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I would imagine all of the Midwestern cities and a few Northeastern cities would be on the list. would be high on the list. Cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati, Omaha, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, etc. As far as states are concerned, I know that all the Midwestern states have large percentages of Germans, especially the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas.
It's hard to say since American culture is debatably more German than English. Asking if Des Moines is more German than Omaha is like asking if Edmonton is more British than Winnipeg.
With the exception of the Deep South and anywhere within 100 miles of I-95, the vast majority of white people are of at least partial German descent.
Also, during and after WWII, a lot of German Americans lied about their ancestry. And, since for most American families, ancestry doesn't really affect day-to-day life, those lies keep on getting passed down. There are millions of Americans who think they "are" Swedish, Danish, or Dutch but are actually the decedents of Germans. Similarly the census reports first ancestry. So due to the whole WWII stigma thing, millions of other partial German Americans may choose to identify with other braches of their family tree first, further skewing statistics.
Regardless, this country is so dyed-in-the-wool German that I don't see why it matters.
--God, it's been so long since I've had good German food, though. I could totally go for a cup of liver-dumpling soup right now. And some schwarzwälder kirschtorte.
Last edited by Dawn.Davenport; 01-03-2016 at 11:29 PM..
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Originally Posted by Dawn.Davenport
It's hard to say since American culture is debatably more German than English. Asking if Des Moines is more German than Omaha is like asking if Edmonton is more British than Winnipeg.
With the exception of the Deep South and anywhere within 100 miles of I-95, the vast majority of white people are of at least partial German descent.
Also, during and after WWII, a lot of German Americans lied about their ancestry. And, since for most American families, ancestry doesn't really affect day-to-day life, those lies keep on getting passed down. There are millions of Americans who think they "are" Swedish, Danish, or Dutch but are actually the decedents of Germans. Similarly the census reports first ancestry. So due to the whole WWII stigma thing, millions of other partial German Americans may choose to identify with other braches of their family tree first, further skewing statistics.
Regardless, this country is so dyed-in-the-wool German that I don't see why it matters.
--God, it's been so long since I've had good German food, though. I could totally go for a cup of liver-dumpling soup right now. And some schwarzwälder kirschtorte.
Those are pretty big exceptions for this country to be dyed-in-the-wool German, no?
Those are pretty big exceptions for this country to be dyed-in-the-wool German, no?
Not at all. And most white Americans living in the Deep South and I-95 corridor have some german ancestry as well. Not nearly as much as the Midwest, or the northeast or out west, but probably 10% of the gene pool is german. German colonies existed in South and North Carolina dating back to the mid 1700s. Their descendants aided in the settlement of other southern states going westward. And I'm sure that of the six million German immigrants that America processed between 1800-1900 that more than a handful of them moved to the American South.
Pittsburgh is mainly Eastern European, Italian, and a little bit Irish. We are getting so many transplants that the heritage is being lost.
German ancestry lies in the rural, less populated areas. They were the farmers. Pennsylvania Dutch were not entirely from Germany. Many were Swiss. So you will see a mix of German/Swiss culture throughout the rural areas of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
I think there is even a town in WV that is all Swiss.
Fun Fact-I live in a neighborhood in Philadelphia called "Germantown". It actually houses the nations' first "White House": where George Washington resided during the Revolutionary War.
German-American Day is celebrated on October 6th-the same day Germantown, PA was founded in 1683 and became the first German settlement in the 13 colonies. A few years later Germantown became the site of the first protest against slavery and the first to petition in the colonies to abolish it-many in Germantown were peaceful Quakers.
German-American Day was ended in WW1 due to the Anti-German sentiment but restored by Ronald Reagan in 1983.
German is by far the largest ancestry in Pittsburgh.
German - 673,619
Irish - 442,953
Italian - 387,705
Polish - 211,980
English - 196,691
American - 105,102
Slovak - 97,417
Hungarian - 42,995
Russian - 36,806
Croatian - 30,519
When was that taken from? Census 2000? You would never know there are Germans here. If anything Pittsburgh is Eastern European and Italian. Very few Irish as well. They have been moving out.
When was that taken from? Census 2000? You would never know there are Germans here. If anything Pittsburgh is Eastern European and Italian. Very few Irish as well. They have been moving out.
It's the 2014 ACS estimate.
You probably don't know Germans are there because they don't have much of an ethnic identity anymore.
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