German Americans, Essay Example

The German-Americans form the biggest ethnic group in the United States. The German-Americans who immigrated to the United States of America are close to twelve million; this is established according to statistics of the U.S. Census Bureau. Currently there are almost 60 million German-Americans. German-Americans represent the section of the population that is of German descent, but this whole part of the population does not speak German, accounting for only eight million German-speaking Americans.

There is no other ethnic crowd in the U.S. of America can equal these numbers. By the year of 1995, the German-Americans had a heritage dating back 388 years of American life. The German-Americans have participated in every major event in the history of American (Luebke, 1999). The German decent has also generated exceptional citizens who have deeply influenced the U.S. in both culture and politics. The German-Americans have continuously been loyal to America while preserving their cultural legacy during stormy and stressful times like the World Wars.

Conferring to the Germanic tale, the very first German to ever set foot on U.S. soil was Tyrker. He was the adoptive father of Leif Erickson, the famous Norse leader who had his ships reach the American in the era of 1000 A.D. Though, the first Germans whose incidence on American soil can be confirmed, dates back to the year of 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia. These individuals make up the number of the first German-Americans to manufacture soap, pitch, glass and tar in America. These products were essential for population use in development activities. This forms an important aspect of their history since the German-Americans provided the craftsmanship and skill necessary for manufacturing these commodities (O’Connor, 1968).

The Germans in America during the period of 1620 among the first people to erect a sawmill using four millwrights from Hamburg in the state of Virginia. The Germans instigated the farming and growing of the earliest tobacco plantations as well. In the period of 1653 some of the Heidelberg Germans started and established vineyards for wine making activities. In the year of 1690, William Rittenhouse, a person of German decent established the first paper-mill factory in America. Using the paper for mill played a major role in the printing of the earliest newspapers and books. In the year of 1735 John Peter Zenger started a leading independent American newspaper, and through doing so promoted the stand against the oppression posed by the British oppression. This bold act subsequently led to the freedom of the press in the United States of America. John Peter Zenger also went ahead innovated the printing of the first arithmetic book in the colonies.

The German-Americans supported the American Revolution by fighting with exceptional distinction. Some of the personal bodyguards in Washington were of German decent under the command of Major von Heer, an officer of Frederick. Additionally, there were great German-American officers and generals involved in the American Revolution. They included the following individuals: Baron DeKalb, Gerhard von der Wieden, Heinrich Lutterloh, Nicholas Herkimer, Johann Schott and Peter Muehlenberg among others.

The German-Americans involvement in the Continental Army was controlled by General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. In year of 1778 he wrote the very first manual outlining the army regulations for the United States Army. This explains how the German-Americans have played an important role in the American organizational Revolution (O’Connor, 1968). Wilhelm von Steuben expressed his appreciation of service to America in his last letter to Baron von Steuben in Washington’s before stepping down as the commander in chief. It can be established that the German-Americans migrated to America for many reasons some of them being for religious purposes, economic or political reasons (Rathmann, 2009).

German settlers who reached America before the period of the 19th century were mostly affiliated to the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Germany. They then built the Lutheran Synods of Pennsylvania, New York and North Carolina. The biggest Lutheran denominations in the United States of America today consist of the Evangelical Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. All these churches are were started by German immigrants (Rathmann, 2009).

The German-American population holds a large number of citizens devoted to the U.S. The German-Americans assisted in the creation and building of the U.S. to what it is right now. They made nobly influenced some of the major fields of human survival and endeavor in America. Hundreds of thousands of German-American soldiers died on the battlefield fighting for the Independence of American. They fought to preserve the Union and to defend the American institutions of democracy. Their talent, thrift, business insight, loyalty and devotion to the United States of America, together with their sturdiness and common sense, positively influenced American livelihood (Tolzmann, 2000).

Despite this German-American integration in the U.S., it is worth taking note of the distinctive German American ethnicity that has lived and endured through the mid-20th century in certain locations. The Catholic and working-class Germans crowds that profoundly overlapped, tended to work and live with the Irish and other European societies. Currently most German-Americans have given up German characteristics by classifying themselves as white society. They have adopted into the modern or contemporary lifestyle subsequently isolating themselves above all from African Americans cultures.

References

Luebke, F. C. (1999). Germans in the New World: Essays in the history of immigration. Urbana, Ill. ;Chicago, Ill: Univ. of Illinois Press.

O’Connor, R. (1968). The German-Americans; an informal history. Little, Brown.

Rathmann, F. E. (2009). German Americans: Immigration, relations and assimilation.

Tolzmann, D. H. (2000). The German-American Experience. Prometheus Books.