The Germans in the United States.
Albert Bernhardt Paust.
Kew York, 1916,

1

Gift of
President Hadley
191b

The GERMANS IN THE
UNITED STATES

BY

ALBERT BERNHARDT FAUST
Professor of German in Cornell University

AN ADDRESS
Deliverecl before tke German University League,
NewYork,N.Y.,Jan. 14, 1916

Copyright, 1^16. applied for by German University I^eague.
All rights reserved.

The Germans in tke United States

The history of the Germans in the United States is too comprehensive
a subject for a brief sketch. Yet the bare outhnes of a portrait often impress
the characteristic features more vividly than color and detail.
The history of the Germans in this country goes back to the earliest
colonial period. Recurrent waves in the eighteenth were followed by great
tides of German immigration in the nineteenth century, and these carried into
the population of the United States an element second in "amount only to the
contribution of the English stock.
The year 1 492 has generally been set down as the beginning of American
history. Better were the selection of the date 1453, for in the taking of
Constantinople by the Turks we find the causation of the discovery of
America. The Turks took possession of all the passageways to the Orient,
and thereby barred Europe from the profitable trade with the Far East. Im
mediately there arose the quest of a new passage to India, and this great aim
lay at the root of all subsequent voyages of discovery. Vienna battled on
land, Venice and Genoa on the sea, against the invasion of Central Europe
by the Turks, while Western Europe was free to engage in exploration for a
western, northwestern and southeastern route to India. Subsequently Central
Europe was stirred to the depths by the Protestant Reformation; in the seven
teenth century it was devastated by religious wars, the destructiveness of which
was without parallel in history. In the meantime the Western European nations,
those bordering on the Atlantic seacoast, grasped their opportunity. Spain and
Portugal founded an empire in the South, France and England in the North
of the New World. In the struggle for the possession of North America,
France sent leaders and no men, from Germany there came only colonists,
England sent both men and leaders, and won the prize.
The palm for great discoveries must be yielded to the Genoese and
Portuguese sailors. Italy, as badly decentralized as Germany, gained no
advantage from her great Genoese explorers, Columbus and Cabot, who
opened a new empire for Spain and England, respectively. Spain also derived
the benefit from the great voyage of the Portuguese Magellan, whose expedition
circumnavigated the globe and discovered the westward route to India. Portugal
gained the glory and reward for opening the southeastern route to the Orient.
Sailing' under his country's flag, Vasco de Gama rounded the Cape of Good
Hope and securpd for Portugal a monopoly of the East Indian trade for nearly
a century.
GERMAN COSMOGRAPHERS
Germany was an inland country, without immediate access to the sea,
and v^thout trained navigators. Nevertheless the Germans also made a con
tribution during this epoch. They were the cosmographers and cartographers
of Europe. Martin Behaim, one of the inventors of the astrolabe, in 1 49 1 -92
constructed a globe for his native city, Nuremberg, which still records the
best of the world's geographical knowledge of that date, and proves his faith
in the spherical shape of the earth before the discovery of America. Greater
than Behaim was Mercator (Gerhard Kremer), of German stock, the inventor
of the Mercator system of projection, taking account of the curvature of the
::"''.• -iirface in the preparation of nautical maps, an indispensable aid to

mariners. The man who first used the name America in a printed work was
Martin Waldseemiiller, born in Freiburg about 1480. In 1507 he published
his Cosmographiae Introductio, in which he gives an account of the voyages
of Amerigo Vespucci, and suggests that the new continent be named after
him. The best maps and globes were made by German cartographers and
printers; they aided navigation and disseminated knowledge of the newly
discovered lands.
TWO GERMAN GOVERNORS IN COLONIAL PERIOD
In all of the earliest c'olonies along the Atlantic coast there were sporadic
eases of German settlers, especially in New Amsterdam and New Sweden,
subsequently part of Pennsylvania. In the Dutch settlement of New Amster
dam there were two German leaders second to none in shaping the destinies of
the colony, Peter Minnewit, the founder and first governor, and Jacob Leisler,
the first governor by choice of the popular party in the city of New York.
Peter Minnewit was born at Wesel-on-the-Rhine, was appointed governor
of New Netherlands by the Dutch West India Company, and bought the
island of Manhattan from the Indians in 1 626. Under his leadership the
colony became the successful rival of New England in the remunerative fur
trade. Shipbuilding was carried on, and in 1 63 1 the New Netherland was
launched, one of the largest ships afloat at the time. On his departure in
1 632 Minnewit left the colony in a most prosperous condition. In Holland
the returning governor was made the scapegoat for the evils of the patroon
system, he left deeply mortified by the ingratitude of the Dutch West India
Company, and offered his services to the ruler of Sweden. The result was
that Minnewit became the second time the founder of an important colony.
He arrived in Delaware Bay in April, 1 638, and built Fort Christina near
the present site of Wilmington. New Sweden rapidly grew in trade and
colonists, and for a long time preserved its independence. Minnewit died at
his post in 1 64 1 .
Not quite fifty years later there lived another leader of men, Jacob
Leisler, born in Frankfort-on-the-Main, appearing in New York in 1660. He
was a great trader, and amassed wealth through the boldness and genius of his
ventures. Though allied by marriage with the Dutch aristocracy, he remained
democratic at heart, and representative of the middle-class people, who trusted
his simple honesty, admired his rugged manhood, and honored his public ,'spirit
and liberality. In 1 689, when the news arrived of the landing of William
of Orange in England, a popular revolt started in New York against the
hated rule of Nicholson and his party. The revolution placed Leisler at the
head and made him provisional governor. The administration of Leisler is
truly memorable in colonial history because it was he who was the first to call
together a congress of the American colonies for co-operative action. In
April, 1690, he invited the governors of Massachusetts, Plymouth, East and
West Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to a conunon council in
New York. This meeting of May 1, 1690, was the first congress of Ameri
can colonies convened independently of the mother country. Invasion by the
French and Indians threatened froni without, ahd England, in the throes of
revolution, could not be relied on for aid. In this congress of May I, 1690,
the first step toward co-operation and independence was taken in the history
of the American colonies; this was the forerunner of the American Continental
Congress, and to Leisler belongs the great honor of having convened it. The
subsequent triumph of Leisler's enemies, the re-establishment of a reactionary

government by Colonel Sloughter and the martyrdom of Leisler, who was
executed with his "son-in-law, Milborne, on the trumped-up charge of high
treason, furnish , a dark background which but dignifies the brilliant achieve
ment of the first people's governor of New York.
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN
The close of the seventeenth century saw the establishment of the first
German colony on American soil. This was the settlement of Germantown,
Pennsylvania, in 1 683, under the leadership of Franz Daniel Pastorius.
October 6 was the date of the arrival of the ship Concord, the Ma^HoTver
of the German settlers in this country. Philadelphia had been founded but
two years before this, and the liberal policy of William Penn attracted this
small band of religious refugees to Penn's colony. These first German settlers
were mostly Mennonites and Quakers from Crefeld, and weavers by trade.
The scholar Pastorius was their guiding spirit, though his Latin books were
not as good an equipment as the looms of the Crefelders. Farming and
manufacturing became the occupations of the Germantown settlement and they
remained so in all generations to come.* A minimum of time was given to
public life and it became necessary to impose a fine for the refusal to accept
pubhc office after election. For better or for worse Germantown also furnished
the example for the Germans in American politics. The German Quakers of
Germantown immortalized themselves by their protest against slavery in 1 688,
the first formal action ever taken against the barter in human flesh within the
boundaries of the United States. Another deed of imperishable fame was
the printing of the German Lutheran Bible in the German language by
Christopher Sauer, of Germantown, in 1 743, the first complete Bible printed
in any, language within the American colonies.
GERMAN SETTLEMENTS BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY
WAR
The great waves of German immigration began to rise in the second
decade of the eighteenth century, and they flowed and ebbed alternately until the
period of the Revolutionary War. Many refugees from religious persecution
appeared, but the great bulk were induced to emigrate for economic reasons.
The latter is the great principle that governs emigration at all times and for
all peoples ; on the one side poor economic conditions at home sometimes
aggravated to desperation, and on the other better economic conditions or at
least the hope of improving them. Favorable reports from American colonists
went back to Germany and whetted the appetite for emigration to such an
extent that some home governments felt it necessary to confiscate favorable
letters with the same eagerness as if they were emigrant agents. The region
of Germany which during the eighteenth century furnished the largest immigra
tion to the United States was the upper Rhine territory, going southward from
the entry of the Main into the Rhine and extending into the mountains of
Switzerland. The Rhenish Palatinate, Southwestern Germany and German
Switzerland were sections suffering from wars, failure of crops and over
population, causes which produced a 'continuous flow of immigration to what
was then known as the West India Islands, the island of Pennsylvania and
the island of Carolina figuring most prominently in the popular imagination.
*For a good sketch of the Germantown settlement, cf. Seidensticker, O. : Bilder aus der
deutschhpennsylvamschen Geschichta; or Pennypacker, S. W. : The Settlement' of Germanto-uin.
For the history of the Pennsylvania Germans, cf. Kuhns, O. : The German and S-wiss
'^-'-' -;F ' . ' Colonial Pennsylvania.

Where did they settle? Did they remain in the seaport towns? Rarely*
or not long. Most of them were skilled cultivators of the soil, whose ambition
it was to own land and build upon it a home of their own. If they were
tradesmen, expert in some handicraft, they might tarry longer in the seaport to
ply their trade, but only long enough to enable them to save enough money to
buy land. Where could land be bought cheaply and in sufficient quantity to
make a farm pay? The farms around the seaports and for some distance
inland were very soon bought up by older settlers who had accumulated larger
means and preferred the security of the seaboard area. The new colonists
had to try their fortunes farther westward if they wished to secure land within
their means. As a result of this we find the larger number of Enghsh and
Dutch settlers on the seacoast, while the German, Irish, Scotch and Huguenot
settlers went to the frontier as pioneers. Their colonies became buffers against
the Indians, and thereby a protection for the coast settlements. It is most
remarkable to see how largely the frontier settlements about the period of the
Revolutionary War were inhabited by German and Irish immigrants, who had
come without means. If we draw a frontier line for the year 1 775 from
outpost to outpost in the then westernmost sections we will find that the
German settlers had a very large share in the defense of the frontier Hne
during the eighteenth century.*
Even at the extremities of the line in Maine and Georgia there were
German settlers. In Maine, at Waldoboro, a German colony was established
in 1742 on Broad Bay; in Georgia existed the prosperous settlement of the
Salzburgers. These German Lutherans, a portion of those exiled in 1 73 1 by
the fanatical zeal of Archbishop Leopold, came to Georgia under the auspices
of General Oglethorpe in 1 734, the year after he had founded Savannah.
The Salzburgers had excellent leaders in their preachers, Bolzius and Groivau,
and in Baron von Reck, who laid out the first settlement at Ebenezer.
Numerous were the settlements of the Salzburgers in the district of the
Savannah River, which at that time was the only inhabited portion of Georgia.
Following the frontier line in 1 775 we find that the farthermost west
ward colonists in New York State were the German setders in the Mohawk
Valley, a section which was exposed as no other pioneer territory to the
incursions of the most warlike of all the Indian tribes, the Six Nations. The
German settlers of Schoharie* . had their share of the burden to bear, being
also exposed on their western border. In the State of Pennsylvania we find
that the midland and southwestern sections were occupied by German settlers,
who made this territory famous for agricultural wealth. At the time of the
Revolution they numbered one-third of the population of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania. From Lancaster county they crossed the Susquehanna
River, settled York and Adams counties, then they trekked southward, follow
ing the base of the mountains and settled Frederick county, Maryland. In
this State they also went westward into Washington and eastward into Carroll
county. They went still farther southward, crossed the Cumberland River
and followed the Shenandoah up through the Valley of Virginia. The
Shenandoah Valley, as far as Augusta county, became as German as Lan
caster county, Pennsylvania, and was its rival in agricultural prosperity. The

*Cf. The German Element in ihe United States, by A. B. Faust (2 vols Boston
Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1909). See Vol. I,, Chapter X, pp. 263-268. coston,
*The romantic history of the settlement of Schoharie county by Germans from the
Palatinate can be found in: Cobb, S. H., The Story of the Palatines; or The German
Element in the United States, Vol I, Chapter IV.

Valley of Virginia became the great avenue to the New Southwest. The
southern slope of the Shenandoah Valley was occupied more largely by Irish
settlers, but in course of time Germans intermingled with them and took part
in the settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee as soon as the gateways were
opened by the Indian Wars during and following the Revolution.
In North Carohna the westerly counties then on the frontier along the
Yadkin and Catawba Rivers were inhabited by Germans and Irish as neigh
bors in nearly equal numbers. The Germans had come all the way from
Pennsylvania. It was the custom to harvest a summer crop and sell it along
with the farm, to load one's possessions on a big wagon and start out with
family and cattle in the fall of the year. Autumn and winter months were
devoted entirely to the long trip from Pennsylvania to Maryland, then up
the Shenandoah Valley and down part way on the other side to the head
waters of one or other of the Virginia rivers, which would open the way toward
North Carolina. The example was given by the German Moravians, who
about I 750 settled a large tract in the Wachovia district of North Carohna, in
what is now Forsyth and Stokes counties. This settlement, Winston-Salem, still
exists and is one of the most quaint and prosperous agricultural districts in
the Carolinas. In South Carolina the settlement of the western areas was not made
from the north, but from the seacoast, from the seaport Charleston. There
was in South Carolina a promised land for German settlers just as there had
been one in New York State. Tradition had it that the generous Queen
Anne had set aside Schoharie county in New York for the thousands of
Palatines who had come to England about 1710, pleading to be sent as
colonists to the American settlements. Similarly Queen Anne was said to
have designed the then western section of South Carolina for settlement by
the Palatines. Whether there was any truth in the traditions or not, it is
a well-established fact that the bulk of the early settlers in the Saxe-Gotha
district, then the western, now the central, section of South Carolina, were
immigrants of German blood who settled there from about 1 735 on. The
records of fifteen Protestant churches, most of them German Lutheran, several
German Reformed, furnish conclusive evidence of the massing of German settlers
in Saxe-Gotha, at present the counties of Orangeburg and Lexington in South
Carolina. While the preceding paragraphs have made clear the great share of the
German element in the defense and advance of the American frontier in the
eighteenth century, it must not be forgotten that the Germans also left an
impress on other areas. They had distinctive German settlements^ on the coast
line, such as Waldoboro in Maine, Newburgh in New York, Newbern in
North Carolina, Germantown near Philadelphia, and a strong nucleus of
settlers in the seaport cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and
Charleston.
THE GERMAN FARMER
The greatest value, however, of the German immigrant was his service
as a farmer in the midland areas. No one has expressed greater appreciation
of this fact than Dr. Benjamin Rush, the most eminent American physician
of his day and signer of the Declaration of Independence. In an essay on
the manners and customs of the Pennsylvania Germans ( 1 789) , he points out
wherein the German farmer surpasses all his rivals. This demonstrates that they

were experts in their branch; that they were industrious and economical; that
they knew good land when they saw it and kept possession of it when they
got it; that they rotated their crops, took good care of their slock and were
not afraid of hard work. Dr. Rush emphasizes the importance of their
success in the economic foundation of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
He said it made possible the establishment and successful operation of the
> Bank of North America, the original financial backbone of the colonies.
Similarly the German immigrants of the nineteenth century have kept
alive the good reputation of the German farmer in the United States. At
three points principally did they push the frontier line to the westward — in
Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin. The Middle West — Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois — also received a large share of the German immigration of the nineteenth
century, these in addition to the descendants of eighteenth century settlers who
migrated westward from Pennsylvania and the Carohnas. '' Statistics show that the
English and Scandinavian farmers are also prosperous and skillful', but there has
been no stock as the Germans, who for a period of more than two centuries have
consistently maintained the reputation of being the most successful farmers
in the United States. Upon the industrious and conscientious work of the
German small farmer depends in very large measure the wealth of the great
Middle West; the great grain crops of the country, year after year, form the
backbone of American financial prosperity.
BLOOD, BRAWN, BRAIN AND BUOYANCY
When asked to define the German contribution to the history of the Ameri
can people in a few words, I have often given the reply, the Germans have
contributed blood, brawn, brain and buoyancy to the make-up of the American
people. Let us take up each of these five contributions separately.
If we attack the difficult problem of what amount each national stock
has contributed to the blood of the American people, including in this estimate
not only the recent immigrations, but also those of the nineteenth, eighteenth
and seventeenth centuries, we get results* somewhat as follows: PER CENT.
Total white population in the United States in 1910. .81,731,957 100.0
English (including Scotch and Welsh, about
3,000,000)  24,750,000 30.3
German (including Dutch, about 3,000,000)  21,600,000 26.4
Irish (including Cathohc and Protestant)  15,250,000 18.6
Scandinavian .(Swedish, Norwegian, Danish)  4,000,000 4.9
French (including Canadian French)  4,000,000 4.9
Itahan (mostly recent immigration)  2,500,000 3. 1
Hebrew (one-half recent, Russian)  2,500,000 3.1
Spanish (mostly Spanish- American)  2,000,000 2.5
Austrian Slavs (Bohemian, Moravian, Slovac, etc.) . . 2,000,000 2.5
Russian Slavs and Finns (one-tenth)  1 ,000,000 1 .2
Poles (many early in nineteenth century)  1 ,000,000 1 .2
Magyars (recent immigration)  700,000 .8
Balkan Peninsula  250,000 .3
All others**  1 81 ,957 .2

'For the method by which these results are obtained, see The German Element in the
United States, Vol. II, Chapter I.
**This does not, of course, include the colored, population, which in 1910 was as
follows; Negroes, 9,827,763; Indians, 265,683; Chinese, 71,531; Japanese, 72,157.

This table shows that the German contribution in blood is second only
to the English, and is but a small percentage below it. The figure 2 1 ,600,000,
or 26.4%, represents the amount of German blood in the total white popula
tion, over against the largest contribution, that of the English stock repre
sented by the figure 24,750,000, or 30.3%, and the Irish 15,250,000, or
18.6% of the total white population of the United States. In the case of
those national stocks that began coming to America in the eighteenth century
or before, their blood is diffused among a larger number of people than the
figures indicate. Perhaps no person whose ancestors came over a hundred
years ago has in his veins the blood of one national stock alone; the typical
American is a blend, part Enghsh, German or Irish, a fraction French or
Spanish. In the table above, the units represent pure blood, the calculation
attempting to reduce the divided blood to units of full or pure blood, in order
to represent mathematically the contribution of each. In reality all of the older
stocks, as the English, German, Irish and French, are probably diffused through
tvsnce the number of persons represented by the figures above, while the recent
immigrations, as the Itahan, Hungarian, Russian, etc., are mostly of unmixed
blood and in their cases the figure representing their contribution corresponds
closely to the number of persons in the United States who have any of their
blood in their veins.
GERMANS IN THE WARS OF THE UNITED STATES
Under the head of the contribution of blood should be included also
the blood spilt on the battlefields of the United States. Monographs* that
have been vsritten on the subject show how lavishly German blood has been
shed in defense of American liberty and union. The historian Bancroft esti
mated the German contingent in the patriot armies of the Revolutionary War
as in excess of their ratio in the population. The statistics of Gould on the
Civil War prove that the German volunteering exceeded in proportion that of
the native and also that of the other foreign elements.
GERMANS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
At the very opening of the Revolutionary War a German regiment was
established by vote of the Continental Congress in 1 776, which was recruited
in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and whicti distinguished itself in the New Jersey
campaign ,and in Sullivan's expedition against the Indians. Ollendorff's troop
and Schott's dragoons performed vahant service in Armand's Legion. Van
Heer's independent troop bf horse did bodyguard service to the Commander-
in-Chief. The best strategist after Washington, General Greene, had under
him tw'> rehable brigade commanders of German blood, Miihlenberg and
Weedon (Wieden), whose regiments were composed mostly of Germans, from
the Valley of Virginia and elsewhere. At Brandyvvine Miihlenberg's brigade
was used by General Greene in his daring maneuver that covered the retreat
of the American army and prevented its annihilation by Cornwallis. At
Germantown Miihlenberg's brilliant bayonet attack pierced the enemy's right
wing. Peter Miihlenberg, whost statue was sent lo the capitol at Washington
as Pennsylvania's representative, was the son of the founder of the German
Lutheran church in America, and brother of Frederick Augustus Miihlenberg,
first Speaker of the House of Representatives. The fighting general, John

*Cf Rosengarten, J. G. : The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States.
Philadelphia (Lippincott), 1890.
Kaufman, W. : Die Deutschen »m amertkamschen Burgerkrtege. Munchen u. Berhn, 1911.

Kalb (Baron de Kalb), sacrificed his hfe in the battle of Camden, heroically
stemming the tide of defeat brought on by General Gates' blunders. A cousin
of General Kalb was in the regiment of Prinz Wilhelm of Zweibriicken, orie
of several German regiments included in the French auxiliary forces at York-
town. Captain Henry Kalb was the first to enter the redoubt in the storming
of one of the two forts which closed the siege of Yorktown, forcing the enemy
to capitulate. In the North General Herkimer led the German farmers
of the Mohawk Valley against the invading army of St. Leger, and in the
battle of Oriskany, in which he was mortally wounded, won the victory which
cut off Burgoyne from supplies and relief from the wesl. In the roll of
honor there should not be forgotten Christopher Ludwig, the German baker
of Philadelphia, whom Congress appointed director of baking for the entire
army. He was an original anti-grafter, Washington's "honest friend." One
hundred pounds of bread were asked of him for every hundred pounds of
flour. "No," said he, "Christopher Ludwig does not wish to become rich
by the war. He has enough. Out of one hundred pounds of flour one gets
one hundred and thirty-five pounds of bread, and so many will I give." All
his predecessors had taken advantage of the ignorance of the legislators, who
did not know that the added water increases the weight considerably.
But outclassing all of these and many more German officers who fought
in the cause of American independence, there was one who stands out pre
eminently, taking rank immediately after Washington and Greene in individual
service to the patriot cause. This was General Frederick William Steuben,
drill master of the American forces. It is no exaggeration to say, that without
the discipline and economy, without the knowledge of the elements of drill,
maneuvering and campaigning which Steuben infused into the patriot mihtia,
American independence could not have been won. Our school histories praise
highly the aid received from Lafayette, and rightly so, for gallant youth he
was, with generous heart and open purse, yet he came in 1 777 with the
mexperience of twenty winters. America gave him as much as she received,
the great chance of making a man and hero of himself under exceptionally
favorable circumstances. Baron Steuben, on the other hand, gave more than he
received. He, a veteran of the Seven Years' War, a favorite pupil of Frederick
the Great, the foremost general of the age, brought over the principles of Prussian
military science and applied them to American conditions. At Valley Forge the
Inspector-General prepared the way for future victories, in Virginia he recruited
and drilled the forces that decided the Southern campaign. After the war Steuben
remained in the country whose freedom he had helped to win, and identified
himself with all its military interests, the founding of West Point, the fortification
of New York City, the writing and rewriting of the "Regulations for the Order
and Discipline of the Troops of the United States," commonly called Steuben's
Manual, which remained the guide for American mihtary disciphne for more
than a generation.
GERMANS IN THE CIVIL WAR
In the Civil War the number of volunteers in the Union army who
were born in Germany exceeded 200,000. Gould, in his general summaries
of enlistments, cuts down the number to 1 76,897, which nevertheless compares
most favorably with his estimate of other enlistments, the Irish 144,221 and
the English 45,508. When we remember that the number of persons of
both sexes born in Germany residing in the United States in 1 860 was only
1,276,075, and compare with this figure an enhstment of 200,000, we reahze

that the percentage of German volunteering was one of the largest recorded in
history. True it is that 100,000 German immigrants arrived in the United
States between 1860-1864, and that a very large number of these enhsted in
the Union army, but this fact does not alter appreciably the percentage of
enlistment, for more than 72,000 of the persons born in Gerraany recorded in
the census of 1860 lived in the Southern States.
In his book on the Germans in the Civil War, Kaufmann gives a list
of 500 German officers who were in the Union service. With few exceptions
the names included are only those of officers of the rank of major and above.
Ninety-six were killed in battle, nine reached the rank of major-general, viz.:
Osterhaus, Sigel, Schurz, Willich, Steinwehr, Stahel, Weitzel, Kautz and
F. S. Salomon. Some of the noteworthy events participated in by German
troops and commanders were Sigel's campaigns in Missouri; the resistance at-
great sacrifice by the XI Corps under Steinwehr and Schurz to the greater
forces of the Confederates, on the first and second days of the battle of
Gettysburg, enabling the Union forces to choose favorable positions; the bril
liant work of the batteries of Dilger and Buschbek at the surprise attack by
Stonewall Jackson at the battle of Chancellorsville; the offensive taken in the
battle of Lookout Mountain and the storming of Missionary Ridge participated
in by the divisions of Osterhaus, Willich, Steinwehr and Schurz; the work of
Osterhaus at Pea Ridge, and his leadership of the fifteenth corps in Sherman's
march to the sea. Whether authentic or not, there is truth in the remark
attributed to Robert E. Lee: "Take the Dutch out of the Union army and we
could whip the Yankees easily."
No account has been taken above of the part taken in the wars of the
United States by men of German descent; a few names must here suffice:
General Strieker, defender of Baltimore in the war of 1812; General Quitman
one of the principal fighting generals of the Mexican War; General Custer,
the dashing cavalry leader of the Civil War and famous Indian fighter;
Admiral Schley, commander of the fleet that destroyed Cervera's squadron in
the Spanish War.
GERMANS IN THE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE
UNITED STATES
Brawn and brain have been contributed by the German immigrant, and
he never spared either, when confronted with his share in the great task of
wresting the soil from wild nature and preparing it for cultivation, or developing
the resources and building up the industries of the country. Physically the
German has a stocky frame of great muscular strength. The native type is more
slender, with longer hmbs and greater height. The effect of interminghng is a
better physique, with a more harmonious development of height and strength.
In the industrial history of the United States the Germans of the nine
teenth century outclassed all rivals in the branches that required technical
training. The earlier existence in Germany of schools for training in technical
branches undoubtedly was the principal cause. We find the German element
in the United States predominant in the engineering branches, in chemical
industries, the manufacture of musical and optical instruments, the preparation
of food products, as sugar and salt, cereals, flour and starch, also in canning,
preserving, milling and brewing. They have been prominent in inventing
agricultural machinery, in the manufacture of wagons, electric and railway
cars; from the eighteenth century on they have been identified with the growth

of the iron and steel industries and glass manufacture; they have been prominent
in printing, and have had a monopoly in the art of lithography.* The German
Jew has made certain branches of business wellnigh his own, e. g., the
clothing trade and the department stores. His organizing power is as prominent
in finance and big business as it is in scientific charities.
In the engineering branches especially, the Germans had had at home
first-class engineering colleges long before any were founded in America. We
therefore find that for a long time the greatest bridges in the country were
built by Germans. John A. Roebling established the suspension bridge as the
leading type for great spans over large rivers, while Charles C. Schneider
demonstrated with his cemtilever bridge over the Niagara River that the
cantilever type was the better for heavy railway traffic. Roebling's famous
. Brooklyn Bridge, at its completion the wonder of the world, has done greater
service and has oftener been overtaxed than any bridge in existence. The
wire of the cables of his bridges was always manufactured in his own factory.
The only peer of Edison in electrical engineering is Charles P. Steinmetz, and
in mining engineering the name of Adolf Sutro stands out as the constructor
of the great tunnel under Virginia City in Nevada. Albert Fink, expert rail
way engineer, was the originator of through traffic in freight and passenger
service, and Count Zeppehn made his first experiments in mihtary aviation in
this country during the Civil War. In industrial pursuits as well as in the
professions the Germans of the nineteenth century stood for training in opposi
tion to quackery. When standards were those of the pioneer, the husbemd
might build his house wath his own hands, be a successful farmer and cattle
raiser, and besides be his own physician, lawyer and legislator. With the
increase of population and the accumulation of more than the bare necessities
of existence came a higher standard of living and a higher ideal of accomplish
ment. Competition brought about improvement, higher effort alone was crowned
with success, and this was' dependent upon training. In this emphasis upon
training the German in the United States has stood in opposition to the old
pioneer tradition of the jack-of-all-trades, and the adventurer in business who
seeks to make money rather than to develop the industry in which he is engaged.
EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCE
A further instance of a German intellectual influence is found in the
department of education. The lowest and the highest rung of the ladder in
the American educational system, the kindergarten and the university, are
German importations. These the native American brought over himself, just
as he found his model for secondary school and college in England. The
secondary school only at one epoch felt German influence, when Horace Mann
reported favorably on the Prussian school system (1843), and established
the normal or training school for teachers. The kindergarten is the work of
. the German, Friedrich Frbbel, lover of the child, and was introduced in many
places in the United Slates by both the German and the native element.
But in the department of higher education German influence has been
paramount throughout the nineteenth century, beginning with George Ticknor
and Edward Everett who were students at Gottingen from 1815-17. They
were the pioneers in the migration of American students to German universities,
which up to 1860 included two hundred and twenty-five of the brightest

*For an account in detail of the German participation in the industrial development of
the United States, with names and historical data, see The German Element in the United
Staies, Vol. II, Chapters 2 and 3.

young minds in America. One hundred and thirty-seven of these became
professors at American colleges, returning home aglow with a new inspiration,
and kindhng enthusiasm for high ideals of scholarship. The fervent aspiration
of German romanticism found a fruitful soil in the ide^hsm of young America.
The graduate department of the American university is modeled closely
after the German pattern, both in the high requirements for admission, and in
the methods of work. The principal of research -work, of independent investi
gation after the German university plan, with the teacher as co-worker with
the student in the advancement of science, was first introduced by Johns
Hopkins University at its foundation in 1876., The work done there in the
graduate department stimulated all of the greater institutions of learning to
similar efforts, and the graduate departments became the crown of the equip
ment of all leading American universities. The state university idea, begun at
Ann Arbor, Michigan, also sailed under the star of German influence. The
book of the Frenchman, Victor Cousin, a report on the Prussian state school
and university system, was accepted as a guide ,by the founders of the state
school system of Michigan, which in turn became a standard for other states
of the West. Higher education in technical branches received a new start
with the foundation of Cornell University in 1868, which through its first
president, Andrew D. White, gave German ideas an open door.
BUOYANCY
A fourth contribution of the German element to the hfe of the American
people might be called buoyancy. This quality in the German mind should
not be underestimated, for it relieves tension and overstrain, opens the path
to the joy of living, and in its higher phases creates the love of art and music.
European travelers in the United States during the eighteenth and a large part
of the nineteenth century were appalled by the gravity, melancholy, and mono
tony of American social life. Mrs. TroUope, returning from her residence in
America (1827-31) wrote that she had never seen a population so totally
divested of gayety, and she quotes a German woman as saying: "They do not
love music ; and they never amuse themselves ; and their hearts are not warm,
at least they seem not so to strangers; and they have no ease, no forgetfulness
of business and of care, no not for a moment." The Germans as a rule
brought with them a large capacity for the enjoyment of hfe; they had their
agricultural fairs and frolics in the eighteenth century and expanded them to
festivals on a larger scale as time went on; they founded social clubs most
varied in kind, singing societies, dramatic clubs for their own entertainment.
They introduced the Christmas tree, and made Christmas the principal festival
of the year, they gave delight to the young with a flood of toys, designed with
consummate skill and fascinating workmanship, from the indestructible picture-
book to the doll with movable joints, from the tin soldier to the self-propelling
man-of-war, from Noah's ark to the Teddy bear (an invention of Margarete
Steiff, of Wiirtemberg).
GERMAN MUSIC
The most effective means of diverting men's minds from their narrow
material interests and leading them to appreciate higher values, is the cultivation
of music. If the Germans had done nothing more than to have brought music
to America, their coming for this alone would be desei-ving of grateful record
in American annals. During the eighteenth century the Puritans in New
England, and the Quakers in Pennsylvania, checked the development of music.

Contemporaneously the German sectarians of Pennsylvania, though austere in
their mode of Kfe, fondly practised the art of choral singing. The mixed
chorus of the brothers and sisters of Ephrata, and the music schools of the
Moravians at Bethlehem invoked admiration, and fostered the sacred flame.
Philadelphia with its large German population early began the cultivation of
music and gave the first ambitious program of classical music on May 4, 1 786.
Boston made a good move with the founding, of the Handel and Haydn
Society in 1815. Real progress was made by this association when in 1854 a
professional conductor was called, the great German orchestral drill master,
Carl Zerrahn. Gottlieb Graupner earher had won the distinction of being the
father of orchestral music in Boston. New York began to show its mettle
about the middle of the century wdth the foundation of The Philharmonic
Society, and its rival, the famous Germania Orchestra, boldly began to make
tours, giving orchestral concerts in many of the eastern cities between 1 848
and 1854. Then came a period of great German masters, Theodore Thomas,
Anton Seidl, Leopold Damrosch, Wilhelm Gericke, Emil Paur, and many
others, who developed musical taste for the symphony, and the grand opera.
From Yankee Doodle to Parsifal in seventy years has been the record of
German influence upon musical appreciation in the United States." In vocal
music the efforts of the Mannerchore must not be overlooked. More influential
than they were the conservatories and private music schools, very frequently
founded or directed by German professors of music. The . American poet
Lanier, expressed the thought that nothing is sO' essential to the happiness of
home as music. The man that brought this cheering and uplifting influence
into the American home was the humble German music master. With un
flinching fidelity to his calling, without the hope of name or fame, he engaged
in a struggle comparable to that of the frontiersman who battled with ax and
rifle against forest and savage in the vanguard of civihzation.

GERMANS IN AMERICAN POLITICS
In conclusion a word should be said about the Germans in American
pohtics. The common impression concerning them is, that their influence in
this department has not been commensurate with thek numbers. Though this
must be admitted at the start, their influence for good in American politics has
been very much greater than has generally been supptosed. The Germans never
entered pohtics for a livelihood. From the earhest days they came as farmers,
tradesmen, mechanics, business or professional men, and apphed themselves
diligently to their vocations with the determination to succeed. Their strongly
developed practical sense showed them that the professional politican, ousted
from office whenever his • party lost in the election, was engaged in a very
unsafe and in the long run an unprofitable business. Their own particular
trades for which they had been trained, were unquestionably a more secure
means of seeking a livelihood. They were far removed from placing a high
estimate upon a pubhc career, they saw only the manipulations, briberies and
corrupt practises of the pohtical game. They therefore looked upon the public
career as something unclean and much to be shunned, and the great mass of
Germans still hold this view at the present day.
However, when in the history of the country there existed a real and
important pohtical issue, the German voter did not shirk. He formed his
opinion about the situation, and acted in accordance with it. As he did not want
anything for himself, no public office or benefits, he voted independently of

party and persons. This was true even in the days of Benjamin Franklin, who
recognizing that he had lost control of the German vote, fell into a rage
because he feared it, and uttered threats. If the word hyphenates had been
invented at that time, he would have found much satisfaction in it. Frankhn
did not understand the Germans, for they were independent voters, and Franklin
considered that un-American. In the nineteenth century some of the most
important issues that made for betterment in American politics, were the abolition
of slavery, the reform of the civil service, the question of sound money, muni
cipal and party reform. In all of these the Germans took a prominent part,
while they neglected vnduly the seeking of the influence that comes through the
holding of pubhc positions. But in this unselfishness lay their power for good,
their votes could not be bought, nor could they be influenced by threats, cajolery,
slander, or ridicule.
CARL SCHURZ
As representative of the best types contributed by Germans in American
politics, three names appear pre-eminent, those of Carl Schurz, Francis Lieber,
and Gustav Koerner. All of these lived during the great national crisis of
the Civil War. The hfe of Carl Schurz has been told in his own three-volume
memoirs, and his life work is well presented in the six-volume edition of his
speeches and -memoirs, edited by Frederic Bancroft. The first great service
of Carl Schurz in American pohtics was his brilhant public speaking in opposi
tion to the particularism of sovereign states, and the barbarism and dangers of
the institution of slavery. Carl Schurz opened a new line of attack against
slavery, not in the manner of native orators, who rang the changes on outraged
humanity, or appealed to that sacrosanct document, the American Constitution,
but he pointed to the economic decline of the Southern states in comparison
with the sound economic condition of the North based on free labor. He
appealed more to the intelligence than to the emotions or prejudices of his
hearers. He spoke equally well in English and in German, drew great audi
ences in Boston and New York as easily as in Wisconsin, he was one of the
ijiost effective orators in the Lincoln campaign and a great factor in the victory
of the Republican party in 1 860. Appointed minister to Spain in recognition
of his services, Schurz resigned at the outbreak of the war, in order to enter
the Union army. He distinguished himself as a commander at the battle of
Gettysburg and at Lookout Mountain. His oratorical powers were requisi
tioned in the campaign for the re-election of Lincoln. Immediately after the
war he was sent to observe the condition of the South, and his report is a
classic of contemporary history. Elected to the honor of membership in the
United States Senate by the State of Missouri, Schurz was noted as one of
the Senate's most brilhant orators, an uncompromising idealist, and a caustic
critic. Schurz's next great achievement was his earnest effort in the interests
of civil service reform. He was chosen by President Hayes as a member of
his cabinet, receiving the post of Secretary of the Interior. In this position
Schurz for the first time in American history carried out the principles of civil
service reform. The standard of efficiency was the only one which kept a
man under him in office, or removed him from it. Republicans and Democrats
were treated ahke. In carrying out this great principle Schurz incurred so
much opposition and hostihty in his own party that he killed himself politically.
No public officer had ever dared to take this uncompromising stand. President
Grant had shrunk from it, the next man brave enough to try the experiment of
reform, was Grover Cleveland. Schurz had driven in the wedge.

but he suffered martyrdom for it. When he left the Cabinet, he was politically
dead. Schurz was an independent in politics. Though one of the pillars of
the Republican party in its earliest days, he turned against Grant for the second
term, and subsequently supported Grover Cleveland with enthusiasra, with
drawing his support, however, at a later day, when the Democratic party
identified itself with the free silver agitation.
KOERNER AND LIEBER
The life of Gustav Koerner is well documented in hi§ two-volume memoirs.
They furnish abundant evidence of the fact, well established by a number of
recent historical monographs, that the balance of power securing the election of
Lincoln, with all of its far-reaching consequences, lay with the German vote
of the Middle West. Koerner's modesty and unselfishness were extraordinary.
He repeatedly sacrificed his chance for political preferment in deference to
others less capable, and he surprised his political friends at the opening of the
War by refusing high military rank, because he said he had not had the training
needed for an officer. Koerner was elected lieutenant-governor of the State of
Illinois, 1853-1856, and in 1861 was appointed by Lincoln to succeed
Schurz as minister to Spain. Koerner had the honor of being one o,f Lincoln's
pallbearers, for few men in Ilhnois had been closer to the raartyr president
before his election.
Francis Lieber represents still another type. He was the scholar in
politics, an authority on international law, frequently consulted by President
Lincoln on questions concerning the rights of belligerents and neutrals. On
the requisition of the President and General Halleck he prepared the "Code
of War for the Government and Armies in the Field," which was adopted
for the Union armies and published as General Orders No. 100 of the War
Department. This code has been characterized as a masterpiece by many
European publicists, and it suggested to Bluntschli his codification of the laws
of nations, Lieber's instructions appearing as an appendix to his "Modernes
Volkerrecht." As professor of history and political economy at South Carolina
College, Francis Lieber resided in Columbia, S. C, from 1835-1856, when
his anti-slavery views became a source of friction, and he left for the North.
He accepted a call to Columbia College in 1857. One of his sons, raarried in
the South, fought on the Confederate side, two other sons were in the Union
army at the same time.
Schurz, Koerner and Lieber rep^resent at their best the ideahsra, and
independence, the honest, unselfish patriotism, and the inteUigent action of the
Germans in American politics. Their existence in Araerican politics has not
been marked by the holding of many high offices, but on great national issues
their presence has always been strongly feh. In the fact that they were not
seeking anything for themselves lay their strength, their independence and
their power for good. The independent voter is the despair of the politician
and the salvation of the country.

YALE UNIVERSITY L