There were quite a few German immigrants in the 18th c., and that continued into the 19th. In the first decades of the 18th c. there were so many Germans coming to Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and Virginia that there were many German books published as well as newspapers: the Pennsylvanisches Staatsbote was the first to print the text of the Declaration of Independence - both in English and German- on July 5, 1776.

There were large numbers of Germans immigrants ( I have seen the figure of over 1,700,000) coming mainly to the Midwest in the 19th c. Though the Nativist movement was against all immigrants, the caricatures of 19th c. German immigrants seem to have been less harsh than those of the Irish or Italians. Charles Leland's Hans Breitmann's Ballads are actually very affectionate, poking fun at how the immigrants spoke a mangled English, but also making it clear that German music and culture was good stuff. And, of course, German composers did dominate classical music of the 19th c., and German historians, theologians and philosophers were also immensely important in those fields, so German was widely taught in schools and universities. Plenty of German-Americans would maintain some connection with the language, either from German being used in their churches, or just from family heritage, like the Baltimore journalist H.L. Mencken.

The big change came with WWI. While the image of German soldiers as blood-soaked monsters bayoneting babies mostly came from British propaganda, the German brutal occupation of Belgium, followed by the torpedoing of the Lusitania and the entry of the US into the War , created a real wave of anti-German feeling. It's amazing in retrospect how much energy was suddenly devoted to investigating all German-speakers, and removing all German culture. German books - and those considered to be pro-German- were removed from libraries. States passed laws banning the teaching of German in schools. Street and town names were changed ; "New Berlin" Ohio became "Canton". There were German-speaking sects like the Mennonites who were pacifist and so could not be soldiers: they were suspected of possibly being spies, traitors. The fear was also used to settle scores or take advantage. In Nashville, Tennessee, the publishers of the Tennessean tried to get the publisher of the rival Nashville Banner Friedrick Heinrich Eduard Stahlmann ( Edward Bushrod Stahlmann) declared an enemy alien, though Stahlmann had come to the US as a child and been a resident for almost 60 years. Given the hysteria it is amazing that only one German, Robert Praeger, was lynched.

The end of the War ended the hysteria. Some streets got their German names back, and investigations of German speakers ended. But certainly German culture never regained the large presence it had had in the US pre 1917.

Heute noch am stoltzen Roßen/Morgen durch die Brust geschossen.