How the Germans created modern America, run this country today, and why no one notices it

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Few people in Russia know that the surname "Trump" is of German origin. And there are not just a lot of such names in the United States. Germans are one of the most numerous ethnic groups in the United States and probably the most hidden. Anyone who loves Hollywood films knows several actors of German descent, but it is difficult to name them. How did the Germans become invisible in America?

Not that a minority

Traditionally, many very different Germans live in the United States: ordinary Protestant families, traditionally prejudiced Catholic, world-famous Amish (this closed group also has German origin, and this is noticeable) and, of course, atheists.

Here are a few names that the whole world knows. The surname of actor Peter Dinklage, stars of such projects as "Three Billboards on the Border of Ebbing, Missouri" and "Game of Thrones", is directly related to the very same German von Dinklage, from which Coco Chanel's lover, Nazi Baron Hans Gunter von Dinklage, came out. Of course, Peter uses the English version of his last name. It is worth clarifying that the actor himself has nothing to do with the Nazis. By the way, he is married to theater director Erica Schmidt - and it is easy to guess by her name that she is also of German origin.

The famous Henry Heinz was a German, after whose name the company producing sauces is named. Walt Disney was of German descent on his mother (and in German his name is read as "Walter") and on his father's side was the millionaire Rockefeller. William Boeing (founder of an aircraft company) was named Wilhelm for the first years of his life, because he was half German and half Austrian.

Many of the richest people in the United States have German ancestors, moreover, within two or three generations: Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Al Neuhart (USA Today). The Germans are also Eric Schmidt (Google) and Peter Thiel (PayPal). Many American presidents, which were not advertised, were of German origin.

Among the actors of German origin are Kirsten Dunst, Bruce Willis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sandra Bullock, Kim Basinger, Meryl Streep, Clark Gable, Grace Kelly. And all this is a short list. It can be seen that Germans and people of German descent make up an important part of the American nation and culture, influencing and possibly shaping it in many ways. How did they become invisible?

How America became German

Although the original colonists in the current American states were the British, French, Dutch and the Irish brought in by the British as cheap or free labor, from 1840 to 1900, as well as during the existence of Nazi Germany, there was a heavy influx of German immigrants to the United States (from It wasn't just the Jews who fled Hitler.) By the beginning of the twentieth century, they had already greatly changed the face of the country.

Although in the new place many German families quickly abandoned their native language, they remained faithful to family denominations such as Lutheranism and Catholicism, apart from the special beliefs of the Mennonites, the ancestors of the Amish, who arrived in the United States in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In addition, German names and features of everyday culture and culture of business organization have remained for generations. Despite external assimilation, by the beginning of the twentieth century, German was the second most spoken language in more than half of the American states.

The first settlement with a predominantly German population appeared in the seventeenth century in the state of Pennsylvania. It was called that - Germantown, a German town. In general, the Germans did not attach too much importance to ethnic uniformity in their towns - in fact, the population was formed around the churches of one or another denomination. It is clear that in the town where the oldest church is Lutheran, almost only Germans lived, but in towns with Catholic churches, Germans mixed with Irish, Italians and French.

Already in 1790, according to the census, Germans accounted for 9% of the white population. After a hundred years, this number has doubled or threefold. Nowadays, up to 20% of Americans are generally of German descent in two or three generations, or are even ethnic Germans. In a number of states, such Americans make up the majority of the inhabitants, overtaking representatives of any other ethnic group: in North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Montana, Ohio, Wyoming and Kansas.

Before the First World War, many books and newspapers in German were published in the United States, and in almost all cities in the northern states one could find a German school or several that did not suffer from a shortage of students. There is even a legend that at some point the question of recognizing German as the state language of the United States arose, but one vote was not enough during the voting. As always with true legends, this is not entirely true, but reflects the trends of its time.

It was the Germans who opened the first kindergartens in the country (they had already gained popularity in the German lands of Europe), brought with them the custom of decorating the Christmas tree for Christmas (as, by the way, in Russia), made Daxhund and Hamburg-style steaks popular street food, which are now known as hot dogs and hamburgers (even the very name of hot dogs refers to the full German name of the dish - "dog sausages"). We can say that American culture is largely German culture.

And how America stopped being German

The turnaround happened during the First World War. As the United States decided to join, anti-German rhetoric became popular. Many German families who retained the language suffered from pogroms and even fell victim to lynching. The Germans rushed to Englishify their names in the documents. German newspapers and schools were mostly closed out of the desire of the German population to show that it is no different from other Americans, and hamburgers for some time turned into "sandwiches of freedom."

Naturally, with all the external anglification, the Germans did not think to abandon their religion, be it Lutheranism or Catholicism, and practically did not change their everyday life and family customs. And yet they began to recede into the shadows. At the end of the war, the process stopped, but the Second World War forced the Germans to choose the maximum mimicry. Despite the fact that there is no official prejudice towards white social groups in the United States, in reality the Irish, Italians and Germans traditionally suffer greatly from them, although this is not often talked about.

You can recall, for example, a moment from the popular TV series "The Big Bang Theory", where an aspiring actress named Penny complains that she was not given the role because of her too "Central American" appearance, and her interlocutor specifies - that is, German. And, nevertheless, the country is now ruled by a president with a German surname and German origin.

Not only in the United States, the Germans were a prominent social group. Volga Germans: Why did German subjects migrate to Russia, and how their descendants live.