Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - German Americans

Episode Date: August 22, 2026

According to the US Census, the single largest ethnic group in the United States are Germans. More than 40 million Americans identified German as their ancestry, nearly 12 percent of the total population. Driven from Europe by unrest, poverty, famine, and religious persecution, Germans quickly assimilated into American society. So much so that it’s difficult to imagine an America without kindergarten, blue jeans, ketchup, and, of course, lagered beer. Learn more about the German diaspora and the impact of German migration on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Shop the store at Shop.Everything-Everywhere.com Sponsors Hexclad Get 10% off your order at hexclad.com/DAILY Mint Mobile Save 50% on Unlimited premium wireless plans starting at $15/month at MintMobile.com/EED Quince Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! DripDrop Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code EVERYTHING for 20% off your first order! Square Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/daily Horizon3 Go to horizon3.ai/everything and request your free NodeZero demo Babbel Go to babbel.com/daily for up to 60% off Subscribe to the podcast!  https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Austin Oetken & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Discord Server: https://discord.gg/Ds7Rx7jvPJ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/  Disce aliquid novi cotidie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to the U.S. census, the single largest ethnic group in the United States are Germans. More than 40 million Americans identified their ancestry as German. Driven from Europe by unrest, poverty, famine, and religious persecution, Germans quickly assimilated into American society. So much so that it's difficult to imagine in America without things like kindergarten, blue jeans, ketchup, and of course, lagered beer. Learn more about German Americans and the impact of German migrants. on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep podcast.

I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention, and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster. Hey, I'm Arne Neekam from the fully improvised comedy podcast, Hello from the Magic Tavern. I'm here with my co-hosts, John the Talking Badger, Bing Bong, and Usenor the Wizard. I greet the listeners. Look, I'm trapped in the magical land of foon.

So I started a podcast interviewing elves, unicorns, and other weirdos. We have great guests like Felicia Day, Jason Manzoon. Brinanenne Lee Mulligan, Amy Mann, and so many more. Oh, and I think one time we interviewed a sentient shoe? I hope it was sentient. Not to mention the evil people we've had to interview. How I hate evil. Join us as we bar crawl across the magical land of foon.

Looking for adventure. Getting caught up in escapades. Hello from the Magic Tavern is available right now on your favorite podcast app. And add free and with lots of bonus content on Patreon. Subscribe to Hello from the Magic Tavern today. The beginning of German migration in North America has its roots in the 30 years' war in the 17th century, which was fought largely on German soil, killing up to one-third of the population through violence, famine, and disease. The devastation of the 17th century prompted many German Protestants to seek opportunities abroad,

especially persecuted Anabaptist groups like the Mennonites and the Amish. This migration coincided with the visit of American colonial founder William B. Penn to the Rhine region of Germany in 1677. Penn brought promotional materials offering 5,000 acre plots of land for only 100 pounds, with the bonus of guaranteed religious freedom. And just six years later, German settlers founded Germantown, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Deutsch, who arrived in the region, have been erroneously referred to as the Pennsylvania Dutch. Throughout the 18th century, migrants arrived in steadily increasing.

numbers as word of the success of German migrants spread back home. Abundant cheap land, religious freedom, and agricultural hardships in Europe brought roughly a hundred thousand Germans to North America during the colonial era. Many financed their passage through redemptioner contracts, a form of indentured servitude where new arrivals repaid shipping merchants upon landing. Pennsylvania remained the epicenter of the diaspora. By the outbreak of the American Revolution, roughly one-third of the Pennsylvania colony was of German descent. The number of migrants exploded in the 19th century as agricultural woes, economic unrest, and political revolution

drove an estimated 5 million Germans to the United States. The German potato blight of the mid-1840s created the largest surge, as food prices increased by an estimated 100% causing mass starvation. In fact, it was 1841 when my great-great-great-grandfather arrived in the United States from Pomerania, Prussia, which today is part of Poland, but that's a whole other episode. Germans viewed America as an agricultural paradise, a promise made real by the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted 160 acres of surveyed public land to anyone willing to

farm it for five years. Books and glowing letters from successful immigrants fueled this perception, romanticizing the American experience. Along with these encouraging letters, immigrants provided prepaid tickets, fueling chain migration, and often sponsoring entire villages to migrate together. Immigrants established dense enclaves in the American Upper Midwest, which became known as the German Triangle. The endpoints of the German triangle were three Midwestern cities, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. While estimates vary, the population of those with German ancestry exploded, with Milwaukee reaching an estimated, 50% by the beginning of World War I, with Cincinnati and St. Louis very close behind.

Because German settlers arrived in such massive numbers, they fundamentally reshape the region's culture and economy. The most obvious economic contribution to these regions was beer. German immigrant and brewmaster John Wagner first introduced bottom fermenting yeast to the United States in 1840. This marked a major break from traditional top fermenting brew. or ales, which had dominated American cellars in taverns for generations. The introduction of bottom-fermenting beers spawned a revolution in technology and beer culture across the country. Brewers typically stored bottom-fermenting beers in cold caves and cellars, surrounded by ice when possible, because they ferment at much colder temperatures,

resulting in a clearer, crisper beer. German and Czech brewmasters in Europe began using pale malts to produce a new style of lighter beers, known as Pilsners and Loggers. Before commercial refrigeration, logging required cold climates. Milwaukee relied on its frigid winter and harvested ice from Lake Michigan, while St. Louis and Cincinnati

used extensive limestone caves and riverbank cellars. These cities grew into brewing powerhouses led by German immigrants, such as Frederick Pabst, Joseph Schlitz, and Valentin Blatz in Milwaukee, Kristen Moreline and John Hauke in Cincinnati, and Eberhard Anheiser and Adolphus Bush in St. Louis. Beer production in these cities soared, particularly in Milwaukee.

After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed the brewing industry there, Milwaukee filled the production deficit and never gave it back. By the 20th century, Pabst and Anheuser-Busch had pushed their production to more than a million barrels per year. German influence didn't stop at beer. German cuisine also left a significant. legacy on the region, particularly in sausage-making. Immigrant Butchers brought century of sausage-making experience, which led to the adoption of favorites like Broughtwurst, Knockworst, Liverwurst, and Brownschweger. It's almost impossible to visit Milwaukee without having some sausage. It's become a part of the city's

lore. Long-time Milwaukee journal writer H. Russell Austin captured this legacy when he wrote, quote, Milwaukee's German heritage gave the city a distinct old-world flavor. German butchers brought their traditional recipes and made sausage making one of the city's famous specialties. End quote. This was not unique to Milwaukee. Perhaps the most famous of the sausage cities is Cincinnati, which developed a powerful meatpacking industry and became known as Porkopoulos. Texas Barbecue is also heavily influenced by German immigrants to their region.

In the German Triangle, other German culinary traditions were wildly popular, particularly ketchup, sourcrow, mustard, rye bread, and of course, pretzels. Pretzels were a popular side dish at beer gardens, precisely because their salty flavor encouraged patrons to enjoy an extra beer or two, a trick that's still common in pubs and taverns today. German migrants also reformed one of America's most enduring traditions, Christmas. Before the 19th century wave of German migration, Christmas in America was a mixed bag, ranging from being strictly outlawed in some community,

to a rowdy street party. While early Pennsylvania Germans placed small, candle-lit evergreens on their tables and exchanged gifts in late December, the practice was far from widespread. To their non-German neighbors, bringing trees indoors

looked like an odd pagan ritual. Christmas trees gained popularity in the 1830s, thanks in part to magazine sketches depicting the British royal family embracing the practice. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, was German. The archetype, for Santa Claus came from a German immigrant and famous political cartoonist Thomas Nash.

Nass cartoons in the 1860s transformed Santa from a small elf-like figure in brown furs to our modern version. Nass even relocated Santa to the North Pole. Perhaps the most impactful German import during the 19th century emerged in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1856, when Margaritha Myers-Shurz opened the country's first kindergarten. Scherz knew the power of educating very young children. German educators had been using the system for nearly 30 years. When presented with praise for the miraculous behavior and maturity of her own five-year-old daughter, Scherz touted the virtue of early childhood education when she said,

quote, It's no miracle, but only brought up in a kindergarten, a garden whose plants are human. The failed uprisings across German states in 1848 sent thousands of political exiles each year to the American Midwest. The Germans who arrived during this migration, known as the 48ers, were a significant part of American history during the antebellum and civil war periods. Having escaped tyranny in Europe, many of the 48ers were staunch abolitionists. They became active spokesman for the cause, such as Carl Heinzen, one of the most outspoken abolitionists in the United States. Heinzen and his publication, the Louisville platform, didn't stop at abolition,

He also spoke out against the lack of voting rights for women. Carl Scherz fought as a student revolutionary during the 1848 Prussian uprising, a role that quickly drew an arrest warrant from the Prussian government. Scherz migrated to the United States, first through New York and eventually settling in Wisconsin. He became politically active in the emerging Republican Party. He chaired the Wisconsin delegation to the party's 1860 convention. He brought German-speaking people into the party and secured their support by giving bilingual speeches across the state, helping deliver a victory for Abraham Lincoln in Wisconsin.

Scherz's political activism reflected a broader German-American commitment to the union cause, with nearly 200,000 German-born soldiers taking up arms for the North. While German immigrants often enjoyed a reputation as skilled artisans and industrious farmers, they were far from immune to nativist backlash. The no-nothings, a late antebellal, secret political organization targeted German Catholics and the 48ers. Their mob attacked German interests across the German triangle and beyond for their religion, politics, and beer culture.

In 1855, the No-Nothing Party candidate James Taylor directed agitation against German voters, arousing protests and acts of electoral destruction in German enclaves. And of course, there was the Chicago Beer riot of 1855. German communities were targeted by temperance advocates for their drinking culture. Driven by nativism and temperance fervor, Chicago mayor Levi Boone struck directly at the city's German community in 1855. He tripled liquor license fees and outlawed Sunday saloon sales, provoking an armed march on the courthouse that exploded into a riot. German Americans have also made contributions in engineering, manufacturing, transportation, communications, and science.

Prominent German-born inventors and their descendants played a vital role in transforming American industry across the 19th and 20th centuries. Key breakthroughs included John Robling's development of wire rope, enabling the construction of suspension bridges, and Otmar Murgenthaler's Linotype machine, which revolutionized the printing field. Additional game-changing innovations included Amel Berliner's flat record and disc gramophone, Herman Holleris' punch-card tabulation system,

which is a crucial forerunner to modern computing, and George Westinghouse's safety air brakes for trains. German Americans also advanced agriculture with John Frailock's gasoline-powered tractor, electrical engineering through the works of Charles Proto Stainmets, and musical instrument design through the innovations of the Steinway family. And of course, we can't forget, Levi Strauss gave us the blue gene. Anti-German sediment accelerated during World War I.

The hostility spilled into public life as states banned German language instruction and church sermons, city councils changed German-sounding street names, and restaurants even rebranded Sourcrowt as Liberty Cabbage. German Americans were forced to register under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Registration involved completing a four-page form outlining their birth history and migration history, as well as providing a photograph. Federal Marshals arrested over 6,300 residents as enemy aliens, sending them to military internment camps in North Carolina and Georgia. President Woodrow Wilson's declaration outlined 12 regulations to guide the process and contained a description of an enemy alien.

Quote, an alien enemy whom there may be reasonable cause to believe to be abiding or about to aid the enemy, or violates any regulation promulgated by the president, will be subject to summary arrest and confinement in such penitentiary, prison, jail, or military camp. End quote. The challenges didn't stop at federal regulations, as Germans were often the victim of ostracism and public acts of violence. In 1918, hysteria drove the killing of coal miner Robert Prager. Prager was lynched by more than a hundred people in Collinsville, Illinois, and his only

crime was having a German accent at the height of anti-German hysteria during World War I. prosecutors tried 11 men for his murder, but the jury acquitted every single one. After deliberating for barely 10 minutes, the jury returned not guilty verdicts, prompting one juror to remark, quote, I guess nobody can say we aren't loyal now. In the 1930s, the rise of Nazi Germany once again threw the loyalty and standing of German Americans into question. But a new wave of German migrants would rise to the challenge of defeating Nazi Germany. Leading the charge was Albert Einstein, a German-born Jewish physicist driven out of Europe, who was followed by Hans Beta and James Frank. These men helped advance American science and pave the way for America's

use of nuclear energy and the creation of the atomic bomb. Despite being the largest ethnic group in the United States, Germans aren't nearly as high profile as other groups. There are some celebrations, but generations of German Americans who lived through the two world wars learned it was better to just assimilate and to downplay their heritage. But nonetheless, the contributions of German Americans have touched almost every area of life in the United States, even if most people don't realize it. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel.

The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research in writing for this episode was provided by Joel Hermanson. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord, as this is where everything happens outside of the podcast. As always, if you leave a review on any of the major podcast apps, you too can have it run in the show.