I’m from Germany and after noticing that many American personalities have German backgrounds I recently looked up that apparently German is the biggest ethnic group in America and that like 12% of all Americans have German ancestry so basically more than 1 out of every 10 people.
I knew that there are some people in America with German ancestry but I never thought it’s that many. I always thought that there were other way more common ethnic groups such as UK, Irish or something Asian/African and thought Germans are a minority. I never thought that Germans are so prevalent in America though and that they’re actually the biggest ethnic group. I wonder if that is a topic in American conversation cause I assume many Americans are curious about their ancestry and many might even have had contact to family members that are directly from Germany. And I wonder if they identify as American or German or both? (For example I always hear “African-American” being used but I’m not sure that I heard “European-American” that often)
My American grandma (my mom is from England)cane from a super German family. They were 48ers that moved here following the upheaval of 1848, and maintard a lot of German roots. They spoke German at home up until 1914, when they decided it would be bad for someone to overhear them speaking in German, but he still retained enough that he didn’t use any English when he traveled to Germany in the 60’s. He was the first of his family to go to college,and he went to a German college in town, that his kids, his grandon, (my dad) and his great grandsons (my brother and I) also attended. I grew up going to UCC churches (formerly the Reformed German Church), but i definitely identify much more with the English side of the family, and have a super English sounding name.
Around Ohio we still have loads of people with German names, but not too many people speak any amount of German. German immigrants were more or less immediately accepted in American society in a way that Catholic Irish, Italians, and now Hispanics, weren’t. While there are still historic German districts in cities like Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St Louis, and Philadelphia, Germans were integrated in American society and paved the way to loads of American staples like pork chops, hot dogs, hamburgers, lager beers,etc. Oktoberfest celebrations have become a lot like st.patricks day where the holiday is now about heritage than any actual event.
People don’t really talk much about German ancestry though because pretty much every white American (and many Mexican Americans) have a bunch of German ancestors, or even a german last name like Scherzer, Kershaw, Verlander, Anheuser, Busch, Mueller, or Kuhrs. So while most Americans have German ancestry, but few discuss it unless a parent or grandparent was actually born in Germany, Rammenstien AFB not withstanding