There was no German nation until 1871, so we often have to refer to the “geographic region we call Germany” when writing genealogies.
In addition the German boundaries have not remained constant in the 19th and 20th centuries, nor were the boundaries constant in the old Holy Roman Empire, which was, of course, a German confederation.
The term “German” presents difficult problems of definition because of the shifting boundaries of Germany. In addition the wide-spread homelands of German-speaking peoples preclude a simple identification.
Prussia finally succeeded in uniting the German states as a nation when, under Otto von Bismarck, it defeated France in 1870-1871. IN the 20th century, World Wars I & II brought boundary changes in Bismarck’s Second and Hitler’s Third German Reich.
So who were the Germans? They are considered to be any of those people who spoke different but mutually intelligible dialects and, if literate, read High German (which the Gasts did) in a conglomerate of counties in central Europe. At various times they have included not only the modern German states, but also Luxemburge, the Alsace, parts of Switzerland and Poland, Austria, the rimland of Bohemia, local regions in Hungary, Yugoslavia and other southeastern European counties, as well as the Black Sea and central Volga regions in European Russia.
The first German immigration to America took place in 1683. The first settlers werer the Pietists who established Germantown, now a section of Philadelphia, in 1683. The original immigrants came either to Pennsylvania or New York. These immigrants left their homeland to seek religious freedom. (*Note: In my pictures from the farm, I found one taken in Landcaster, PA of a woman. Wonder if this could be a relative who came to that location?)
IN the first 100 years (1683-1783) German Lutherans and German Catholics (always the great body of the German people) came to America following the start made by smaller splinter groups.
After the Revolutionary War (1783-1848) the German immigrants were primarily laborers, tradesmen and farmers from southern and western Germany and they emigrated to the Midwest. Cincinnati, St. Louis and later Milwaukee and still later St. Paul, became import American commercial centers largely because of German immigrants, who build up their cities. This migration of Germans was for primarily economic reasons.
IN 1848 the Frankfurt National Assembly tried to give Germany a constitution base on the American Constitution. When their efforts failed, immigration again took place, (1848-1866). These people were highly intelligent, well educated, imaginative, cultured, skilled and idealistic. They probably added more to the quality of American life than any other group of immigrants who came to this nation. Most of them were comparatively young. They should have become leaders in America, but most Germans were either Roman Catholics and Lutherans and they were still at sword’s point. Germans stand out among immigrants for their religious diversity.
Military conscription became the most important factor of all in German immigration. Germans coming to the United States in the 1870’s, 1880’s and 1890’s (when the Gasts came) were from the northeastern provinces. Prussian militarism drove them away, perhaps more than anything else, although economics were also a motive. Germans who had emigrated sent glowing letters to relatives still in Europe about their life in the U.S. and this persuaded many farmers and workers to migrate. (*Note: Perhaps the Knitters sent back glowing reports to August and Albertine Schwinke Gast and this is why they emigrated?)
Between 1820 and 1900 at least 5 million German immigrants arrived in the United States, more than from any other area of the world. They rapidly assimilated into the mainstream of American life. They “melted” into the “melting pot” that is the United States. If ever an ethnic group vanished, it was the Germans.
(*Note: I found my notes from a genealogy course I’d taken years ago at Concordia College in Moorhead and typed them up. Funny what you find that you didn’t remember!) - Neoma Laken
A book that was recommended at that time was A Heritage Deferred by Rachel Bonney.