Why are German Americans so invisible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They intermarried with all the other ethnic groups and now are generic American mutts. At least in my family! We are german, italian, english, irish, who knows.

Basically this. Plus, people distancing themselves from Germany after Holocaust/WW 2.

There's German culture and then there's Germany. So many German immigrants came to the US before there was even a unified Germany, which emerged in the 1860s under the Prussian hegemony. And many German speakers came to the US via other countries that we don't think of as Germany, such as Switzerland or the Czech Republic.

I have German heritage ancestry and know plenty of people who do, after all, German surnames are very common in the US. Never received the impression people were ashamed of having German heritage and wanted to distance themselves from Germany any more than people of other heritages did to other countries in Europe. Most immigrants coming to the US saw themselves making a clean break and the old world was the old world. Many didn't have great memories of ye olde worlde, where they tended to be poorer and on the wrong side of a severely class divided society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They intermarried with all the other ethnic groups and now are generic American mutts. At least in my family! We are german, italian, english, irish, who knows.

Basically this. Plus, people distancing themselves from Germany after Holocaust/WW 2.

There's German culture and then there's Germany. So many German immigrants came to the US before there was even a unified Germany, which emerged in the 1860s under the Prussian hegemony. And many German speakers came to the US via other countries that we don't think of as Germany, such as Switzerland or the Czech Republic.

I have German heritage ancestry and know plenty of people who do, after all, German surnames are very common in the US. Never received the impression people were ashamed of having German heritage and wanted to distance themselves from Germany any more than people of other heritages did to other countries in Europe. Most immigrants coming to the US saw themselves making a clean break and the old world was the old world. Many didn't have great memories of ye olde worlde, where they tended to be poorer and on the wrong side of a severely class divided society.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is very amusing, when we dedicate a month every year to Oktoberfest events.

Agree! OP is some MAGA nut trying to be aggrieved over a non-fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. I am second generation German American on my fathers side whose entire family was very German, his grandfathers were both brewmeisters who came to USA in the late 1800s and settled in NYC. Much of my family is still in New York Hudson Valley and one of my cousins is very active in a German dance and heritage group in Poughkeepsie called, of course, Germania. They have a club and an event grounds and are very active putting on an annual Oktoberfest etc.

Germans are the number one ethnic group in America, did you know that? In terms of numbers, they are. And yes they are in some ways more assimilated but that’s largely a result of being the dominant group. My father’s German American family, his parents Nazi sympathizers only first generation Americans felt themselves more American than their Italian and Jewish and other ethnic group neighbors in the south Bronx of the 1930s, 40s and beyond.

Now I’m going to state some facts and stir some anger, I’m sure. We Germans are a very racist people as a whole. Our presence as the dominant ethnic group in the USA is explanatory for the USA’s long reluctance to enter WWII and our refusal to help so many Jews who tried to emigrate to America in the 30s and early 40s. See Ken Burns’ most recent documentary if you are unfamiliar with this history. See also Rachel Maddow’s recent podcast Ultra for some more American history about Congressional collusion with the Nazis to influence American citizens in the 30s and 40s. See also recent rise of ultra far right nationalist domestic terrors groups and the backlash against rising diversity in America. America’s German roots are pivotal to her pains - and some of her successes, too.

I am proud to be German, but I am also very properly ashamed of much of my German heritage. A warring, authoritarian, fascistic culture that battles the urges ongoing. See current rise of far right nationalist extremism in . . . Germany.

In 2018, Mexicans accounted for 11.2 million of the US population so I think you can probably say they are the biggest migrant group. Most people's German roots are very diluted and mixed with many other nationalities.

Your assertion is so easily disproved by a simple Google search it’s laughable. I’m sorry for whatever is wrong in your head that you resort to such stupid displays of ignorance online. Hope it paid off in whatever weird way is working for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. I am second generation German American on my fathers side whose entire family was very German, his grandfathers were both brewmeisters who came to USA in the late 1800s and settled in NYC. Much of my family is still in New York Hudson Valley and one of my cousins is very active in a German dance and heritage group in Poughkeepsie called, of course, Germania. They have a club and an event grounds and are very active putting on an annual Oktoberfest etc.

Germans are the number one ethnic group in America, did you know that? In terms of numbers, they are. And yes they are in some ways more assimilated but that’s largely a result of being the dominant group. My father’s German American family, his parents Nazi sympathizers only first generation Americans felt themselves more American than their Italian and Jewish and other ethnic group neighbors in the south Bronx of the 1930s, 40s and beyond.

Now I’m going to state some facts and stir some anger, I’m sure. We Germans are a very racist people as a whole. Our presence as the dominant ethnic group in the USA is explanatory for the USA’s long reluctance to enter WWII and our refusal to help so many Jews who tried to emigrate to America in the 30s and early 40s. See Ken Burns’ most recent documentary if you are unfamiliar with this history. See also Rachel Maddow’s recent podcast Ultra for some more American history about Congressional collusion with the Nazis to influence American citizens in the 30s and 40s. See also recent rise of ultra far right nationalist domestic terrors groups and the backlash against rising diversity in America. America’s German roots are pivotal to her pains - and some of her successes, too.

I am proud to be German, but I am also very properly ashamed of much of my German heritage. A warring, authoritarian, fascistic culture that battles the urges ongoing. See current rise of far right nationalist extremism in . . . Germany.

In 2018, Mexicans accounted for 11.2 million of the US population so I think you can probably say they are the biggest migrant group. Most people's German roots are very diluted and mixed with many other nationalities.

Your assertion is so easily disproved by a simple Google search it’s laughable. I’m sorry for whatever is wrong in your head that you resort to such stupid displays of ignorance online. Hope it paid off in whatever weird way is working for you.

This is article is from 2013 referencing the 2010 census, but Mexican-Americans don’t come anywhere close to the number of people reporting as German-American, America’s largest nationality group by far.

https://www.businessinsider.com/largest-ethnic-groups-in-america-2013-8?amp

This current World Atlas article reiterates more Germans than any other ethnicity in America, and Mexican doesn’t even come second.

https://www.worldatlas.com/amp/articles/largest-ethnic-groups-and-nationalities-in-the-united-states.html

But sure keep making it up as you go along, as though there weren’t things called facts which are universally accessible on something called the internet where you spend too much time while apparently wasting it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is very amusing, when we dedicate a month every year to Oktoberfest events.

Agree! OP is some MAGA nut trying to be aggrieved over a non-fact.

Isn’t Trump German?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m from Milwaukee and there was a huge German American presence and lots of German food and culture there!

There was a Betsy-Tacy book where she goes to Milwaukee to visit her German-American friend and it’s basically like being in Germany. She comments that the women are so fat because they have second breakfast + afternoon coffee with little iced cakes every day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure someone here is more knowledgeable on this than me, but speaking anecdotally for my family of German descent, they were earlier immigrants (ie, pre Ellis Island) and not from a huge wave of immigration when anti-immigration sentiment ran high. They were also of a professional class that came with more money than later immigrants and didn't have to work menial jobs and live in nationality specific ghettoes, ie they assimilated quickly and never faced much discrimination. In turn, they never joined unions or networked together to form a "lobby" in the same way, they were more diffused with fewer common interests. I'm mostly familiar with the NYC area, but it doesn't seem like they went into the same professions as much as other ethnic groups either (again, correct me if I am wrong) like say the Irish going into metal working and the police that continued for generations. That's my impression anyway.

My goodness. A true Aryan in our midst!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure someone here is more knowledgeable on this than me, but speaking anecdotally for my family of German descent, they were earlier immigrants (ie, pre Ellis Island) and not from a huge wave of immigration when anti-immigration sentiment ran high. They were also of a professional class that came with more money than later immigrants and didn't have to work menial jobs and live in nationality specific ghettoes, ie they assimilated quickly and never faced much discrimination. In turn, they never joined unions or networked together to form a "lobby" in the same way, they were more diffused with fewer common interests. I'm mostly familiar with the NYC area, but it doesn't seem like they went into the same professions as much as other ethnic groups either (again, correct me if I am wrong) like say the Irish going into metal working and the police that continued for generations. That's my impression anyway.

This is a pretty knowledgeable response. Thanks for sharing this. I'm of German descent and never knew or thought about much of this.

[Anonymous]

German Americans are invisible? Aside from the fact that, as someone
stated , there's no such thing as Germany when most people who would generically fall under the German appellation immigrated to the U.S , it is only ignorant people who think these people are invisible. Unless you think visibility in the form of ..I don't know..festivals?

I mean, when in a store you see beers with names like Busch, Budweiser, Miller , does that feel like invisibility? When people shove hot dogs , pretzels and hamburgers in their mouths ,does it feel like German Americans are invisible ? Across this country , there are entire towns and cities with German names. Maryland I awash with such towns; Hanover, Hagerstown, Gaithersburg, and ..wait for it ...Germantown , just to name a few. I'm really confused by this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They intermarried with all the other ethnic groups and now are generic American mutts. At least in my family! We are german, italian, english, irish, who knows.

Basically this. Plus, people distancing themselves from Germany after Holocaust/WW 2.

There's German culture and then there's Germany. So many German immigrants came to the US before there was even a unified Germany, which emerged in the 1860s under the Prussian hegemony. And many German speakers came to the US via other countries that we don't think of as Germany, such as Switzerland or the Czech Republic.

I have German heritage ancestry and know plenty of people who do, after all, German surnames are very common in the US. Never received the impression people were ashamed of having German heritage and wanted to distance themselves from Germany any more than people of other heritages did to other countries in Europe. Most immigrants coming to the US saw themselves making a clean break and the old world was the old world. Many didn't have great memories of ye olde worlde, where they tended to be poorer and on the wrong side of a severely class divided society.

Dude, just stop. The reality of today and that of the immediate aftermath of world war 1 are two separate things. Your 'never received the impression that people were ashamed of having German heritage' should, at the very least ,be time stamped . Germanic immigrants literally couldn't rush to dump German as their primary language ( which they had chosen to keep speaking as opposed to learning English) fast enough . For decades, there was shame associated with overtly being German thanks to Germany triggering two world wars in the span of roughly four decades .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a lot of places called Somethingburg. One might wonder why.

Exactly!

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Cincinnati. German culture everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure someone here is more knowledgeable on this than me, but speaking anecdotally for my family of German descent, they were earlier immigrants (ie, pre Ellis Island) and not from a huge wave of immigration when anti-immigration sentiment ran high. They were also of a professional class that came with more money than later immigrants and didn't have to work menial jobs and live in nationality specific ghettoes, ie they assimilated quickly and never faced much discrimination. In turn, they never joined unions or networked together to form a "lobby" in the same way, they were more diffused with fewer common interests. I'm mostly familiar with the NYC area, but it doesn't seem like they went into the same professions as much as other ethnic groups either (again, correct me if I am wrong) like say the Irish going into metal working and the police that continued for generations. That's my impression anyway.

My goodness. A true Aryan in our midst!

I'll be sure to pass this along to my 100 year old "German" Aryan grandfather who ended up shot to shit in the Battle of the Bulge fighting on behalf of the USA, so sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They intermarried with all the other ethnic groups and now are generic American mutts. At least in my family! We are german, italian, english, irish, who knows.

Basically this. Plus, people distancing themselves from Germany after Holocaust/WW 2.

There's German culture and then there's Germany. So many German immigrants came to the US before there was even a unified Germany, which emerged in the 1860s under the Prussian hegemony. And many German speakers came to the US via other countries that we don't think of as Germany, such as Switzerland or the Czech Republic.

I have German heritage ancestry and know plenty of people who do, after all, German surnames are very common in the US. Never received the impression people were ashamed of having German heritage and wanted to distance themselves from Germany any more than people of other heritages did to other countries in Europe. Most immigrants coming to the US saw themselves making a clean break and the old world was the old world. Many didn't have great memories of ye olde worlde, where they tended to be poorer and on the wrong side of a severely class divided society.

Dude, just stop. The reality of today and that of the immediate aftermath of world war 1 are two separate things. Your 'never received the impression that people were ashamed of having German heritage' should, at the very least ,be time stamped . Germanic immigrants literally couldn't rush to dump German as their primary language ( which they had chosen to keep speaking as opposed to learning English) fast enough . For decades, there was shame associated with overtly being German thanks to Germany triggering two world wars in the span of roughly four decades .

+1000. And even look at Hollywood today. Half the villains are all German.