The historical Chinese American population in the Mississippi Delta region of Mississippi. At the community's height in the 1970s there were around 3,000 people of Chinese descent living in the Mississippi Delta, but the community dates back all the way to the 1870s. I think it'd make a very interesting subject for a video if you ever decide to use this idea.
If we are on the Topic of German Communities abroad i know there are some in South America. For example the Brazilian City of Blumenau founded by a German pharmacist. Maybe that could be interesting.
Second that. I would even say it is remarkably similar, considering it split more than 100 years ago. I would even say it is more similar to standard German than many local German accents.
Hearing Hermanndeutsch as a German - from the actual Rhineland as well - i agree with you. BUT i also have a friend from the german-speaking part of Luxembourg (not that far away from the Rhineland), and he sounds very similar to the Hermanndeutsch shown here. On the other hand, the dialect my grandparents speak (Kölsch and Bergisch Platt), sound very different. So, i think, that may be what german sounded like in the regions around the rhineland in the 1800, before they lost contact to any other german speakers?
As a German, I think the man who spoke "Hermanndeutsch" was quite easy to understand. Apart from some loanwords like soy instead of Soja and farmer instead of Bauer/Landwirt, few other differences are hearable. The strongest giveaway that this speaker is not from Germany but from America is the way he pronounces his r. He uses the English r and not the French/German r, which is the most common here. Like others have mentioned, it sounds like German with an American accent. It was, however, easier to understand than Texas German. At least for me.
I'm an American learning German right now, and I actually understood him almost perfectly, which is rarely the case when hearing European German speakers yet 😅 Funny how that works, but I guess it shouldn't be surprising!
Agreed, very easy to understand and besides the americanized "r", it was very German-like. There are dialects in Germany that are harder to understand.
I grew up in this region. Most people I knew had a German last name, including myself; Kaisers, Zimmermans, Yeagers, Muelers, to name a few. I never realized how unique that was until I moved away and encountered way more Anglo names. From someone with deep roots along the Missouri from the Waverly-Marshall area, thank you for giving this often overlooked story attention.
Outside of the First Name, these are all Anglicised, if they hadn't been Anglicised "Zimmerman" would have been "Zimmermann" (Carpenter) considering "Mann" is spelled with Two N's, "Jäger" (Hunter), and Müller (Miller), though back in the Past and to this Day Families could also be named Mueller instead because in the Past the Umlaut wasn't always written. Anyway, very Interesting to hear Your Perspective, coming from a German.
As someone who is from the Missouri Rhineland (Specifically in one of the counties closer to St. Louis) who was raised by a VERY American monolingual English speaking family, it still is fascinating having all that German culture. I still didn't know a lot of the information presented here beforehand, so it was interesting to learn. I've been learning about German culture and it was very interesting seeing something on German Culture from where I was born!
@@jonasastrom7422I'm from the Swabian region in Germany and it is plain Hochdeutsch. Sounds like a lot of US Americans speak, that are able to speak fluid German. Edit: to my opinion, at least
I mean the accent is of course going to be different, the dialect is largely dead, that guy is like among dozens or hundreds who probably still can speak it, and they probably werent necessarily raised or have the accent having grown up with and are native english speakers.
@@brokkrepI’m an American that’s conversationally fluent. He sounds exactly like me if I’m not focusing on my accent. A lot of the “German” sounds like ch/ts/r have been leveled into something much more natural for an American English speaker.
My dad worked at Stone Hill Winery for years. A bunch of the modern woodworking there can be accredited to him! I spent several years of my childhood exploring all the chambers of the complex and walking through the grapevines there, and it really is a beautiful place. I will ALWAYS remember it fondly, and the rich history of it and Hermann as a whole really feels special out here in the Midwest.
I think it is unfortunate how the contributions of German immigrants to America are, at best, no longer easy to see or, at worst, have been completely lost. Especially considering that, to this day, more Americans claim German heritage than any other ethnic group, including Irish, Hispanic, or African American. Days like St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo are very popular, even Columbus Day, which was partly created to honor Italian Americans, is a federal holiday. But I still feel like Oktoberfests are still relatively niche. It’s worth noting that the pressure on German-Americans during WW1 and WW2 was different than it was on other ethnic groups.The pressure on Japanese-Americans for example (and Black Americans for that matter) was to just exclude them from society, but German-Americans were pressured more to actually give up their heritage and fully assimilate to the dominant Anglo-American culture. And I think you can see that that’s what happened by the fact that today, you rarely hear people talk about their German heritage like people talk about their Irish heritage, Italian heritage, Hispanic heritage, or Jewish, Polish, or African American heritage.
I would also add that the largest conservative Lutheran denomination in the USA is headquartered in St. Louis. The LCMS seminary is also there. LCMS stands for Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Founded in the 1840s, the LCMS is the most culturally German and the largest confessional, conservative branch of Lutheranism in the United States.
If you continue west past the Kansas (my home state) border, you will fine that "green" highlighted area continues west clear to the Colorado border. German, Austrian, and "Volgan" Germans are all over the southern plains. You can find small communities where churches and community centers often have German events and hearing people speak German is very common. My friends grandfather had a party for Christmas this last year with a Polka Band, and I was shocked by how many in the retirement center were singing songs in German. I don't speak any German and I am not ethnically German, but it was a really fun event. I've known for a long time that German is fairly common in the rural areas of the plains, but that was almost like a cultural shock, I couldn't believe how many of the older folks could speak German at a conversational level.
As a southern German who always lived very close to or had family from the Rhineland, Hermanndeutsch sounds like if a very adaptive American moved to the Rhineland to learn German there or someone from the Rhineland who moved to the US and now has a slight US accent when speaking German. 😂 Cool and interesting one way or another thank you for this Derek as always a great and interesting video 👍
You should do the nearby Mississippi Delta region next! Alluvial floodplain made up of some of the most fertile farmland in the entire world as well as the birthplace of the Blues and by association to that most modern American music genres.
Thanks for a great video. My paternal grandparents were both raised speaking both German and English in South St. Louis. Both of them being confirmed (in the Lutheran Church) in the German language. During World War I, they abruptly switched to English only. My father and his siblings were raised as English speakers only. I never heard them speak German although my father said they sometimes used it with their parents. Although the language changed, a lot of cultural things did not. To this day we still maintain a lot of German traditions, especially relating to holidays and food.
Great video! I grew up in Hermann, and I loved to learn a bit more about my home town! I’m actually one of the kids who are doing the maypole dance at 11:57
6:20 I come from the Rhineland myself (Mönchengladbach, right between Düsseldorf and Cologne). Doesn't sound Rhineland at all, more like standard German with a strong American accent. But a really interesting video nonetheless. It reminds me of my English classes in school because we talked about the German settlers in the US, especially Hermann, several times because it was indeed an interesting cultural mix. The German culture that you can see today is sometimes... kinda funny I guess. I remember talking about a few festivals like Oktoberfest (actually German/Bavarian) or Wurstfest (what the hell). But I myself am looking forward to visiting the area next year for a weekend or so. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it as originally planned due to the pandemic.
My family came from Mönchengladbach and Krefeld to Linn, Missouri (In the Missouri Rhineland) and lived there for 7 generations. So interesting to hear from someone from quite literally, my direct ancestral homeland lol. No one speaks German there anymore except some of the Mennonites though, which is a totally different group. I would imagine that a lot of German speakers in the Missouri Rhineland are imperfect speakers largely filling in the gaps with education focused on more standard german, so like many English dialects are dying in the US proper, the uniqueness of Missouri-German dialects will probably just start to disappear as they teach their kids using European German materials and the standard in German just totally overtakes it.
@@xefjord Are there no (voluntary) German language classes in highschool in that region? Though I imagine if you don't practice constantly, you won't be able to speak it anyway after some years.
whuzzzup Yes there are German classes in pretty much any middle, high school or college, but I have yet to meet an American who ever actually learned a second language, myself included. I’ve been trying to study German for years on my own. I’ve gotten better, but it’s just so difficult.
@@whuzzzupGerman is one of three-four languages taught at high schools throughout the American Midwest. French and Spanish are just so much more useful that in my experience pretty much only culturally connected German-American kids take it. Since Germans were largely forced to assimilate post WWI, it’s a pretty small population compared to the amount of Americans with a nominal connection to Germany.
Totally agree. I am from Leverkusen (same region between Cologne and Düsseldorf), and could not hear any "modern" rhineland dialect. Hermanndeutsch for me sounds more like german-speaking people from luxembourg or belgium, or indeed americans trying to speak german.
Reminds me a bit of The Texan Germans. I visited that part of the state recently. When I checked into my hotel, the guy working the counter was hispanic and greeted me with "howdy" in a slightly German accent. Fun fact: the State of Texas gave equal recognition to English, Spanish, and German until WWI.
The chunks of the Canadian Shield inside of America. The two spots are the Adirondacks(which gets mistakenly lumped in with the Appalachians a lot) and the Superior Region (The Upper Peninsula of Michigan, The Arrowhead Region of Minnesota, plus the northern third of Wisconsin linking them)
I'm a German-American in the Rhineland, with my mother's side from the Rhineland itself and my father's side from North Dakota. I learned a lot from this video and didn't know there was such a rich history of German-Americans in the area I live. Thank you for making this video I'm glad to learn my heritage is much more then I had originally thought. I still have a German last name from my father's side and we still make many german foods, mainly deserts. While I don't speak German my late grandmother did and I would really like to learn some day. It saddens me to learn about German-American oppressions during WW1/2. In school I only really learned about Japanese-Americans being put in interment camps, not German-Americans. This video has made me more proud of my heritage then before, and I look forward to learning even more going forward.
My (Several greats) Grandpa was George Stark who owned Stone Hill Winery. My grandparents are taking me on a tour of Hermann next week to explore that branch of the family history. Excellently timed video, Thanks Tigerstar
German Lutherans had a huge presence and identity. Saxon colony in Perry County. In St. Louis publications like Der Lutheraner and Lehre und Wehre, Concordia Seminary, etc. Even the "German Lutheran Synod of Missouri and other States" today's Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.
This is really bizarre, seeing your channel for a while and now I see pictures of my own home town (Hermann) along with its long German history. My family were Irish immigrants from St. Louis that then moved out to the outskirts of Hermann in the 60’s. Later on 25 years ago my grandparents and parents moved to a farmhouse just a few miles outside of Hermann, that was built in the mid-1800’s but has received updates in the 30’s, 70’s, and today. Speaking as a lifelong resident, Hermann suffered greatly during the 2008 financial crisis along with most other small towns in the Rust Belt, many businesses closed. However Hermann has greatly rebounded, thanks to Guesthauses, AirBnB, all of the wineries, and the Dierburg family also pumping some money in some businesses like Tin Mill. Every year we see more and more tourism, I feel like Hermann, if it isn’t already, will become the wine capital of the Midwest, along with the large Octoberfest celebrations. We have a museum dedicated to the area and German heritage at the old schoolhouse that anyone can tour. You may be disappointed that we aren’t as German as the actual Rhineland though, and are more culturally mixed with rural America and Missouri. If you’re looking for food while ever in town and want a recommendation, grab some brats from Wurst Haus or wings from Wings a Blazin, but everywhere is going to be very busy this time of year.
Great video. It’s crazy how much influence German culture has had here in the Lou. The MO Rhineland is such an overlooked gem of a region. Probably because StL is the most underrated city in the world. 😉
As a Westphalian, whenever I hear about the descendants of German immigrants trying to revive their cultural traditions, it fills me with rather conflicting feelings. On the one hand, its great and wonderful they are trying to celebrate their heritage. On the other hand, I absolutely hate it when they do so by starting up Oktoberfests... even when their ancestors were literally from every part of Germany except Bavaria. Like, seriously people, I think your ancestors would probably prefer it if you stayed fully americanized instead of trying to start a local version of the most cliché "German" thing known to man. Now, aside from this little rant, I gotta say: Great video! I am always happy to hear about such wondrous little enclaves of unexpected diversity in the world.
You have to understand that for many Americans, especially those in the inland states, don’t have as much connection to their roots as they would wish. American “Oktoberfest” may as well be a different holiday than its original form. They don’t really care what modern Germans think, their Oktoberfest descends from the mixing of German groups into one solid American demographic, they are celebrating it how their ancestors who came here did it. African Americans famously experienced a similar mixing of cultures when different African cultures were stuck together in the Americas. Obviously not by choice like German-Americans, but it’s a common thing here. I can’t speak on Oktoberfest as much (I am of Polish/Native descent), but those of us in the Midwest will never pass up an opportunity to eat a bunch of food and drink beer
I am a German American living in Westphalia, Missouri. Despite knowing particularly where mine and my neighbors ancestry comes from (take a guess) we tend to identify as a unified Germanic tracing people. It’s fun to talk about whether someone traces from Bavaria or Westphalia etc but it’s not near as important as the shared identity, plus we all love good beer!
It’s very interesting to see the map at 4:30 and be able to pick and see exactly where my house is along the banks of the Missouri. I’m really happy you are covering this often overlooked part of America and American history. I think a stand-alone video on the travels of Lewis and Clark if you haven’t already made one would be awesome, especially knowing that history is so close to home which I’m starting to realize may sound ridiculous to someone that might be European, or really anyone without an American-centric understanding of the world. This land is young. The history of it is usually considered short and we haven’t lived on it very long so the few times we get recognition for the small (but very interesting) history we have, I consider it something to be celebrated if that makes sense. Someone that lives in Rome can step outside and they’ll be in history (their dirty slimy EUROPEAN 🤢 history). They can’t escape it. In America, we have pockets of history, but we still have plenty that is still untamed. Part of me likes that. This feeling isn’t new to people from the old world, of being in history. But, I like that feeling of knowing your among the first people that will live on the land that I currently live on. Just one of the potentially hundreds of thousands, eventually down the line millions, that will live and die on the same soil I have. Long after I pass and anyone reading this comment passes, someone else will occupy the land you once did. I like that when I caught this land and got to have the pleasure of living on it I found it still wild enough to make people feel free if they want to be. In 200 years, the land I live on may no longer be wild with forests everywhere and national parks within driving distance. In 200 years, people might not be able to just drive 10 minutes and simply be on a state trail with just them and the wilderness. I see that as an absolute privilege. The thing I love about this land most is that it strikes a balance. I can drive 10 minutes and I’m on a trail. I could also drive 10 minutes and I’m in the busy town. I love my country.
I think a video on the Low Country of the Southeast US from Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina would be a fun idea to cover. Groups like the Gulluah and many others and the historical Whiplash in terms of interesting and shameful parts of its history is quite fascinating. Loving this Series sofar, Keep it up! I cant wait to hear more about other regions!
Thank you for making this video. I've lived in the St. Louis metro my whole life and I didn't hear about the Missouri Rhineland until I went down a Wikipedia rabbithole on the wineries around St. Louis.
The wine production I was not aware of. This is actually a really close connection to the original Rhineland. For last few centuries until today, Rhineland-Pfalz is considered the wine country of Germany. I believe it is still Germany's largest wine producing region, and they hold an annual week long wine festival similar to Oktoberfest.
this video explains my heritage pretty well. thank you. my dad's family live in central missouri that are german descent and its cool how this video ties all of it together. my mom and her entire family are full-blooded dutch and theyre from a region of iowa (pella, oskaloosa area). all that i know that they've been there since the 1890s and I'm the first generation thats not full-blooded dutch. it would be cool to a video breaking down that area.
As a son of a german immigrant who live literally 5 min north of dutzow, I really appreciate a bigger youtube channel covering why we have so much German culture in central Missouri.
This was such a great video. Thanks for unearthing the rich history of our "boring" midwest. Will you ever consider talking about the Polish of Chicago?
i am from a little east of cologne, so very much the original rhineland, but i have moved elsewhere in germany about 10 years ago and the speaker of hermanndeutsch really makes me feel homesick. there are a few phonemes that are distincly rhinenish apart from the massive influence of american english. added bonus: this is massively easier to understand for me than bavarian oder austrian are.
Yoooo hey neighbor thanks for telling my family's origin story I've never seen a major channel cover it! Warren County here I still go to Straussenbash, Dutch Days, and Oktoberfest every year. Dutzow MO has the best wine you'll ever taste in your life.
3:02 The info is super interesting, but the background/font color makes things difficult to read. The contrast on your citations is great, for example.
6:20 Native German speaker here. The dialect sounds like he pronounces a lot of the German words with an American accent. Now I don't know if that is how the dialect is supposed to sound like, or if he grew up with American English as his native tongue and only later decided to learn the dialect. If I'd met him on the street without knowing anything else, I'd just assume he's a standard American trying to speak German. I can definitely understand him, but it's quite a strong accent.
I’d suspect he probably grew up learning it from a generation that also grew up learning it. So day to day business was English but German was spoke at home with the more elderly and possibly working with the Amish but I don’t know how much Pennsylvania Dutch would be understood.
Duden (as in Gottfried Duden 1:55 ) happens to also be the very rare last name of the inventor of the German dictionary (Konrad Duden) which bears his name, similar to Merriam-Webster in America
german from the rhineland here: It sounds like an american who learned german but hasn't quite mastered it. Especially the sentence structure sounds like he still thinks in english and translates it verbatim. You cannot hear a lick of rheinisch in his phonetic though, that was a bit disappointing to be honest. But I'm sure he'd have to no problem communicating with germans should he ever decide to visit us.
If you want another German centric area, the Dutch Fork of South Carolina, between the Saluda and Broad Rivers, was settled by German Protestants (mostly Lutherans) in the Colonial Era. The only major influences that remain are that Lutherans are far more common than elsewhere in the South and Newberry, SC celebrates Oktoberfest.
Fantastic video, I learned a lot especially considering that I live and was born and raised right in the middle of this region. As opposed to your Ozark video where I was right outside the typical boarders of that region
I'm a high school German teacher, teaching in a suburb outside of KCMO and found your video very insightful. I can't wait to impart this knowledge on my students! Danke sehr
I found this quite interesting, particularly because I would like to take Amtrak between St. Louis and Kansas City. Could be if I take that trip, I will devote time to stopping along the way. In another vein, I once went to a panel discussion where I learned that, because of World War I, a great deal of American classical musical culture and training turned to France, instead of Germany. (The book, "Making Music American", was mentioned in that talk but I don't know it myself.)
cool video. I grew up in southeast Missouri, so not the Missouri Rhineland, but my family history is really based in Saint Louis county. I think a cool video would be exploring the views of German immigrants during the civil war era in Missouri, since that was a time of significant migration to the US from Germany to Missouri.
I am from bellevile illinois just outside of st louis and there are a ton of germans here not a lot of native speakers anymore (they were mostly out in millstadt anyway) but we have a building called turner hall that used go be home of the belleville turners
My family moved to Bates County in western Missouri around the time of the civil war after being born in Bavaria and we live about a mile away from the house my great grandpa grew up in. The Lutheran Church that brought them to the area is less than 10 minutes away. Lots of German heritage in the surrounding area!
8:18 Anheuser-Busch is not the biggest brewing company in the world. In 2008 AB was bought by the Belgian InBev, who was the biggest brewer at the time and still is. So they are now part of the biggest (AB Inbev), but never were the biggest themselves!
As a Dutch person who speaks English pretty well and can guess what Germans are saying to each other due to the similarities between our languages. But the Hermanndeutsch segment makes it way harder because you’re now hearing two foreign languages mixed while also being reminded of your own language once in a while. Really have to listen to what he was saying while I would normally just listen to English media in the background
Reminds me of the huge German community in the Kitchener-Waterloo area in Ontario. In fact, Kitchener was originally called "Berlin" for its German community until a controversial 1916 referendum that was filled with intimidation and violence. Today, they have the second-largest Oktoberfest in the world.
A thing regarding the "Turner" movement. It rose from german fraternities during a time when academic and duel fencing was banned and was developed by a man named "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" commonly known in germany as "Der Turnvater" or "Turnvater Jahn". The reason why he and some other developed the concept and associated physical workouts was to bridge the time between the now and the time when fencing would be legal again. It was a form of keeping the students ready for war. After the failed 48 revolution student fraternities got banned as they served as a democratic and independent force with most of the famous or important leaders of the revolution comming from a fraternity. So their flight was not just because of a sense of dissapointment but because of a literaly threat to their freedom and at times life. To this day you can find "Turnerschaften" in many german university cities and they operate under the umbrella of a larger organisation which also includes the "Landsmannschaften", the precursor to the "Turnerschaften" And yes, american fraternities are based on old german fraternities and many rituals, including the hazing rituals are also losely based on german fraternities from that time. Although german fraternities have not had such rituals for almost as long, they simply could not afford to lose potential members during the ban. Today american fraternities and german ones are utterly unique things which have almost nothing in common, with german fraternities focusing on unity, community, life long support and various academic traditions like fencing, sports, music and they still hold the traditional festivities like the "Kommers" and "Kneipe", while the US fraternities focused on "life as a student" and the fun you can have in a group while being a student rather than life long bonds to the fraternity. Drinking lots of beer is probably the only thing both share
I live near New Hamburg, Altenburg, Frohna, and Friedheim, Missouri. All of which are tiny towns settled by Germans in the 19th century. It's pretty cool to see.
Learning about these immigrant communities in America is fascinating. Being from Texas myself, I've heard a fair amount about Texas Germans, and how they also speak their own dialect of German. They similarly had a cultural falloff due to the World Wars, but the German heritage is still very prominent in the central Texas region.
I have a set of German-language Missouri-synod Lutheran hymn books from around 1910. Quite interesting to know that at that time the Missouri synod was doing only German-language services across the midwest
I have lived in the middle of Missouri my whole life and have heard this before there are alot of towns with german names in Missouri there's even a town called Rhineland its night next to Herman
There is also a small group of historically German areas just across the Missouri in Illinois. My great-grandfather lived in Fults, IL. Small town, population of less than 50. My grandfather lived in Dupo, just across from St. Louis. That same area was also settled earlier by french explorers and trappers.
As a Missouri Rhinelander I find this very interesting, it helps me to understand my German ancestry and surname, I was kind of aware that this area was more prominently populated by German immigrants than most but not to this extent.
My grandmother was from the Missouri Rhineland. She had a German last name and grew up on a farm with her 12 brothers and sisters. Sadly, having been born just a few years after WW1, I don't think she was ever taught German by her family.
What follows is clearly just my opinion. I'm a proud American-German Lutheran from St louis county. part of my family were from the original Saxon diaspora of Lutherans to Perry county during the Prussian union. the other half were Lorrainian coal miners who settled in the coal towns on the Illinois side in the 1870s. Missouri is such a cool state with so much history to brag and reflect on. but German people, outside of war, tend to be very soft spoken and reserved, rarely brag. This region of the county is great and the culture is still so alive. Especially where the religious connection still exists, the cultural heritage is very alive and well. I know that many places in the US can say the same thing, but St. Louis, and Missouri, is a special place.
There’s a part of Texas that was settled by Germans too, and even developed a separate dialect itself. It’s centered around Fredericksburg. There’s even some smaller parts of the state that had a lot of Czechs and Slovaks too
This was fascinating. Many of my ancestors came from this area, having lit out for the territories when the Civil War began brewing up, moving to what is now northeastern Nebraska. They didn't have a dog in that fight and wanted no part of it. I'm 72 now, but I can remember when our church (Mo. Synod Lutheran) still had both German and English church services in the 1959s, with appropriate hymnals for each. The suppression of German culture is still apparent today. Nebraska has an "Irish Capital," O'Neill; a Czech Capital." Wilbur; a "Swedish Capital," Stromsburg; and a "Polish Capital." Loup City,, with annual celebrations. There is no "German Capital," although it is a major demographic in much of the state.
there are a number of varieties of not so much dialectal German (though there is that too) but American Standard German, essentially, all across the US where notable numbers of German speakers moved in the 19th century, mostly the midwest Missouri German almost certainly falls into that same boat An actual Rhenish dialect you'd expect to be a fair bit different, like das and was being dat and wat and other similar changes Basically unlike 18th century immigration here, which was very strongly clustered in the southwest of German speaking Europe (thus why Pa Dutch is a Palatine German dialect), 19th immigration was much more widespread including not only various dialects of high German but also of Low German too. Generally there was a bit of a northern and central bias in the 19th century, which is why Texas German pronounces 'Weg' as "Wech" for example (it's Weck in Pa Dutch) They were also moving all over the midwest, often settling together yes but not specifically all from the same region of Germany, and thus speaking different dialects. Many of them came from cities, where dialect leveling was already occurring, seeking their own land in the US, same as many east coasters. By the 19th century standard German has been well entrenched into German society, and this is during and after the nationalist movements that actually created the sense of German identity (which the Pa Dutch for example missed out on) so the end result of all the above context was that parents started teaching their children Standard German instead of their dialects and you start getting these uniquely American forms of standard German all over the midwest. Of those the healthiest has probably been Texan German, which still has notable enough numbers of speakers There are, or there at least _might_ still be some speakers of actual dialects left in the US, but I doubt there are too many. There were enough though for there to be recordings made in the 60's abouts I think, but since then they've probably aged out. There's also other groups like the Volga Germans, who left Russia in the early 20th century, who do speak a dialect that can be traced back to a particular region, in this case mostly Hesse (and as such is sometimes fairly similar to Pa Dutch), the Hutterites who speak a southern Austrian dialect, and the Swiss Amish who speak either a mixed language of either Bernese or Alsatian German mixed with Pa Dutch, and of course the Pa Dutch themselves, or ourselves more accurately as I'm a Dutchy in this context, who speak a dialect of southeastern Palatine German
My family is Missouri Lutheran, I believe our church in Central Nebraska stopped using German around World War I. We still have a family Bible from the 1800s all in German I remember once my sister went through a lot of our family records for a genealogy class, and we have a document from the secretary of state where our great great grandfather had to re-swear allegiance to the republic, and swear off the Kaiser for all time. It wasn’t from the German side of the family, but he was from Prussian occupied Poland and the old country… needless to say he didn’t need much convincing to swear off the Kaiser.
9:39 I'm honestly surprised my family (from a similar region in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina, I'd love to see it discussed) kept "Putzel" as a last name. Apparently we were kind of important in the community, so that might be why.
The first owner of the baseball team that is now the St. Louis Cardinals was German immigrant Chris von der Ahe. Though he never played and didn't know much about the sport, he had a statue of himself erected outside Sportsman's Park. In a lot of ways, he was a 19th century George Steinbrenner.
Friends of mine who were Danish named 'Zimmerman' changed their name to 'Carpenter' during WWI. Another friend, a Norwegian whose grandfather was a NORWEGIAN Lutheran pastor, had his church burned down by anti-German rioters.
What are some other interesting cultural regions I should make a video on next?
Definitely make a video on the Hmong population of Wisconsin, it's a verrrry interesting topic :)
Not in the US, but there's the Welsh colony in Argentinian Patagonia: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_Wladfa
The historical Chinese American population in the Mississippi Delta region of Mississippi. At the community's height in the 1970s there were around 3,000 people of Chinese descent living in the Mississippi Delta, but the community dates back all the way to the 1870s. I think it'd make a very interesting subject for a video if you ever decide to use this idea.
If we are on the Topic of German Communities abroad i know there are some in South America. For example the Brazilian City of Blumenau founded by a German pharmacist. Maybe that could be interesting.
Make a video about the Germans who live in Germany
As a German Speaker the "Hermanndeutsch" kinda sounds like a Standard German Speaker doing a stereotypical American accent
And they say America doesn't have culture 🇺🇸
As an American learning German, it was easier for me to understand than most German accents.
Second that. I would even say it is remarkably similar, considering it split more than 100 years ago. I would even say it is more similar to standard German than many local German accents.
Bang on
Hearing Hermanndeutsch as a German - from the actual Rhineland as well - i agree with you.
BUT i also have a friend from the german-speaking part of Luxembourg (not that far away from the Rhineland), and he sounds very similar to the Hermanndeutsch shown here.
On the other hand, the dialect my grandparents speak (Kölsch and Bergisch Platt), sound very different.
So, i think, that may be what german sounded like in the regions around the rhineland in the 1800, before they lost contact to any other german speakers?
As a German, I think the man who spoke "Hermanndeutsch" was quite easy to understand. Apart from some loanwords like soy instead of Soja and farmer instead of Bauer/Landwirt, few other differences are hearable. The strongest giveaway that this speaker is not from Germany but from America is the way he pronounces his r. He uses the English r and not the French/German r, which is the most common here. Like others have mentioned, it sounds like German with an American accent. It was, however, easier to understand than Texas German. At least for me.
And his grammar is americanized, mostly sounding like a direct translation.
I'm an American learning German right now, and I actually understood him almost perfectly, which is rarely the case when hearing European German speakers yet 😅 Funny how that works, but I guess it shouldn't be surprising!
To me he sounded like could speak both German and English and decided to speak German but accidentally spoke English occasionally.
Agreed, very easy to understand and besides the americanized "r", it was very German-like. There are dialects in Germany that are harder to understand.
"Wie gehts, y'all?" 😃
This is shaping up to be a really cool series.
I grew up in this region. Most people I knew had a German last name, including myself; Kaisers, Zimmermans, Yeagers, Muelers, to name a few. I never realized how unique that was until I moved away and encountered way more Anglo names. From someone with deep roots along the Missouri from the Waverly-Marshall area, thank you for giving this often overlooked story attention.
Outside of the First Name, these are all Anglicised, if they hadn't been Anglicised "Zimmerman" would have been "Zimmermann" (Carpenter) considering "Mann" is spelled with Two N's, "Jäger" (Hunter), and Müller (Miller), though back in the Past and to this Day Families could also be named Mueller instead because in the Past the Umlaut wasn't always written. Anyway, very Interesting to hear Your Perspective, coming from a German.
As someone who is from the Missouri Rhineland (Specifically in one of the counties closer to St. Louis) who was raised by a VERY American monolingual English speaking family, it still is fascinating having all that German culture. I still didn't know a lot of the information presented here beforehand, so it was interesting to learn. I've been learning about German culture and it was very interesting seeing something on German Culture from where I was born!
Let me guess, Washington?
@@zombieranger3410 No. I'm in O'Fallon.
@@KeeGalaxy ah
@@KeeGalaxyI got stranded in that place back in April
i am a native german speaker from rhineland-palatinate and to me the Hermanndeutsch dialect sounds like german just with an american accent
Just standard German? You notice anything that sounds regional?
@@jonasastrom7422I'm from the Swabian region in Germany and it is plain Hochdeutsch. Sounds like a lot of US Americans speak, that are able to speak fluid German.
Edit: to my opinion, at least
I mean the accent is of course going to be different, the dialect is largely dead, that guy is like among dozens or hundreds who probably still can speak it, and they probably werent necessarily raised or have the accent having grown up with and are native english speakers.
@@brokkrepI’m an American that’s conversationally fluent. He sounds exactly like me if I’m not focusing on my accent. A lot of the “German” sounds like ch/ts/r have been leveled into something much more natural for an American English speaker.
My dad worked at Stone Hill Winery for years. A bunch of the modern woodworking there can be accredited to him! I spent several years of my childhood exploring all the chambers of the complex and walking through the grapevines there, and it really is a beautiful place. I will ALWAYS remember it fondly, and the rich history of it and Hermann as a whole really feels special out here in the Midwest.
Who's your dad?!? Hermann born and raised here, my dad was a historic German woodworker!
I think it is unfortunate how the contributions of German immigrants to America are, at best, no longer easy to see or, at worst, have been completely lost. Especially considering that, to this day, more Americans claim German heritage than any other ethnic group, including Irish, Hispanic, or African American. Days like St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo are very popular, even Columbus Day, which was partly created to honor Italian Americans, is a federal holiday. But I still feel like Oktoberfests are still relatively niche.
It’s worth noting that the pressure on German-Americans during WW1 and WW2 was different than it was on other ethnic groups.The pressure on Japanese-Americans for example (and Black Americans for that matter) was to just exclude them from society, but German-Americans were pressured more to actually give up their heritage and fully assimilate to the dominant Anglo-American culture. And I think you can see that that’s what happened by the fact that today, you rarely hear people talk about their German heritage like people talk about their Irish heritage, Italian heritage, Hispanic heritage, or Jewish, Polish, or African American heritage.
I would also add that the largest conservative Lutheran denomination in the USA is headquartered in St. Louis. The LCMS seminary is also there. LCMS stands for Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
Founded in the 1840s, the LCMS is the most culturally German and the largest confessional, conservative branch of Lutheranism in the United States.
If you continue west past the Kansas (my home state) border, you will fine that "green" highlighted area continues west clear to the Colorado border. German, Austrian, and "Volgan" Germans are all over the southern plains. You can find small communities where churches and community centers often have German events and hearing people speak German is very common. My friends grandfather had a party for Christmas this last year with a Polka Band, and I was shocked by how many in the retirement center were singing songs in German. I don't speak any German and I am not ethnically German, but it was a really fun event. I've known for a long time that German is fairly common in the rural areas of the plains, but that was almost like a cultural shock, I couldn't believe how many of the older folks could speak German at a conversational level.
As a southern German who always lived very close to or had family from the Rhineland, Hermanndeutsch sounds like if a very adaptive American moved to the Rhineland to learn German there or someone from the Rhineland who moved to the US and now has a slight US accent when speaking German. 😂 Cool and interesting one way or another thank you for this Derek as always a great and interesting video 👍
You should do the nearby Mississippi Delta region next! Alluvial floodplain made up of some of the most fertile farmland in the entire world as well as the birthplace of the Blues and by association to that most modern American music genres.
Thanks for a great video. My paternal grandparents were both raised speaking both German and English in South St. Louis. Both of them being confirmed (in the Lutheran Church) in the German language. During World War I, they abruptly switched to English only. My father and his siblings were raised as English speakers only. I never heard them speak German although my father said they sometimes used it with their parents. Although the language changed, a lot of cultural things did not. To this day we still maintain a lot of German traditions, especially relating to holidays and food.
Great video! I grew up in Hermann, and I loved to learn a bit more about my home town! I’m actually one of the kids who are doing the maypole dance at 11:57
Hermann!
6:20 I come from the Rhineland myself (Mönchengladbach, right between Düsseldorf and Cologne). Doesn't sound Rhineland at all, more like standard German with a strong American accent.
But a really interesting video nonetheless. It reminds me of my English classes in school because we talked about the German settlers in the US, especially Hermann, several times because it was indeed an interesting cultural mix. The German culture that you can see today is sometimes... kinda funny I guess. I remember talking about a few festivals like Oktoberfest (actually German/Bavarian) or Wurstfest (what the hell). But I myself am looking forward to visiting the area next year for a weekend or so. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it as originally planned due to the pandemic.
My family came from Mönchengladbach and Krefeld to Linn, Missouri (In the Missouri Rhineland) and lived there for 7 generations. So interesting to hear from someone from quite literally, my direct ancestral homeland lol. No one speaks German there anymore except some of the Mennonites though, which is a totally different group.
I would imagine that a lot of German speakers in the Missouri Rhineland are imperfect speakers largely filling in the gaps with education focused on more standard german, so like many English dialects are dying in the US proper, the uniqueness of Missouri-German dialects will probably just start to disappear as they teach their kids using European German materials and the standard in German just totally overtakes it.
@@xefjord Are there no (voluntary) German language classes in highschool in that region? Though I imagine if you don't practice constantly, you won't be able to speak it anyway after some years.
whuzzzup
Yes there are German classes in pretty much any middle, high school or college, but I have yet to meet an American who ever actually learned a second language, myself included. I’ve been trying to study German for years on my own. I’ve gotten better, but it’s just so difficult.
@@whuzzzupGerman is one of three-four languages taught at high schools throughout the American Midwest. French and Spanish are just so much more useful that in my experience pretty much only culturally connected German-American kids take it. Since Germans were largely forced to assimilate post WWI, it’s a pretty small population compared to the amount of Americans with a nominal connection to Germany.
Totally agree. I am from Leverkusen (same region between Cologne and Düsseldorf), and could not hear any "modern" rhineland dialect. Hermanndeutsch for me sounds more like german-speaking people from luxembourg or belgium, or indeed americans trying to speak german.
Reminds me a bit of The Texan Germans. I visited that part of the state recently. When I checked into my hotel, the guy working the counter was hispanic and greeted me with "howdy" in a slightly German accent.
Fun fact: the State of Texas gave equal recognition to English, Spanish, and German until WWI.
I’m glad this oft-overlooked portion of America is getting its own video, the culture of the Missouri Rhineland is incredibly fascinating.
As someone who lives in the Missouri Rhineland, this was a great video to watch. I go to the Oktoberfest in Hermann every year by train.
The chunks of the Canadian Shield inside of America. The two spots are the Adirondacks(which gets mistakenly lumped in with the Appalachians a lot) and the Superior Region (The Upper Peninsula of Michigan, The Arrowhead Region of Minnesota, plus the northern third of Wisconsin linking them)
I'm a German-American in the Rhineland, with my mother's side from the Rhineland itself and my father's side from North Dakota. I learned a lot from this video and didn't know there was such a rich history of German-Americans in the area I live. Thank you for making this video I'm glad to learn my heritage is much more then I had originally thought. I still have a German last name from my father's side and we still make many german foods, mainly deserts. While I don't speak German my late grandmother did and I would really like to learn some day. It saddens me to learn about German-American oppressions during WW1/2. In school I only really learned about Japanese-Americans being put in interment camps, not German-Americans. This video has made me more proud of my heritage then before, and I look forward to learning even more going forward.
Follow through by learning German, marrying another German girl and having at least 6 kids, raising them in German and English.
My (Several greats) Grandpa was George Stark who owned Stone Hill Winery. My grandparents are taking me on a tour of Hermann next week to explore that branch of the family history. Excellently timed video, Thanks Tigerstar
The guy speaking german was very easily understandable to me, sounded like pretty normal german with an american accent to me
As a French, i love the fact that a large German-speaking population lives in a city called Saint Louis ^^
You should see the types of people that live in the section of Germantown, Philadelphia 😂
Are they, dare I say enwords?
Total French colonial victory
Well, the French settled it and named it- then the Germans moved in.
@@donwillman4587 Apparently one of the town's founders was from Lorraine, which makes the case even more interesting.
German Lutherans had a huge presence and identity. Saxon colony in Perry County. In St. Louis publications like Der Lutheraner and Lehre und Wehre, Concordia Seminary, etc. Even the "German Lutheran Synod of Missouri and other States" today's Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.
I was supposed to see some recognition for the LCMS until I saw the username
Rhineland mentioned !!!🔥🔥🔥
This is a fantastic series. Can't wait for more.
This is really bizarre, seeing your channel for a while and now I see pictures of my own home town (Hermann) along with its long German history.
My family were Irish immigrants from St. Louis that then moved out to the outskirts of Hermann in the 60’s. Later on 25 years ago my grandparents and parents moved to a farmhouse just a few miles outside of Hermann, that was built in the mid-1800’s but has received updates in the 30’s, 70’s, and today.
Speaking as a lifelong resident, Hermann suffered greatly during the 2008 financial crisis along with most other small towns in the Rust Belt, many businesses closed. However Hermann has greatly rebounded, thanks to Guesthauses, AirBnB, all of the wineries, and the Dierburg family also pumping some money in some businesses like Tin Mill. Every year we see more and more tourism, I feel like Hermann, if it isn’t already, will become the wine capital of the Midwest, along with the large Octoberfest celebrations. We have a museum dedicated to the area and German heritage at the old schoolhouse that anyone can tour. You may be disappointed that we aren’t as German as the actual Rhineland though, and are more culturally mixed with rural America and Missouri.
If you’re looking for food while ever in town and want a recommendation, grab some brats from Wurst Haus or wings from Wings a Blazin, but everywhere is going to be very busy this time of year.
It's so strange hearing these towns names I've known all my life on TH-cam video. Thanks tigerstar!
Took the Amtrak from KC to Hermann last year and it was amazing!
Next video: "New change in map: Chagos"?
I hope you do a video about Iowa in the future. Just about how crazy settlement was and then the often overlooked achievements the state has
PLEASE make a KC video talking about the early French, LDS, Wyandotte, Croats/Slovaks, Great Exodus, etc theres so much there
Great video. It’s crazy how much influence German culture has had here in the Lou. The MO Rhineland is such an overlooked gem of a region. Probably because StL is the most underrated city in the world. 😉
As a Westphalian, whenever I hear about the descendants of German immigrants trying to revive their cultural traditions, it fills me with rather conflicting feelings. On the one hand, its great and wonderful they are trying to celebrate their heritage. On the other hand, I absolutely hate it when they do so by starting up Oktoberfests... even when their ancestors were literally from every part of Germany except Bavaria. Like, seriously people, I think your ancestors would probably prefer it if you stayed fully americanized instead of trying to start a local version of the most cliché "German" thing known to man.
Now, aside from this little rant, I gotta say: Great video! I am always happy to hear about such wondrous little enclaves of unexpected diversity in the world.
You have to understand that for many Americans, especially those in the inland states, don’t have as much connection to their roots as they would wish. American “Oktoberfest” may as well be a different holiday than its original form. They don’t really care what modern Germans think, their Oktoberfest descends from the mixing of German groups into one solid American demographic, they are celebrating it how their ancestors who came here did it. African Americans famously experienced a similar mixing of cultures when different African cultures were stuck together in the Americas. Obviously not by choice like German-Americans, but it’s a common thing here. I can’t speak on Oktoberfest as much (I am of Polish/Native descent), but those of us in the Midwest will never pass up an opportunity to eat a bunch of food and drink beer
I am a German American living in Westphalia, Missouri. Despite knowing particularly where mine and my neighbors ancestry comes from (take a guess) we tend to identify as a unified Germanic tracing people. It’s fun to talk about whether someone traces from Bavaria or Westphalia etc but it’s not near as important as the shared identity, plus we all love good beer!
Ah, Europeans dictating to Americans how they're "allowed" to express their culture. A tale as Old as Time.
Grow up dude.
Europeans are always so goofy because their opinions never matter. Speaking for people you never met. Be useful. Go get me a pretzel.
Was just reading the Wikipedia article about this region last week. Very happy to see this in my recommended
It’s very interesting to see the map at 4:30 and be able to pick and see exactly where my house is along the banks of the Missouri. I’m really happy you are covering this often overlooked part of America and American history.
I think a stand-alone video on the travels of Lewis and Clark if you haven’t already made one would be awesome, especially knowing that history is so close to home which I’m starting to realize may sound ridiculous to someone that might be European, or really anyone without an American-centric understanding of the world. This land is young. The history of it is usually considered short and we haven’t lived on it very long so the few times we get recognition for the small (but very interesting) history we have, I consider it something to be celebrated if that makes sense.
Someone that lives in Rome can step outside and they’ll be in history (their dirty slimy EUROPEAN 🤢 history). They can’t escape it. In America, we have pockets of history, but we still have plenty that is still untamed. Part of me likes that. This feeling isn’t new to people from the old world, of being in history. But, I like that feeling of knowing your among the first people that will live on the land that I currently live on. Just one of the potentially hundreds of thousands, eventually down the line millions, that will live and die on the same soil I have. Long after I pass and anyone reading this comment passes, someone else will occupy the land you once did. I like that when I caught this land and got to have the pleasure of living on it I found it still wild enough to make people feel free if they want to be. In 200 years, the land I live on may no longer be wild with forests everywhere and national parks within driving distance. In 200 years, people might not be able to just drive 10 minutes and simply be on a state trail with just them and the wilderness. I see that as an absolute privilege.
The thing I love about this land most is that it strikes a balance. I can drive 10 minutes and I’m on a trail. I could also drive 10 minutes and I’m in the busy town. I love my country.
I think a video on the Low Country of the Southeast US from Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina would be a fun idea to cover. Groups like the Gulluah and many others and the historical Whiplash in terms of interesting and shameful parts of its history is quite fascinating. Loving this Series sofar, Keep it up! I cant wait to hear more about other regions!
Thank you for making this video. I've lived in the St. Louis metro my whole life and I didn't hear about the Missouri Rhineland until I went down a Wikipedia rabbithole on the wineries around St. Louis.
The wine production I was not aware of. This is actually a really close connection to the original Rhineland. For last few centuries until today, Rhineland-Pfalz is considered the wine country of Germany. I believe it is still Germany's largest wine producing region, and they hold an annual week long wine festival similar to Oktoberfest.
Stone Hill Winery survived the prohibition by switching to growing mushrooms in their wine cellars
Interesting I get this video while planning on moving to Missouri!
this video explains my heritage pretty well. thank you. my dad's family live in central missouri that are german descent and its cool how this video ties all of it together. my mom and her entire family are full-blooded dutch and theyre from a region of iowa (pella, oskaloosa area). all that i know that they've been there since the 1890s and I'm the first generation thats not full-blooded dutch. it would be cool to a video breaking down that area.
As a son of a german immigrant who live literally 5 min north of dutzow, I really appreciate a bigger youtube channel covering why we have so much German culture in central Missouri.
This was such a great video. Thanks for unearthing the rich history of our "boring" midwest.
Will you ever consider talking about the Polish of Chicago?
i am from a little east of cologne, so very much the original rhineland, but i have moved elsewhere in germany about 10 years ago and the speaker of hermanndeutsch really makes me feel homesick. there are a few phonemes that are distincly rhinenish apart from the massive influence of american english. added bonus: this is massively easier to understand for me than bavarian oder austrian are.
Yoooo hey neighbor thanks for telling my family's origin story I've never seen a major channel cover it! Warren County here I still go to Straussenbash, Dutch Days, and Oktoberfest every year. Dutzow MO has the best wine you'll ever taste in your life.
3:02 The info is super interesting, but the background/font color makes things difficult to read. The contrast on your citations is great, for example.
6:20 Native German speaker here. The dialect sounds like he pronounces a lot of the German words with an American accent. Now I don't know if that is how the dialect is supposed to sound like, or if he grew up with American English as his native tongue and only later decided to learn the dialect. If I'd met him on the street without knowing anything else, I'd just assume he's a standard American trying to speak German. I can definitely understand him, but it's quite a strong accent.
I’d suspect he probably grew up learning it from a generation that also grew up learning it. So day to day business was English but German was spoke at home with the more elderly and possibly working with the Amish but I don’t know how much Pennsylvania Dutch would be understood.
These videos are great! Even as a non American, these regions are very interesting and they make me see the US in a different light
Duden (as in Gottfried Duden 1:55 ) happens to also be the very rare last name of the inventor of the German dictionary (Konrad Duden) which bears his name, similar to Merriam-Webster in America
Missed out on the beautiful German beer garden/square in Grants Farm. It's amazing
This is super cool! I know my family came over from Germany in the late 1800s and settled here but never knew why
Great video! Loved the information, reminds me of the Swedish influenced areas in Wisconsin and Minnesota !
german from the rhineland here:
It sounds like an american who learned german but hasn't quite mastered it. Especially the sentence structure sounds like he still thinks in english and translates it verbatim. You cannot hear a lick of rheinisch in his phonetic though, that was a bit disappointing to be honest. But I'm sure he'd have to no problem communicating with germans should he ever decide to visit us.
Really? Just because the accent doesn’t appeal to you, it must not be a “real” dialect? Get over yourself.
@@pyr4625 please point to where I said, that I don't like it.
If you want another German centric area, the Dutch Fork of South Carolina, between the Saluda and Broad Rivers, was settled by German Protestants (mostly Lutherans) in the Colonial Era. The only major influences that remain are that Lutherans are far more common than elsewhere in the South and Newberry, SC celebrates Oktoberfest.
Fantastic video, I learned a lot especially considering that I live and was born and raised right in the middle of this region. As opposed to your Ozark video where I was right outside the typical boarders of that region
As someone from a very german-influenced region in a different country (Brazil) this is very interesting to me
Santa Catarina is far more German than this place. I was in Floripa last year. Wow! Can’t wait to return.
I'm a high school German teacher, teaching in a suburb outside of KCMO and found your video very insightful. I can't wait to impart this knowledge on my students! Danke sehr
8:30 Grant's Farm is such a wild place. It's like someone built a zoo and a biergarten on top of each other and on top of a historic site.
I found this quite interesting, particularly because I would like to take Amtrak between St. Louis and Kansas City. Could be if I take that trip, I will devote time to stopping along the way.
In another vein, I once went to a panel discussion where I learned that, because of World War I, a great deal of American classical musical culture and training turned to France, instead of Germany. (The book, "Making Music American", was mentioned in that talk but I don't know it myself.)
cool video. I grew up in southeast Missouri, so not the Missouri Rhineland, but my family history is really based in Saint Louis county. I think a cool video would be exploring the views of German immigrants during the civil war era in Missouri, since that was a time of significant migration to the US from Germany to Missouri.
I am from bellevile illinois just outside of st louis and there are a ton of germans here not a lot of native speakers anymore (they were mostly out in millstadt anyway) but we have a building called turner hall that used go be home of the belleville turners
My family moved to Bates County in western Missouri around the time of the civil war after being born in Bavaria and we live about a mile away from the house my great grandpa grew up in. The Lutheran Church that brought them to the area is less than 10 minutes away. Lots of German heritage in the surrounding area!
8:18 Anheuser-Busch is not the biggest brewing company in the world. In 2008 AB was bought by the Belgian InBev, who was the biggest brewer at the time and still is. So they are now part of the biggest (AB Inbev), but never were the biggest themselves!
My 2nd great grandfather (born 1866-1942) grew grapes and made wine; He even operated a still. The family moved to Missouri in 1840
As a Dutch person who speaks English pretty well and can guess what Germans are saying to each other due to the similarities between our languages. But the Hermanndeutsch segment makes it way harder because you’re now hearing two foreign languages mixed while also being reminded of your own language once in a while. Really have to listen to what he was saying while I would normally just listen to English media in the background
Reminds me of the huge German community in the Kitchener-Waterloo area in Ontario. In fact, Kitchener was originally called "Berlin" for its German community until a controversial 1916 referendum that was filled with intimidation and violence. Today, they have the second-largest Oktoberfest in the world.
4:25 the animation on that citation was actually kinda eye popping. I was really surprised lol
A thing regarding the "Turner" movement.
It rose from german fraternities during a time when academic and duel fencing was banned and was developed by a man named "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" commonly known in germany as "Der Turnvater" or "Turnvater Jahn". The reason why he and some other developed the concept and associated physical workouts was to bridge the time between the now and the time when fencing would be legal again. It was a form of keeping the students ready for war.
After the failed 48 revolution student fraternities got banned as they served as a democratic and independent force with most of the famous or important leaders of the revolution comming from a fraternity. So their flight was not just because of a sense of dissapointment but because of a literaly threat to their freedom and at times life.
To this day you can find "Turnerschaften" in many german university cities and they operate under the umbrella of a larger organisation which also includes the "Landsmannschaften", the precursor to the "Turnerschaften"
And yes, american fraternities are based on old german fraternities and many rituals, including the hazing rituals are also losely based on german fraternities from that time. Although german fraternities have not had such rituals for almost as long, they simply could not afford to lose potential members during the ban. Today american fraternities and german ones are utterly unique things which have almost nothing in common, with german fraternities focusing on unity, community, life long support and various academic traditions like fencing, sports, music and they still hold the traditional festivities like the "Kommers" and "Kneipe", while the US fraternities focused on "life as a student" and the fun you can have in a group while being a student rather than life long bonds to the fraternity. Drinking lots of beer is probably the only thing both share
I think the midwest and Missouri could have a good potential future and loving the analysis on the different cultural regions.
I live near New Hamburg, Altenburg, Frohna, and Friedheim, Missouri. All of which are tiny towns settled by Germans in the 19th century. It's pretty cool to see.
Learning about these immigrant communities in America is fascinating.
Being from Texas myself, I've heard a fair amount about Texas Germans, and how they also speak their own dialect of German. They similarly had a cultural falloff due to the World Wars, but the German heritage is still very prominent in the central Texas region.
Finnally missourians represented. Had no clue you were from the ozarks aswell thats pretty cool.
I am so happy my state is being talked about.
My grandma was from one of these communities; always nice to see people talking about this oft-ignored part of Missouri
EmperorTigerStar, would you PLEASE do a video about the First Coast of Florida?
I live in Missouri. Perryville, St Genevieve, Cape Girardeau cities are full of German last names along the Missisipi river.
I have a set of German-language Missouri-synod Lutheran hymn books from around 1910. Quite interesting to know that at that time the Missouri synod was doing only German-language services across the midwest
I have lived in the middle of Missouri my whole life and have heard this before there are alot of towns with german names in Missouri there's even a town called Rhineland its night next to Herman
This where I grew up, and want to return soon. It really is one of the most beautiful places in America.
There is also a small group of historically German areas just across the Missouri in Illinois. My great-grandfather lived in Fults, IL. Small town, population of less than 50. My grandfather lived in Dupo, just across from St. Louis. That same area was also settled earlier by french explorers and trappers.
As a Missouri Rhinelander I find this very interesting, it helps me to understand my German ancestry and surname, I was kind of aware that this area was more prominently populated by German immigrants than most but not to this extent.
the guy who spoke german actually sounded more understandable than Bavarian
Kansas giving love to Missouri
My grandmother was from the Missouri Rhineland. She had a German last name and grew up on a farm with her 12 brothers and sisters. Sadly, having been born just a few years after WW1, I don't think she was ever taught German by her family.
3rd generation German whose family settled in Saint Louis, grew up in Columbia.
What follows is clearly just my opinion. I'm a proud American-German Lutheran from St louis county. part of my family were from the original Saxon diaspora of Lutherans to Perry county during the Prussian union. the other half were Lorrainian coal miners who settled in the coal towns on the Illinois side in the 1870s. Missouri is such a cool state with so much history to brag and reflect on. but German people, outside of war, tend to be very soft spoken and reserved, rarely brag. This region of the county is great and the culture is still so alive. Especially where the religious connection still exists, the cultural heritage is very alive and well. I know that many places in the US can say the same thing, but St. Louis, and Missouri, is a special place.
There’s a part of Texas that was settled by Germans too, and even developed a separate dialect itself. It’s centered around Fredericksburg. There’s even some smaller parts of the state that had a lot of Czechs and Slovaks too
This was fascinating. Many of my ancestors came from this area, having lit out for the territories when the Civil War began brewing up, moving to what is now northeastern Nebraska. They didn't have a dog in that fight and wanted no part of it. I'm 72 now, but I can remember when our church (Mo. Synod Lutheran) still had both German and English church services in the 1959s, with appropriate hymnals for each.
The suppression of German culture is still apparent today. Nebraska has an "Irish Capital," O'Neill; a Czech Capital." Wilbur; a "Swedish Capital," Stromsburg; and a "Polish Capital." Loup City,, with annual celebrations. There is no "German Capital," although it is a major demographic in much of the state.
Would love a video on Swedish Heritage in America!
That explains why my grandparents ended up in Missouri
there are a number of varieties of not so much dialectal German (though there is that too) but American Standard German, essentially, all across the US where notable numbers of German speakers moved in the 19th century, mostly the midwest
Missouri German almost certainly falls into that same boat
An actual Rhenish dialect you'd expect to be a fair bit different, like das and was being dat and wat and other similar changes
Basically unlike 18th century immigration here, which was very strongly clustered in the southwest of German speaking Europe (thus why Pa Dutch is a Palatine German dialect), 19th immigration was much more widespread including not only various dialects of high German but also of Low German too.
Generally there was a bit of a northern and central bias in the 19th century, which is why Texas German pronounces 'Weg' as "Wech" for example (it's Weck in Pa Dutch)
They were also moving all over the midwest, often settling together yes but not specifically all from the same region of Germany, and thus speaking different dialects.
Many of them came from cities, where dialect leveling was already occurring, seeking their own land in the US, same as many east coasters.
By the 19th century standard German has been well entrenched into German society, and this is during and after the nationalist movements that actually created the sense of German identity (which the Pa Dutch for example missed out on)
so the end result of all the above context was that parents started teaching their children Standard German instead of their dialects and you start getting these uniquely American forms of standard German all over the midwest.
Of those the healthiest has probably been Texan German, which still has notable enough numbers of speakers
There are, or there at least _might_ still be some speakers of actual dialects left in the US, but I doubt there are too many. There were enough though for there to be recordings made in the 60's abouts I think, but since then they've probably aged out.
There's also other groups like the Volga Germans, who left Russia in the early 20th century, who do speak a dialect that can be traced back to a particular region, in this case mostly Hesse (and as such is sometimes fairly similar to Pa Dutch), the Hutterites who speak a southern Austrian dialect, and the Swiss Amish who speak either a mixed language of either Bernese or Alsatian German mixed with Pa Dutch, and of course the Pa Dutch themselves, or ourselves more accurately as I'm a Dutchy in this context, who speak a dialect of southeastern Palatine German
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Ahh…Home.
*ignores the burning trainwreck for the nostalgia and beer*
My family is Missouri Lutheran, I believe our church in Central Nebraska stopped using German around World War I. We still have a family Bible from the 1800s all in German
I remember once my sister went through a lot of our family records for a genealogy class, and we have a document from the secretary of state where our great great grandfather had to re-swear allegiance to the republic, and swear off the Kaiser for all time. It wasn’t from the German side of the family, but he was from Prussian occupied Poland and the old country… needless to say he didn’t need much convincing to swear off the Kaiser.
9:39 I'm honestly surprised my family (from a similar region in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina, I'd love to see it discussed) kept "Putzel" as a last name. Apparently we were kind of important in the community, so that might be why.
The first owner of the baseball team that is now the St. Louis Cardinals was German immigrant Chris von der Ahe. Though he never played and didn't know much about the sport, he had a statue of himself erected outside Sportsman's Park. In a lot of ways, he was a 19th century George Steinbrenner.
Friends of mine who were Danish named 'Zimmerman' changed their name to 'Carpenter' during WWI. Another friend, a Norwegian whose grandfather was a NORWEGIAN Lutheran pastor, had his church burned down by anti-German rioters.
Dutzov Deli has some great food. And you can find a statue of Herman in Herman