of the nineteenth century" (The Johns Hopkins University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2006. 3197194).
* Odom, Rebecca Preiss.  "Negotiating hyphenated identities: Transnational identity formation of the German-American residents of St. Charles, Missouri, during World War I" (Saint Louis University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2014. 3624100).
* Olson, Audrey Louise. "St. Louis Germans, 1850–1920: The Nature of an Immigrant Community and Its Relation to the Assimiliation Process" (PhD dissertation, University of Kansas; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1970. 7025388).
*  Rex, Brigitte A.  "A Comparative Examination of German-American Women Immigrants In The Rural and Urban Areas of America In the Nineteenth Century" (University of Michigan-Flint; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2001. EP77026).
*  Sarvela, John William.   "Soldaten des Westens: An Analysis of the Wartime Experiences of Three German-American Regiments from the St. Louis-Bellville Region" (The University of Southern Mississippi; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2019. 13858168).
*  Starnes, Rebekah Ann.  "Transnational Transports: Identity, Community, and Place in German-American Narratives from 1750s–1850s" (The Ohio State University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2012. 3520768).
*  Wuepper, Sebastian P.   "Reams, Radicals and Revolutionaries: The 'Illinois Staats-Zeitung' and the German-American Milieu in Chicago, 1847–1877" (Loyola University Chicago; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2021. 28419171).
*  Yox, Andrew Paul. "Decline of the German-American Community of Buffalo, 1855-1925" (University of Chicago; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1983. T-28753).
* Zetsche, Anne.   "The Quest for Atlanticism: German-American Elite Networking, the Atlantik-Brücke and the American Council on Germany, 1952-1974" (University of Northumbria at Newcastle (United Kingdom); ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2016. 10755301).

{{refend}}

===Historiography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite thesis|last=Hustad|first=Bradley Jake|title=Problems in Historiography: The Americanization of German Ethnics|type=MA thesis|publisher=[[Mankato State University]]|year=2013 |url=https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1140&context=etds |access-date=November 30, 2023 |archive-date=April 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423010019/https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1140&context=etds}}
* {{cite journal |jstor = 2169006 |journal = [[American Historical Review]] |volume = 100 |issue = 2 |pages = 437–471 |title = Revisiting Assimilation: The Rise, Fall, and Reappraisal of a Concept in American Ethnic History |last1 = Kazal |first1 = Russell A. |year = 1995 |doi = 10.2307/2169006 }}
* Kluge, Cora Lee. ''Other Witnesses: An Anthology of Literature of the German Americans, 1850–1914''. Madison, Wis.: Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, 2007.
* Miller, Zane L. "Cincinnati Germans and the Invention of an Ethnic Group", ''Queen City Heritage: The Journal of the Cincinnati Historical Society'' 42 (Fall 1984): 13–22.
* {{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30153298 |url-status=live |title=The Field, the Boundaries, and the Cultivators of German-American Studies |jstor=30153298 |access-date=May 2, 2020 |archive-date=August 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802232352/https://www.jstor.org/stable/30153298 |last1=Nollendorfs |first1=Valters |journal=Monatshefte |date=1994 |volume=86 |issue=3 |pages=319–330 }}
* Ortlepp, Anke. "Deutsch-Athen Revisited: Writing the History of Germans in Milwaukee" in Margo Anderson and Victor Greene (eds.), ''Perspectives on Milwaukee's Past''. (University of Illinois Press, 2009).
* {{cite book |editor-last=Parish|editor-first=Peter J.|title = Reader's Guide to American History |year = 2013 |publisher = Taylor & Francis |pages = 294–95 }}
* Pochmann, Henry A. and  Arthur R. Schult. '' Bibliography of German Culture in America to 1940'' (2nd ed 1982); massive listing, but no annotations.
* {{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30161608 |title=German-American Studies: History and Development |jstor=30161608 |access-date=May 2, 2020 |archive-date=August 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802215352/https://www.jstor.org/stable/30161608 |url-status=live |last1=Tolzmann |first1=Don Heinrich |journal=Monatshefte |date=1988 |volume=80 |issue=3 |pages=278–288 }}
* Tolzmann, Don Heinrich, ed. ''German-American Studies: Selected Essays'' (Peter Lang, 2001).
{{refend}}

===Primary sources===
{{refbegin}}
* Kamphoefner, Walter D., and Wolfgang Helbich, eds. ''Germans in the Civil War; The Letters They Wrote Home''. (U of North Carolina Press, 2006).
* Kamphoefner, Walter D., Wolfgang Johannes Helbich and Ulrike Sommer, eds. ''News from the Land of Freedom: German Immigrants Write Home''. (Cornell University Press, 1991).
* {{cite web |url = http://flps.newberry.org/#filters/group/german?page=1 |title = German |work = Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey |year = 1942 |publisher = Chicago Public Library Omnibus Project of the [[Works Progress Administration]] of Illinois |via = [[Newberry Library]] |access-date = August 27, 2014 |archive-date = June 26, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230626075128/https://flps.newberry.org/#filters/group/german?page=1 |url-status = live }} (English translations of selected German-language newspaper articles, 1855–1938).
{{refend}}

===In German===
{{refbegin}}
* Emmerich, Alexander. ''Geschichte der Deutschen in Amerika von 1680 bis in die Gegenwart''. (2013).
* Rehs, Michael. ''Wurzeln in fremder Erde: Zur Geschichte der südwestdeutschen Auswanderung nach Amerika'' DRW-Verlag, 1984. {{ISBN|3-87181-231-5}}
* {{Citation |title = American Newspaper Directory |date = 1880 |location = New York |publisher = [[George P. Rowell|Geo. P. Rowell & Co.]] |chapter-url = https://archive.org/stream/geoprowellcosame1880newy#page/517/mode/1up |chapter = List of Newspapers and Periodicals Printed Wholly or in Part in Languages Other Than English: German }}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|German diaspora in the United States}}
* [https://germanrootsusa.org/ Discover America´s German Roots], German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA

===German-American history and culture===
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/imde/germchro.html Chronology: Germans in America]
* [http://maxkade.iupui.edu/merrill/home.html German Immigrant Culture in America: Syllabus (1998)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118022242/http://maxkade.iupui.edu/merrill/home.html |date=November 18, 2016 }}
* [http://www.auswandererbriefe.de Emigrant Letters to Germany (in German)]
* [https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries.php German-American Business Biographies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529054125/https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries.php |date=May 29, 2018 }} from the [[German Historical Institute]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090529145701/http://www.gamhof.org/famous_ga.html German-American Hall of Fame]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20181113073213/https://mki.wisc.edu/sites/mki.wisc.edu/files/HGIA_booklet.pdf How German Is American?]
* [http://www.germanhollywood.com/ The German-Hollywood Connection]
* [http://flps.newberry.org/ Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey: English translations of 120,000 pages of newspaper articles from Chicago's foreign language press from 1855 to 1938, many from German papers.]
* [https://germanletters.org/ German Heritage in Letters] by the German Historical Institute Washington.

===German-American organizations===
* [https://gahmusa.org/ German-American Heritage Museum of the USA]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20181228070758/http://steubensociety.org/ Steuben Society of America]
* [http://www.gahc.org/ German American Heritage Center]
* [http://www.grhs.org/ Germans from Russia Heritage Society]
* [https://mki.wisc.edu/ Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies] at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]]
* [http://maxkade.iupui.edu Max Kade German-American Center] at [[Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis]]
* [http://www.germantownhistory.org/ The Germantown Historical Society (Philadelphia)]
* [http://www.germansociety.org The German Society of Pennsylvania (oldest German Society in the U.S.)]
* [http://www.pgs.org/default.asp The Pennsylvania German Society]
* [https://www.kutztown.edu/about-ku/administrative-offices/pennsylvania-german-cultural-heritage-center.htm Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center] at [[Kutztown University of Pennsylvania]]
* [http://www.ighs.org Indiana German Heritage Society]

===Local German-American history and culture===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20141007032152/http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/512.html Germans in Chicago]
* [http://www.germantracesnyc.org German Traces NYC from the Goethe-Institut]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070820091545/http://www.washjeff.edu/german/pittsburgh/ Interactive German-History Map of Pittsburgh]
* [http://www.oktoberfestzinzinnati.com/okt.aspx?menu_id=256&id=8478 Zinzinnati History (Cincinnati, Ohio)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151120150023/http://www.oktoberfestzinzinnati.com/okt.aspx?menu_id=256&id=8478 |date=November 20, 2015 }}
* [http://www.stimmungstunde.com Milwaukee German-American Radio Program]
* [http://pghmannerchor.com Teutonia Männerchor in Pittsburgh]
* [https://mki.wisc.edu/sites/mki.wisc.edu/files/graphics/Some_German_Contributions_to_Wisconsin_Life-Seifert.pdf Some German Contributions to Wisconsin Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113073238/https://mki.wisc.edu/sites/mki.wisc.edu/files/graphics/Some_German_Contributions_to_Wisconsin_Life-Seifert.pdf |date=November 13, 2018 }}

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