Resources | History | Art | Customs
Books
- The Book of Germans in America – Das Buch der Deutschen in Amerika
Selections from the 974-page book published in 1909 by the National German-American Alliance (“The Bund”), with English translations..
- The German-Americans an Ethnic Experience by Willi Paul Adams
This book explores the meaning of German immigration and shows how completely Americans of German descent have been integrated into the American mainstream
- First Germans in Jamestown by Gary C. Grassl
The first Germans to land in Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in Virginia, were glassmakers and carpenters
- German Achievements in America by Rudolf Cronau (1916)
Reprinted and edited by Don H. Tolzmann. [The book] “provides a concise overview of German-American history to the time of the First World War.”
An Open Library virtual book with 50 illustrations by Wilhelm Scholz. this work was originally published by A. Hoffmann & Co., Berlin, in 1868. [Das Buch der Deutschen in Amerika (1909, p. 380) attributes this book to Wilhelm Winckler.]
Exhibits
PDF of an exhibit by the Archives & Rare Books Library of the University of Cincinnati that explores the creation and perpetuation of German American ethnic stereotypes through cartoon images found on popular postcards in the 20th century. More than fifty cards illustrating a public view of a major ethnic group are included in the exhibit.
This Exhibit from the IUPUI University Library begins with a look at why people left Germany and settled in Indianapolis. It then discusses the influence of German-Americans on three areas of Indianapolis culture: music, architecture, and athletics. Finally, it explores the cultural conflict that German-Americans experienced and the steps they took to become acculturated
From Leni Riefenstahl to Leo DiCaprio — info, photos and links related to the influence of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland on world cinema
- Germans in America
Exhibit of the Library of Congress; provides information about immigration from the German-speaking world to the United States, and about the activities of German immigrants in the United States from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Chronology with links to many photos
1848 Revolution
Essay by Don Heinrich Tolzmann: The German-American Forty-Eighters: 1848-1998
Historical background in German, hosted by the Forschungsstelle Deutsche Auswanderer in den USA
Biographies in German, hosted by the Forschungsstelle Deutsche Auswanderer in den USA
Digital repository and annotated edition of poems written by German Americans during the decade of the Great War, shedding light on the complexities of German-American national identity during a time of upheaval and significant change for this immigrant group.
Education
Essay on the Kindergarten movement
German Americans in Specific Cities and States
Susan Kriegbaum-Hanks has created a page that combines her study of the history of Buffalo, New York, with her interest in German language and literature. Includes a translation of the history of Buffalo from a German perspective, a history of Germans in Buffalo and Erie County, and scans and translations of many German-language newspapers and journals. Also includes an index of names.
This digital collection contains examples of printed broadsides designed and distributed among
Germans across the Keystone State. Visitors can search the collection by keyword, title, author, or subject.
Currently, there are over 215 broadsides in the collection, with more to be added. The items traditional house blessings, announcements about upcoming events, medical remedies, mystical texts, political tracts, business advertisements, and more.
A component of the Unger-Bassler German-American Imprint Collection, this collection contains fine examples of printed and handcolored taufscheins (birth and baptismal certificates), vorshrifts (writing examples), haus segens (house blessings), bucherzeichen (book plates), and drawings created by Pennsylvania Germans.
Virtual exhibit of the Kansas State Historical Society
Klaus Stopp collection of printed Fraktur birth and baptismal certificates. Collection of approximately 1350 printed variants of German-American birth and baptismal certificates from about 1700 through 1934; collected and owned by Klaus Stopp and used to create his 7 volume bibliography: The Printed Birth and Baptismal Certificates of the German Americans. Mainz, Germany, K. Stopp, 1997-2014. Most have completed genealogical information and many are hand colored.
Heritage tour initiative highlighting Missouri’s German culture and history along the Missouri River. The program is collecting an inventory of sites, past people and institutions, settlements, culinary aspects, conflict (nativism, Civil War, Word Wars I and II), scenic byways, transportation (river landings, bridges, trails), religions influence, agriculture, maps, prints, and images, music, art and architecture, along with a list of current individuals and organization with whom to collaborate.
Explores aspects of the largest group of European origin to settle in the state. Topics include: German Immigration to Iowa; Brewing, Prohibition, Politics; Community Life;
German Iowa in Crisis: World War I; Economic and Political Crisis during the Great Depression, and the rise of National Socialism in Germany; World War II and its Aftermath; the Story of the Scattergood Refugee Hostel in West Branch, Iowa; and German Iowa by County
Tracing cultural history through GIS technology
- German Prisoner of War (POW) Camp Newspapers (Wyoming)
Der Zaungast (Douglas)
Douglas Offene Worte (Douglas)
Ekkhehard (Douglas)
Lager-Magazin (Cheyenne)
A guide to diverse materials available at the Williams Research Center of The Historic New Orleans Collection that concern the Germans of New Orleans. Sections include: Settlers, Organizations, German Views, Music and Socializing, Businesses, J. Hanno Deiler (New Orleans’s preeminent German scholar), and Rural German Enclaves. Also includes links to other Internet sites containing information on the German community in New Orleans and Louisiana.
Based on a presentation made at a joint meeting of the Indiana Germanic Heritage Society, Kentuckiana Germanic Heritage Society, and the Indiana Chapter of the Palatines to America
By Joseph R. Reinhart, author of A History of the 6th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry U.S.: The Boys Who Feared No Noise
History of St. Louis by the City of St. Louis; includes section on German migration
This Exhibit from the IUPUI University Library begins with a look at why people left Germany and settled in Indianapolis. It then discusses the influence of German-Americans on three areas of Indianapolis culture: music, architecture, and athletics. Finally, it explores the cultural conflict that German-Americans experienced and the steps they took to become acculturated
Wine and Liquor wholesalers and importers, operating from 1893 until 1918.
Other Topics
Biographies of famous German Americans
The German-American Hall of Fame highlights the impact of German immigrants to the United States and their progeny by providing biographical profiles of some of the most remarkable Americans with German roots.
Created by the Chicago Historical Society
A project of the German Historical Institute, this site will comprise, when complete, more than 200 biographical essays on first- and second-generation German-American immigrant entrepreneurs, combined with essays on various topics illustrated with primary sources such as photographs, media clips, and business documents. Other components of the project will include bibliographies for further research and suggestions for using the “Immigrant Entrepreneurship” website in the classroom. The site offers valuable information and source material for anyone interested in German-American history.
Talk given by Hartmut Keil in Madison, Wisconsin
From Robert Shea’s German-Americana page
Site provides a detailed narrative account of the socio-cultural history of the many German-speaking groups in Alberta from the 1880s to the present, accompanied by photos and excerpts from original documents. Incloudes sections on (a) the immigration history of Alberta’s German-speaking communities; (b) their geographical origin in Central and Eastern Europe, and Canadian immigration regulations; and on (c) 13 German-speaking communities. There is also a discussion of the possible reasons for the decline of German as a mother tongue and home language in the province.
TRACES is a non-profit educational organization created to gather, preserve and present stories of people from the Midwest and Germany or Austria who encountered each other during World War II. Many of these stories have lain beneath the dust left in the wake of a World War most never thought touched the American Heartland. Includes information on traveling exhibits such as “Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-1948.”
This women’s organization was founded by the Socialer Turnverein (Social Athletic Club) in 1876 as the Indianapolis Turn-Schwestern Verein. The records consist of constitutions and by-laws, minutes, correspondence, financial records, committee reports, membership lists and directories, event advertisements and photographs.
The Milwaukee County Historical Society owns the diaries of German-born artist Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1845 – 1921). On hundreds of pages containing his small handwriting, Heine wrote about his daily life in Milwaukee and his work as a panorama painter. See also: http://maxkade.blogspot.com/2008/12/diaries-of-panorama-painter-friedrich.html
Biographies of painters. Edited version of the book “America through the eyes of German Immigrant Painters” written by Anneliese Harding
Adolf Cluss, born 1825 in Heilbronn, emigrated to the United States in 1848 during the time of the failed revolution in the German states. Until 1858 he was a member of the Communist League with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In the years after the American Civil War, he became the most influential architect in Washington, D.C., especially known for his model schools and other public buildings.
A digital collection of decorative bindings, along with a comprehensive glossary and guide to book elements, PBO seeks to expand awareness of the book as artifact and of the role decorative bindings play in providing a window into the historical, cultural, and industrial period of 1815-1930. Includes bindings from the Max Kade Institute.
An academic Web site developed by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College (Pa.) to provide reliable information on Amish life and culture for scholars, students, and the general public.
Essay by Samuel Yoder; also photos of Amish farms and of antique Amish quilts
- padutch.net, a website associated with the MKI-sponsored Pennsylvania Dutch Documentation Project.
- Stones of Faith: Pennsylvania Germans & Their Gravestones
Examines a collection of Pennsylvania German gravestones erected from the 1740s to the late 1800s, showing how choices in gravestone imagery evolved from the early German settlement of Pennsylvania, through the Civil War time period and into the 1900s. Includes information on some of the people who erected the gravestones and a language and symbol guide.
Wisconsin Alumni Association presentation by Mark L. Louden, Professor of German, UW-Madison, November 2013.