In contrast to the Italians, Germans began to immigrate to America in increased volumes in the early 1700s because they were often being attacked by various nations. “By 1745 there were an estimated 45,000 Germans living in Pennsylvania alone.” (1) By the 1800s Germans were still immigrating in large numbers.
Germans emigrated to the U.S. en masse in the 1840s and 1850s when about 434,600, then nearly 951,000 arrived. After a falling off emigration in the 1860s and 1870s, nearly a million and a half Germans arrived in the U.S. in the 1880s. This emigration fell sharply in the 1980s, partly because German industrial development created a vast demand for labor at home. (2)
However unlike most German immigrants reasons for leaving differed from those who had travelled to America earlier. Leslie Moch in her book Moving Europeans states that modernization and population growth were major benefactors in Germans choice to immigrate.
Modernization and population growth forced many Germans from their respective family businesses. Also, modernization made immigrating more convenient and faster with inventions such as the steamboat and steam train. Many Germans took long, complicated, but cheap routes through Great Britain by way of train and boat to get to the United States. (3)Upon entering the United States the Germans tended to settle away from the cities and develop communities within the countryside, unlike Italians who established themselves within urban areas. Nevertheless when they did remain in urban areas it was not uncommon for them live amongst themselves. These communities allowed them to succeed in their skilled labors and work.
In cities, Germans would cluster together to form communities not unlike the Chinese Chinatowns. These replications of Germany would house prominent German businesses such as the lager beer industry. German entrepreneurs such as bakers, butchers, cabinetmakers, cigar makers, distillers, machinists, and tailors also could be found in abundance in these "Miniature-Germany" towns. German women, however, were less likely than the average American woman to enter the labor force. Very few German women could be found holding jobs in a factory, or as a clerk. Instead, they sought after work as bakers, domestic workers, hotel keepers, janitors, laundry workers, nurses, peddlers, saloon keepers, and tailors. (4)
- http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/German.html
- http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/German.html
- Moch, Leslie Page. Moving Europeans. Pg 148.
- http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/German.html
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