Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Germans, also known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, have been intrinsically linked to the cultural and economic development of the state. Beginning in the late 1600s, Germans arrived in large numbers to escape European conflict and to take advantage of the plentiful land and policy of religious toleration in the colony.

In such conditions, German spirituality had the opportunity to develop to its fullest extent, and a variety of churches and sects prospered. The industrious immigrants brought innovations in agriculture and manufacturing to the colony. They became the largest non-English-speaking minority in Pennsylvania and were the first to adopt American ideals without losing their cultural identity.

The earliest substantial group of German settlers to arrive in America came on an English schooner named the Concord and docked in Philadelphia on October 6, 1683. There were thirteen families, mostly Mennonites and a few Quakers, who left their homes in Krefeld, on the lower Rhine, to be a part of William Penn’s “Holy Experiment.” They were recruited by a young German lawyer who was a friend of Penn named Francis Daniel Pas- torius (1651—1719). Penn, who had in the past suffered persecution for his Quaker beliefs, promoted a policy of religious toleration in his colony. The offer of resettlement appealed to the families, and many other Germans who would eventually follow, because it allowed them to escape the religious persecution and warfare that plagued the Rhineland and Europe as a whole at the time. Pastorius and the families settled on several thousand acres, six miles north of Philadelphia. The area became known as Germantown.

German immigrants continued to arrive in Pennsylvania in large numbers for the next two centuries, with the peak being in the 1740s. They usually came with their entire families or with groups of other villagers from their hometowns.

Before 1720 most of the immigrants had the financial means to pay for their passage and to purchase land once they arrived. After the 1720s some of the Germans came as indentured servants, agreeing to work for terms that usually lasted for two to seven years. Once they had completed their indenture, they were free to purchase or rent their own land. These immigrants came not only from the Rhineland, but from Baden, Wurttemberg, Alsace-Lorraine, Wurzburg, Bavaria, Brandenburg, and Switzerland. The Germans who made the voyage to Pennsylvania represented a wide variety of religious affiliations. Though the majority was Lutheran and Reformed, there were many Catholics, Moravians, Pietists, Amish, Mennonites, Dunkards, Schwenkfelder, and a variety of other mystical sects, such as John Conrad Beissel’s (1690—1768) followers at the Ephrata Cloister. By the late 1700s the Germans were more numerous than all other nonEnglish ethnic groups in Pennsylvania, numbering over 100,000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1909). Circumstances and toleration in Pennsylvania allowed the German immigrants to form a distinct and surprisingly cohesive ethnic culture at a time when Germany itself had not been politically unified.

Philadelphia and other large towns in Pennsylvania became, in effect, bilingual. However, most of the immigrants settled in German-speaking communities in rural areas such as Bucks County, Lancaster County, the Lehigh Valley, and in Philadelphia’s hinterland. Cultural identity was retained through traditional dress, customs, and strengthened religious practices. Religion was at the core of life for the immigrants. In Pennsylvania, German religions, especially the smaller sects, had the opportunity to develop and implement their theology to the fullest extent. Groups such as the Amish and the Dunkards could live out their beliefs unhindered. Economically, they continued with the agricultural lifestyle that they had practiced in Europe, bringing several innovations to the colony.

The Germans used a three-field rotation system for planting, fertilizers such as lime and manure, and planted a variety of crops to ensure success. Their system became the basis of Pennsylvania’s successful agricultural economy.

As craftspeople, the Germans had few equals. They became famous for their furniture, clocks, cabinets, woodwork, architecture, pottery, and decorative arts. Germans were responsible for the design of the Conestoga wagon and Pennsylvania barn. German communities also produced many skilled gunsmiths. The folk art of the Germans was highly decorative, very colorful, and full of their distinct religious and cultural expression. The styles were based on old German traditions with a variety of subtle influences from the colonies. One of the best-known forms of Pennsylvania German art is Fraktur. Fraktur is a form of illuminated writing, descended from medieval script, that survived in Pennsylvania long after it disappeared in Europe. It was often used for official and religious documents such as Geburtsscheine (birth certificates), Taufscheine (baptismal certificates), and Trauscheine (marriage certificates).

Printing in the German dialects of the region began in the 1720s. The first papers and volumes were published by English printers in Philadelphia, but they were soon superseded by German printers. Christoph Sauer (1695—1758), located in Germantown, was one of the first. He was known for publishing almanacs, Bibles, religious tracts, hymnals, and a newspaper with a circulation of several thousand. His newspaper, later published under John Miller (1702—1782), was the first to print the news of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The Ephrata Cloister opened a press in 1745, publishing religious books and accepting some outside orders. More publishers appeared in Philadelphia and other towns after the American Revolution. The papers helped maintain a coherent cultural identity and language.

While the hard-working German immigrants were viewed as an asset to the colony on many levels, there was still a persistent uneasiness about their large numbers.

In 1727 the provincial assembly of Pennsylvania passed a resolution requiring all German males over the age of sixteen to take an oath of loyalty to the king of England. However, the Germans were not actively involved in Pennsylvania politics until the last two decades of the eighteenth century. Their inactivity was partially due to the language barrier, but also to their geographic locations and the time-intensive struggles of adapting to life in the colony. Governing was left in the hands of the Quakers, who often enjoyed German support, and later the Scots-Irish. During the French and Indian War (1754—1763) the Germans proved themselves by remaining loyal and supportive of Pennsylvania and the crown. German settlements on the frontier were frequently attacked during the conflict, as were their Scots-Irish neighbors. The bonds between the two groups were strengthened while they struggled to survive in the backcountry. In the American Revolution, some Germans fought with the Continental army while others abstained out of religious conviction. Pietists, Moravians, and other sects emphasized pacifism, and though they may have been sympathetic to the cause, could not become involved. This belief was sometimes misinterpreted by their neighbors and was a source of friction.

In the early years of the new American Republic, the Pennsylvania Germans were faced with a new and unfamiliar system of government. Prominent Pennsylvanians such as Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush sought to involve the Germans in state politics. They helped establish Franklin College specifically to cater to the German population and to provide a vehicle for their assimilation. Instead, as the Germans embraced more of the young republic’s ideals of individual and religious freedom, they used them as justification for retaining and asserting their ethnic identity. The visibility of Germans in government increased after the Revolution. Of Pennsylvania’s eight seats in the House of Representatives in the First Congress, three were Germans.

Peter Muhlenberg (1746—1807) was the first Pennsylvania German elected to the U.S. Senate in 1801. Seven Germans held the office of governor by 1867. The Germans, whose religious and political beliefs varied greatly, never constituted a solid bloc of voters. Their votes tended to be distributed evenly among the major political parties of the day.

Changes also came to the German churches in the early republic. Some level of dissatisfaction had arisen in some of the larger congregations. Several new churches, some with very similar names, were created by church members and ministers who felt that problems could not be resolved internally. The River Brethren (later known as the Brethren in Christ), the United Brethren in Christ, the United Brethren and Evangelicals (also known as the German Methodists), and the Church of God all emerged between 1790—1830. These vibrant new churches were joined by some newcomers from Germany, such as George Rapp’s Harmony Society, which settled in Harmony, Butler County, and later in Economy, Beaver County. The new churches and sects represented a revival in German spirituality.

The traditional churches, Lutheran and Reformed, took on more community responsibilities in the early nineteenth century and joined nationally organized synods in the 1820s. In addition to the loss of members to newly formed churches, they faced new controversies over the use of the German language in worship. The rest of the mainstream American Protestant churches had services in English, and many of the second- and third-generation Germans began to pressure the congregations to also use English. After many long debates, new English-speaking congregations began to form in Philadelphia and the surrounding area.

Pennsylvania German culture faced another challenge in the form of public schools. Throughout most of the Germanspeaking areas of the state, community and parochial schools had long been established to provide elementary education. The German-run schools maintained the language and culture of the students’ families.

The push for public schools run by outsiders seemed threatening. From the 1830s to the 1850s, public schools were resisted in German areas. It was argued that the schools were being forced on communities, infringing on constitutional freedoms and local control. By the 1860s most schools had become public despite the resistance. Teachers in the German districts often used both English and German in the classrooms out of necessity and to appease the German communities. At the time of the Civil War (1861—1865), many of the younger generations of Germans had shed some of their traditional heritage and were speaking English as often or more than they were speaking German. The debate over slavery had never been a major issue among the Germans because they had not been slaveholders. Slavery itself had been gradually abolished in Pennsylvania in the early years of the Republic. When the war started, thousands of Germans enlisted to defend the Union. After the conflict, America was becoming increasingly industrialized. While most Germans were still involved in agriculture, they were not unaffected by the changes. New and efficient farming technologies led to a larger crop yield and the need for fewer farms. Many young Germans moved to the rapidly industrializing cities to find employment as the need for agricultural workers diminished. Some of German descent became successful industrialists and businessmen, including Milton Hershey (1857-1945), the candy manufacturer; oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937); and railroad president George Baer (1842-1914).

In the late 1800s public interest in the unique culture of the Pennsylvania Germans began to grow. Several books were published, the first being Phoebe Earle Gibbon’s Pennsylvania Dutch and Other Essays (1872), that specifically dealt with the lives and culture of the state’s German population. By the 1920s dozens of volumes had been published on all aspects of German life. This was accompanied by a new interest in the slowly dying German dialects. Though they were fading from common usage, Pennsylvania German writers continued to publish letters, stories, and poetry in the traditional language.

In 1917, after America became involved in World War I, the loyalty of the Pennsylvania Germans was again questioned by some who failed to understand their long history. These questions dissipated when Germans began to serve as soldiers in equal numbers with their fellow Americans of other ethnic backgrounds. In the military, the Germans often took on a special role as translators and interpreters. They would do so again in World War II. Throughout the twentieth century, various ethnic cultures blended with traditional American culture to form a new hybrid. Pennsylvania German culture was no exception. While many traditions have been retained on a personal level, most people of Pennsylvania German descent are now indistinguishable from other Americans. Some small groups, especially religious sects like the Amish, still retain German traditions and language. In 2005 elements of Pennsylvania German culture and its achievements are kept alive by German societies, historians, folklorists, and an interested public.

Thomas White

Pennsylvania

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