45 million Americans have German ancestors. In New York there is Chinatown and Little Italy, but no “Little Germany”. Why? A search for traces of the German-American Day – off from the brewery and the Oktoberfest.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Hollywood-Helena from Germany: Diane Kruger
Actually her name is Diane Heidkrüger, and was born in 1976 in Germany. The movie “Troy” with Orlando Bloom made in 2004 famous. Since 2013, Kruger a US citizen. It is representative of influential German filmmakers in the U.S. today: how Troy Director Wolfgang Petersen or Roland Emmerich, the shot “Independence Day” Patriotic Blockbuster par excellence.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Organized the colonists army: Prussia-General von Steuben
That the militarily inexperienced colonists army the world power of great Britain in the war of independence, was able to defeat, she had be due to the former Prussian officer Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. With discipline, Drill and order, he made from the irregulars in a strike force. His training methods he described in a book, which became the military standard.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Painted the most famous image of the United States: Emanuel Leutze
The Original of the painting “Washington crossing the Delaware” hangs in the New York Metropolitan Museum. It shows a crucial Moment in the American war of independence (1775 to 1783), as the largely unsuccessful insurgent colonists under General Washington for a counter-attack on the British started. Painted it, and Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868), came as a child in the United States.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
The model for Scrooge McDuck: America’s first millionaire John Jacob Astor
His descendants founded the world-famous Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, but was nothing to suspect, as the butcher’s son Johann Jakob Astor in Walldorf near Heidelberg in 1784, came to the United States. With fur trading and real estate transactions, he became America’s first multi-millionaire – and was the inspiration for the literary legends of Ebenezer Scrooge and Scrooge McDuck.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Campaigner for women’s rights: Mathilde Franziska Anneke
With her husband, Fritz fled Mathilde Franziska Anneke from Westphalia Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after the 1848 democratic Revolution failed in the German States. She worked as a journalist, a magazine for women and fought for women’s suffrage and equal educational opportunities – and became activists, one of the leading American women’s rights.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Invented the American cult of pants: Levi Strauss from franc
Löb Strauss, a young Jew from Buttenheim near Bamberg, emigrated in 1847 as an 18-Year-old with his mother and sisters in the United States. The gold rush drew him West, where he scouts gold tent to sell the plan – and saw that they needed sturdy pants. The “Jeans” was born and made Levi Strauss, as he was now called, and his business partner, Jacob Davis rich.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Hollywood-pioneer of the first hour: Carl Laemmle from Laupheim
1867-born as the son of a Jewish cattle merchant in the southern German town of Laupheim, went Karl Lämmle, with 17 in the United States. For 20 years he was auxiliary jobs. In 1906, he attended a small film theatre – a initial ignition. He opened a private cinema, a successful film distributor, and founded in 1915, the Universal Studios – one of the first major dream factories of Hollywood.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
From Berlin to Hollywood: Marlene Dietrich sings against the Nazis
The Film “The blue angel” (1930) Marlene Dietrich to international stardom, with Director Wilhelm von Sternburg she then went to Hollywood and stayed. As in 1933 in Germany, the Nazis came to Power, it supported refugee Jews, and exiled German. And sang to cheering up the U.S. troops “Lili Marleen” – probably the most famous song of the Second world war.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Of the Nazis, The philosopher Hannah Arendt sold:
The Nazis arrested and expatriated, fled Hannah Arendt in 1941 to New York. Quickly the 35 learned the-year-old publicist and philosopher, in English and in 1951 an American citizen. As a reporter, she reported on the Eichmann trial and coined the much-discussed concept of the “banality of Evil”. One of your life-goal: to explain how it could be for the Holocaust to come.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
From the Nazi engineer of the space-Idol: Wernher von Braun
For the Nazis constructed engineer Wernher von Braun, the of forced laborers built V-2 rocket. After the Second world war, the Americans took him in the United States. As more than 1,000 other German scientists who were never held for their work for the Nazi Regime to justice. Wernher von Braun was in the United States, for space-Idol, as the NASA land astronauts on the moon.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
In Germany as a Jew followed: Ex-US Secretary of state Henry Kissinger
Born in 1923 in the Franconian town of Fürth, Germany as Heinz Alfred Kissinger, he emigrated to New York in 1938. In the Second world war, he returned – now Americans – as a soldier to Germany. After studying and teaching at Harvard, he advised politicians. The peak of his career: Under President Nixon, Nobel peace prize winner was from 1973 to 1977, Minister of foreign Affairs of the United States.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Hollywood-Helena from Germany: Diane Kruger
Actually her name is Diane Heidkrüger, and was born in 1976 in Germany. The movie “Troy” with Orlando Bloom made in 2004 famous. Since 2013, Kruger a US citizen. It is representative of influential German filmmakers in the U.S. today: how Troy Director Wolfgang Petersen or Roland Emmerich, the shot “Independence Day” Patriotic Blockbuster par excellence.
-
Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Organized the colonists army: Prussia-General von Steuben
That the militarily inexperienced colonists army the world power of great Britain in the war of independence, was able to defeat, she had be due to the former Prussian officer Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. With discipline, Drill and order, he made from the irregulars in a strike force. His training methods he described in a book, which became the military standard.
-
Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Painted the most famous image of the United States: Emanuel Leutze
The Original of the painting “Washington crossing the Delaware” hangs in the New York Metropolitan Museum. It shows a crucial Moment in the American war of independence (1775 to 1783), as the largely unsuccessful insurgent colonists under General Washington for a counter-attack on the British started. Painted it, and Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868), came as a child in the United States.
-
Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
The model for Scrooge McDuck: America’s first millionaire John Jacob Astor
His descendants founded the world-famous Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, but was nothing to suspect, as the butcher’s son Johann Jakob Astor in Walldorf near Heidelberg in 1784, came to the United States. With fur trading and real estate transactions, he became America’s first multi-millionaire – and was the inspiration for the literary legends of Ebenezer Scrooge and Scrooge McDuck.
-
Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Campaigner for women’s rights: Mathilde Franziska Anneke
With her husband, Fritz fled Mathilde Franziska Anneke from Westphalia Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after the 1848 democratic Revolution failed in the German States. She worked as a journalist, a magazine for women and fought for women’s suffrage and equal educational opportunities – and became activists, one of the leading American women’s rights.
-
Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Invented the American cult of pants: Levi Strauss from franc
Löb Strauss, a young Jew from Buttenheim near Bamberg, emigrated in 1847 as an 18-Year-old with his mother and sisters in the United States. The gold rush drew him West, where he scouts gold tent to sell the plan – and saw that they needed sturdy pants. The “Jeans” was born and made Levi Strauss, as he was now called, and his business partner, Jacob Davis rich.
-
Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Hollywood-pioneer of the first hour: Carl Laemmle from Laupheim
1867-born as the son of a Jewish cattle merchant in the southern German town of Laupheim, went Karl Lämmle, with 17 in the United States. For 20 years he was auxiliary jobs. In 1906, he attended a small film theatre – a initial ignition. He opened a private cinema, a successful film distributor, and founded in 1915, the Universal Studios – one of the first major dream factories of Hollywood.
-
Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
From Berlin to Hollywood: Marlene Dietrich sings against the Nazis
The Film “The blue angel” (1930) Marlene Dietrich to international stardom, with Director Wilhelm von Sternburg she then went to Hollywood and stayed. As in 1933 in Germany, the Nazis came to Power, it supported refugee Jews, and exiled German. And sang to cheering up the U.S. troops “Lili Marleen” – probably the most famous song of the Second world war.
-
Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
Of the Nazis, The philosopher Hannah Arendt sold:
The Nazis arrested and expatriated, fled Hannah Arendt in 1941 to New York. Quickly the 35 learned the-year-old publicist and philosopher, in English and in 1951 an American citizen. As a reporter, she reported on the Eichmann trial and coined the much-discussed concept of the “banality of Evil”. One of your life-goal: to explain how it could be for the Holocaust to come.
-
Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
From the Nazi engineer of the space-Idol: Wernher von Braun
For the Nazis constructed engineer Wernher von Braun, the of forced laborers built V-2 rocket. After the Second world war, the Americans took him in the United States. As more than 1,000 other German scientists who were never held for their work for the Nazi Regime to justice. Wernher von Braun was in the United States, for space-Idol, as the NASA land astronauts on the moon.
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Wilhelm Steuben to Diane Kruger: the German, the USA were
In Germany as a Jew followed: Ex-US Secretary of state Henry Kissinger
Born in 1923 in the Franconian town of Fürth, Germany as Heinz Alfred Kissinger, he emigrated to New York in 1938. In the Second world war, he returned – now Americans – as a soldier to Germany. After studying and teaching at Harvard, he advised politicians. The peak of his career: Under President Nixon, Nobel peace prize winner was from 1973 to 1977, Minister of foreign Affairs of the United States.
The German-American Day on June 6. October reminds since 1987, in the United States, contributed to German immigrants, culture, and life. A trip back in time to an important, nearly forgotten episodes of the common history.
1904 – The end of a commune: The tragic voyage of the General Slocum
Whether it is the “Little Italy” or “Chinatown”: Until today, York’s neighbourhoods are in these lively New, the roots of the inhabitants, obviously. That right here was once the center of German life, German street signs, beer gardens and pubs, is today felt only a little, from the trendy “Loreley beer garden” apart. “Little Germany” was the district on the Lower East Side at the beginning of the 20th century. Century called, at that time, about 50,000 people, most of them with German roots, lived here.
From “Little Germany“ came the than 1,300 passengers of the with colorful flags our destination paddle steamer “General Slocum“ on June 15. June 1904 to took a trip on the East River.
The General “Slocum” sank in 1904 in New York’s East River – over a thousand people died
It was Wednesday, a working day on Board, especially women and children of the Protestant community who wanted the picnic to Long Island.
The joyous trip was to the tragedy. The ship caught fire, and panic broke out. The rescue boats could not untie, the life jackets were broken. As the “General Slocum“ ran finally, on the basis, in flames, countless corpses drifted in the river. 1021 people have died Until today it is the largest civilian ship disaster in the history of the United States . Almost everyone of the residents of “Little Germany“ had lost family members. Most of the families left the area, which reminded her of the misfortune. In 1910, lived only a few German families on the Lower East Side.
The Lower East Side in New York: From “LIttle Germany” was Chinatown
The Italians and the Chinese took to the streets. “Little Germany“ was gone – like so many German traces in the US. To discover them, helps to look back in the history…
1683 – escape to the West: The “Original 13” want to believe what they want to
More than two months of the three-master “the Concord had sailed“ across the stormy Atlantic ocean before it on 6. October 1683 in the port of Philadelphia docked. Also on Board 13 German families, Mennonites, from the vicinity of Krefeld. The idea of an English Quaker, had lured them into the “New world”: William Penn wanted religious refugees Land to colonization.
Quaker William Penn founded Pennsylvania as a colony for religious refugees
Because in the German principalities and the king of the 17 rich. Century were the Catholic, the Lutheran and the reformed Church allowed other faiths were persecuted. In Penn’s colony the “Original 13” families “Deitschesteddel“: founded the first German settlement in the present-day United States. In 1790, the young United States, led by America, their first census, lived 434.000 people in the state of Pennsylvania, a third of them with German roots. To this day, her age is spoken-fashioned-sounding “Pennsylvania Dutch“ in some municipalities, such as, for example, in the case of the Amish.
Amish in Pennsylvania still speak “Pennsylvania Dutch”
The former “Deitschesteddel“ is now called “Germantown“, and is part of Philadelphia. Also in other regions of the United States, such as in the Midwest, for example, in the States of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan or Wisconsin, the German influence is large: the majority of German-born Americans, and many large Breweries, live German start-UPS are.
Every year, on the 6. October will be remembered with the German-American Day to the arrival of the first German settlers group.
Independence and civil war: German military to organize American troops
A true-Prussia, it is thanks to that the American colonialists were able to win the war of independence (1775 – 1783) against the British colonial power: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. The 1730-born Scion of a military family had served under the Prussian king Frederick the Great, before he met in Paris, Benjamin Franklin. The recommended him to the commander-in-chief of the overseas colonists, George Washington. In 1778, Steuben in the winter camp of the “Continental Army arrived”. His task: from the volunteers who were actually farmers, merchants, or politicians, to form an army that could offer the British professional soldiers in the forehead. With Prussian discipline and Drill organised Steuben, the training of the soldiers so thoroughly, that they defeated the British.
German soldiers fought with Washington in the American war of independence
Since 1957, the annual Steuben Parade remembered in New York to one of the most important German-Americans of the founding period.
Also in the American civil war (1861-1865), fought German soldiers with: such as Franz Sigel in the vicinity of Heidelberg. The German Lieutenant brought it up to major General and was one of the highest-ranking commanders of the Northern army.
The very popular civil war song “I goes to fight with Sigel“ reminds with its German-English broken Text to around half a Million German and German-born soldiers who participated on both sides in the war of the North against the southern part.
1848: women’s rights activist Mathilde Franziska Anneke and the “Forty-Eighters”
Franz Sigel had heard in Europe of those who had rebelled in 1848, against the princes and kings. After the Failure of the Revolution, he had fled to the United States. In the same way as Fritz Anneke from Westphalia (fought later in the civil war for the Northern States) and his wife Mathilde Franziska Anneke.
Mathilde Franziska Anneke was one of the leading suffragettes of the United States
She had already worked in Europe as a journalist for a newspaper, for which Heinrich Heine had written.
In the US, they could do what was prohibited in the German States: you gave lectures for educational opportunities, gender equality, and against slavery. In 1852, she founded the German “women’s newspaper”, in 1869, she was first Vice-President of the “National Woman Suffrage Association” – and thus one of the most important women of the American women’s movement.
Other “Forty-Eighters“ made in the USA career: The revolutionary Friedrich Hecker was engaged for the newly founded Republican party, and Carl Schurz was Secretary of the interior and Advisor to US President Abraham Lincoln .
Overall, the former Revolutionaries, however, were only a small group among the emigrants. Most fled from Hunger and poverty to the West. And more and more: Until the middle of the 19th century. Century were moved a Million Germans in the United States. Only towards the end of the century, the Numbers declined.
1917: during The First world war Liberty Cabbage from Sauerkraut,””
“Liberty Cabbage”? Typical German Sauerkraut with juniper berries and parsley
In 1914 the First world war began. As the United States entered in 1917 in the war also changed the relationship of the German-Americans in the United States. German-Americans Americanized their names, authorities called for the Boycott of German Goods. German terms have disappeared from the language. Even the popular “Sauerkraut” was renamed “Liberty Cabbage” was the name of it now. And in the state of Illinois, a mob lay in wait for the German-American Robert Prager, forced him to hoist the American flag and sing the national anthem. Finally, he was hung.
Already between the world much the typical German was gone get out of the U.S. everyday. And the people who fled in 1933 after the seizure of power by the national socialists in Germany, in the USA, wanted to be pursued with the Land, the Jews and other unpopular minorities, and the millions murdered have to do, nothing more. Many were quickly Americans. Like Henry Kissinger, who later became U.S. Secretary of state: in 1938, fled as a teenager with his Jewish family from Germany, he took in 1943, the American nationality, and fought as a GI against the country of his birth.
U.S. President Richard Nixon, with Henry Kissinger in 1973
Unlike the later immigrant Italians or Chinese, the traces of German are hidden today. And so closely with American culture, but that both can hardly be separated. Because even his name was actually a German: the cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. Because he gave the newly discovered Land in the West on his world map of 1507 the name “America“, after the Navigator Amerigo Vespucci. The was, after all, not German, but Italian.
To Read More:
Alexander Emmerich: The history of the Germans in America. From 1860 to the present, Cologne, 2013
History: Our America. As the German dominated the USA, from the series history, volume 3/2011