In search of German-Americans - Impact and Limits of German Immigration to the United States
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On March 19, 2008 the “Deutscher Verein Society” with about 80 of it's members were welcomed to an evening at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the first permanent presentation and interpretation of the urban, working class immigrant experience in a National Historic Site in the United States. In the German Schneider family’s beer saloon on famous Orchard Street, a new addition to the museum and still in the phase of restoration, Dr. Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, spoke “In Search of German-Americans – Impact and Limits of German Immigration to the United States”. The presentations of Consul General Heimsoeth and of Ruth Abram, President of the Tenement Museum, explored the essence of German-American identity and the cultural legacy of the German-American experience.
Consul General Dr. Heimsoeth quoted Jack Paar, once the famous host of NBC´s “The Tonight Show”, stating “Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery”. Assuming Mr. Paar was right, Germans must have flattered the United States a great deal. English settlers brought their language to the new world, and the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France. However, it is the long-lasting effect of German immigration that had the largest influence on the US population. Some 43 million Americans, or 15.2 percent of the total population, consider themselves to have German roots, according to the latest 2000 Census, more than any other ethnic origin. German is still by far the most frequently reported ancestry in the country, followed by Irish with 10.8 percent and African American with 8.8 percent.
The research that was presented at the Tenement Museum laid out some often forgotten aspects about the German influence on America. For example, by 1872, 80 percent of the non-English press was German, a press that was highly influential socially, politically, and culturally. Thus, one of the first printed versions of the Declaration of Independence was published in German on the 9th of July, 1776.
Dr. Heimsoeth also quoted some famous German-Americans who had a considerable influence on the American society, such as Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben (1730 –1794), better known as General von Steuben, namesake of the annual Steuben Parade, and inspector general of the Continental Army during the american Revolutionary War; Carl Schurz, the German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and the Union Army general in the American Civil War; and Henry Kissinger, Nobel Peace Prize winner and 56th Secretary of State of the United States, who is certainly one of the most famous living German-Americans. He also set straight some German-American myths that have persisted for 200 years. One of them was the so-called Muehlenberg Legend, claiming that German lost out by a hair on becoming the official language of the U.S. . In fact, among the Founding Fathers of the Nation there was none of German ancestry, while seven founding fathers were born in England, Ireland or Scotland. German immigrants comprised only about nine percent of the total U.S. population in 1830. A vote for an official language never took place on either a federal or a state level. Actually, the United States has no statutory official language at all. English has been used on a de facto basis, owing to its status as the country's predominant language.
Be that as it may, like most legends, this one has a core of truth to it. On January 9, 1794, a group of German immigrants from Virginia submitted a petition to the House of Representatives demanding that laws be translated into German. They argued that this would help immigrants who had not yet learned English to become more quickly acclimated in their new homeland. The petition was voted down 42 to 41 in the House of Representatives and thus, indeed, by a hair. Funny enough, the Speaker Frederick Augustus Conrad Muehlenberg abstained from the vote. But afterwards he declared, "the faster the Germans become Americans, the better it will be." Among the German settlers this sentiment led to a certain bitterness that helped the Muehlenberg Legend grow into celebrated folklore a generation later.
Ruth Abram, President of the Tenement Museum, brought to life in her opening remarks what life was like for those German immigrants who lived in “Kleindeutschland”, as was the Lower East Side referred to then. She stated also some facts little known today: “President Woodrow Wilson’s declaration of War against Germany in 1917 precipitated a tragic outbreak of hysteria directed against anything and everything German. …Over 6,000 German Americans were placed in an internment camp in Georgia. Germans who were US residents but not yet citizens were classified as “enemy aliens.” 26 states passed laws against the use of German. By January 1921, over 17,000 people had been arrested for speaking German in public. Numerous libraries burned, destroyed or removed books in German or by German authors.” And finally, “World War II delivered a decisive blow to the possibility of open appreciation of our German heritage.”
With the addition of the Schneider Saloon, the Tenement Museum hopes to restore one part of the heritage of German immigration to New York. Thus, German Consul General Dr. Heimsoeth closed his speech by stating: “I would like to take this opportunity to commend the Tenement Museum for its role in bringing to life the important contribution of German immigrants to their city. I hope that this effort finds the support of the German-Americans who have an interest in their history and would be happy if some of them would have their share in supporting this endeavor.”
Article by Tobias Göhr
