German Americans

German Americans
Deutschamerikaner (German)
Hybrid flag of the US and Germany
Americans with German Ancestry by state according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2020
Total population
44,978,546 (13.6%) alone or in combination
15,447,670 (4.7%) German alone
2020 census[1]
Regions with significant populations
Nationwide, most notably in the Midwest, though less common in New England, California, New Mexico, and the Deep South.[2]
Plurality in Pennsylvania,[3] Upstate New York,[4] Colorado, the Southwest,[5] and the Pacific Northwest.
Languages
American English, German
Religion
Related ethnic groups

German Americans (German: Deutschamerikaner, pronounced [ˈdɔʏtʃʔameʁɪˌkaːnɐ]) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry.

According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the population.[7] This represents a decrease from the 2012 census where 50.7 million Americans identified as German.[8] The census is conducted in a way that allows this total number to be broken down in two categories. In the 2020 census, roughly two thirds of those who identify as German also identified as having another ancestry, while one third identified as German alone.[9] German Americans account for about one third of the total population of people of German ancestry in the world.[10][11]

The first significant groups of German immigrants arrived in the British colonies in the 1670s, and they settled primarily in the colonial states of Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia.

The Mississippi Company of France later transported thousands of Germans from Europe to what was then the German Coast, Orleans Territory in present-day Louisiana between 1718 and 1750.[12] Immigration to the U.S. ramped up sharply during the 19th century.

There is a German belt consisting of areas with predominantly German American populations that extends across the United States from eastern Pennsylvania, where many of the first German Americans settled, to the Oregon coast.

Pennsylvania, with 3.5 million people of German ancestry, has the largest population of German-Americans in the U.S. and is home to one of the group's original settlements, the Germantown section of present-day Philadelphia, founded in 1683. Germantown is also the birthplace of the American antislavery movement, which emerged there in 1688.

Germantown also was the location of the Battle of Germantown, an American Revolutionary War battle fought between the British Army, led by William Howe, and the Continental Army, led by George Washington, on October 4, 1777.

German Americans were drawn to colonial-era British America by its abundant land and religious freedom, and were pushed out of Germany by shortages of land and religious or political oppression.[13] Many arrived seeking religious or political freedom, others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others for the chance to start fresh in the New World. The arrivals before 1850 were mostly farmers who sought out the most productive land, where their intensive farming techniques would pay off. After 1840, many came to cities, where German-speaking districts emerged.[14][15][16]

German Americans established the first kindergartens in the United States,[17] introduced the Christmas tree tradition,[18][19] and introduced popular foods such as hot dogs and hamburgers to America.[20]

The great majority of people with some German ancestry have become Americanized; fewer than five percent speak German. German-American societies abound, as do celebrations that are held throughout the country to celebrate German heritage of which the German-American Steuben Parade in New York City is one of the most well-known and is held every third Saturday in September. Oktoberfest celebrations and the German-American Day are popular festivities. There are major annual events in cities with German heritage including Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, and St. Louis.

Around 180,000 permanent residents from Germany were living in the United States in 2020.[21]

  1. ^ "Census Bureau Releases 2020 Census Population for More Than 200 New Detailed Race and Ethnicity Groups". September 21, 2023. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  2. ^ "6 Maps That Show How Ethnic Groups Are Divided Across America". Business Insider. September 8, 2013. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  3. ^ "The Germans in America". Library of Congress. April 24, 2014. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  4. ^ "New York Population Ethnicity Map". turkey-visit. August 1, 2007. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  5. ^ "Ancestry of the Population by State: 1980 – Table 3" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on February 24, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  6. ^ One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society, p. 120.
  7. ^ "US Census Bureau - German-American Day: October 6, 2023". Census.gov. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  8. ^ "Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 2012. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  9. ^ "Census Bureau Releases 2020 Census Population for More Than 200 New Detailed Race and Ethnicity Groups". September 21, 2023. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  10. ^ "Germans and foreigners with an immigrant background". The Federal Ministry of the Interior of the Federal Republic of Germany. 2006. Archived from the original on May 4, 2009: 156 is the estimate which counts all people claiming ethnic German ancestry in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, and elsewhere.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  11. ^ "Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia" by Jeffrey Cole (2011), page 171.
  12. ^ Cuevas, John (January 10, 2014). Cat Island: The History of a Mississippi Gulf Coast Barrier Island. McFarland. ISBN 9780786485789. Archived from the original on November 30, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  13. ^ Robert C. Nesbit (2004). Wisconsin: A History. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 155–57. ISBN 9780299108045. Archived from the original on November 30, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  14. ^ Zane L. Miller, "Cincinnati Germans and the Invention of an Ethnic Group", Queen City Heritage: The Journal of the Cincinnati Historical Society 42 (Fall 1984): 13–22
  15. ^ Bayrd Still, Milwaukee, the History of a City (1948) pp. 260–63, 299
  16. ^ On Illinois see, Raymond Lohne, "Team of Friends: A New Lincoln Theory and Legacy", Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society Fall/Winter2008, Vol. 101 Issue 3/4, pp 285–314
  17. ^ "Schurz, Margarethe [Meyer] (Mrs. Carl Schurz) 1833 – 1876". June 11, 2011. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  18. ^ "The History of Christmas", Gareth Marples, archived from the original on June 28, 2006, retrieved December 2, 2006
  19. ^ Harvard Office of News and Public Affairs. "Professor Brought Christmas Tree to New England". News.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on August 23, 1999. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  20. ^ "The Home of the Hamburger: History". Archived from the original on August 5, 2009. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  21. ^ "Auswandern in die USA – das Land der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten". Wohin-Auswandern.de (in German). January 13, 2015. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2022.