Quote:
Originally Posted by blueballsdc
There were a lot of anti-German sentiments in the US which is a little surprising considering the number of German immigrants this country had. Cities changed names of streets that were German or "German sounding" and a lot of people changed their names for the same reason (including some of my relatives).
Some people even changed the names of food items that were too German.  |
My great-grandmother was from Wisconsin -- German was her first language. She was in grade school, when German was expunged.
One idea that I've had is that the anti-German sentiment was partly an echo not-then-so-old Civil War resentments -- ethnic Germans were more concentrated in free States and associated with the Union. Britain was, by contrast, much more closely linked to the Confederacy.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Approximately 516,000 (23.4% of all Union soldiers) were immigrants; about 216,000 of these were born in Germany. New York supplied the largest number of these native-born Germans with 36,000. Behind the Empire State came Missouri with 30,000 and Ohio with 20,000.
|