German American

German Americans (German Deutschamerikaner) are citizens of the United States of ethnic German ancestry and currently form the largest ancestry group in the United States, accounting for 17% of US population. The first significant numbers arrived in the 1680s in New York and Pennsylvania. Some eight million German immigrants entered the United States since then. Immigration continued in substantial numbers during the 18th century; the largest number of arrivals came 1840–1900. Germans form the largest group of immigrants coming to the U.S., outnumbering even the Irish and English. Some arrived seeking religious or political freedom, others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others simply for the chance to start afresh in the New World. California and Pennsylvania have the largest populations of German origin, with over six million German-Americans residing in the two states alone. Nearly 50 million people in the United States identify German as their ancestry, the US Census Bureau reported in July 2005. In Pennsylvania, English and German were co-official languages until the around the time of the First World War.

Americans of German descent live in nearly every American county, they have been here for 400 years, from the East Coast, where the first German settlers arrived in the 1600s, to the West Coast and in all the states in between. German-Americans and those Germans who settled in the US have been influential in most every field, from science, to architecture, to entertainment to commercial industry. Some, like Brooklyn Bridge engineers John Augustus Roebling or architect Walter Gropius left behind visible landmarks. Some people of German birth like Albert Einstein and Wernher von Braun, set intellectual landmarks. Others are prominent celebrities like actors Clark Gable, Doris Day, Nick Nolte, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Walken, Bruce Willis, Sandra Bullock, Jon Voight and Kirsten Dunst.

Throughout the year, German-Americans get together often for ethnic celebrations, the largest being the German-American Steuben Parade in New York City, which is held every third Saturday in September. In 2007, for the 50th Anniversary, the Parade is led by former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, another German-American.