Sons of Hermann

A German American fraternal order founded in 1840 in New York City, the Order of the Sons of Hermann, also known as the Order of Hermann Sons, worked for solidarity among German immigrants in the United States through the promotion of their common heritage and traditions.

Named in honor of Hermann the Cherus- can, the first-century German leader who defeated the Romans at the Battle of Teu- toburg Forest in the year 9 C.E., the order grew rapidly during the nineteenth century, when hundreds of lodges formed across the country. In 1897 the Sons completed the construction of a 102-foot-tall monument to Hermann in New Ulm, Minnesota, as a symbol of German American freedom, pride, and unity with the fatherland. The popularity of the Sons dropped rapidly during World War I, however, as a wave of anti-German hysteria swept across the nation. This fact, combined with a decline in German immigration, dramatically reduced the number of Hermann Sons lodges in the United States. The lodges that still exist in 2005 continue to promote pride in German heritage and the teaching of German in America’s schools.

The founders of the order chose the name Sons of Hermann to show their commitment to protecting the freedom of Germans in America, just as Hermann had organized the ancient Germans to defend themselves against the Romans. Known to the Romans as Arminius, Hermann, as he was first called by the Germans in the sixteenth century, was a war leader of the Cherusci tribe, one of several Germanic tribes living between the Rhine and Elbe rivers during the first century C.E. In 9 C.E., Hermann led the Cherusci and other

Hermann Monument, Hermann Heights Park, New Ulm, Minnesota. (Library of Congress)

tribes in an ambush of three Roman legions under the leadership of the Roman commander Publius Quinctilius Varus, who was trying to consolidate Roman control over land east of the Rhine River in northern Germany.

Hermann’s forces annihilated the legions, killing 20,000 men. Varus committed suicide. The Battle of Teutoburg Forest ended Rome’s effort to control Germanic territory east of the Rhine and became an inspiration for nineteenth-century German nationalists, many of whom saw Hermann’s battle as a precursor to Otto von Bismarck’s struggle to create a unified German nation.

Inspired by the Hermann legend, the Sons of Hermann worked to unify German Americans. In 1848, eight years after their founding, the Sons organized a Grand Lodge in New York City. The growing order, which had some 1,000 members organized in lodges in several northern states, adopted the motto “Friendship, Love, and Loyalty” and black, red, and gold as its official colors. Those colors reflected the members’ sympathy for the German Revolution of 1848, whose supporters in Germany fought under the black-red-gold tricolor flag. The upsurge of German immigration brought on by the defeat of that revolution added thousands of new members to the rolls of the Sons’ lodges. As the United States expanded, German migrants moved west and the Sons followed; the fraternity established lodges across the west from Missouri to California. By 1885 the Sons of Hermann had 362 lodges in the United States.

The growth of the Sons of Hermann reflected the pride German Americans took in the creation of a unified Germany in 1871. The figure of Hermann served as a powerful rallying symbol for the new German state, which provided funds for the completion of a monument to the Germanic hero near the city of Detmold in northern Germany. Designed by Ernst von Bandel, who supervised the laying of the foundation stone in 1841, the Hermann Monument took 34 years to complete. Dedicated in 1875, the monument, which still exists in 2005, stands on top of 1,300- foot-high Grotenburg hill; Hermann’s 87- foot-tall copper statue, which portrays the German warrior holding a 23-foot-long sword above his head, rests on top of an 88-foot-high stone base.

Ten years after the opening of Germany’s Hermann Monument, the Sons of Hermann began a campaign to build a monument honoring their namesake in America. In 1885 the Grand Lodge of the Sons decided to endorse Julius Berndt’s plan for a Hermann monument in New Ulm, Minnesota, a city founded by the Chicago Landesverein (land society) in 1854. Berndt, one of the pioneers of New Ulm and a founder of the town’s Sons of Hermann chapter, conceived the idea of building a monument to Hermann based on the Detmold model. He estimated the cost of building would require up to $24,000. Fundraising difficulties delayed the start of construction for two years, as many lodges across the country complained about the plan to locate the monument in New Ulm, a small town in rural Minnesota. Groundbreaking finally began in 1887 after the Grand Lodge provided $2,000 in start-up money and promised to give $1,000 a year until the monument was completed. The monument finally opened on September 25, 1897. Representatives from Sons of Hermann lodges in 23 states attended the dedication and unveiling of the statute at Hermann Heights Park in New Ulm. Now over a hundred years old, New Ulm’s Hermann Monument is 102 feet tall; it consists of a 32-foot-high copper replica of the Detmold statue resting on a 70-foot-high colonnaded cupola.

The dedication of the Hermann Monument in 1897 was a celebration of the extraordinary growth of the Sons of Hermann during the previous fifty years. The twentieth century proved to be much more difficult for the Sons, however. After continuing to prosper through the first decade of the new century, the Sons of Hermann underwent a membership crisis following America’s entry into World War I. As antiGerman sentiment rose, fewer and fewer men wanted to be publicly associated with

the pro-German fraternity. Membership fell, many lodges closed, and other lodges broke with the national organization. World War II brought on another round of membership decline as many eligible German American men stayed away from the organization while America once again fought Germany.

While the world wars were a tremendous blow to the order, the Sons managed to survive and several lodges exist in the early twenty-first century. Some of the most active lodges are located in Texas, where the Sons of Hermann have existed as an organization independent of the national fraternity since 1921. Now a fraternal life insurance company, the Texas Hermann Sons has 76,000 members organized into 152 local lodges. The national order of Hermann Sons continues to exist as well; its lodges still celebrate their German heritage and actively promote the teaching of German.

Boyd Murphree

Sons of Hermann

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