FROM GERMANS TO AMERICANS: THE CREATION AND DESTRUCTION OF THREE ETHNIC COMMUNITIES (MISSOURI, HERMANN, CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the assimilation of a particular subset of German immigrants and their descendents into the American mainstream culture. Six assimilation themes which were explicitly and implicitly discussed were language, social organizations, religion, the press, the economy and the landscape. The first four themes were included under the category of mindscape.;The particular study area was composed of the three towns of Hermann, Washington, and Union, Missouri between 1829 and 1929. Two of these towns, Hermann and Washington, were settled primarily by citizens of the German states, while Union was settled mainly by Americans of Scotch-Irish heritage. The German settlers, who tended to be liberal in their politics and intended upon practicing their traditional customs, such as the "German Sunday," found themselves in an area and a state dominated by Native Americans who approved of slavery and who sometimes disapproved of the consumption of alcohol in public, particularly on Sundays. A rift soon developed between the two groups, even as the Germans established their own ethnic culture, which was visibly enhanced by a distinctive material landscape. This rift was widened by the Civil War, when the Germans and their non-German neighbors found themselves on opposite sides. After the war, the wine industry boomed in Hermann and other industries based on customs of the German ethnic group were established. During the post-war period, while the German-American culture appeared to flourish, the assimilation process increased. Regarding the continuing presence of the German-American communities as a threat, non-German Americans passed legislation which outlawed the "German Sunday" in 1904. When World War One began the German language was outlawed, and the charter of the German-American Alliance was revoked by Congress. In 1919 the manufacture of alcohol was prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment. The passage of this amendment was a direct attack by the majority culture upon the culture and economy of the German-Americans. The suddenness with which the German-Americans were forced to assimilate into the mainstream American culture is clearly visible in the material landscape of the three towns under consideration.