history to 1877 week 5 as1

German American Influence

History to 1877

Prof. Haas

WIT

Richard Hairr & Nick Roumbakis

American

Identity:•By 1872 German

immigration had

already began to have

a major effect on the

American Identity.

Especially in the north.

•German Ideals of

recreation, exercise

and outdoor activity

had a profound affect

on the American

Identity.

https://www.boundless.com/users/282574/textbooks/us-history-to-1877-9e5d3c56-f48a-487c-835b-

cea71fc7aa09/gender-religion-race-and-ethnicity-in-the-1800s-556/immigration-88/german-immigration-460-

1730/

The idea of “the Weekend”

•Before the arrival of

German culture into

America, most

American colonial

communities viewed

the sabbath as a time

for rest and relaxation

at home with the family.

Germans however had

a long tradition of

organized Sunday

recreation.

•After the arrival of

German Immigrants

new large scale

recreation facilities

began to appear.http://www.1stchoicemag.com/leisure-recreation/76-german-immigrant-influence-

on-american-culture

Recreational Facilities

•German ideals for celebrating the weekend resulted in several recreational

Buildings and facilities that can be found all across the country, many are integral

Local Oktoberfest celebrations.

Picnic Grounds•Many traditions that we think of as being

fundamentally American, were either introduced or

popularized by German immigrants in the 19th

century. Like the PICNIC… who knew?!

Bandstands•Bavarians loved music,

dancing and outdoors, It

is easy to imagine how

the influenced the

Bandstands and

Pavilions that you see in

your local parks.

Sport clubs - “Schützen Parks”

• German Americans celebrated. There were Schützenfests, Turnfests, Sängerfests, Carnival parades, Mai celebrations, Johannisfestivals (St. John the Baptist Day is celebrated with the summer solstice). ‘’These festivals afforded Germans in the company of their fellow countrymen the opportunity to indulge in the old time German style and therein acknowledge that their national traditions and moral fiber were valid even this far away from their original source”. - Source: The German Americans-An Ethnic Experience, German Clubs, Vereins By Willi Paul Adams

Concert halls

• During the

heyday of the

German

immigrant stage,

audiences in

New York’s Klein

Deutschland

(Little Germany)

attended

performances of

operas, musical

comedies and

several other

types of musical

and acting

entertainment. Music in German Immigrant Theater:

New York City, 1840-1940 by John

Koegel

Bowling Alleys

• The first recorded

ten pin bowling

match was played

at Knickerbocker

Alleys in NYC on

January 1, 1840. –

farmers almanac.

• Knickerbocker

Field Club bowling

team 1905.

http://www.almanac.com/fact/first-

recorded-ten-pin-bowling-match-

played-at

Amusement parks• When Hershey Park, in Hershey

Pennsylvania first began operating, it was a community park with picnic tables, playgrounds for children, ball fields, a bandstand, a small concession stand and a pavilion that was used for vaudeville style performances, dances and other events. Visitors came to enjoy a picnic, stroll the paths along Spring Creek, listen to a band concert and perhaps take in a baseball game.

Of course the food for these events!!

Clearly influenced by Bavaria

Holiday TraditionsMany traditions that we think of as being fundamentally American, were either introduced or popularized by German immigrants in the 19th century. We can thank German immigrants for the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny• .

• German Immigrant Influence on American Culture. (2013). Retrieved August 03, 2016, from http://www.1stchoicemag.com/leisure-recreation/76-german-immigrant-influence-on-american-culture

Santa Claus with Christmas Tree

Dance/Music

The Germans introduced

a variety of dances and

musical instruments into

American culture. Notable

contributions include

waltzes, polkas, trumpets,

pianos and the tuba.


German Tuba Player

Economy:

• German immigration in the 19th century

brought over many different people

specializing in different industries. The

variety of industries operating during

these times heavily contributed to the

economic opportunities in the U.S.

Entrepreneurship

• German entrepreneurs can

take credit for creating many

businesses in different

industries throughout

America, especially the

brewing industry. Many of

the companies formed by

these people stimulated the

economy and are still

operating today.

Beer

In the mid-19th Century

(1850's) German

immigrant brewers

introduced cold

maturation lagers to the

US (Anheuser-Busch,

Miller, Coors, Stroh,

Schlitz, and Pabst.

• Raley, L. (1998). Concise Timetable of Beer History. Retrieved August 03, 2016, from http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/raley_timetable.shtml

German Glass (Das Boot)

Industrialism

• German-American industrialism also

boomed with the increase in

immigration. Many immigrants worked

in factories founded by German

industrialists. The following slides

review some of the businessman and

companies founded during this time.

Eyewear

In the 1900’s, Bausch + Lomb continued to demonstrate its place at the forefront of technological innovation for optical products. Bausch + Lomb produced the first optical quality glass made in America, developed ground-breaking sunglasses for the military in World War I, and created the lenses used on the cameras that took the first satellite pictures of the moon. In 1971, Bausch + Lomb introduced the first soft contact lenses and is still the largest global provider of eye care products.

John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb

• The Bausch Lomb Story. (2016). Retrieved August 03, 2016, from http://www.bausch.com/our-company/about-bausch-lomb/the-bausch-lomb-story#.V6JJcvkrLs0

Construction

• The Weyerhaeuser Company was a lumber business started by Frederick Weyerhaeuser. The company continues to be a world leader in lumber sales today.

• The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Frederick Weyerhaeuser. Retrieved August 03, 2016, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Weyerhaeuser

Frederick Weyerhaeuser

Automotive

The First Chrysler (1924)

• Germans also contributed to

the automotive industry.

Some of the earlier

established brands include

Chrysler and Studebaker.

• DaimlerChrysler AG. (2010). Retrieved August 05, 2016, from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/businesses/A-F/DaimlerChrysler-AG.html

Musical Instruments

• Piano building was another craft that Germans brought to America and are still sold as well-known names such as Steinway, Knabeand Schnabel.

• Sowell, T. (1981). Ethnic America: A history. New York: Basic Books.

Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff with a Steinway piano.

Petroleum & GasJohn D. Rockefeller (1885)• Possibly one of the

most notable and richest businessmen in History was John Rockefeller. Rockefeller was of German descent and established Standard Oil Company in 1870. The company became the largest oil refiner in the world.

• German American Corner: ROCKEFELLER, John Davison (1839-1937). (2000). Retrieved August 05, 2016, from http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/mtoz/rockefeller.html

Food and Condiments

Ketchup

• H. J. Heinz Company, founded in 1888 by Henry J. Heinz, is primarily known for their tomato ketchup: Heinz began manufacturing and selling his ketchup under a different company name (F. & J. Heinz) back in 1876. This product is still with us today (and likely will remain with us forevermore). In 1896, Henry Heinz came up with the "Heinz 57" advertising slogan, deriving from "Heinz 57 Varieties" and began promoting the already-numerous Heinz products under this campaign.

C, C. (2012). Old Glass Bottles and Items of Antiquity: Heinz 57 Tomato Ketchup Clear Glass Bottle - [Armstrong Cork Co.]. Retrieved August 05, 2016, from http://oldglassbottles.blogspot.com/2012/09/heinz-57-tomato-ketchup-clear-glass.html

Agriculture

• Another aspect in which Germans contributed to the economy was their presence in the agricultural world. Roughly half of German immigrants established farms in the Midwest. From Ohio to the Plains states, a heavy presence of German heritage persists in rural areas today.

Boundless. “German Immigration.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 02 Aug. 2016

Politics:

Government and Society

• A German group known as the Forty-Eighters were in favor of a more democratic government and human rights. Many of these well educated people re-located from Germany where they were displeased with government rule and settled in to the United States and became well established within American Society.

• Boundless. “German Immigration.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 02 Aug. 2016

Anti-slavery Movements

• Sentiment among German Americans was largely anti-slavery, especially among Forty-Eighters. Hundreds of thousands of German Americans volunteered to fight for the Union in the U.S. Civil War, making them the largest immigrant group to participate. Although only one in four Germans fought in all-German regiments, they created the public image of the German soldier.

Boundless. “German Immigration.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 02 Aug. 2016

Labor Unions

• With industrialism on the rise, labor

union movements spread throughout

America. Germans played a significant

role in the labor union movements

being that they were so heavily

involved in business at the time.

• Boundless. “German Immigration.” US History to 1877. Boundless,

26 May. 2016. Retrieved 02 Aug. 2016

Influence on Schools“Germans introduced physical education and vocational education into the public schools,

and were responsible for the inclusion of gymnasiums in school buildings. More important, they were leaders in the call for universal education, a notion not common in the U.S. at the time.” (1stchoicemag.com)

Several important educational foundations were created from the German influence…

Physical education• Before physical education became popular in school systems, private gyms started to crop up in

Europe and America. The first indoor gymnasium in Germany was probably the one built in Hesse in

1852 by Adolph Spiess, an enthusiast for boys' and girls' gymnastics in the schools. In the United

States, the Turner movement thrived in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first Turners

group was formed in Cincinnati in 1848. The Turners built gymnasia in several cities, including

Cincinnati and St. Louis which had large German American populations. Adults and youth utilized these

gyms.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.or

g/entry/Physical_education

Kindergarten

• Karl Schurz and his wife Margarethacreated the first kindergarten in America in Watertown Wisconsin in their home in 1855. Their curriculum was founded on the principles taught in Germany by Friedrich Froebel who founded the first known Kindergarten in 1837 in BlankenburgGermany.

http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?articl

e=1110&context=sferc

Language schools“German was actually one of

the leading languages

taught in most colleges

and universities in the

1900’s”

Trommler, Frank, and Joseph McVeigh. America and the Germans: An Assessment of a Three-

Hundred-Year History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985. Print.

•To emphasize the importance of their

language in the transmission of cultural

values, German Americans strove to

maintain their own German-language

schools, first by establishing private

institutions and later, after 1849, by

pressuring school districts to offer German

or bilingual education where parents

requested it. In addition to the German-

language instruction offered in the public

schools, there was the instruction in the

parochial schools operated especially by

Catholics and Lutherans, which enrolled

thousands of the children of German

immigrants.

Vocational TrainingGermans introduced vocational education into the public school

system – The Library of Congress

Boys in a vocational printing class learning math, Fall River, Massachusetts, 1916.

The concept of Universal Education

• Education reform

was just one of the

many causes that

German

immigrants

championed were

central to many

American reform

movements of in

the years before

the Civil War.

Media

• The term “Germania” was used to describe German American neighborhoods and their organizations. In the late 19th century, The Germania Publishing Company was established in Milwaukee. The company published books, magazines and newspapers in German. These sources of information contributed to cultural and political nationalism.

• Boundless. “German Immigration.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 02 Aug. 2016

References:• Boundless. “German Immigration.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 02 Aug. 2016

• C, C. (2012). Old Glass Bottles and Items of Antiquity: Heinz 57 Tomato Ketchup Clear Glass Bottle -[Armstrong Cork Co.]. Retrieved August 05, 2016, from http://oldglassbottles.blogspot.com/2012/09/heinz-57-tomato-ketchup-clear-glass.html

• DaimlerChrysler AG. (2010). Retrieved August 05, 2016, from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/businesses/A-F/DaimlerChrysler-AG.html

• German American Corner: ROCKEFELLER, John Davison (1839-1937). (2000). Retrieved August 05, 2016, from http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/mtoz/rockefeller.html


• Raley, L. (1998). Concise Timetable of Beer History. Retrieved August 03, 2016, from http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/raley_timetable.shtml

• Sowell, T. (1981). Ethnic America: A history. New York: Basic Books.

• The Bausch Lomb Story. (2016). Retrieved August 03, 2016, from http://www.bausch.com/our-company/about-bausch-lomb/the-bausch-lomb-story#.V6JJcvkrLs0

• The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Frederick Weyerhaeuser. Retrieved August 03, 2016, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Weyerhaeuser

• Trommler, Frank, and Joseph McVeigh. America and the Germans: An Assessment of a Three-Hundred-Year History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985. Print.