German Immigration

The History of German American Immigration

The first chapter of German immigration to the United States was involves religious communities. In 1683, German Mennonite families settled in Pennsylvania, where they founded Germantown, a few miles outside of Philadelphia. Over the next two centuries, Pennsylvania and its surrounding states would be a focal point of German immigration. About three-quarters of German-speaking immigrants traveled through the port at Philadelphia.

Throughout the 1700s, communities of religious minorities left Germany to settle in the United States. Some of them sought to found utopian communities, in which their religious ideals could be realized.

Reasons for German Immigration

But what caused the large influx of German immigrants to America in the late 1700s into the 1800s? Let's go over a couple of significant events that caused this migration.

Reasons for German Immigration: The American Revolutionary War

During the American Revolutionary War, Britain hired thousands of German mercenaries to fight on their side to quash the revolution. The British were defeated in 1783. While the English were sent packing, nearly 5,000 German soldiers chose to remain in the new nation.

Fig. 1 - Illustration of the Battle of Bunker Hill

By the year 1800, 100,000 Germans had migrated to the United States, and over eight percent of the American population was of German descent.

Reasons for German Immigration: The Revolutions of 1848

In 1848, a series of revolutions and uprisings erupted across Europe, including the German states. These uprisings sought to replace European monarchies. Among German revolutionaries, there was a will to unite German states into a pan-Germanic nation. The Revolutions of 1848 would eventually prove unsuccessful, and most of what is now Germany remained under the same monarchy as it had before the uprising.

While these revolutions may not have had a direct political impact on the US, they still had a big effect on the new country’s population. Fleeing political unrest, military conscription, and a lack of economic opportunities, a huge number of Germans migrated to the United States. In the decade from 1845 to 1855, over a million Germans immigrants arrived in the US.

Fig. 2 - Painting of German emigrants saying farewell

Discrimination Against German Immigrants

The large influx of immigrants to the US in the 19th century began to create tension among American citizens. While the German-American community would eventually find financial stability and opportunity in the US, as with many other immigrant groups, they were faced with obstacles and prejudices along the way.

Two key sources of anti-immigration sentiment were religious intolerance and job competition:

1. Religious Intolerance: Plenty of new immigrants, including many Germans, were Roman Catholic. The United States had a Protestant population that harbored anti-Catholic prejudices.

2. Job Competition: Poor immigrants who arrived in the United States were desperate, and prepared to work longer hours for less pay than American citizens. As there were no minimum wage laws, many businesses were happy to stoke a race to the bottom among workers. German emigrants often out-competed citizens by providing cheaper labor, which fuelled anti-immigrant resentment.

Discrimination Against German Immigrants: Nativism in the 1800s

During a recession in the mid-nineteenth century, anti-immigrant sentiment was taking political shape in the United States. Couched with incendiary rhetoric, a movement known as nativism began to spread. As this rhetoric spread, so did violence. Riots broke out across the US, mostly in northern cities.

Of the numerous Nativist parties that arose, the Know Nothing Party was the most influential. It was an anti-Catholic party, with a platform that included a harder path to citizenship for immigrants and a ban on first-generation immigrants from holding office.

Fig. 3 - Photograph of a Know Nothing Party ticket naming party candidates for state and county offices in 1855

The 1854 elections saw Nativist parties win control of several state governments. But, as the American economy recovered, it was better able to accommodate the population growth. As such, nativism began to ebb. Slavery became a more pressing political issue and overshadowed anti-immigration rhetoric.

Discrimination Against German Immigrants: Anti-German Sentiment during the World Wars

While Nativism and anti-immigration prejudices in the United States hadn’t explicitly targeted Germans over other immigrant groups, that all changed in the 20th century. During the World Wars, anti-German propaganda stoked suspicion and hatred toward German Americans, and many of them became targets of harassment, detainment, and even internment.

Fig. 4 - Herbert Hoover

Cultural Contributions of German Immigrants

Despite the obstacles faced by German immigrants to America, many of them found success and opportunity in the United States, and they have made many lasting contributions to American life and culture.

Cultural Contributions of German Immigrants: Holidays

Many Christmas traditions that are enjoyed across the United States were introduced by German immigrants. Christmas trees were originally a German tradition, dating back to the 1600s. Similarly, the Germanic celebration of Kris Kringle helped inspire the modern-day idea of Santa Claus. The modern image of Santa Claus, too, was influenced by the drawings of German immigrant Thomas Nast.

Fig. 5 - Illustration of Santa Claus by Thomas Nast

Easter was also influenced largely by German immigrants, who brought their tradition of egg decoration, and the idea of an egg-laying hare, the Osterhase.

Cultural Contributions of German Immigrants: Education

German immigrants also had a major impact on education in the US. This included introducing the idea of kindergarten and the inclusion of gymnasiums in schools. They were also instrumental in advocating for universal education.

Cultural Contributions of German Immigrants: Social Justice and Activism

One of the major contributions of German immigrants to the United States was the culture of political activism and reform that they brought with them. German immigrants were champions of freedom of the press, workers’ rights, suffrage, and abolitionism.

German Immigration to the US after WWII

Just as political strife had forced many out of Germany in the 19th century, the political conflict of the 20th century caused a German exodus. In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, exploiting and stoking a growing anti-semitic sentiment across the nation. Immediately, Jewish Germans began to seek asylum in other countries.

Fig. 6 - photograph of Nazis saluting Hitler in 1938

However, since the first World War, the US had made immigration more difficult as a result of the Great Depression and growing nationalist sentiment. In 1933, with over 80,000 Germans on the waiting list for a visa, the State Department only issued 1,241 visas. After years of admitting only a small portion of applicants, the US canceled its visa waiting list as it joined World War II in 1941.