Title: War Hysteria & the Persecution of German-Americans
Headings: The WWI Home Front: War Hysteria & the Persecution of German-Americans
The WWI Home Front: War Hysteria & the Persecution of German-Americans
Content: By the outbreak of WWI, a majority of these German immigrants prospered in America. They farmed in the Midwest, but also became urban workers. Despite American stereotypes of German-Americans, they were actually very diverse. Some Germans assimilated quickly. Others, like German Catholics and Lutherans, believed that the preservation of their faith depended on maintaining German language and culture. They also believed that German culture could be infused to American culture and improve it. To that end, the churches operated their own schools, and German-American communities published newspapers in German. Puck magazine cover from the 1900 election asking, "How Will Our German-American Vote?" German-American newspaper, The Fatherland, 1915
1898 Sheet Music: John Bull and Uncle Sam celebrate the Great Rapprochement
Some of these newspapers did react to a growing sense of Anglo-Saxonism in the United States (the attitude, among English-descended Americans, that their culture was superior to all others) by promoting German nationalism.