New Orleans
In the nineteenth century New Orleans, one of the most important U.S. harbors, was the entryway to the New World for many Germans. Approximately 50,000 Germans entered New Orleans between 1820 and 1850 (Archive of the German American Cultural Center).
After the failed revolution of 1848, many more Germans left their homes for the United States. The Deutsche Gesellschaft (German Society), organized in 1847, provided support for the numerous German immigrants in the New Orleans area by arranging for their housing, helping them to find employment, and assisting them in reaching their ultimate destinations. By 1850 there were more Germans than French people in New Orleans (Archive of the German American Cultural Center). They were bakers, blacksmiths, brew masters, carpenters, dairymen, doctors, engineers, farmers, florists, shoemakers, and shopkeepers. A shipping list of 1851 notes 5 German ships docking in New Orleans between January and June. Each of them brought about 200 immigrants from Bremen to America (Louisiana State Archives, Genealogy Resources, New Orleans Ship Passengers List, Online Index).In the mid-1850s German immigration to Louisiana peaked again. Those coming to New Orleans were predominately professionals, tradesmen, and businessmen. Many stayed in the city and shaped its social and cultural fabric. In total, from 1847 to 1880, about 273,000 Germans landed in the port of New Orleans (Archive of the German American Cultural Center). During the 1860s, of the 168,675 residents in New Orleans, 19,553 were German-born (Archive of the German American Cultural Center). Like other ethnic groups, they clustered in certain areas where their language was spoken at home and in school. German-language newspapers, German churches, and German cemeteries were visible signs of German culture.
New Orleans even had a German National Theater that opened in the City of Lafayette in 1849.
In March 1850 a fire destroyed it, and the theater moved to the American Theater on Poydras Street. In 1853 the German Theater opened in Gymnasts Hall on Canal Street. This theater staged operas; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Magic Flute, for example, had five performances in German during the season 1868—1869. In 1873 the theater closed because of waning interest.Following the end of the Civil War, the Deutsche Gesellschaft helped to prevent newly arrived immigrants from signing contracts to provide cheap labor to replace the emancipated slaves on the plantations in Louisiana. In 1890, 11,338 inhabitants (or 15 percent) of the population of New Orleans had been born in Germany (Meyers Konversationslexikon 1896, vol.12). A quarter of the exports leaving the Port of New Orleans—goods with a value of 102.3 million reichsmarks, especially cotton, corn, wheat, and wood—went to Germany (Meyers Konversationslexikon 1896, vol.12). The German heritage of New Orleans was highlighted when in February 1890 German American choral societies (Sangerbunde) met in that city for their twenty-sixth annual convention. Professor J. Hanno Deiler of Tulane University, who was active in the Deutsche Sangerbund, had been responsible for the organization of this event. It brought 3,000 singers to New Orleans (Archive of the German American Cultural Center).
With World War I, the German migration to New Orleans diminished significantly. As a result, New Orleans’s German culture lost its attraction. During World War I, the Louisiana legislature outlawed the speaking and teaching of German on the street, in church, and in schools. By the outbreak of World War II, German culture had virtually disappeared from the city. Only in the 1980s did a revival of German culture begin. Several German associations are active in New Orleans in the early twenty-first century. The Deutsches Haus (German House) was incorporated in 1928. It was formed as a benevolent and social organization that evolved from the Deutsche Gesellschaft and several other groups.
Expanding on its foundation, the Deutsches Haus grew into an organization that claims as its mission “to celebrate and foster the rich culture, musical heritage, language and history of the German people.” The German American Cultural Center is a museum promoting the German heritage of the Mississippi Delta region. The center’s exhibit showcases the contributions German Americans have made to the development and growth of the lower Mississippi River Delta region. It is located in Gretna (just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans), a city settled by German immigrants in 1836. The Germania Lodge No. 46 is a Masonic Lodge that was chartered by the Grand Lodge of the State of Louisiana on April 18, 1844. Although in 2005 the German Lodge comprises approximately eighty-five men from a broad range of heritages and backgrounds, it was founded by German-speaking gentlemen to provide an opportunity for conducting Masonic work in their native German tongue. The lodge worked in the German language for one hundred years. In April 1944 the meeting was opened in German and closed in English and the lodge has worked in English ever since. There are numerous social clubs promoting German history, genealogy, and culture in the New Orleans area in 2005. Several meet at the Deutsches Haus, including a secret men’s society, the Schlaraffia, and the German Heritage Festival Association that hosts the annual Oktoberfest Parade. There are a Mannerchor (men’s choir), a Damenchor (women’s choir), and Volkstanzer (folk dancing club) in New Orleans.Gilda Pasetzky
See also Bremerhaven; German Society of the City of New York; Louisiana
References and Further Reading
Deutsches Haus, The German Presence in New Orleans. At www.deutscheshaus.org (accessed May 27, 2004).
German American Cultural Center. www. gnacc-nola.com, June 30, 2004, Sevilla Finley, President, Friends of the German American Cultural Center.
Germania Lodge No. 46. Link available at www. deutscheshaus.org. (accessed May 28, 2004).
Nau, John Fredrick. The German People of New Orleans, 1850-1900. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1954.
Robinson, Konrad. Diminishing Influences of German Culture in New Orleans Life since 1865. Master’s thesis. Tulane University, 1940.