German immigrants in the Chicago area E-Book

Catharina Bloch

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,3, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: The Germans are the largest ethnic group in the United States and especially in Chicago. Peculiarly, their influence seems to have vanished. Every other ethnic group left stronger traces of their existence than the Germans. I decided to take a look at the development of the German- American community or in fact to pursue the question as to whether there is a German- American identity.

Leseprobe

Table of Content

Chapter

1.1 Introduction

1.3 The reasons for immigration

1.4 The different groups of immigrants

1.5 Areas in Germany from which the emigration took place

1.7 Re-emigration to Germany

1.8 The problems the immigrants encountered

1.8.1 Consequences

1.8.2 The increase of problems during World War I

1.9 Positive aspects of life for Germans in Chicago

1.10 Germans in Chicago today

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Statues of famous Germans

2.3 Lincoln Park Mural

2.4 The D.A.N.K. Haus

2.5 German clubs

2.6 German newspapers

2.7 Imported German traditions, festivals and cultural contributions

3. Bibliography

Page 1

From the Civil War to the Welfare State: Social Thought and Public Policy in the US

Tag der Abgabe: 16. 07. 2007

Vorgelegt von: Catharina Bloch

Page 2

Chapter I:

The history of the

Germans in Chicago

1.1 Introduction

The Germans are the largest ethnic group in the United States and especially in Chicago. Peculiarly, their influence seems to have vanished. Every other ethnic group left stronger traces of their existence than the Germans.1I decided to take a look at the development of the German- American community or in fact to pursue the question as to whether there is a German- American identity. To answer this question we first have to take a look at the history of the German immigration.

1D´Eramo, Marco: The Pig and the Skyscraper. New York. 2002. p.211

Page 3

1.2 Figures of German immigration from 1820 - 1973

The first immigrants arrived in the United States between 1820 and 1830. The number of German immigrants in these years was 7,729. The numbers steadily increased and by 1851-60 there were up to 951, 667 people. In the years 1881-90 there was a huge influx of Germans. 1, 452, 970 immigrants arrived in this period of time. After those years a huge break in the number of immigrants occurred and the numbers steadily decreased. The least immigrants arrived in the United States in the 1910s and 1930s. In those years only slightly over 100 immigrants arrived. The 1972 Annual Report of the U.S. Immigration states that 6,925,736 Germans had entered America since 1820. This adds up to 15.25 percent of the total immigration.

The immigration to Chicago was above average but exact numbers do not exist. According to federal census and school census reports the number of German immigrants increased from 5,073 in 1850 to 191,168 in 1914. More recent numbers are from 1973 when 109 Germans emigrated to Chicago and 7,565 to the entire State of Illinois.