Race was a complex thing in America back then because they didn't have the scientific knowledge to rationally distinguish between races or sociological knowledge to explain the relation between social class and race. So often times, they resorted to social Darwinism, which was a bastardized understanding of Darwin's theories.

Legally and socially, Americans had different perceptions of race and color. The Irish and German immigrants were considered in general "white" so they were able to become naturalized citizens. 1885 is an interesting year because it was around this time when Chinese immigration was severely restricted due to the Page Act and Chinese Exclusion Act which practically prohibited immigration of Chinese prostitutes and laborers. For the European immigrants, their race-based quota laws will come later.

The Germans, in general, were considered white and were able to "blend" into the middle-class far better than any other racial minority, with the exception of English immigrants. The Irish, although considered white, they were also seen as an inferior race. There was a serious Anglo-Saxon/Nordic race dominance mentality during that period and the period before it (early to mid-1800s) saw the rise of a nativist movement called the Know-Nothings which were similar to today's nativist movements like the Tea Party. (But these two movements aren't entirely the same.) The Know-Nothings targeted all sorts of immigrants but mainly the Chinese who were a labor competition and the Irish who were also a labor competition and stereotyped as poor and Catholic opposed to America's majority Protestant. I wouldn't be surprised to see some German prejudice because they spoke a different language but much of the ethnic tensions were between races of the working-class, very much like today's tensions between blue-collar whites and Hispanics.

Germans faced most prejudice during WWI and WWII because Germany was America's enemy. During WWI, it would've been best for Germans to not make any of their "Germanness" known in public. This is not to say that every American was racist against Germans, but many Americans were suspicious of German loyalty to America and paranoid about a German conspiracy against America. Political cartoons often portrayed Germans, particularly Kaiser Wilhelm, as barbaric. During WWII, many German-Americans were evacuated to interment camps due to Executive Order 9066. Again, suspicion of conspiracies against America was a major reason.

Overall, I would say that the Germans had a better time than other ethnic minorities because they were often middle-class, white, and Protestant. But they weren't entirely free of prejudice.

edit: "WEREN'T" at the end. It makes a huge difference in my argument.