During World War I, the term hyphenated Americans was popular. It referred to the hyphen between people with another ethnicity and “American.” One example would be German-Americans. “Hyphenated Americans” was a term that was used in a derogatory manner and was frequently directed at Americans with German roots. It was presumed that German-Americans fostered continued allegiance to Germany during the war. Allegations included spying for Germany and endorsing the German war effort. Thousands were forced to buy war bonds to show their loyalty; hundreds were interned or beaten, tarred and feathered. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/where-have-german-americans-gone/ Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were outspoken “anti-hyphenates” and insisted that dual loyalties were impossible in wartime.
When and Why Germans immigrated to America
Since Germany did not have colonies in America, the first German immigrants arrived in the British colonies. That was in the 1670s, long before the United States became independent. They settled primarily in areas we now know as Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia and had left Germany because of shortages of land, religious or political oppression. German immigrants who arrived prior to 1850 were mostly farmers; thereafter many came to cities. The largest flow of German immigration to America occurred between 1820 and World War I. During that time, nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States.
Between 1931 and 1940, 114,000 Germans moved to the United States, many of whom were Jewish Germans. Germans who immigrated after World War II were mostly professionals and academics. By 2010, the population of hyphenated Americans with German roots had grown to 49.8 million, which includes 6 million people who had immigrated since 2000.
For more than seven million emigrants, who left from Bremerhaven between 1830-1974 on their journey to the New World, this was the moment of departure. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2013. www.walled-in-berlin.com
Where did Hyphenated Americans with German roots settle?
There is a “German belt” that extends from eastern Pennsylvania to the Oregon coast. The first permanent German settlement was Germantown in Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1683. Today, the states with the highest proportion of German Americans are in the upper Midwest, including Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, where over one-third of the population has German roots.
Hyphenated Americans with German roots who made their mark
American industrialists and businessmen with German roots include Eberhard Anheuser, William Boeing, Adolphus Busch, Walter Chrysler, Adolph Coors, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Conrad Hilton, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Steinway, Levi Strauss, the Studebaker brothers, and many others. Walter Gropius, Albert Einstein, Neil Armstrong and Wernher von Braun contributed to American technology and culture. Politicians include John Boehner, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Herbert Hoover, Henry Kissinger and Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Barack Obama, too, has ancestors with German roots on his maternal side. They came from the town of Besigheim in southern Germany.
Hyphenated Americans with German roots established the first kindergartens, introduced the Christmas tree The Christmas Tree Tradition is German and the Easter Bunny Our Easter Bunny (Osterhase) is German and popularized the Oktoberfest. They also brought hot dogs and hamburgers to America.
A discussion about Germans in America would be incomplete without addressing a false belief, known as the Muhlenberg Legend. The lore claims that German almost became the official language of the U.S. Not true. Did German almost become America’s Official Language?
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Tags: anti-hyphenates, German belt, German-Americans, hyphenated Americans, Muhlenberg Legend, President Theodore Roosevelt, President Woodrow Wilson, World War I
My German ancestors came from southwestern Germany in 1892 and 1894. My great-grandfather came because he didn’t want to be conscripted into the army like his father had been. He went back two years later to bring his future wife with him to Iowa where he had settled. A few years later, they moved to northern Minnesota where I was raised.
I often wondered how his family may have been affected by anti-German sentiment during World War I. I suspect there were enough German immigrants in the area that the individuality of the person was more important than any hyphenation denoting country of origin. But I’ll probably never know. I didn’t ask while I had the opportunity.