The Origins of a US German-American Holiday

Although German-speaking immigrants eventually became one of the dominant ethnic groups to populate the United States, they did not arrive in large numbers until relatively late in the emerging nation’s history. Although Pennsylvania’s Germantown colony, established in 1683, became the basis for the official German-American Day observance, Germantown was actually not very German in the beginning. Earlier a sprinkling of Germans arrived in the English colony of Jamestown in 1608 and 1620, but we don’t even know their names.

The merchant ship Concord brought immigrants from Rotterdam to the first permanent German settlement in North America. The depiction seen here appeared on a German commemorative postage stamp in 1983 for the tricentennial of the founding of Germantown, Pennsylvania. A similar stamp was issued in the US at the same time. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

Something that is often overlooked when discussing “German” immigration to the New World beginning in the 17th century is that there was in fact no nation called Germany at that time. (The Prussian state under Bismarck did not arise until 1871.) At that time the Realm of Sweden included Finland and Estonia, along with parts of today’s Russia, Poland, Germany, and Latvia. Even in those days there was what the EU now calls “freedom of movement” across most of Europe. Many non-Germans attended “German” universities (with instruction in Latin, the language of academia). “German-trained” military officers often served in non-German armies and navies.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the area of Europe that we now call Germany consisted of numerous principalities, duchies, and kingdoms. Even the “Hessian” auxiliary troops (not mercenaries*) who fought on the British side in the Revolutionary War did not all come from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (Landgrafschaft Hessen-Cassel). An estimated 5,000 Hessian soldiers remained in America after the war. We prefer to use the term “German-speaking” for most of the early immigrants who came to America from that patchwork of various German-speaking sovereign places. Then there were also the Austrian and Swiss German-speakers.
*During the American War of Independence, a quarter of the British forces consisted of troops rented from German rulers. They served in the name and pay of their Hessian rulers. They were not hired mercenaries. Most, but not all, came from Hesse-Cassel and nearby Hesse-Hanau.

So just how did German-American Day become an official annual US observance? The October 6th date goes back to what is considered the first permanent German settlement in North America in 1683. As we shall see, the true history is a bit more complex.

Germans in Jamestown
The first German-speaking settlers in North America were part of the English settlement of Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia in 1608. These few craftsmen, glassmakers and carpenters, arrived in Jamestown a year after its founding in 1607. Unfortunately, about 80 percent of the Jamestown colonists died of starvation and disease in 1609 and 1610. Almost abandoned in 1610, after finally being resupplied, the colony managed to continue until 1699, when the new capital of Williamsburg replaced it. Soon after that, the Jamestown settlement withered away and passed into history.

More German and Polish craftspeople, including at least one German-Swiss geologist (probably named Wilhelm Waldi), arrived in Jamestown in October 1620. Though small in numbers, these craftspeople were key to helping the colony last as long as it did. In the end, poor planning and bad management doomed the Jamestown colony to failure. But notably the German glassmakers who had arrived in October 1608 built furnaces from scratch to produce sample glassware that was sent to England to demonstrate that, under more favorable conditions, the colony could have marketed goods to sell or trade across the Atlantic.

What is now considered the first permanent German settlement in North America did not happen for decades after Jamestown. But before that, in 1643, a Swedish venture on the banks of the Delaware River brought more German-speaking settlers to North America.

The title page, dated 1700, of one of Franz Pastorius’ German-language reports on the Germans in Pennsylvania, published in Frankfurt and Leipzig. PHOTO: uni-goettingen.de (Wikimedia Commons)

Germantown, Pennsylvania
Under the leadership of German-born Franz Daniel Pastorius (1651-ca. 1720), the Germantown settlement became the first permanent German community in North America. At the time of its founding in 1683, Germantown was located on 43,000 acres of land, six miles north of Philadelphia. Germantown was first incorporated as a borough (village/town) in 1689. It did not become part of Philadelphia, now in the city’s northwest area, until 1854, along with the adjacent German Township. The area today is mostly within the 19144 zip code.

Germantown was really not very German in the beginning. The 13 families with 33 members who arrived aboard the galleon Concord to settle in Germantown in October 1683 were mainly Dutch with some Swiss. These Mennonites and Quakers had relocated to Krefeld (near the Dutch border, then spelled Crefeld) and Kriegsheim (in Rhineland-Palatinate) some years prior to their journey to America to avoid religious persecution in the Dutch Republic and the Swiss Confederacy. Following an unpleasant 74-day Atlantic crossing from Rotterdam, the Germantown colonists arrived in the port of Philadelphia before spending a bitter winter and establishing a new community from scratch.

Their leader, Franz (Francis) Pastorius, who himself left his home in Windsheim in the German Duchy of Franconia to settle in Pennsylvania, would spend the rest of his life in Germantown. A lawyer and pastor by training, Pastorius would also play a role in Germantown’s anti-slavery efforts. In April 1688, Pastorius and three fellow Quakers drafted a petition to abolish slavery and presented it to the Society of Friends in Germantown. Although the society did not immediately act on the petition, its ideas gradually gained acceptance in the Quaker communities of Pennsylvania. The Society of Friends officially condemned slavery in 1776. The Pennsylvania legislature established gradual emancipation of all slaves in the state in 1780, becoming the first free state in the Union.

When the Concord sailed into Philadelphia’s harbor, the passengers were met by Pastorius and William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. Six weeks earlier, Pastorius had preceded the settlers to America to negotiate with Penn for Germantown’s land. Although the Dutch language largely prevailed, by 1709 many of the Dutch families moved west, and more German immigrants began arriving in Germantown and Pennsylvania. Earlier, 54 German families who had accompanied Johan Printz to Fort Christina in New Sweden on the Delaware River (near present-day Wilmington). They and other German-speaking immigrants later resettled in and around Germantown.

The First German-American Day in 1983

Now known as German-American Day, the original observance began simply as “German Day” on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the founding of Germantown in 1883. Similar celebrations of German-American heritage arose in other areas of the US over time. With the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the ensuing anti-German sentiment of the time, and the later entry of the US in what came to be known as World War One, the custom largely died out.

Joint Commemorative Stamps
As the tricentennial of Germantown’s founding approached in 1983, efforts were made to revive the German-American observance. People and organizations in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany came together to revive the custom and give it national standing. Postal officials in both countries even worked together to issue joint commemorative postage stamps by the US Postal Service and the Deutsche Bundespost. Both the German and American stamps were based on a watercolor painting of the merchant ship Concord by the artist Richard Schlecht, but they had minor differences reflecting varying approaches to the engraving and printing process. (See the image below.) The first-day-of-issue ceremony in the United States took place in Germantown (in Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, on 29 April 1983, as part of a community celebration.

Joint commemorative stamps issued in 1983 by the US and Germany depict the “German Mayflower,” as the Concord is sometimes dubbed, the ship that brought the first settlers to Pennsylvania in October 1683. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

President Reagan’s 1983 Proclamation
To commemorate the “tricentennial anniversary year of German settlement in America” President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the first German-American Day on 6 October 1983. But it would take another four years for Congress to pass legislation making the October 6th date an official observance that every US president has recognized by proclamation every year since 1987.

The effort to reinstate “German Day” as German-American Day began in 1986. A national campaign and petition drive was begun. Indiana’s Republican US Senator Richard (“Dick”) Lugar (1932-2019) introduced a resolution, and in a bipartisan effort he also asked Democratic Senator Don Riegle of Michigan for support. Senator Lugar then supported the efforts of Ohio Representatives Lee Hamilton and Thomas Luken of Cincinnati, who introduced a similar resolution in the House.

In response to Congressional Joint Resolution 108, designating 6 October as German-American Day, the bill became Pub.L. 100–104, 101 Stat. 721 after President Reagan signed it on 18 August 1987. The president then issued a proclamation to this effect on 2 October 1987 in a formal ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, at which time he called on Americans to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. The practice of proclaiming October 6th as German-American Day has continued with succeeding presidents to the present day.

In 2012, Senator Lugar, partly of German heritage himself, was recognized by the Indiana German Heritage Society (IGHS) as the “Hoosier German-American of the Year” in recognition of his interest and help related to German and German-American causes over many years. Lugar served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1977 to 2013, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1985 to 1987 and from 2003 to 2007, and as the ranking member of the committee from 2007 until his departure in 2013.

German American Heritage Month
Although it is not an official national observance by law, much like Black History Month in February, German American Heritage Month is observed in October. Stemming from German-American Day on October 6th, the month is also related to Germantown’s history and October 1683. Some American libraries promote October as a time to read books about German American history and to learn more about notable German Americans.

The proposal for a German American Heritage Month first came in 1995 from German-American Joint Action Committee (GAJAK) that was formed with the main objective of promoting German-American events in Washington, D.C. and nationwide. The GAJAK was made up of the German American National Congress (Dank), the United German American Committee of the USA, and the Steuben Society of America. Based on other national heritage months devoted to various nationalities, such as Greek Americans (March), Italian Americans (October), and French Americans (July), the proposed German American Heritage Month would be in October, or from 15 September to 15 October.

But unlike Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month, also in October and legally established by Congress in 1989, the German heritage month proposal was never supported by law in the way that German American Day was in 1987. However, in 2013 the month of October was designated German American Heritage Month, an official state observance, by the Maryland General Assembly.

Nevertheless, informal observances of German American Heritage Month still take place in many areas with a German heritage history. Educational, social, and historical organizations use October to promote German American Heritage Month through traditional folk customs (Oktoberfest), biographical information (Adolph Coors, Albert Einstein, John Roebling), and other elements related to German-American ties, the German language and culture. In Canada, a similar observance is German Pioneers Day in Kitchener, Ontario (a city formerly named Berlin) and its Oktoberfest. German Pioneers Day is held on the day after Canada’s Thanksgiving in October.

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