For population and growth Pennsylvania has primarily the Germans to thank. - Palatines and Swabians mostly emigrated to there, and the dialect of the Germans is Palatine and Swabian. - The Germans are spread out in all counties. - The German language is very much mixed with the English and will finally succumb to it. - Inclination to the English language. -German circle of readers in Reading and the area around this city. - Newspapers and abuse of freedom of the press.

For its rapid population as well as its flourishing growth up to now the state of Pennsylvania has primarily the Germans and the continuing immigration of the same into this state to thank. The first ones that settled in the same under William Penn and built the city of Germantown which lies about five English miles distant from Philadelphia were from the Palatinate.⁴¹ At the same time and soon thereafter many other Palatines were occasioned through a trade-developing society to travel to Pennsylvania to establish trade connections; and these Palatines again occasioned many of their countrymen, also Württembergers and Swabians to embark for the new land. Enticed through these people, many followed the earlier ones.

From this it becomes clear that the German dialect there is almost altogether Palatine and Swabian. Pure, good and well sounding German one hears almost not at all, for there are only very few of such cultivated immigrants that speak a well sounding German here and that may well be the biggest reason that the German language is no longer the official and prevailing one and gets lost more and more until finally every trace is extinguished. Often when on trips I got into inns I was asked: "where do you come from?" From Germany was my answer. To that then was usually replied: "you are indeed some German, you still cannot speak German." But I also know of examples where the better educated were far more pleased indeed with pure German.

Emigration from the Palatinate, Württemberg and Swabia to Pennsylvania since that first emigration under Penn continued almost constantly. Over half of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania consists of Germans and German descendants. They are distributed in all 51 regions (also called counties) of which this state consists. The greatest number is to be found in the counties of Northampton, Lebanon, Lancaster, Berks, Dauphin, York, Adams, Columbia, Cumberland, Montgomery, Northumberland, Centre, Franklin, Bucks, Huntington, etc.

The language of these Germans, however, is generally with very few exceptions of individual persons only a miserable mixture of the pitiful Palatine and Swabian German and English⁴² without these persons' knowing it. In all the places where the German language was spoken the very first and exclusively it declines first and most rapidly and is in many ways already completely extinguished, for example in Germantown, Lancaster, etc. where still twenty years ago almost not a single English word was heard.

Twenty years ago the Englishman who traveled in Pennsylvania and did not understand the German language found very great difficulties in making himself understood, especially in the country. But this has changed noticeably and in many areas of this state the German emigrant now fares just as the Englishman did then. In the interior of the country there are, of course, still large areas, for example in Berks County, where German is still spoken because the opportunity to learn English is not so common there. Nevertheless it becomes more and more necessary for the countryman too to allow his children to be taught the national language, in part on account of selling his products, in part for this reason, because now all legal transactions are in English. Also no one can enter a legal profession who does not completely understand the English language.

The German emigrant does not forget his mother tongue as long as he lives, also his children still learn to speak it, but naturally altogether pitifully, and there where there is opportunity to learn English one has great resistance against German.

In the cities, especially in the port cities, the transformation from German to English proceeds with rapid steps. Whoever can quack a little English there is ashamed of the German and no longer wants to speak it. The educated among the Germans, especially those who were born in Germany but found their fortune and well-being in America, are the most opposed to their mother tongue, do not want to speak it at all anymore, indeed not seldom are they ashamed of their background. Even children exhibit a very great resistance to everything that is German. Also in this regard the German Society in Philadelphia no longer deserves its name since all of its transactions are now conducted in the English language. Naturally there are still exceptions. In Philadelphia there are several organizations whose purpose it is to see to it that things German do not decline, but rather that the youth learn the German language along with the English so that it is preserved. But even the members of these organizations constantly speak English amongst themselves.

In Philadelphia part of the teaching and preaching class still clings firmly to the German language; but it is an uneven battle which leads the German against the English in language and the American in customs and character.

The German language in Pennsylvania, as it is, is also not at all suited to assure it allegiance among the cultured and to maintain its reputation; it cannot assert itself against the English. The progress which it has made in Germany for forty years and which has lifted it to a high level of education is totally unknown with the exception of the few educated persons who have since that time emigrated to there. It has been the case with it of going far more backwards than forwards. It transforms itself always still more into a dialect mixed with the English and will finally fully decline into the same.

In Pennsylvania, as much as is known to me, there are now still twenty German newspapers being published. Those in Philadelphia, among others, ceased to be, but for three years on much demand one is being published again.

In the city of Reading, fifty English miles distant from Philadelphia, there is a German reading society, perhaps the only one in America. When I was house teacher for several months with the Israelite Joseph de Young who was a member of this society I read Goethe's works. This society exists many years already and receives books quite regularly from Germany so that it always has enough to read. In this city in which the most interest for things German is still to be encountered two German newspapers are published weekly, the one by the printer Ritter called the Adler (Eagle); the other by Sage, called the Weltbote (World Messenger). Both printers are native to Berlin.⁴³ The printers there are generally the publishers of the newspapers, also the editors of many other publications; the books that they print are also bound in their printing houses.

The German newspapers which appear here are perhaps the best in the whole United States in regard to the purity of the German language as well as their content; but just the same one must have been there a good time and have become sufficiently acquainted with the various observations of many situations and things, as well as with the special expressions and colloquialisms of the American Germans in order to understand them properly. Such a German-American newspaper would perhaps be very interesting here and in case one wanted to assign me the task, I could and would see to it that we got it without encumbering too much cost for it.



In reading the newspapers there nothing struck me more than the frequency with which people by this means often so disgustingly allowed themselves publicly to make fools of and scold each other. With the most disgusting expressions one makes the other's viciousness known to the public if he has been insulted by him, whereby he employs the most terrible invectives; and in the next newspaper the one railed at returns the compliment usually in a more vulgar way. Nor is it anything unusual to publicly criticize the authorities, indeed the national government; the most terrible satires about the same one can often read in public pages. Also newswriters, if they diverge from each other in their opinions concerning political themes, employ the worst invectives and attributes in their arguments. Often only a single word which the one understands this way, the other that, is the cause; often they dispute over inconsequential things.



Freedom of the press is a great national blessing, but, like the best medications, with misuse it becomes a fatal poison. The publisher of a public paper occupies an important position in civilian society. His views are widely disseminated and have a big influence on public opinion. It is not enough that he himself stays with the pure truth, but rather it is also his duty to take care that no one else disseminates falsehoods by means of his publication. Also the truth should constantly be made known in becoming language and nothing inserted into a newspaper that is of no business to the public.

Source: Edited by Bryan Wright