Why did most Germans come to America?

Answer 1

Texans of German birth or descent have, since the mid-19th century, made up one of the largest ethnic groups in the state. By 1850 they numbered five percent of the total population-a conservative count. The 1990 census listed more than 17 percent of the population, nearly three million individuals, claiming German heritage. Easter Fires

Germans who chose Texas as a home were, in the migrations from 1830 to 1900, anything but a uniform group. Early emigration came from a land of provinces and duchies, not a unified Germany, and from many backgrounds.

Johann Friedrich Ernst, even if he left the Duchy of Oldenburg just a step ahead of charges of embezzlement, was a born immigrant if anyone ever was. Learning of Stephen F. Austin's Texas colony, he had purchased a tract of land by 1831 and the next year had written letters to his homeland describing Texas as a paradise. The province of Texas, then a part of Mexico, only lacked German industry and genius.

Many came. Most of the Germans attracted by Ernst's letters, and by later colonial ventures, were peasants but not poor. This majority was laced with artisans, academicians, and professionals. Some were political refugees; a few fled religious persecution-families and individuals believing simply that their full economic and social potentials could not be realized in Europe.

But colonists they were. Typically, small groups of families living closely in Europe came to Texas, where they settled, again, as small groups living together. Most arrivals set up as farmers, the first near Friedrich Ernst in such places as Industry, Cat Spring, and Rockhouse.

Subsequent publicity about Texas and the republic's independence drew the attention of minor noblemen in the German states to the idea of investing in Texas. These noblemen were interested in philanthropically helping the German rural class but also wanted to find a source of raw materials. They may have hoped to develop political influence in a new country, and most certainly counted on personal profit. Their efforts, financially disastrous for them, did bring in more than 7,000 immigrants.

Many of the German colonists settled to the north and west of the Austin County Germans. Thus, a "German Belt" was created, stretching from Texas's Coastal Plain to the Hill Country, including the larger towns of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.

German immigrants, attracted to colonial settlement in appreciable numbers and relatively isolated from others-the necessities for cultural preservation-maintained certain customs and most of the language.

Some, of course, dreamed of a New Germany...which did not come to pass; the Germans were not of a single culture.

For a time, the Pedernales River valley was known as the home of dancing and drinking Germans, the Lutheran and Catholic farmers who liked recreation. The upper valley of the Guadalupe was home to a good number of intellectuals and political refugees. Many of these were "free thinkers" or even, to the horror of conservative neighbors, atheists. The Llano valley was peopled by German Methodists, among other stern types, who avoided drinking and fraternal gatherings.

Professors and farmers came, the latter in the majority; Jews and Protestants and Catholics; those welcoming slave ownership and abolitionists; many who supported the Union in Civil War times and-mostly-those who sided with the Confederacy.

During the American Civil War, German Immigration ceased, then doubled after the conflict. Later arrivals did not settle in the Texas Hill Country or much in the German Belt. They chose the cities. In 1880 the census declared that San Antonio's population was one-third German. The Latin Settlements

But by 1900 German emigration slowed. Then, two world wars brought immigration to an end except postwar migration to cities. Prejudice generated by the world wars also worked against the use of spoken German in Texas, including German-language publication. More general causes-depopulation of rural areas and inevitable intermarriage-reduced German prominence.

After 1900 Texas Germans entered virtually every occupation in the state, and some names, such as rancher Robert J. Kleberg and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, became very well known indeed.

A central part of Texas's Hill Country is still called the "German Hill Country." German food, family customs, and remnants of architecture and of the language remain.

Answer 2

German immigrants settled her in the US becausethey didn't have religious freedom, taxation, inheratence laws, high prices, and high rent. They also left Germany because of the effects of the industrial revolution, poverty, suffering, and they had too many crop faliures.

Answer 3

The first wave of German immigrants in the 1830s came to escape the persecution of King Friedrich Wilhelm the third of Prussia who wanted them to join the state church rather than to carry on their own religion.

Thanks to a wealthy Scottish businessman and chairman of the South Australian Company, George Fife Angas, a deal was struck by Pastor August Kavel to start a new Lutheran settlement in South Australia. The first group of Lutherans arrived on the ship 'Bengalee' in November 1838, followed two days later by the main group on the 'Prince George'. They first settled at the town of Klemzig. Many more ships followed over the next three years.

Immigrants continued to arrive in the 1850s, when the persecution had already ceased, because the farmland was producing poorly and becoming overcrowded and famine conditions prevailed in the 1840s. Greater opportunities for affordable land ownership were available, especially in South Australia, and also in area of the Riverland in New South Wales. Good reports had been received by then from the earlier immigrants. Many also had memories of the warfare occurring at that time. Some wanted to avoid the compulsory drafting into the military.

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Answer 4

To buy government land and start farming in the land of opportunity

Answer 5

because Hitler drove the Jews away from Germany

Answer 6

Germans, like most ethnic groups, have immigrated to the United States for a better life.

Answer 7

They were looking for better lives & wanted to have better jobs & own land