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Patricia Muench

Prof. Saddler

11/14/08

German Migration Discovery #3 for NCLC 130

        Whether it was Hamburg, Prussia, or the many other cities that migrants came from in Germany, the migrants all had one goal in common. The United States of America was the land of opportunity for the Germans, and any German would do anything to travel to this land. German migration to America began around the seventeenth century. Jamestown was the first main town for the Germans in America. Reasons for migration differentiated from the seventeenth to the twentieth century from religious persecution, to better job opportunities and war. Many Germans not only traveled to America, but they made up more than a quarter of all emigrants each decade for a straight of fifty years.

        There were three very important aspects of German migration which were communication, where in Germany the immigrants came from, and why the immigrants left Germany. At the start of German immigration in the seventeenth century, the only form of communication was letters and newspapers. In America, the Germans used mostly newspapers to communicate with one another.

An example of this can be seen in Figure 1, which shows us a translated version into German of the Declaration of Independence. This was extremely important for the Germans because this helped many people understand why July 4^th, 1776 * was so important. Copies of a translation, similar to the copy in Figure 1, would be sent out to as many German-speaking people in the United States of America as possible. Germans were the first to spread the news about the news about the signing of the Declaration of Independence (Immigration-Building a New Nation). To communicate with family and friends from back home, they would communicate by letters. Areas that the German immigrants were originally from were mostly the Northeast section and the Southwest section of Germany. These areas included cities like Pomerania, East Prussia, West Prussia, Hesse, Bavaria *, and many more. “Chain migrations” * were caused by these letters, which brought many people into America in the early nineteenth century peak of migration (Immigration-A New Surge for Growth). A main reason why Germans would come to America was for the many opportunities for work and better living. Germans would normally come to the United States of America to try living here first, and continue on by going back to Germany to pick up family (ProQuest). Also, the drastic increase in birth rates from 45 million in 1880 to 56 million in 1900 caused many people to want to leave Germany (JStor). Another reason was because there was just recently a failed German Revolution * in 1848, and that caused many people to want to leave. Communication was the key for Germans to understand what was going on. The many reasons for German migration to America caused over five million people to migrate in the nineteenth century (Immigration-A New Surge for Growth).

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