Northern European Heritage

Today, over one-quarter of Pittsburgh’s residents claim German heritage, the largest ethnic group in the region.

It might be surprising to know that German was an official language of Pittsburgh at one time, and a daily German newspaper was printed from the mid-1800s up through World War II, but Germans have been living in the area since the 1600s, and Pennsylvania saw a dramatic influx of German immigrants in the later part of the 19th century. Without those immigrants, Pittsburgh would be a very different place—German-speaking Pittsburghers include names like H. J. Heinz, Honus Wagner, and the Kaufmanns, and they produced beloved Pittsburgh beers such as Iron City and Penn Pilsner. Today, remnants of the German-speaking community can be found throughout the city, and over 300,000 residents can claim German ancestry.German Pittsburghexplores the multifaceted cultural history of German-speaking immigrants and residents in the Greater Pittsburgh area, and provides an overview of the contributions that this diverse ethnic community has made in the city.

By 1900, one in four Chicagoans was either German born or had a German-born parent.

No other ethnic group's thumbprint has been larger in helping establish Chicago as a major economic and cultural center nor has any group's influence been more erased by the passage and vicissitudes of time. Lost German Chicago traces the mosaic of German life through the tumultuous events of the Beer Riots, Haymarket Affair, Prohibition, and America's entry into two world wars. The book is a companion piece to the Lost German Chicago exhibition debuting in the newly created DANK-Haus German American Cultural Center museum, located in what is still known today as the German town of the north side of Chicago. Entrusted as the caretaker of many archives, artifacts, and historical documents from many now defunct German organizations, the DANK-Haus German American Cultural Center has been committed to preserving history, traditions, and contributions of Germans and German Americans for over 50 years.

It is impossible to explore the history of Cincinnati without looking at the influence of German-Americans.

German Cincinnati is a pictorial history of the German-American experience in the Greater Cincinnati area: the people, places, and things that influenced that influenced this culturally rich city and made it what it is today. This book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in German-American or people Cincinnati history.

German immigrants first came to the region in the late 18th century and then arrived in great waves beginning in the early 19th century. These German American immigrants and their descendants have greatly influenced the social, political, cultural, religious, and economic growth and development of the area, earning Cincinnati a reputation for its German heritage. Today, nearly every other person in Cincinnati can trace some German lineage in their family tree. It is known as one of the corners in the famed German Triangle, along with St. Louis and Milwaukee. German Cincinnatians survived the hard times of the world wars of the last century, even experiencing an ethnic heritage revival that has reaffirmed the area's reputation as one of the major centers of German heritage in the United States today.

Join author Don Heinrich Tolzmann, curator of the German-Americana Collection and director of the German-American Studies Program at the University of Cincinnati, as he looks at the complex and prosperous history of German-Americans in Cincinnati.

Louisville's Germantown and Schnitzelburg documents community's historic transformations, from agricultural center to industrial powerhouse.

Believed to have been named for the citizens who settled the area as early as the 1840s, Germantown and Schnitzelburg are located just east of downtown Louisville. The first parcels purchased and settled were part of the 1,000-acre land grant that was awarded to Col. Arthur Campbell in 1790 for his service to Virginia in the Indian Wars. Spanning more than 160 years of growth, the area developed from farms and dairies in the 1850s, to the industrialization of the 1880s, and then the halcyon era of the 1950s as a safe haven of family, community, and church. Remarkable historic landmarks include a Victorian-era cotton mill, DuPont Manual High School's football stadium, and the eclectic collection of residential architecture classified as shotgun and camelback. Numerous neighborhood taverns and bakeries are both historic landmarks and popular eateries in this community. Look inside and enjoy the history and beauty of a bygone era and the development of a thriving community.

German immigrants are responsible for making the great town of Milwaukee what it is today.

German immigrants began arriving to Milwaukee in the 1830s. By 1859, over one-third of the city was German. They opened schools and churches, started businesses, ran for office, and introduced professional German theater, art, and music to the city. Milwaukee soon became known throughout the United States--and even abroad--as the ""German Athens of North America."" There is a reason Milwaukee is known as the city of beer and brats, why it is here that the biggest Germanfest in the country takes place, and why still today the German language can be seen and heard throughout the city. As the well-known German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine stated in 2008, ""Deutscher als Milwaukee ist nirgendwo in Amerika"" (There is nowhere in America more German than in Milwaukee).

Tour Chicago's Swedish heritage, from the great waves of migration to the present day, through vintage photographs in Swedish Chicago.

At the turn of the 20th century, Chicago was home to the largest Swedish population of any city in the world outside of Stockholm.

In the 1920s, Sweden experienced an economic depression and population growth that sparked another rush of Swedish immigration to America and Chicago, where they settled in large numbers in Andersonville and North Park. Chicago has been home to many famous and influential Swedes, including writers Carl Sandburg and Nelson Algren, and builder and developer Andrew Lanquist, who gave us both Wrigley Fieldand the Wrigley Building.

Paul Michael Peterson is an English teacher and lifelong Chicago resident whose grandparents emigrated from Sweden. He continues to celebrate the yearly traditions that his Swedish heritage has given him, including making glogg at Christmas.

German New York is an interesting history of the rich cultural heritage of this community.

German New York City celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the hundreds of thousands of German immigrants who left the poverty and turmoil of 19th- and 20th-century Europe for the promise of a better life in the bustling American metropolis. German immigration to New York peaked during the 1850s and again during the 1880s, and by the end of the 19th century New York had the third-largest German-born population of any city worldwide. German immigrants established their new community in a downtown Manhattan neighborhood that became known as Kleindeutschland or Little Germany. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the German population moved north to the Upper East Side's Yorkville and subsequently spread out to the other boroughs of the city.

Explore the rich history and mysteries of this Preserve America Community through the eyes of the people who live there!

German Village's iconic homes, bustling businesses and other beloved sites harbor fascinating stories.

Did you know that German Village's Recreation Park, now gone, is thought to have had the first baseball concession stand? Or that the four-story Schwartz Castle was the site of two murders? Or that the popular restaurant Engine House No. 5 closed its doors after the mysterious disappearance of its owners in the Bermuda Triangle?

Longtime resident and tour guide John M. Clark goes behind the bricks of more than seventy German Village properties to explore the places and people who made the Old South End into a Columbus treasure.

Friendly people welcome neighbors and visitors alike with warm hospitality in Germantown. Great pains have been taken by the city planners in preserving the small-town atmosphere, while still being quite mindful of the future progress of a growing city. Come and discover, through 200 intriguing old photographs, the treasures of the community's history spanning 150 years. Included in this volume are vintage images of local families, business, schools, and churches.

This book will give readers a glimpse into the life of a close-knit and highly active community, revealing groups like the Kerneir Pleasure Club, the American Aid Society, and the Society of the Danube Swabians. The German musical life of the city is featured, as is the Karneval season and other year-round festivities and celebrations of the Deutsch-Americans of Chicago and its suburbs.

Using first-hand personal accounts and public documents, German Settlers of South Bend illustrates the lives of these pioneer immigrants and their growing city. The material has been collected from a large number of sources on both sides of the Atlantic, including more than 200 German letters from the 1840s to the 1870s that provide glimpses into the day-to-day lives of these early settlers and their families back in Germany. Descendants of immigrants from all over the United States and Germany have come forward with genealogies, stories, and pictures, providing a far-reaching portrait of the times.