About a thousand Germans came to Bombardopolis, invited by France, in the eighteenth century and managed to make a living in agriculture.

That first wave of Germans, having been permitted to settle in one of the least fertile part of Haiti left the island for Guyana, and Louisiana.

Germany having no colonies in the Caribbean found a country open to foreign trade, with limited competition from other nations.

At the end of the First World War most Germans left Haïti, never to return due to the hostility of the American occupying force.

It has been reported that the German/Haitian prisoners were offered American citizenship but rejected this, preferring to be sent back to Haiti.

“There were Latin American and U.S. businessmen who begrudged the success of Japanese, German, and Italian nationals and the war provided an opportunity to remove this source of competition.”