German immigration to Puerto Rico
However, it was the economic and political situation in Europe during the early 19th century plus the fact that the Spanish Crown re-issued the Royal Decree of Graces (Real Cédula de Gracias) which now allowed Europeans who were not of Spanish origin to immigrate to the island that contributed the most to the immigration of hundreds of German families to Puerto Rico in search of a better life.
Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain to the United States under the terms of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish–American War, and the U.S. established military bases there.
Many soldiers of German-American background stationed in the island upon encountering Puerto Ricans of German ancestry quickly made social contact with them.
Many of these early German immigrants established warehouses and businesses in the coastal towns of Fajardo, Arroyo, Ponce, Mayagüez, Cabo Rojo and Aguadilla.
By establishing businesses dedicated to the exportation and importation of these and other goods, Germany no longer had to pay the high tariffs which the British charged them.
Many people who worked the farmlands abandoned their homes and moved to the larger, industrialized cities with the hope of finding better paying jobs.
Those who continued to work in the agricultural sector suffered the consequences of the widespread crop failures which came about as the result of long periods of drought and disease, the cholera epidemic and a general deterioration of economic conditions.
[8] The Mennonite Church, which began with the Anabaptists in the German and Dutch-speaking parts of central Europe in the 16th century, also established congregations in Puerto Rico.
[9] Two commercial establishments in Puerto Rico have become gathering places for Puerto Rico's German community; the more than half-century old Zipperle's Restaurant in San Juan,[12] and the Casa Bavaria restaurant located in the central mountain range (Cordillera Central) in Morovis,[13] visited in 2009 by President Bill Clinton.
[14] Puerto Rican-German cuisine can also be found in Heidelberg Haus German Restaurant in Río Grande and Carolina and at Das Alpen Cafe, in the town of Rincón.
Many of these interior-island German settlers made their fortunes cultivating large agricultural enterprises in this sector and in some cases became owners of sugar cane and tobacco plantations.
[15] Unlike their countrymen who settled in the United States or in much larger South American colonial outposts in Brazil and Argentina in often isolated and close-knit communities, the German immigrants arriving in Puerto Rico moved quickly to marry into the most prosperous and upper-class families who were already the successful entrepreneurial class on the island.
Among her works are the following:[16] By the beginning of the 20th century, many of the descendants of these earlier German settlers had become successful and prominent businessmen, philanthropists, educators/academicians, international entrepreneurs, and scientists and were among the pioneers of Puerto Rico's television and mass media and journalism industries of today.
[20] Dr. Sixto González Edick was named Director of the Arecibo Observatory, the world's largest single dish radio telescope.
[22] His brother, Colonel Rudolph W. Riefkohl, U.S. Army, played an instrumental role in helping the people of Poland overcome the 1919 typhus epidemic.
[23] Major General Luis R. Estéves Völckers, U.S. Army, became the first Puerto Rican and Hispanic to graduate from the United States Military Academy in 1915.
It was the first time in the thirty-one year history of BALTOPS that the exercise included combined ground troops from Russia, Poland, Denmark and the United States.
