German Migration

It has been estimated that over seven million Germans came to America. Although a few went to Jamestown in 1607, and to New Amsterdam (New York City) in 1624, the first migration of German immigrants was in 1683 to the colony named Germantown in Pennsylvania. They came from Nordrhein-Westfalen. The group was small, only 13 families, and lead by Quaker William Penn and Franz Daniel Pastorus. They left to practice the religion of their choice.

Although religious persecution was a reason for their immigration, it was not the only reason Germans left for America, for Europe, the African gold coast, Venezuela, the South Sea Islands, or even China. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) brought on by a conflict between the Holy Roman Empire and the territorial rulers and princes of the states in German, and Europe, had a devastating effect on the economy and society. In 1673, 1688, and 1707, the Rhineland found itself under attack by the French, and in the 1800s by Napoleon. Prussia was looking to secure and extend its position of power in Germany and built a strong army. These wars brought Conscription, compulsory enrollment into the military, and it produced heavy taxation on the people from states needing to support their armies. Many Germans felt no allegiance to these princes and chose to leave.

Then in 1708-09, Europe experienced the worst winter ever. Farmers lost all their crops, and disaster and starvation followed. It was at this time that some 30,000 Palatines left Germany for England, but it was not their final destination. In 1710, 2,000 were helped by the British government to settle in Ireland in the Counties of Limerick and Dublin. Other Germans sailed for New York and settled in the colony of Newburgh along the Hudson River. They found fertile land to farm, and soon spread their farms out to Schenectady and Albany. By 1713-14 they were found in colonies in New Jersey, Maryland, and then to Germanna in Virginia. Virginia had good farmland, but it also provided work in the Iron mines.

Word spread quickly back to the German States that America was a fertile land of prosperity and opportunity. More and more Germans left for New York. Pennsylvania began offering jobs and land to anyone who would come. The Germans already settled in America kept moving in search of farmland, jobs, and work in the mines. In 1717 the settlers had moved into Pennsylvania to Germantown, and down to North Carolina to New Bern.

There was the problem of Indian attacks on the settlers on isolated farms, so the Germans began to build larger communities and moved into the cities, such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, Alexandria, and Frederick. By 1718 they started arriving in Louisiana. 1726 saw a movement into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and again to North Carolina in the 1750s. 1731-1738 saw some 30,000 German Protestants expelled from Salzburg. Most resettled in Prussia, but a few went to America. In 1734 these Salzburg Germans moved into Georgia, and settled Harper's Ferry in West Virginia. Pennsylvania remained the largest settlement of Germans. By 1775 some 70,000 Germans had settled in Pennsylvania, and by 1835 most Germans came in to the port of Philadelphia rather than New York.

In 1763, the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia gave an invitation to all foreigners with a skill to come to Russia. She wanted to develop the unpopulated areas of the Volga and Black Sea regions, and the Caucasus. These areas had been under attack from the Ottoman Turks, and Catherine wanted to ensure they remained a part of Russia. It was Germans, mostly from Hessen and the Rhineland that accepted the invitation. From 1763-1862 one of the greatest migrations of a people ever occurred when an estimated 100,000 Germans went to Russia.

During the Napoleonic Wars, 1783-1815, the French limited German immigration. The wars had crippled the economy and shattered the everyday lives of the people. Only a few were able to leave. But around 1818, a large wave of German immigration erupted again. Bad weather had once again caused the failure of crops. Coupled with the already bad economic conditions, Germans were fleeing again. A group of Old Lutherans, who wanted nothing to do with the Reformed and Lutheran churches, were looking for religious freedom. This time the Germans that left were from Bayern, Wurttembert, Hessen, Thuringen, and West Prussia.

In America, German settlements were growing. The migration of Germans could now be found in Maine and New York up to Buffalo. Settlements grew throughout Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh), into the Ohio Valley, and down to Tennessee and Kentucky. Germans had settled in most of Maryland, especially Baltimore, down along the Shenandoah Valley, through North and South Carolina, and on into Georgia. And as the west opened, settlements grew in Missouri and Wisconsin (with Germans from Westphalia and the North Rhineland).

The German communities established cooperative self-help societies and organizations for the new arrivals. They spread the word about jobs and cheap farmland. The organizations helped start new communities and cities. German influence in America was growing, and the crops and products they produced, especially cotton from New Orleans, and tobacco from the Carolinas, was sold back to Germany shipped into Bremen.

The port of Hamburg decided to step up its passenger carriers to America with direct routes to New York. By 1845 New York once again became the main port of entry for Germans. By 1854 more than a quarter of a million Germans had arrived in America.

In 1870 the German Empire was born from a confederation of states and kingdoms. Prussia was fighting wars with Austria, Denmark, France, and some of the smaller German states to remain the dominant power. Again, Germans would leave as a result of the devastation of war. Socialism was growing in Germany, and so were taxes. The third wave of German immigration began in 1880 with some 200,000 leaving. Swiss Germans began to leave in large numbers starting in 1881-1888, with the largest numbers leaving between 1910-1920.

It was at this time that German immigration slowed down. The constant wars had ended, and Germany was enjoying an age of booming industrial capitalism. New companies, the expansion of the railroad, and other large enterprises brought an enthusiastic economic activity to Germany, which brought prosperity to its people. But it would not last. Political unrest was boiling up in Europe, and socio-economic developments in Germany also brought rise to political struggles between the classes. And then, 1914-18, World War I began.

The war caused a wave of discrimination for German-Americans. As soon as they could, many fled to Canada, mostly to the industrial center of Ontario. New immigration laws in America slowed the entrance of immigrants. The Great Depression (1929-1934) brought mass unemployment around the world, and immigration just about stopped.

Germany saw Hitler's rise to power, dictatorship, and Nazi rule in 1933. Anti-Semitism drove many German Jews to seek refuge in the United States. In 1938 Austria was annexed by Germany, and in 1939 Czechoslovakia and Poland were invaded. Europe was in turmoil, and the Second World War began. German immigration to the United States basically came to a stop. As the Allied Forces took control of Western Germany, a mass migration of Eastern Europeans, and Germans, fled there for freedom. 1945 finds Germany in ruins, and divided into two states. Millions of German became refugees. 1948 once again saw the immigration of Germans to America, Canada, and Europe.

Western Germany rebuilt itself enjoying democracy and prosperity. Eastern Germany's social and economic conditions suffered. The Wall dividing the two went up in 1961. It was not until 1987 with Glasnost, and the fall of the Wall on November 9, 1989 that the Germans locked in the East were able to go back home. German boarders were open again and the migration began. The collapse of the East German economy caused a rush of refugees. They poured over the boarders at a rate of about 1500 a day. Western Germany found itself with serious economic problems and social tensions. As in earlier centuries, Germans migrated for freedom and prosperity. Reunification was necessary. On October 3, 1990, a United Germany was celebrated. They would have an uncertain future ahead of them. Germans would have to rebuild their economy, fix their social problems, and strengthen their role in the European Community. They would have to build a strong Germany to call home.

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