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German American Deutschamerikaner
A few Notable German Americans: Henry J. Heinz · Chester Nimitz · Dwight D. Eisenhower Albert Einstein · Paris Hilton · Clark Gable Leonardo DiCaprio · Marlene Dietrich · Bruce Willis
Total population
German Americans 50,764,352 17.1% of the US population (2006) [1]
Regions with significant populations
throughout the United States
Language(s)
American English, German
Religion(s)
Christian (Protestant & Lutheran; Roman Catholic), Jewish, Amish
Related ethnic groups
Ethnic Germans (which includes Germans, Austrians and some Swiss), Austrian Americans, German Canadians, Scandinavian Americans, Dutch Americans, German diaspora

German Americans (German Deutschamerikaner) are citizens of the United States of ethnic German ancestry and currently form the largest ancestry group in the United States, accounting for 17% of the U.S. population.^[2] The first significant numbers arrived in the 1680s in New York and Pennsylvania. Some eight million German immigrants entered the United States since then. Immigration continued in substantial numbers during the 19th century; the largest number of arrivals came 1840–1900. Germans form the largest group of immigrants coming to the U.S., outnumbering even the Irish and English.^[3] Some arrived seeking religious or political freedom, others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others simply for the chance to start afresh in the New World. California and Pennsylvania have the largest populations of German origin, with over six million German Americans residing in the two states alone.^[4] Over 50 million people in the United States identify German as their ancestry^[1]. In the 1990 U.S. census, 58 million Americans claimed to be solely or partially of German descent.^[5] In Pennsylvania, English and German were co-official languages until around the time of World War I.

Americans of German descent live in nearly every American county. They have been in the US for 400 years, from the East Coast, where the first German settlers arrived in the 1600s, to the West Coast and in all the states in between. German Americans and those Germans who settled in the United States have been influential in most every field, from science, to architecture, to sports and entertainment to commercial industry. Some, like Brooklyn Bridge engineers John Augustus Roebling or architect Walter Gropius, left behind visible landmarks. Some people of German birth, like Albert Einstein and Wernher von Braun, set intellectual landmarks. In sports, Babe Ruth is widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball players in history.^[6] Others are prominent celebrities like Clark Gable^[7][8], Marlene Dietrich^[9][10], Paris Hilton^[11][12], Doris Day^[13][14], David Hasselhoff^[15][16], Leonardo DiCaprio^[17], Bruce Willis^[18], Sandra Bullock^[19], Edward Arnold^[20], and Kirsten Dunst^[21].

Throughout the year, German Americans get together often for ethnic celebrations, the largest being the German-American Steuben Parade in New York City, which is held every third Saturday in September. In 2007, for the 50th anniversary, the parade was led by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, another German American.

The first seeds of this country were planted at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in what is today the United States of America. The first English settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607; the first German, in 1608. Germans were present in the American colonies from the very beginning of settlement. The Germans who came to Jamestown in 1608 and subsequently in 1620 were the forerunners of the largest nationality to immigrate to the United States since its founding in 1776.

The first Germans to reach the Jamestown Settlement came aboard the English vessel Mary and Margaret, captained by Christopher Newport. They left England around July 1608 and arrived in Virginia around 1 October -- 12 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. They consisted of up to five unnamed glassmakers and three carpenters or house builders -- Adam, Franz and Samuel. They came in a group of about 70 new settlers, including several Polish makers of pitch and tar, soap ashes and potashes. Jamestown at that time consisted of nothing but a small wooden fort on a peninsula of the James River, which flows into Chesapeake Bay near modern Norfolk, Virginia.

Among the settlers was a Swiss German mineral prospector called William Volday by the English; his original name was probably Wilhelm Waldi. He accompanied Captain Newport on a search for precious metals shortly after their arrival. This was done by order of the organizers of the Colony, the Virginia Company of London, a stock company. The colonists believed that they had found a vein of silver beyond the falls of the James River, but they were forced to return when their supplies ran low.

The Germans and the Poles faced precarious conditions at James Fort, which had been built on the north bank of the James River by June 1607. More than half of the original 105 settlers were already dead by the first autumn.^[22]

The first German settlement was Germantown, Pennsylvania, founded near Philadelphia on October 6, 1683.^[23]

John Jacob Astor, detail of an oil painting by Gilbert Stuart, 1794. Originally Johann Jakob Astor, he was the first of the Astor family dynasty and the first millionaire in the United States, making his fortune in the fur trade and New York City real estate.

Large numbers of Germans migrated from the 1680s to 1760s. They migrated to America for a variety of reasons.^[23] The two causes for the migration were push factors: worsening opportunities for farm ownership in central Europe, persecution of some religious groups, and military conscription; and pull factors, with better economic conditions in the U.S. (especially the opportunity for farmers to own land).

Large sections of Pennsylvania and upstate New York attracted Germans. Most were Lutheran or German Reformed; many belonged to small religious sects such as the Moravians and Mennonites. German Jews started coming after 1840. German Catholics started coming after the war of 1812.

In 1709 Protestant Germans from the Pfalz or Palatine region of Germany built rafts and traveled down the Rhine to Rotterdam. They lived in shantytown shacks with reed roofs in winter. The Dutch took up a collection to help them subsist until they could travel by ship to London. In London the Palatine families lived in tent cities in the parks until Protestant Queen Anne Stuart could help them get to her colonies in America. Four American Indian kings were also visiting London at that time. The Mohawk king offered to share land in the Mohawk valley of New York. The trip was long and difficult to survive due to the poor quality of food and water aboard ship and the infectious disease typhus, or Palatine fever. Many immigrants, particularly children, died before reaching America.

The Palatine migration to the Hudson River Valley in New York turned out to be the largest single immigration to America in the colonial period. By 1711, for example, seven villages had been established in New York on the Robert Livingston manor. By 1750, the Germans occupied a strip some 12 miles long along the left bank of the Mohawk River. The soil was excellent; some 500 houses had been built, mostly of stone; and the region prospered in spite of Indian raids. Herkimer was the best-known of the German settlements in a region long known as the "German Flats." The most famous figure was editor John Peter Zenger, who led the fight for freedom of the press in America. Later John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant from Baden, became the richest man in America from his fur trading and real estate investments in New York.

The tide of German immigration to Pennsylvania swelled between 1725 and 1775, with many immigrants arriving as redemptioners. By 1775, Germans constituted about one-third of the population of Pennsylvania. The German farmers were renowned for the highly productive animal husbandry and agricultural practices. Politically, they were inactive until 1740, when they joined a Quaker-led coalition that took control of the legislature, which generally supported the American Revolution. Despite this many of the German settlers were loyalists during the revolution because they feared that their royal land grants would be taken away by a new republican government.^[24] The Germans, comprising Lutherans, Reformed, Mennonites, Amish, and other sects, developed a rich religious life with a strong musical culture. These Germans came to be known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. There were few German Catholics in Pennsylvania before the 1810s.^[25]

Many Hessian POWs from the American Revolutionary War settled in America. The Continental Congress lacked the money to send many of the German prisoners back to Europe.

A large German colony in Virginia called Germanna was located near Culpeper and was founded by two waves of colonists in 1714 and 1717. Large settlements were formed in North Carolina, especially near Salem. There were also many German settlers around the Dutch (Deutch) Fork area of South Carolina.

A thriving population of Germans lived upriver from New Orleans, Louisiana, attracted to the area through pamphlets such as J. Hanno Deiler's "Louisiana: A Home for German Settlers." ^[26]

Between 1742 and 1753, roughly 1,000 Germans settled in Broad Bay, Massachusetts (now Waldoboro, Maine). Many of the colonists fled to Boston, Nova Scotia, and North Carolina after their houses were burned and their neighbors killed or carried into captivity by Native Americans. The Germans who remained found it difficult to survive on farming and eventually turned to the shipping and fishing industries.

In the 1790 U.S. census, the first taken by the new country, Germans are estimated to have constituted nearly 9% of the white population in the United States.

German population density in the United States, 1872.

Heavy German immigration to the United States occurred between 1848 and World War I, during which time nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States. From 1840 to 1880 Germans were the largest group of immigrants. Following the revolutions in German states in 1848, a wave of political refugees fled to America, and became known as Forty-Eighters. They included professionals, journalists and politicians. Prominent names included Carl Schurz and Henry Villard.^[27]

The cities of Chicago, Detroit, and New York were favored destinations. By 1900, the cities of Cleveland, Milwaukee, Hoboken and Cincinnati were all over 40% German. Dubuque and Davenport, Iowa, had even larger proportions. The Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati was one of the largest German Catholic-American cultural centers. Milwaukee witnessed the rapid expansion of its German ancestry population in the mid 1800s, many of whom entered city politics in great numbers where they became a vanguard among that city's Social Democratic Party (Socialists), and engaged in many industrial pursuits, most prominently beer brewing under the Pabst, Schlitz, Miller, and Blatz family brands. German Americans in Milwaukee also established schools and teacher training seminaries (Töchter-Institut) to prepare students and teachers in proper German language training. By the late 19th century, Milwaukee was also home to Germania Publishing Company, a publisher of books, magazines, and newspapers in German.^[28] In many other cities, such as Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Richmond, Virginia, German Americans were at least 30% of the population.

About half went to cities, the other half went to farms in the Midwest; by the mid-20th century they were the predominant rural element in much of the Midwest, as they were more likely than others to remain on farms. Texas attracted many Germans, such as Paul Machemehl, as did cities in the border states such as Baltimore, Louisville and St. Louis. Few Germans went to the Deep South, though German Americans moving from surrounding rural areas made up a noteworthy part of the population of New Orleans. ^[29] German Americans were the largest group of immigrants during the 19th century, outnumbering both English and Irish immigrants, making German Americans the largest ethnic group in the United States today.^[3]

The immigrants were as diverse as their countries of origin, except that very few aristocrats or upper middle class businessmen arrived.^{[citation needed]} For example, consider Texas, with about 20,000 German Texans in the 1850s (from Handbook of Texas Online):

The Germans who settled Texas were diverse in many ways. They included peasant farmers and intellectuals; Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and atheists; Prussians, Saxons, Hessians, and Alsatians; abolitionists and slaveholders; farmers and townsfolk; frugal, honest folk and ax murderers. They differed in dialect, customs, and physical features. A majority had been farmers in Germany, and most arrived seeking economic opportunities. A few dissident intellectuals fleeing the 1848 revolutions sought political freedom, but few, save perhaps the Wends, went for religious freedom.

The German settlements in Texas reflected their diversity. Even in the confined area of the Hill Country, each valley offered a different kind of German. The Llano valley had stern, teetotaling German Methodists, who renounced dancing and fraternal organizations; the Pedernales valley had fun-loving, hardworking Lutherans and Catholics who enjoyed drinking and dancing; and the Guadalupe valley had atheist Germans descended from intellectual political refugees. The scattered German ethnic islands were also diverse. These small enclaves included Lindsay in Cooke County, largely Westphalian Catholic; Waka in Ochiltree County, Midwestern Mennonite; Hurnville in Clay County, Russian German Baptist; and Lockett in Wilbarger County, Wendish Lutheran.

Thousands of German Americans volunteered to fight for the Union in the American Civil War (1861-1865). Many Germans had a strong revulsion against slavery. This was reflected in an incident on January 1, 1861, when the mostly German crowd made such a disturbance at a slave sale at the St. Louis courthouse that the sale couldn't go above $8.00. This was the last slave auction in St. Louis. Many Germans could see the parallel between slavery and serfdom in the old fatherland.^[30] The Germans were among the largest immigrant groups to participate in the Civil War: roughly 516,000 (23.4% of all Union soldiers) were German Americans, and about 216,000 were born in Germany. 36,000 of these native-born Germans enlisted from New York. Behind the Empire State came Missouri with 30,000 and Ohio with 20,000. ^[31] A popular Union commander among Germans, Major General Franz Sigel was the highest-ranking German American officer in the Union Army, with many Germans claiming to enlist to "fight mit Sigel."

A Missouri man had once written the Confederate authorities that all they had to do to get rid of the Saint Louis Unionists was destroy the local breweries and seize all the beer: "... By this means the Dutch [Germans] will all die in a week and the Yankees will then run from this State."

- M. Jeff Thompson of Missouri

A late manifestation of this identification of Germans with the Unionist-Abolitionist cause came in the 1870s, when the so-called "Mason County War" broke out in Mason County, Texas - where "Germans" were identified as Unionists while "Americans" were predominantly pro-Confederate. The conflict claimed some dozen lives before petering out. Now it is remembered chiefly due to the participation on the anti-German side of the famous outlaw Johnny Ringo.

After two or three generations, German Americans adopted mainstream American customs—some of which they heavily influenced—and switched their language to English. As one scholar concludes, "The overwhelming evidence ... indicates that the German-American school was a bilingual one much (perhaps a whole generation or more) earlier than 1917, and that the majority of the pupils may have been English-dominant bilinguals from the early 1880s on."^[32] By 1914 the older members were attending German language church services while the younger members were attending English services (in Lutheran, Evangelical and Catholic churches). In German parochial schools the children spoke English among themselves, though some of their classes were in German. In 1917–18, nearly all German language instruction ended, as did most German language church services.

During World War I, German Americans, especially those born abroad, were sometimes accused of being too sympathetic to the German Empire. Theodore Roosevelt denounced "hyphenated Americanism" and insisted that dual loyalties were impossible in wartime. A small minority came out for Germany, including H. L. Mencken, who believed the German democratic system was superior to American democracy. Likewise Harvard psychology professor Hugo Münsterberg dropped his efforts to mediate between America and Germany and threw his efforts behind the German cause.^[33]

Several thousand vocal opponents of the war were imprisoned.^[34] Thousands were forced to buy war bonds to show their loyalty. The Red Cross barred individuals with German last names from joining in fear of sabotage. One man was hanged in Illinois, apparently for no other reason than that he appeared to be of German descent. The killers were found innocent of the crime and the hanging was called an act of patriotism by a jury. A Minnesota minister was tarred and feathered when he was overheard praying in German with a dying woman.^[35] Some Germans during this time "Americanized" their names (e.g. Schmidt to Smith, Müller to Miller, Rickenbacher to Rickenbacker, Eisenhauer to Eisenhower) and limited their use of the German language in public places. Similarly, foods with German names such as sauerkraut and bratwurst were renamed "liberty cabbage" and "liberty sausage". In Chicago Frederick Stock temporarily stepped down as conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra until he finalized his naturalization papers. Berlioz replaced Wagner on programs. In Cincinnati, reaction to anti-German sentiment during World War I caused the Public Library of Cincinnati to withdraw all German books from its shelves.^[36] German-named streets were renamed. For example, in Indianapolis, a street named Germania Avenue was renamed Pershing Ave.—for a World War I general of German descent. Nebraska banned instruction in any language except English, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the ban illegal in 1923 (Meyer v. Nebraska), by which time the nativist mood had largely subsided. In Iowa, the Babel Proclamation made speaking foreign languages in public illegal.

114,000 Germans moved to the United States between 1931 and 1940, many of whom were anti-Nazis fleeing government oppression.^[37] About 25,000 people became paying members of the pro-Nazi German American Bund during the years before the war.^[38] German Americans who had been born overseas were the subject of some suspicion and discrimination during the war, although prejudice and sheer numbers meant they suffered as a group generally less than Japanese Americans. The Alien Registration Act of 1940 required 300,000 German-born U.S. resident aliens to register with the federal government and restricted their travel and property ownership rights.^[39][40] Under the still active Alien Enemy Act of 1798, the United States government interned nearly 11,000 German Americans between 1940 and 1948.^[41] Some of these were United States citizens; some were the parents of active military men.^[42] Civil rights violations occurred.^[43] 500 were arrested without warrant. Others were held without charge for months or interrogated without benefit of legal counsel. Convictions were not eligible for appeal.^[43] An unknown number of "voluntary internees" joined their spouses and parents in the camps and were not permitted to leave.^[44][45][46]

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, kept his promise to German Americans that they would not be hounded as in 1917–18. Roosevelt made a deliberate effort to name prominent German Americans to top war jobs, including General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Admiral Chester Nimitz, General Carl Spaatz, and even Republican Wendell Willkie. German Americans who had fluent German language skills were an important asset to wartime intelligence, serving as translators and even as spies for the United States.^[47] The war evoked strong patriotic sentiments among German Americans, few of whom had any contacts with distant relatives in the old country.

From the 1970s onwards, time had largely abated the anti-German sentiment produced by World War II.^[48] Today, recent German Americans that immigrated after World War II share the same features as any other Western European immigrant group in the U.S. Mostly professionals, academics, and spouses, they reflect the changing nature of Europe as a preferred destination for immigrants rather than a source of migrating peoples. Although their numbers are far fewer than previous generations of German American immigrants, their personal and cultural ties to Germany and Europe are once again just as strong.^[49]

According to the 2005 American Community Survey^[50], 50 million Americans have German ancestry. German Americans represent 17% of the total U.S. population and 26% of the non-Hispanic white population. Only 1.5 million Americans speak German.

Of the four major U.S. regions, German was the most-reported ancestry in the Midwest, second in the West, and third in both the Northeast and the South. German was the top reported ancestry in 23 states, and it was one of the top five reported ancestries in every state except Maine and Rhode Island.

1850 census map shows Lutheran population. Nearly all were German since few Scandinavians had arrived yet.

Immigrants from Germany in the early to late 1800s brought many different religions with them. The largest numbers were generally Catholic or Lutheran, although the Lutherans were themselves split several ways. The more conservative groups comprised the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Other Lutherans formed a complex checkerboard of synods, most of which in 1988 merged, along with Scandinavian synods, into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Still other German Protestants were not Lutherans but were descendants of the united "Evangelical Church" in Germany. They created the Reformed denomination (especially in New York and Pennsylvania), and the Evangelical denomination (strongest in the Midwest). They are now part of the United Church of Christ. Many immigrants joined quite different churches from those in Germany, especially the Methodist church.

Before 1800, communities of Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites had formed and are still in existence today. Some still speak dialects of German, including Pennsylvania German.

Some 19th century immigrants, especially the "48ers", were secular, rejecting formal religion.

The Amish, who were originally from southern Germany and Switzerland, arrived in Pennsylvania during the early 18th century. Amish immigration to the United States reached its peak between the years 1727 and 1770. Religious freedom was perhaps the most pressing cause for Amish immigration to Pennsylvania, which became known as a haven for persecuted religious groups at the time.^[51] The Hutterites are another example of a group of German Americans who continue a lifestyle similar to that of their ancestors. Hutterites, much like the Amish, fled persecution for their religious beliefs and came to the United States in 1870. Today Hutterites mostly reside in Montana, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, as well as in the western provinces of Canada. Hutterites continue to speak German, with most being able to speak Standard German in addition to their dialect.^[52]

Dispersal of German Americans according to the 2000 census

Germans have contributed to a vast number of areas in American culture and technology. Baron von Steuben, a former Prussian officer, led the reorganization of the U.S. Army during the War for Independence and helped make the victory against British troops possible. The Steinway & Sons piano manufacturing firm was founded by immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg in 1853. German settlers brought the Christmas tree custom to the United States. The Studebakers built large numbers of wagons used during the Western migration; Studebaker, like the Duesenberg brothers, later became an important early automobile manufacturer. Carl Schurz, a refugee from the unsuccessful first German democratic revolution of 1848 (see also German Confederation), served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

Due to the developments in Germany leading from World War I and World War II, many German researchers, doctors and scientists (particularly Jews) left Germany due to economic problems or as a result of racial, religious, and political persecution. Probably the most famous of them was Albert Einstein, known for his Theory of Relativity.

After World War II, Wernher von Braun, and most of the leading engineers from the former German rocket base Peenemünde, were brought to the U.S. They contributed decisively to the development of U.S. military rockets, as well as rockets for the NASA space program.

The influence of German cuisine is seen in the cuisine of the United States throughout the country, especially regarding pastries, meats and sausages, and above all, beer. Frankfurters (or "wieners", originating from Frankfurt and Vienna, respectively), hamburgers, bratwurst, sauerkraut, and strudel are common dishes. Germans have almost totally dominated the beer industry since 1850. German bakers introduced the pretzel. The revival of microbreweries is partly due to instruction from German beer masters. One of the areas in which the influence of German cuisine is strongest is the small town Midwest. Among larger cities, Cincinnati is known for its German American annual festival Zinzinnati,^[53], and Milwaukee is known for German Fest. The two are among the largest German American festivals in the country. Oktoberfest, German-American Day and Von Steuben Day celebrations are held regularly throughout the country.

There have only been two presidents of primarily German heritage: Dwight Eisenhower (original family name Eisenhauer) and Herbert Hoover (original family name Huber).^[54]

German Americans are common in the U.S. Light blue indicates counties where persons of German ancestry form a plurality.

Today, most German Americans have assimilated to the point that they no longer have readily identifiable ethnic communities, though there are still many metropolitan areas where German is the most reported ethnicity, such as Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Richmond, Virginia, and Milwaukee. The following list shows specifically German neighborhoods and areas that are now largely extinct. (It focuses on urban areas and does not include the rural areas extending from western New Jersey and Upstate New York to the Great Plains that were, or still are, heavily German.)

• Irvington, New Jersey
• Hoboken, New Jersey
• Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio
• German Village, Columbus, Ohio
• Yorkville, Manhattan
• Woodhaven, Queens
• Ridgewood, Queens
• College Point, Queens
• Glendale, Queens
• Bushwick, Brooklyn
• Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn
• Williamsburg, Brooklyn
• Lindenhurst, New York
• Rahway, New Jersey
• East Allegheny, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Lincoln Square, Chicago
• Bevo Mill Neighborhood, St. Louis, Missouri
• Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C.
• Germantown, Philadelphia
• Yorkville, Pottsville, Pennsylvania
• Helen, Georgia
• Frankenmuth, Michigan
• German Coast, Louisiana
• Fredericksburg, Texas

Further information: Germans in Omaha

• List of German Americans
• Ethnic German
• German in the United States
• History of Germany
• Immigration to the United States
• German Texan
• Pennsylvania Dutch
• German Palatines
• Paul Machemehl
• German-American relations
• German-Americans in the Civil War

• Colman J. Barry, The Catholic Church and German Americans. (1953)
• Angus Baxter, In Search of Your German Roots. The Complete Guide to Tracing Your Ancestors in the Germanic Areas of Europe. Fourth Edition (2001)
• Thomas Cochran, The Pabst Brewing Company: The History of an American Business (1948)
• Carol K. Coburn, Life at Four Corners: Religion, Gender, and Education in a German-Lutheran Community, 1868–1945 (1992).
• Kathleen Neils Conzen, Germans in Minnesota (2003)
• Dobbert, Guido .A. "German-Americans between New and Old Fatherland, 1870–1914". American Quarterly 19 ( 1967): 663-80. In JSTOR
• Ellis, M. and P. Panayi. "German Minorities in World War I: A Comparative Study of Britain and the USA." Ethnic and Racial Studies 17 ( April 1994): 238-59.
• Albert Bernhardt Faust. The German Element in the United States with Special Reference to Its Political, Moral, Social, and Educational Influence 2 vol (1909)]
• Jon Gjerde, The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830–1917 (1997)
• Gleason, Philip. The Conservative Reformers: American Catholics and the Social Order. (1968)
• Iverson, Noel. Germania, U.S.A.: Social Change in New Ulm, Minnesota. (1966), emphasizes Turners
• Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest, Social and Political Conflict 1888–1896" (1971), focus on voting behavior of Germans, prohibition issue, language issue and school issue
• Johnson, Hildegard B. "The Location of German Immigrants in the Middle West". Annals of the Association of American Geographers 41 (1951): 1–41. in JSTOR
• Jordon, Terry G. German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-century Texas. (1966)
• Kazal, Russell A. Becoming Old Stock: The Paradox of German-American Identity (2004) ethnicity and assimilation in 20c Philadelphia
• Kazal, Russell A. "Revisiting Assimilation: The Rise, Fall, and Reappraisal of a Concept." American Historical Review 100 (1995): 437-71. in JSTOR
• Luebke, Frederick C. Bonds of Loyalty: German Americans During World War I. (1974)
• Luebke, Frederick C. ed. Ethnic Voters and the Election of Lincoln (1971)
• Luebke, Frederick. Immigrants and Politics: the Germans of Nebraska, 1880–1900. (1969)
• O'Connor, Richard. German-Americans: an Informal History. (1968), popular
• Henry A. Pochmann, and Arthur R. Schultz; German Culture in America, 1600–1900: Philosophical and Literary Influences (1957)
• Roeber, A. G. Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America (1998)
• Tatlock, Lynne and Matt Erlin, eds. German Culture in Nineteenth-Century America: Reception, Adaptation, Transformation (2005)
• Thernstrom, Stephan ed. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1973)
• Tischauser, Leslie V. The Burden of Ethnicity The German Question in Chicago, 1914–1941 1990.
• Tolzmann, Don H., ed. German Americans in the World Wars, vols. 1 and 2. Munich, Germany: K.G. Saur, 1995.
• Don Heinrich Tolzmann, The German-American Experience (2000)
• Carl Frederick Wittke, The German-Language Press in America (1957)
• Carl Wittke, Refugees of Revolution: The German Forty-Eighters in America (1952)
• Carl Wittke, We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant (1939), ch 6, 9
• Wood, Ralph, ed. The Pennsylvania Germans. (1942)
• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Reasons Germans Came to America
• “Deutsch-Athen Revisited: Writing the History of Germans in Milwaukee”, Dr. Anke Ortlepp, University of Cologne

• The Germany Society of Pennsylvania (oldest German Society in the U.S.)
• Interactive German-History Map of Pittsburgh
• The Pennsylvania German Society
• The first Germans
• German-American links from University of Cincinnati
• Early German American Religious History
• Germans in Chicago
• Chronology: Germans in America
• Emigrant Letters to Germany (in German)
• Milwaukee German-American Radio Program
• Government Resources
• Famous Americans of German, Austrian, or German-Swiss Ancestry
• Germany-USA Career Center - Bilingual Employment Opportunities
• Teutonia Männerchor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Deutschtown (East Allegheny, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Mural
• German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA Inc. Washington,DC

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