German language in the United States
Over 50 million Americans claim German ancestry, which made them the largest single claimed ancestry group in the United States until 2020. As of 2023, 858,682 people in the United States speak the German language at home. It is the second most spoken language in North Dakota and is the third most spoken language in 16 other states.
History
Ever since the first ethnically German families settled in the United States in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608, the German language, dialects, and different traditions of the regions of Germany have played a role in the social identity of many German-Americans.By 1910, an account of 554 newspaper issues were being printed in the standard German language throughout the United States as well as several schools that taught in German with class time set aside for English language learning.
As a result of anti-German sentiment during World War I, the use of German declined. The daily use would recede in public view to primarily Amish, Old Order Mennonite and Hutterite communities.
German-language Methodist Church
Around 1800, two German-language Methodist churches were founded, the Vereinigten Brüder in Christo and the Evangelische Gemeinschaft. Both used Methodist hymnals in German and published German newspapers, of which one existed until 1937. From the middle of the 19th century, English was used as a second language in the churches, but there were regions in which German was the main church language into the 20th century. In 1937 both churches fused and joined the United Methodist Church in 1968.German-language press
The first German newspaper in the U.S. was der Hochdeutsch-Pennsylvanische Geschicht-Schreiber, oder Sammlung Wichtiger Nachrichten aus dem Natur- und Kirchen-Reich, later known as die Germantauner Zeitung. It was a German-language paper, Der Pennsylvanische Staatsbote that on July 5, 1776, was the first paper to report the United States Declaration of Independence, and it did so in German translation. English readers would have to wait a day later to read the English text in The Pennsylvania Evening Post.In the 19th century, the German press increased in importance and the number of dailies exploded. In 1909 a report stated "every American city or town with a large German population possesses one or more German newspapers. In New York City there are twelve or more... the best... being... the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung. The Illinois Staats-Zeitung has nearly as large a circulation, and the Milwaukee Germania claims the largest circulation of all. The Milwaukee Herold comes not far behind. Philadelphia has its Philadelphia Demokrat, Baltimore its Correspondent, Cincinnati its Volksblatt, St. Louis... its... Die Westliche Post, where Joseph Pulitzer started his career, and Der Anzeiger des Westens." It also reported that compared to 17,194 English papers in the U.S. in 1900, there were 613 German ones. The next largest language group, the Scandinavian, had only 115.
With the repression of the German language during World War I, the German press in America was reduced dramatically.
German language in public education
Throughout much of the 19th century, there were fierce debates in many large American metropolitan areas with German immigrant communities, such as Chicago and St. Louis to determine whether public schools should offer German-language education. The issue was of considerable local interest, as German-speaking families overwhelmingly sent their children to parochial schools at which instruction was conducted in German. In some German immigrant neighborhoods in Chicago, public school attendance was so low that the press reported the institutions as being practically empty. The decision of the Chicago Public Schools to make English the sole language of instruction in the city's schools sparked outrage from the city's German community. Hermann Raster, the Republican editor-in-chief of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, and the Socialist politician Adolph Douai strongly opposed the new rule, and both became known as vocal critics of enforcing English-only education in the United States.Persecution during World War I
When the U.S. joined in World War I, an anti-German hysteria quickly spread in American society. German-Americans, especially immigrants, were blamed for military acts of the German Empire, and even speaking German was seen as unpatriotic. Many German-American families anglicized their names, and German nearly disappeared in public in many cities. In the countryside, the presence became quieter but persevered particularly in regions of many Germans. Many states otherwise forbade the use of German in public and the teaching of German in schools.During the early 20th century, as influential White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the United States sought to regain the upper hand of power and social influence, which had been heavily threatened by the waves of immigration, used politics and through the funded formation of the Ku Klux Klan, would help to give rise to anti-immigrant and distrust aimed at German-Americans among other groups of people. Through advertising and government-funded marketing, German-Americans also known as the "Dutchman," and the German language quickly went from being viewed as distinguished and the language of the educated to being distrusted, and as such, anyone fluent in the language regardless of age associated with or who practiced traditions viewed as foreign of any type was subject to several public harassments, distrust, and on a few occasions, death.
One such death of note was that of Robert Prager, a German seeking naturalization in St. Louis, Missouri, who was accused on the night of April 14, 1914, of being a German spy by a mob of 300 "men and boys" after he had allegedly shared words at a socialist meeting earlier that evening. The jail into which he had taken refuge from the crowds was quickly overrun and being stripped of his clothes, he was led down Main Street with a rope tied around his neck and was forced to walk the route. With shattered glass bottles being thrown down in his walking path, he was forced to sing patriotic songs. He was forced during this walk to kiss an American flag which had been wrapped around him. He was walked to a hanging tree at the edge of town where he was lynched. In an article from The St. Louis Global-Democrat, it was reported that there had been multiple incidences of mobs tarring and feathering individuals.
Other acts of discrimination based on ethnic background included the banning of performing of music from German composers at symphony concerts including the attempt to rename certain foods. Sauerkraut for example would become Liberty Cabbage. "Hamburger" would be for a short while "Liberty Steaks."Language use had also been the primary focus of legislation at state and local levels. Some of these regulations included the publication of charters banning speaking German within city limits. A total ban on the teaching of German in both public and private education could be found in at minimum 14 states, including some states that would extend this to ban the teaching of all languages except for English, although the majority would ban non-English languages typically only banned German. A total ban on teaching German in both public and private schools was imposed for a time in at least 14 states, including California, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa and Nebraska. California's ban lasted into the mid-1920s. The Supreme Court case in Meyer v. Nebraska ruled in 1923 that these laws were unconstitutional. In October 1918, a bill intended to restrict federal funds towards states that enforced English-only education was created. On April 9, 1919, Nebraska enacted a statute called "An act relating to the teaching of foreign languages in the state of Nebraska," commonly known as the Siman Act. It provided that "No person, individually or as a teacher, shall, in any private, denominational, parochial or public school, teach any subject to any person in any language other than the English language." It forbade foreign instruction to children who had not completed the eighth grade. In Montana, speaking German was banned in public for two years during World War I. Pennsylvania's legislature passed a German-language ban, but it was vetoed by the governor. Churches during this period such as the Lutheran Church became internally divided over services and religious instruction in German and English.
Closely related to the forced decline of German is the near default of the American war loans to the Triple Entente resulting in the introduction of the first to the fourth Liberty Bonds by the Federal Reserve. After March 1918, the Federal Reserve Bank started to use dozens of mobile "war exhibits" stationed on trains that drove through the US to sell "liberty bonds." Newspapers of the time have stories of harassment of "slackers," who were forced to buy bonds and burn German books during the exhibition.
- "Special Trains to Show War Exhibits.
- "During the visit of a war exhibit train yesterday at Mountain Grove a huge bonfire was made by the pupils of the high schools there into which was thrown every German textbook used In the school During the burning the fire whistles blew and the church bells rang..."
Dialects and geographic distribution