Kelly was talking specifically about immigrants from Latin American countries. “The Huns in the Middle Ages swept into the plains of what is now Russia and invaded Europe, and that term became associated with the Germans.” According to this stereotype, German Americans were “a race of barbaric raiders” who spoke a language other Americans couldn’t understand. But when the U.S. entered World War I, these immigrants came up against a new “anti-German hysteria.”World War I propaganda poster from the US intelligence office ‘Don’t talk, the web is spun for you with invisible threads, keep out of it, help to destroy it, spies are listening,’ showing Kaiser Wilhelm II as the spider. A particularly well-known German general in the war was Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who volunteered his services as a trained Prussian general to the American cause free of pay. Many of them were imprisoned for sedition or attacked by mobs.Fogleman, Aaron Spencer. Many German Americans anglicized their own surnames: "Mueller” became "Miller,” "Schmidt” became "Smith,” and "Franz” became "Franks.” Fear of American hostility, not the war itself, did much to destroy visible traces of German culture in the United States.Spalek, John, Adrienne Ash, and Sandra Hawrylchak.
“In the countries they come from, fourth-, fifth-, sixth-grade educations are kind of the norm. America was recovering from the long depression and industries were booming during the Industrialization of America. With an ominous new international threat looming, Americans were becoming less inclined to worry about differences among their own subcultures.Because Philadelphia was at the center of American opposition to British colonial rule, it is not surprising that Germans played an important role in the American Revolution that led to the independence of the United States. Many Germans who fought for the Union brought considerable military experience. Germantown, near what is now Philadelphia, was the first of many permanent German settlements in the British colonies—many of which had the same name. Some Germans fought for the Confederacy during the war, but the overwhelming majority of Germans involved in the conflict fought on the Union side.
Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. German immigrants Early Immigration, 1608-1749. Only a small number of German Americans openly supported Germany’s position in the war. Once established in their new home, these settlers wrote to family and friends in Europe describing the … Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996. The German-American Experience. History of German Immigration to America in the 1800's: The Third Wave of German Immigration. Hopeful Journeys: German Immigration, Settlement, and Political Culture in Colonial America, 1717-1775. After the war ended in 1865, German immigration continued to rise at a rate faster than that of any other immigrant group into the early twentieth century.Kennedy, David M. The American People in World War II: Freedom from Fear, Part II.
Details personal stories of German immigrants to the United States and the key players in the formation of the country. American entry into World War II in 1941 renewed American animosity toward Germans.