In the 1600s, there were only a small handful of German settlers in the United States. In the coming centuries, political strife in Germany and the promise of opportunity in the new world compelled huge numbers of Germans to emigrate. The culture of innovation they brought with them would make German immigrants foundational to the modern US.
German Immigration Timeline
The first Germans settlers arrived in the US in the early 1600s. At the time, however, Germany was not a unified state. The German-speaking settlers who arrived may have identified just as much with their specific ancestral region, their language, or their religion as with a sense of being German.
Year | Event |
1600s | The first German Settlers arrive in the US. |
1683 | Over a dozen German Mennonite families settle in Pennsylvania, founding Germantown. |
1775 - 1783 | Thousands of German mercenaries are hired by the British to fight in the American Revolutionary War. |
1845 - 1855 | Seeking refuge from economic hardship and political strife, over one million Germans immigrated to the US. |
1871 | Germany is unified into a state. |
1917 | The US joins World War I, and anti-German sentiments spread throughout the country. |
1933 | Adolf Hitler comes to power in Germany. Between his rise to power and the end of the World War, over 100,000 Jewish Germans escape to the United States. |
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.
Approximately half of the German immigrants coming to America during this time period were Redemptioners. They received passage from U.S. shipping companies in exchange for their indentured servitude. Upon arriving, a Redemptioner would have to negotiate years of slavery to pay off the loan.
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:
Religious Intolerance: Plenty of new immigrants, including many Germans, were Roman Catholic. The United States had a Protestant population that harbored anti-Catholic prejudices.
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.
Nativism:
A movement that supported giving native-born Americans economic and political advantages over immigrants.
It’s useful to note that “native-born” was not meant to encompass Indigenous Americans, only the descendants of colonizers and settlers.
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.
Between and after the wars, the propaganda relaxed and intolerance eased. Between the wars, from 1929 to 1933, German-American Herbert Hoover was the US President. After the wars, in 1953, Dwight Eisenhower, of German-American descent, was also elected as President.
Fig. 4 - Herbert HooverCultural 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.
Between Hitler’s rise to power and his death, 125,000 Germans immigrated to the United States.
German Immigration - Key takeaways
- German immigration to the United States began in the early 1600s before the nation was even formed. Often, they were seeking freedom in religious practice.
- There was an influx of German immigrants during the American Revolutionary War because German men were hired on as mercenaries by the British.
- The second wave of German immigrants occur during the Revolutions of 1848, as Germans sought refuge from political unrest and economic uncertainty.
- German immigrants faced discrimination, often as a result of religious intolerance and job competition. The result was a surge of nativism in the mid-1800s. While this eventually quelled due to economic recovery and the focus on slavery, German immigrants would face discrimination once again during the World Wars.
- As Hitler came to power during the years leading up to World War II, many Germans sought refuge in the United States, but they faced strict immigration policies. These policies losen after the United States entered the war in 1941.
Explanations 
Exams 
Magazine 
