German language in the United States
The daily use would recede in public view to primarily Amish, Old Order Mennonite and Hutterite communities.
The first German newspaper in the U.S. was der Hochdeutsch-Pennsylvanische Geschicht-Schreiber, oder Sammlung Wichtiger Nachrichten aus dem Natur- und Kirchen-Reich ("the High German-Pennsylvanian story-writer, or collection of important news from the realms of nature and the church"), later known as die Germantauner Zeitung.
Die Westliche Post, where Joseph Pulitzer started his career, and Der Anzeiger des Westens."
Throughout much of the 19th century, there were fierce debates in many large American metropolitan areas with German immigrant communities, such as Chicago and St. Louis to determine whether public schools should offer German-language education.
The issue was of considerable local interest, as German-speaking families overwhelmingly sent their children to parochial schools at which instruction was conducted in German.
Hermann Raster, the Republican editor-in-chief of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, and the Socialist politician Adolph Douai strongly opposed the new rule, and both became known as vocal critics of enforcing English-only education in the United States.
During the early 20th century, as influential White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the United States sought to regain the upper hand of power and social influence, which had been heavily threatened by the waves of immigration, used politics and through the funded formation of the Ku Klux Klan, would help to give rise to anti-immigrant and distrust aimed at German-Americans among other groups of people.
One such death of note was that of Robert Prager, a German seeking naturalization in St. Louis, Missouri, who was accused on the night of April 14, 1914, of being a German spy by a mob of 300 "men and boys" after he had allegedly shared words at a socialist meeting earlier that evening.
The jail into which he had taken refuge from the crowds was quickly overrun and being stripped of his clothes, he was led down Main Street with a rope tied around his neck and was forced to walk the route.
With shattered glass bottles being thrown down in his walking path, he was forced to sing patriotic songs.
In an article from The St. Louis Global-Democrat, it was reported that there had been multiple incidences of mobs tarring and feathering individuals.
[15] In October 1918, a bill intended to restrict federal funds towards states that enforced English-only education was created.
[17] Closely related to the forced decline of German is the near default of the American war loans to the Triple Entente resulting in the introduction of the first to the fourth Liberty Bonds by the Federal Reserve.
After March 1918, the Federal Reserve Bank started to use dozens of mobile "war exhibits" stationed on trains that drove through the US to sell "liberty bonds."
Newspapers of the time have stories of harassment of "slackers," who were forced to buy bonds and burn German books during the exhibition.
Most of the "Pennsylvania Dutch" originate from the Palatinate area of Germany and their language is based on the dialect of that region.
Plautdietsch, a Low German dialect, is spoken and most often associated with "Russian" Mennonites who immigrated mostly to Kansas in the mid-1870s.
Following the introduction of English-only schooling during both World Wars, Texas German speakers drifted towards English and few passed the language to their descendants.
After Texas was granted statehood in 1845, it required that all laws be officially translated into German.
As cultural ties between Germany and the United States have been historically strong, a number of important German and U.S. authors have been popular in both countries.
to converse The story of the generally studied North Dakota German originates in southern central Germany.
By 1884, many of these German-Russians began their journey to present-day North Dakota, and primarily chose to settle in the south-central part of the state.
[42] The dialects of these immigrants, alongside cultural differences among the sub-ethnic groups of the "Volga Germans" are today often marked by small differences in meaning, word usage, and sometimes pronunciation which reflects the original regions of Germany from where many of the individuals of this ethnic group have their origins.
The dialects of southern Germany often are tied together with shared meanings, sounds, and grammars,[39] though remain distinct in syntax and grammatical pattern and often individual word definitions.
Die kommen frihjahrs [frühjahrs] zurick un Winter spenden sie in der Sid.
Er hatte Junges, das hat wolle schnell fliege lerne un war au nett star' genug.
- 72 yr old Informant; Lehr, North Dakota, 1975Over the years, Missouri became a state full of German enclaves.
Wir haben Hähne, En'en [Enten], Truthahn, bisschen von alles - ein Esel.
[46] Sample 2 (Conversational Saxon)Speaker 1: "'s freut mich doch dass wir widor zusamm'n komm'n kenn'n."
Excerpt from the interview: "Mir wuess'en kein Deitsch" This informant quickly fixed his mistake and said "Englisch".
