My grandfather turned 90 this year. This is a considerable age for anybody, but
grandpa represents the last of a very unique minority in Wisconsin.
Despite our sizable German population, not many people actually speak
the language. My grandfather is last of
a generation growing up in Wisconsin
that spoke German as their mother tongue.
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Liederkranz (Mens Choir) in Wausau, Wisconsin 1884. |
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Madison's Fire Station No. 2, made entirely of German volunteers,
in front of our 2nd capitol building. 1872. |
The history of Germans in Wisconsin is enormous.
Roughly 45% of Wisconsinites claim German
heritage (compared to the rest of the United States which claims 17% on
average).
1 The first wave of Germans in
any sizable number began in the 1830’s.
At this time Germany
wasn’t even a unified country, just a series of duchies and principalities that
shared a common language.
But Germans
were attracted to Wisconsin due to the wide
availability of fertile farm land and the natural resemblance the Wisconsin
landscape had to their own beloved Germany.
Soon, Germans established themselves all over Wisconsin, but congregated mostly in
south-eastern Wisconsin;
communities like Racine, Kenosha,
and Milwaukee became centers of German culture and influence.
They brought their customs, traditions, and
holidays with them from the Old Country, and strengthened their communities by
opening their own schools and churches.
Brewing became a trademark occupation of Germans in Wisconsin,
and names such as Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, and Miller, all come from German
families that settled in Milwaukee.

In other parts of Wisconsin,
the Polish, Scandinavians, and Irish established themselves.
When Wisconsin
earned it’s statehood in 1848, the state’s constitution was published in
English, German, and Norwegian to meet the needs of this citizens.
2 Margarethe Schurz, a German-born woman that
moved to Wisconsin, opened
the first United States Kindergarten (conducting
class in German) in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1854. German immigrants had became so populous in Wisconsin, that they formed their own infantry regiment during the Civil War, the
9th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment. But when the English-bred Yankees came in from
New England, they targeted the wide-spread
Germans in their crusade to homogenize American culture. In 1889, the
Bennett Law was passed in Wisconsin
that required the teaching of all school subjects in English – public
or private.
Some towns only spoke German. Many Lutheran and Catholic parochial schools were
operated by Germans, and their preferred medium was German.
The new law incised many previously
non-political rural Germans and the law was struck down in 1891 by
newly-elected Democrats voted into place by the German population.
Anti-German sentiment was growing and hit a
fever-pitch during WWI, when sauerkraut was renamed '
Liberty Cabbage' and many
German families changed their last names to sound more English.
The second-largest brewery in the United States,
Miller, was originally Müller. And the influence didn't end at the turn of the 20th century. Milwaukee, with it's high German population, was a beacon of Socialist politics in the early 1900's. The
Sewer Socialists (so named because of the excellent infrastructure they maintained) kept a
Socialist mayor in Milwaukee from
1910 to 1960!
 |
Grandpa August and my grandmother, June. 1946. |
My grandfather was born in Milwaukee
in 1922, in the middle of the last big wave of German immigration. He grew up on a small farm in
LeRoy, Wisconsin, which was almost all German.
The road signs and newspaper was all written
in German, and it wasn’t until WWII that English became the language of the
land.
Grandpa August grew up speaking
German with his family and neighbors.
I
spoke to him recently about his childhood, speaking German in Wisconsin in the 1930’s.
Im LeRoy – ein kelines Dorf – den meistens Leute waren alle
Deutsch, die alle deutsche gesprochen.
Endlich, mit dem Krieg, English waren wirklich gesprochen, aber ich habe
alle English gelernt in die acht Jahren, in die katholishe Schule, die mit
Schwestern – nicht leute von der Strasse – sie warren alle Schwestern – in
Racine, Wisconsin. Dominicans, sehr
gut. Aber wenn Sie aelter sind, dann
vergisst man immer noch mehr und gesprochenlich mehr. Wir gehen zu Deutschland und dann drei, vier
Tag mit den Leute sprechen – deutsch, dann kommt e simmer wieder zurueck.
Translation: In LeRoy – a small town – most of the people were German and
they all spoke German. However, with the
end of the [Second World] War, English was really most spoken.
I learned everything in English in the eight years I spent at the
Catholic school, with the nuns – not people from the street – they were all
nuns. The school was in Racine, Wisconsin. When you’re older, then you are always
forgetting more and having more difficulty speaking the language. We go to Germany, and then in three or four
days of speaking German with the people, then it always comes back again.
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Keeping traditions alive. |
Today, there are a number of German-medium schools in Wisconsin, including the private
Deutsche-Amerikanische Kulturvereinigung Schule and the
Milwaukee German Immersion School, which is a K-5 school in the Milwaukee Public School system. Because of Grandpa's upbringing, he caught the attention of
Joseph Salmons, a professor at UW-Madison researching native German speakers from Wisconsin and their influence on modern Englis. Using his band of merry grad students, Salmons records and gathers speech from German speakers all over the state. From this, we can see how German (as well as Polish and Norwegian) has influenced the way modern English is spoken in Wisconsin. It is fascinating research, and if you'd like to learn more, check out the
Wisconsin Englishes website.
Nowadays, the influence of the German immigrants and their culture can be found all over Wisconsin. From bratwurst to beer, to
polka and even
our language, Germans have made Wisconsin what it is today -- a great state with a wonderfully rich heritage and culture unlike any other in the country.
Prosit!
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