German and Pennsylvania Dutch
With around half of Wisconsinites having German heritage, German food, music, traditions, and even education are an important part of Wisconsin life. The language? Though there certainly are speakers, and German is the third most commonly taken world language in schools, the amount of speakers peaked over 150 years ago.
Language and History
Learn German Words and Phrases!
Hallo — Hello
Guten Morgen — Good Morning!
Auf Wiedersehen — Goodbye
Lern Pennsylvania Dutch Words and Phrases!
Danki — Thank you
Guder Mariye — Hello/Good Day
German-Speaking Immigrants in Wisconsin
Watch this informative lecture by UW-Madison Professor Antje Petty to learn more about the language and history of Germans in the state.
History of Germans in Wisconsin
Watch this informative lecture by UW-Madison Professor and Director of the Max Kade Institute Mark Louden to learn more about the language and history of Germans in the state.
Credit to Wisconsin Talk for the majority of the information that follows.
Overview
“Germans were the largest immigrant group to settle in Wisconsin in the 19th century. They were also the largest group of European immigrants to the United States in the 19th century.
Most entered in three major waves between 1845 and 1900, spurred by political, social, and economic upheavals in Europe. The earliest groups came for largely religious and political reasons. Those who migrated after mid-century were primarily farmers, artisans, and laborers.”
German immigrants came in three distinct phases
Early 1850s — Southwestern German states + German-speaking areas of the Switzerland and Austrian empire
Post Civil War — Northwestern and Central German States
1880s — Largest group, Northwest Germany
Image Credit: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM5457
Mid 1800s
Wisconsin was a frontier territory in the mid 1800s. There were abundant natural resources and the population was small in terms of Europeans. The population boom began in the 1830s following the Revolutions, among other factors leading to desperation and took off in 1852 when the Office of Emigration was created to attract new families. They launched a massive PR campaign with multilingual materials to make the journey to America as easy as possible. Upon arrival, many of these new arrivals stuck together, a move not uncommon to immigrant communities, especially those of a different linguistic profile. This created “speech islands” where German flourished and English was not a necessity. More often than not, the German ended up rubbing off on the English rather than the other way around.
Image Source: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM7487
Early German Schools
Because Wisconsin practically begged the Germans to come across the pond, they were given considerable autonomy upon arrival. Education was of high importance to them, and they brought high literacy rates and even introduced the first Kindergarten here. The German school format was used, all teachers were native German speakers, and even the materials were German-produced. In 1848, the state affirmed this linguistic choice, saying districts could choose to add on additional languages beyond just English for instruction. However, an 1854 law six years later tried to shut that down, requiring that all “major subjects” be delivered in English. But the state was not necessarily in a place to enforce these rules, so Germans essentially ignored the new mandate. Yankee families living amongst Germans even elected to send their children to German schools and summer camps, complaints against the language of instruction remaining minimal. German expanded so much that in the late 1860s, German was required to be offered as at least an optional subject in all schools. It spread like wildfire in Milwaukee, though they never voted to officially make the 100% switch to German. Bilingual programs were common, and the state became a hub for German teacher training. 50 years after the last major wave of immigration, 25% of the population was still monolingual German speakers. Even if not speaking English, many of them essentially were bilingual. Home language German (Plattdeutsch) was so different from the High German spoken in schools that it made learning quite difficult for many children.
Image Source: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM25554
Late 1800s
As economies began to expand and there was an increased interdependence for labor, land dealings, and governmental matters, the pressure of language assimilation began to creep in. With a lack of suitable partners in their own communities, people began to marry across languages, further shaking up the linguistic landscape of the state. German’s slow-burn death in Wisconsin schools started in the late 19th century as anti-immigrant sentiment rose, an 1889 law requiring English and an “American values curriculum.” They had fought in the Civil War and brought over a highly sophisticated education system, so the message that they were inferior did not sit well. Though this law was quickly repealed, the surge in anti-German sentiment as a result of World War 1 essentially wiped away all German schools, laws similar to the loose ones from before now being strictly enforced. Parochial schools and summer camps were able to hold out a little while longer, but the effort was ultimately futile. Even though the language did not stick, the related politics, practices, and history has been formative for our new bilingual programs.
Image Source: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM138727
1900s
“During the second half of the twentieth century, German culture came to be viewed as quaint and nonthreatening, perhaps because it was more difficult than ever to distinguish the descendants of German immigrants from other white Milwaukeeans. In 1990, 48 percent of city residents still claimed some German heritage, but few of them spoke German or belonged to organizations maintaining German traditions. Aspects of German festive culture reemerged in commercialized form. The Old World Third Street entertainment district, restaurants, and brewery tours nod to Milwaukee’s German past. German Fest is one of the ethnic celebrations held annually on Milwaukee’s lakefront. Its combination of good cheer and cultural pride harks back to the nineteenth century, but nostalgia has replaced German-language debates and interactions.”
Pennsylvania Dutch
Wisconsin is home to the 4th largest Amish population in the nation. Pennsylvania Dutch, a.k.a Pennsylvania German is spoken primarily nowadays by old-order Amish and Mennonite. Although English is changing the frequency of which the language is used and how it is spoken, many Amish and Mennonite are first language speakers of it.
Listen to the interview with Josh Brown to learn more!
Mark Louden’s Pennsylvania Dutch Website
Make Kade Institute Informational Page
Linguist helps open doors to Wisconsin’s Pennsylvania Dutch communities
Image Credit: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM122386
Wisconsin Cities
Hustisford
“In 1910, a quarter of the population in Hustisford were still monolingual German speakers. This was not because they had recently arrived; almost 60% of them had immigrated before 1880. A third of them had been born in the U.S. More surprisingly, a number of those had been born in the U.S. to U.S.-born parents." […] It took almost 100 years and nearly five generations for Hustisford to become a purely English-speaking town.”
The Hutisford example is not provided to suggest that it is a bad thing that they resisted English for so long, but rather to show that it was possible.
The Wisconsin Town That Didn't Learn English for Five Generations
Milwaukee
The pattern and progression described above played out on a large scale in Milwaukee. The German influence is especially present when it comes to alcohol, the Milwaukee Brewers an emblematic example.
A History of the German Immigrant Community in Milwaukee, WI
New Glarus
Known as America’s Little Switzerland (German is an official language of Switzerland), the city looks and feels like a European getaway.
“For over 150 years, the beautiful little community of New Glarus, Wisconsin, has been a magnet for Swiss settlers. New Glarus was originally settled by a hardy band of 108 Swiss pioneers in 1845 who left the Canton of Glarus in Switzerland during an economic crisis. Since then, succeeding generations and a steady stream of new Swiss immigrants have kept alive the community's Swiss-German language, folk traditions, and music.”
A History of the German Immigrant Community in Milwaukee, WI
Germantown
As the name implies, there was a large German presence early on in the town’s history.
“Originally one square mile, Germantown was formed by incorporating seven separate hamlets (or towns) into the Village of Germantown as we know it today. Germantown got its start as “Town 9” Washington County, Wisconsin Territory in 1836. Germantown was officially incorporated in 1924 and remained a small farming community until 1963, when Milwaukee County annexed a small piece of land from Washington County to build a landfill.
Fearing further annexation by Milwaukee County, the surrounding unincorporated hamlets of Kuhburg, Willow Creek, Meeker Hill, Goldenthal, Rockfield, Dheinsville, and Germantown decided to merge into one incorporated village - and Germantown was born.”
Freistadt
“The name Freistadt means “free city” in German, and identifies a little community that was founded in 1839 by 20 families who fled from Pomerania, Germany, to escape religious persecution. The immigrants purchased 40 acres of land when they arrived, and the following spring they built the first Lutheran church in the state of Wisconsin, a 30’ x 20’ log building, that also served as a school for the children.”
Freistadt is a community in Mequon.
Source: https://www.washingtonhouseinn.com/freistadt-wisconsin
German Education Today
The German School of Madison is a school students attend outside of the typical school day. Native speakers and beginners alike learn side-by-side in age-based classrooms.
Milwaukee German Immersion is a K4-5 school designed to teach primarily-English-speaking students German.
