My grandfather turned 90 this year. This is a considerable age for anybody, but grandpa represents the last of a very unique minority in Wisconsin. Despite our sizable German population, not many people actually speak the language. My grandfather is last of a generation growing up in Wisconsin that spoke German as their mother tongue.
|Liederkranz (Mens Choir) in Wausau, Wisconsin 1884.|
|Madison's Fire Station No. 2, made entirely of German volunteers, |
in front of our 2nd capitol building. 1872.
In other parts of Wisconsin, the Polish, Scandinavians, and Irish established themselves. When Wisconsin earned it’s statehood in 1848, the state’s constitution was published in English, German, and Norwegian to meet the needs of this citizens.2 Margarethe Schurz, a German-born woman that moved to Wisconsin, opened the first United States Kindergarten (conducting class in German) in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1854. German immigrants had became so populous in Wisconsin, that they formed their own infantry regiment during the Civil War, the 9th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment. But when the English-bred Yankees came in from New England, they targeted the wide-spread Germans in their crusade to homogenize American culture. In 1889, the Bennett Law was passed in Wisconsin that required the teaching of all school subjects in English – public or private. Some towns only spoke German. Many Lutheran and Catholic parochial schools were operated by Germans, and their preferred medium was German. The new law incised many previously non-political rural Germans and the law was struck down in 1891 by newly-elected Democrats voted into place by the German population. Anti-German sentiment was growing and hit a fever-pitch during WWI, when sauerkraut was renamed 'Liberty Cabbage' and many German families changed their last names to sound more English. The second-largest brewery in the United States, Miller, was originally Müller. And the influence didn't end at the turn of the 20th century. Milwaukee, with it's high German population, was a beacon of Socialist politics in the early 1900's. The Sewer Socialists (so named because of the excellent infrastructure they maintained) kept a Socialist mayor in Milwaukee from 1910 to 1960!
|Grandpa August and my grandmother, June. 1946.|
Im LeRoy – ein kelines Dorf – den meistens Leute waren alle Deutsch, die alle deutsche gesprochen. Endlich, mit dem Krieg, English waren wirklich gesprochen, aber ich habe alle English gelernt in die acht Jahren, in die katholishe Schule, die mit Schwestern – nicht leute von der Strasse – sie warren alle Schwestern – in Racine, Wisconsin. Dominicans, sehr gut. Aber wenn Sie aelter sind, dann vergisst man immer noch mehr und gesprochenlich mehr. Wir gehen zu Deutschland und dann drei, vier Tag mit den Leute sprechen – deutsch, dann kommt e simmer wieder zurueck.
Translation: In LeRoy – a small town – most of the people were German and they all spoke German. However, with the end of the [Second World] War, English was really most spoken. I learned everything in English in the eight years I spent at the Catholic school, with the nuns – not people from the street – they were all nuns. The school was in Racine, Wisconsin. When you’re older, then you are always forgetting more and having more difficulty speaking the language. We go to Germany, and then in three or four days of speaking German with the people, then it always comes back again.
|Keeping traditions alive.|
Nowadays, the influence of the German immigrants and their culture can be found all over Wisconsin. From bratwurst to beer, to polka and even our language, Germans have made Wisconsin what it is today -- a great state with a wonderfully rich heritage and culture unlike any other in the country. Prosit!