The German Element in the United States, With Special Reference to Its Political, Moral, Social and Educational Influence, by Albert Bernhardt Faust is a two-volume work published in 1909.
It discusses the experience, influence and accomplishments of people of German heritage residing in the United States from the times of the early European settlements through the 19th century.
Faust's chief object, as the book's subtitle emphasizes, was to estimate the influence of people of German heritage upon the whole body politic of the United States.
This goal prompted a twofold solution: first, a chronological history of people of German heritage in the United States; and second, a categorical discussion, looking at the influence in political, moral, social and educational fields.
In the first volume, the chronological history, Faust largely builds up a negative argument in favor of the early German settlers in the United States, "their value being manifest mainly when measured by the standard of assimilation".
[1] In the second volume, the categorical history, he sets out to show what he feels is a positive influence of people of German heritage upon life in the United States and upon the American stereotype.
For example, in the chapter on industrial development, illustrations are furnished purporting to prove that in all branches requiring technical training German influence was predominant.
And it seems likely more are included since large numbers of United States residents appear in the book merely because they bear names of German origin.
It was "broken up into hundreds of practically independent principalities, whose rulers generally imitated the example of Louis XIV.”[2] In short, the conditions which brought about the French Revolution were as prevalent in Germany as in France.
The system of "redemptioners" — immigrants who virtually sold themselves into slavery for a term of years to pay their passage to the colonies – was brutal in the extreme.
According to tradition, a Native American chief who was visiting in London saw and pitied the exiles and offered Queen Anne a tract of land for some of them on the Schoharie Creek, in New York State.
George Washington's body guard was made up almost wholly of people of German heritage, and he had a high regard for these troops who served throughout the war.