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  #21  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2022, 11:25 PM
Docere Docere is offline
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Among states, Pennsylvania has the largest population of German ancestry (2,824,000) edging out California (2,794,000).

Chicago has the most people of German ancestry of any MSA (1,303,000).
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  #22  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2022, 11:26 PM
Docere Docere is offline
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German ancestry (2021 ACS 1-year estimates)

Alabama 335,647 6.7%
Arizona 916,084 12.6%
Arkansas 292,213 9.7%
California 2,794,110 7.1%
Colorado 1,024,780 20.4%
Connecticut 293,430 8.1%
Delaware 128,684 12.8%
Florida 1,951,581 9%
Georgia 703,816 6.5%
Idaho 310,222 16.3%
Illinois 2,112,629 16.7%
Indiana 1,369,189 20.1%
Iowa 999,949 31.3%
Kansas 683,530 23.3%
Kentucky 615,140 13.6%
Louisiana 329,328 7.1%
Maine 106,464 7.8%
Maryland 720,846 11.7%
Massachusetts 379,343 5.4%
Michigan 1,780,230 17.7%
Minnesota 1,684,951 29.5%
Missouri 1,350,440 21.9%
Montana 256,210 23.2%
Nebraska 623,462 31.7%
Nevada 293,465 9.2%
New Hampshire 110,506 8%
New Jersey 818,757 8.8%
New Mexico 192,615 9.1%
New York 1,735,084 8.7%
North Carolina 1,024,469 9.7%
Ohio 2,647,117 22.5%
Oklahoma 488,694 12.3%
Oregon 705,380 16.6%
Pennsylvania 2,824,532 21.8%
Rhode Island 49,586 4.5%
South Carolina 494,209 9.5%
Tennessee 677,696 9.7%
Texas 2,436,718 8.3%
Utah 342,087 10.2%
Virginia 903,339 10.5%
Washington 1,148,464 14.8%
Wisconsin 2,128,574 36.1%
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  #23  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2022, 11:32 PM
Docere Docere is offline
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German ancestry is very common everywhere except for New England and the Deep South. Pennsylvania and the Midwest is the German American heartland.
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  #24  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 1:24 AM
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Originally Posted by photoLith View Post
^
I go to areas where the Amish live often north of Pittsburgh and central OH and often overhear them talking. It’s interesting to note that they speak old German from the 18th-17th centuries. It differs greatly from modern German. Much like how Middle English differs from modern English. German speakers can still understand what they’re saying mostly but they can’t speak it anymore.

The Amish are super friendly and in Somerset County here in PA back when I used to take photos all the time i actually was allowed to take photos in one of their churches while they were having a service. Wasn’t allowed to take photos of anyone’s face but could take photos from the back of the church building. As an aside, the Amish in Somerset County are the 2nd oldest group of Amish (settled in 1772); Berks County, PA being the oldest (1740) and are the only group that have dedicated church buildings. Every single other group of Amish hold church services in a different house every Sunday and don’t have dedicated church buildings.

The most interesting group of Amish that I’ve encountered are the Byler Amish who live around Belleville, PA in the most beautiful valley on the east coast; sort of near State College. They are the most strict and conservative of all of the Amish that I know of and have yellow buggies. You can tell what sect of Amish most are by what their buggies look like. The Byler Amish live in the Kishacoquillas Valley aka Big Valley, where Belleville is. It’s interesting to note that there are 3 different churches (sects) of Amish in this one valley.

If anyone comes to PA to witness the Amish, skip Lancaster which is just a giant tourist trap and go to Belleville and the Big Valley. I’ve been all over the country and it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been and luckily it will stay that way as many of the farms have conservation easements on them which means they can never be developed into hideous housing tracts from retirees from Philly/Baltimore/DC.

On a sidenote, it’s actually amazing how many of the farms etc within reach of Philly, DC and Baltimore are protected by conservation easements. They really help curtail the spread of horrifying suburbia on the east coast.

This map has nearly all conservation easements on it, it’s freaking fascinating (especially with just how much is protected around Philly). Just found it a few days ago and have been obsessed with looking at it and seeing just how much land is permanently protected from the spread of sprawl. I’m really glad that so much is protected because the valleys in Virginia and PA/Maryland are so beautiful and I was always worried that sprawl would forever ruin them. More needs to be protected by conservation easements everywhere but every year more acreage is added all over.

https://site.tplgis.org/NCED/interactivemap/

What really bums me out though is that so little of Texas Hill Country is protected. The sprawl of Austin and San Antonio is quickly ruining the beautiful Hill Country. Where my parents live is some horrible sprawling McMansion suburb of New Braunfels. They are of the generation that just loves McMansions and have no care in the world about the environment. Their retirement tract helps ruin the Hill Country. The people who own 1035 acres to the south of my mamaws 600 acres luckily preserved their land with a conservation easement. But my mamaw is old and I’m afraid when my parents and my aunt and uncle get the property they will sell it and it will be turned into a schlock suburban McMansion development since it’s only about 40 min outside of Austin.
Considering the enormous size of the Hill Country (runs all the way to Bandera/Leakey and beyond), most is still in its natural state. But if you're talking about the hills on the west side of Austin and northwest side of San Antonio, I would agree (not familiar with the portion near New Braunfels). The hill country of Austin and San Antonio, which as recently as the 80s was pristine tree covered hills and canyons, is currently filling up with rooftops if you're lucky enough to find a place to see the views anymore. RR 2222 and RR 2244 on the west side of Austin are still spectacular drives, but the views are rapidly losing what they were previously. I think we definitely agree on what is happening.
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  #25  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 1:44 AM
AviationGuy AviationGuy is offline
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I know the thread is about German heritage, but I've always been fascinated by the Czech heritage in the part of Texas between Austin and Houston, particularly Fayette County. When I was a kid, we would stop in little towns where only Czech was being spoken. I don't know what the status is now, as that was quite some time ago. I recall that there are other regions of the state that were also Czech settlements. One of my brothers-in-law is Czech from Fayette County, although I've never heard him speak anything but English. I remember that his grandmother spoke Czech.
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  #26  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 2:13 AM
Docere Docere is offline
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Canada never really had "big city" Germans.

In Ontario, the city of Kitchener (formerly Berlin) and Waterloo region are known for German heritage. Waterloo County was initially settled by Mennonites ca. 1800, but then attracted a lot of German immigrants between 1830 and 1860. Berlin was known as a German town and German immigrants and their descendants dominated the population and its civic and industry leadership. So you really had two communities: the Pennsylvania German Mennonites and European Germans.

Up until WWI, there was no contradiction German culture and being loyal to the British empire (given the German heritage of the royals). But during the WWI anti-German hysteria, the city held a referendum and changed the name (after British Army officer Lord Kitchener).

Interestingly, in the 1920s, the city began playing up its Mennonite/conestoga wagon heritage and downplayed the European German heritage. Even though there were more Lutherans and more Catholics than Mennonites in Waterloo County.

https://www.whs.ca/wp-content/upload...frey-Hayes.pdf

Kitchener was never that big - 10,000 in 1901, 45,000 in 1941. But Kitchener-Waterloo, being in the Toronto orbit, grew rapidly after WWII. Waterloo County was majority-German descent until WWII. Today it's a multicultural place and only about a quarter of people are of German descent. The Kitchener-Waterloo has a population of around 600,000.

However the surrounding rural townships are very Mennonite/Amish, and they've kept their culture and language. Their presence has also spread north and west; rural SW Ontario has a quite visible Mennonite/Amish presence.
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  #27  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 2:58 AM
wwmiv wwmiv is offline
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Austin was founded at the site of a preexisting settled also called Waterloo.
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HTOWN: 2305k (+10%) + MSA suburbs: 4818k (+26%) + CSA exurbs: 190k (+6%)
BIGD: 1304k (+9%) + MSA div. suburbs: 3826k (+26%) + adj. CSA exurbs: 394k (+8%)
FTW: 919k (+24%) + MSA div. suburbs: 1589k (+14%) + adj. CSA exurbs: 90k (+12%)
SATX: 1435k (+8%) + MSA suburbs: 1124k (+38%) + CSA exurbs: 18k (+11%)
ATX: 962k (+22%) + MSA suburbs: 1322k (+43%)
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  #28  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 5:40 AM
CaliNative CaliNative is offline
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Originally Posted by Steely Dan View Post
As for the Germans in Chicago, this town got a shit ton of them too (including most of my maternal lineage), but Chicago also got lots of Poles, Irish, Italians, Scandinavians, Greeks, and a whole constellation of various Eastern European Slavs, such that the Germans got a lot more diluted here compared to the cities highlighted in my post above.

We live in Lincoln Square, which is one of chicago's most prominent legacy German neighborhood, but it's not all that overtly "german" anymore. Some old German bakeries, restaurants, and DANK haus (chicago's german cultural center) are all that's left that's "German" in a daily basis sort of way.

Lincoln Square also hosts Chicago's main Maifest and Oktoberfest celebrations every spring and fall, so if you happen to visit my hood on one of those two weekends, then the "German" legacy will be very overt.

But when I look at the people who live on my block, I believe I'm the only one with old school german-chicagoan roots. In fact, with my kids being 7th generation german-chicagoans, they might have some of the deepest local German roots in the neighborhood.

Who can forget the scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" where he takes over the Chicago German Parade?
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  #29  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 5:49 AM
CaliNative CaliNative is offline
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Originally Posted by Steely Dan View Post
Don't forget about Pittsburgh and the twin cities.

The German triangle is really more of the German "super-triangle" in terms of the 5 major US metros with the highest percentage of german ancestry among the NHW population.

Milwaukee: 34.6%
Twin Cities: 31.4%
Cincinnati: 29.1%
St. Louis: 28.7%
Pittsburgh: 27.8%



New Ulm MN is probably 80% German ancestry, with a few wayward and nervous Swedes and Norwegians thrown in that can take the teasing from the Germans. The town square is dominated by a huge statue they call "Hermann the German", the German Roman turncoat who led the tribes in the ambush and slaughter of 3 Roman legions in the Battle of Teutoberg Forest that chased the Romans back to the west side of the Rhine. Emperor Augustus was so distraught by this disaster that he died shortly after. Later Emperors were so impressed with the ferocity of the Germans that they stuffed the lower ranks of the Imperial (Praetorian) Guard with loyal Germans. The later legions were also filled with Germans in the lower ranks.

Last edited by CaliNative; Dec 18, 2022 at 7:54 AM.
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  #30  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 5:57 AM
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KevinFromTexas KevinFromTexas is offline
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There is definitely a lot of German heritage in Texas, particularly in Central Texas and the Hill Country. My dad was born in Germany. His family moved here in the late 50s. My grandfather, of course, retained his accent, as did my oldest aunt, and they all were still fluent in German and English, except for my youngest aunt who was born in the US who did not pick up the German. I grew up hearing English, German and Spanish in my family.

New Braunfels and Fredericksburg are big German settlements in Texas. Those places still retain a lot of their German heritage. It's really noticeable when you're there. I once used the guest restroom in a house there of a little old German lady who we were buying some furniture from, and her restroom had sausage wallpaper. lol New Braunfels is the site of the Wurst Fest every year.

I'm fuzzy on how it came about, but my dad's family was sponsored by a Lutheran church in New Sweden, Texas northeast of Austin. They lived there first before moving to Austin. I know they had taken a ship in Germany and landed in New York before flying to Texas.
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  #31  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 4:39 PM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is offline
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So, my great grandmother emigrated to Cincinnati from Germany in the 1920s. She lived until I was 15 and I was just talking to my mom about all the "tantas" (aunts) in our extended family. I still have no idea to what extent any of them were related but at least on my mom's side of the family growing up in Cincinnati, the teutonic influences were strong in our household.

Hell, one of the extended family members was heavily involved with Cincinnati's Kolping Society and we attended a couple of Schutzenfests.

We also had German relatives come visit Cincinnati pretty frequently in the early and mid 1990s. CVG used to gave a nonstop flight to Frankfurt.

My great grandmother was a devout Catholic, and Christmas was always celebrated on Christmas Eve after afternoon Mass, which apparently is something a lot of older German Americans did pretty frequently?
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  #32  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 10:37 PM
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In Minnesota the broad pattern of European immigration was Swedes in the northeastern part of the state, Norwegians in the northwest, Germans in the southern half, and all three in the Twin Cities (along with the Irish and some small groups of other ancestries). The state is thought of as a Scandinavian enclave mostly because they don't exist in other parts of the country but there were just as many Germans. Today most white people or mixed people with some white who have roots in the Twin Cities have both German and Scandinavian ancestry.

Minnesota and the Dakotas are fairly unique in that they were mostly pioneered by immigrants rather than by people from back east so there is very little British Ancestry compared to other parts of the country.
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  #33  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 11:05 PM
Docere Docere is offline
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In Minnesota the broad pattern of European immigration was Swedes in the northeastern part of the state, Norwegians in the northwest, Germans in the southern half, and all three in the Twin Cities (along with the Irish and some small groups of other ancestries). The state is thought of as a Scandinavian enclave mostly because they don't exist in other parts of the country but there were just as many Germans. Today most white people or mixed people with some white who have roots in the Twin Cities have both German and Scandinavian ancestry.

Minnesota and the Dakotas are fairly unique in that they were mostly pioneered by immigrants rather than by people from back east so there is very little British Ancestry compared to other parts of the country.
English ancestry among whites is common everywhere, with the Upper Midwest (Wisconsin/Minnesota/Dakotas) and NYC region being the main exceptions.


English + American ancestry

Minnesota 9.9%
Wisconsin 9.9%
New York 9.8%
California 9.2%
New Jersey 8.5%

It's likely under 10% in North Dakota too and possibly in Hawaii (but no 2021 data available).

Last edited by Docere; Dec 19, 2022 at 1:03 AM.
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  #34  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2022, 11:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Steely Dan View Post
Don't forget about Pittsburgh and the twin cities.

The German triangle is really more of the German "super-triangle" in terms of the 5 major US metros with the highest percentage of german ancestry among the NHW population.

Milwaukee: 34.6%
Twin Cities: 31.4%
Cincinnati: 29.1%
St. Louis: 28.7%
Pittsburgh: 27.8%



Yep, and you have some very German rural areas in the Missouri valley just west of St. Louis and the plains but you also have this scattered across the west so they really arent that unique.

Hermann, MO was settled by the Deutsche Ansiedlungs-Gesellschaft zu Philadelphia (German Settlement Society of Philadelphia) in 1837 and was basically a weird colony of German Philly (as I already mentioned my German ancestry also tracks to Philadelphia prior to 1800). Its popular to take the train from St. Louis to their Oktoberfest.

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  #35  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2022, 1:18 AM
Docere Docere is offline
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German Americans have been seen as pretty much "mainstream" American" for a long time. Hamburgers, hot dogs and Budweiser beer all have Germanic roots. It doesn't hurt that they're concentrated in the Midwest too where middle America is defined.

And the least "German" regions - New England and the Deep South - feel the least "middle American."

Last edited by Docere; Dec 19, 2022 at 1:55 AM.
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  #36  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2022, 1:37 AM
TempleGuy1000 TempleGuy1000 is offline
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I agree with others about the minimizing of german culture in american pop culture because of the world wars, but I think another problem German's have with distinguishing their immigration history is their architecture. There aren't really that many examples of historic traditional big city German architecture in the US. Germantown, Philadelphia during colonial times was effectively a large town and this is what the buildings generally looked like: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0341...7i16384!8i8192

Germans were real influential in defining the American small town and farm aesthetic.
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  #37  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2022, 2:27 AM
wwmiv wwmiv is offline
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I agree with others about the minimizing of german culture in american pop culture because of the world wars, but I think another problem German's have with distinguishing their immigration history is their architecture. There aren't really that many examples of historic traditional big city German architecture in the US. Germantown, Philadelphia during colonial times was effectively a large town and this is what the buildings generally looked like: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0341...7i16384!8i8192

Germans were real influential in defining the American small town and farm aesthetic.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/29764261

Much of NYC’s vernacular was designed by German architects:

https://www.villagepreservation.org/...erican-legacy/
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HTOWN: 2305k (+10%) + MSA suburbs: 4818k (+26%) + CSA exurbs: 190k (+6%)
BIGD: 1304k (+9%) + MSA div. suburbs: 3826k (+26%) + adj. CSA exurbs: 394k (+8%)
FTW: 919k (+24%) + MSA div. suburbs: 1589k (+14%) + adj. CSA exurbs: 90k (+12%)
SATX: 1435k (+8%) + MSA suburbs: 1124k (+38%) + CSA exurbs: 18k (+11%)
ATX: 962k (+22%) + MSA suburbs: 1322k (+43%)
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  #38  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2022, 3:15 AM
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Agree with others about the Amish. It's a unique culture and Germanic but it's distinct from German. It's not like the Amish are hosting Oktoberfest festivals, fly German flags, or brew their own beer. They're very religious people.

It is interesting how much more "downplayed" German culture is in the US. Now that it's been said, it makes sense about the World Wars. I could see German-Americans wanting to overcompensate their American patriotism by abandoning their heritage.
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  #39  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2022, 3:28 AM
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Not much here in NorCal as far as I can tell.

Just a handful of restaurants if you’re really looking for it. Nothing obvious like a Chinatown or Japantown or North Beach or Little Manila or a Vietnam town or plazas/strips full of Indian or Korean restaurants.
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  #40  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2022, 5:17 AM
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The state is thought of as a Scandinavian enclave mostly because they don't exist in other parts of the country.
While MN and the Dakotas certainly own the "Scandinavian-American" category, saying that significant Scandinavian communities didn't exist elsewhere in the US is going a bit too far.

Digging through Encyclopedia of Chicago entries, there were around 125,000 people born in Scandinavian countries (primarily Sweden and Norway) living in Chicago by 1930, and likely an equal number of 2nd-gens by then as well.

That's obviously no rival to the Twin Cities, but it's not nothing either. I have to imagine that other legacy cities likely had significant Scandinavian immigrant communities as well.
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Last edited by Steely Dan; Dec 20, 2022 at 3:30 PM.
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