Paulina Filip

Project

Presentation

Progress Log

Capstone Essay

Paulina Filip

Mr. Caballero

English 8

24 April 2020

A Look into the Past of German Immigration

German Americans have done a lot for the United States, despite all of the hardships they were put through including linguistic discrimination, and cultural racism. They overcame these things by simply assimilating, and doing as told. For my capstone project, I am creating an animation about German immigration. I chose this project because I have always been interested in animation and its use in everyday life. Animation also is such a cool concept to me; when I was really young, I always thought that the animated characters were real people, now of course I know how wrong I was. I grew up surrounded by animation, so I thought I would try it myself to see how it works. I chose to form my project around German immigrants from the past, because I myself am a German immigrant. The focus will be what German Americans have done for the United States and what they had to go through. For my research, I looked at when a lot of Germans immigrated, where they settled, how they assimilated, and businesses they created or jobs they had. With my animation I hope to inform my viewers on the German immigration process and why it was important.

There are several push and pull factors that helped Germans choose the United States as a place they want to live in the 19th Century. In Germany there was religious persecution going on (German), and The United States was a place of religious freedom which caught the eye of many soon to be German-Americans (Surge). Religious persecution was not the only push factor for Germans, there was also economic and political depression affecting many German lives. The economic depression was mostly due to crop failures in Germany (German). The United States became a place of refuge for those affected by the depressions or persecutions. Because of this, from 1830 until World War 1, almost 90% of Germans that emigrated from Germany chose the United States as their new home. The United States was just the perfect country for Germans that were not religiously accepted by theirs. In the 19th century there was a huge wave of German immigrants. This wave of immigrants was mainly because emigration laws in Germany were lifted making it easier for Germans to leave. In total America had over five million Germans immigrate in the 19th century (Surge).

Many Germans came to America, with them they brought many different jobs and occupations (German). The many Germans that came to America included those that took part in German revolutions in 1848 also known as the “Forty Eighters”. Then Forty Eighters brought their voices to The United States, protesting land reform, abolition, workers rights, and women's suffrage. These were not the only people that came along with the big immigration, along them came many intellectuals and scholars (Urban). Based on the occupations and past homes Germans found places to live that reminded them of their old life. Germans that settled in The United States tended to also choose to live in places populated by other Germans, which was also done by many other nationalities such as the Irish (German). The land that Germans mainly bought was farmland, similar to their land that they had in Germany. Finding a place to live was only one of the problems Germans encountered, another being the discrimination they faced from the regular white Americans. People commented about Germans, they said things about how Germans won’t be able to assimilate well, Germans have no skill, and they can’t speak English which means they can't integrate. They were portrayed as scary, dangerous, and hateful. The main reason given for the hate show towards Germans, was that some people thought that they were just overwhelmingly rural people.

German Americans tended to receive a lot of hate, so when they started to catch on to how much Americans disliked them, they tried their best to assimilate so they were not targeted. These scared German Americans did everything they could to fit in, they even changed their names to sound more American (little). On top of that German streets were renamed to sound more American, and German language schools were removed, leaving only English language learning schools. Not only did they remove German schools, they also removed German books in libraries (Fleeharty). With these rules German Immigrants had a lot of fear of the Government and some citizens who seemed to be threatening. so Germans Americans spoke German strictly in private, and only English in public. Their fear was for good reason because it has been proven that at least one German American was murdered by a mob of angry Americans, the German American hadn't even done anything wrong (Little). The term “A race of barbaric raiders” was thrown around targeting Germans, causing even more conflict, convincing and giving Germans furthermore reasons to assimilate (Fleeharty). The result of this major assimilation plan was that most German Americans turned into regular white Americans after giving up their culture in order to fit in. One of the few things that carried over from the 19th century was the name “kindergarten” which in German translates to “child garden” (Little). To sum up the outlook on German Americans in the eyes of regular white Americans, they very much disliked the Germans.

Germans needed to find work in The United States, their jobs were usually working as skilled laborers such as jewelry makers, musical instrument manufacturers, cabinet makers, tailors, etc. The German immigrants were very hardworking and good listeners, they got every job done. Not only did they work as skilled laborers but they also got jobs in grocery stores, bakeries, and restaurants (German). They were good in any job, including working in craft trades, like carpentry. They sometimes worked in factories founded by older generations of Germans (Urban).

Germans didn't just find jobs, they also created businesses, for example they opened breweries. These breweries were introduced in areas that hadn't had any. A certain German immigrant by the name of Frederick Gaessler purchased land (Burkhardt), and opened a brewery by the name of Wolf Ledge Brewery. The brewery was established in 1865. The ownership later wavered and transitioned to having a co-owner by the name of Wilhelm Burkhardt, who was a German immigrant (German) born in 1849. In the mid-1870s the production of barrels was already over 2,000, so the business was good. By 1877 the company was known as Burkhardt and Company. After a tragic fire in June of 1879 (Burkhardt), Burkhardt fully owned the company. Two years later Burkhardt built a brick brewery with the capacity of 4,000 barrels. Later he passed away from food poisoning, his wife took over the company and successfully ran it while also taking care of their two children. The business continued to grow due to the hard work of his wife (German).

Through my research I was able to learn more about the immigration, jobs and businesses, and settlement of Germans in around the 19th century. This has helped me know how much things have changed, such as discrimination. I can now also compare my own experience to those in the 19th century, giving me a visual of how much better my family and I have it than the immigrants of the 19th century. I am planning on animating what I have learned in order to compare my own experiences along with my family members to those of the past. This will give my project more of a view into the past and present, giving a nice balance, and how much better people deserved to have been treated in the 19th century. My goal during this entire project is to teach more about German immigration, why it is important, and how it has changed since the 19th century. I also want to share my story and point of view to have my fellow peers and teachers better understand what I went through and how much it varies from past experiences.

Works Cited

“Burkhardt Brewing Company, Akron, Ohio.” Burkhardt Brewing CO., Akron, Ohio,

http://www.ohiobreweriana.com/library/holdings/burkhardt.shtml. Accessed April 8th,

2020.

Fleeharty, Patrick. “Letters: Immigration Rhetoric Misinterprets History; Government Subsidies

for Children and the Recent Election.” Capitialgazette.com, Capital Gazette, 23 June

2019, www.capitalgazette.com/opinion/letters/ac-ce-letters-20191119-story.html. Accessed April 14th, 2020.

“German and Irish Immigration in the Antebellum Period.” Black, White & Beyond:

Multiculturalism in Greater Akron, An Interactive History, 200,

https://learn.uakron.edu/beyond/irishGerman.htm. Accessed April 4th, 2020.

“German - A New Surge of Growth - Immigration...- Classroom Presentation: Teacher

Resources - Library of Congress.” German - A New Surge of Growth - Immigration...-

Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/german4.html. Accessed April 4th 2020.

“German - Urban Germans - Immigration...- Classroom Presentation: Teacher Resources -

Library of Congress.” German - Urban Germans - Immigration...- Classroom

Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/german6.html. Accessed April 14th 2020.

Little, Becky. “When German Immigrants Were America's Undesirables.” History.com, A&E

Television Networks, 11 May 2018,

https://www.history.com/news/anti-german-sentiment-wwi. Accessed April 4th, 2020.