This has been something that has been harped on since the beginning. Frederick Muhlenberg, the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the first three Congresses in this country, said himself that "the faster the Germans become Americans, the better it will be." The Muhlenberg Legend, that he cast the deciding vote against German becoming the official language, is false on several levels, but both he and his brother Peter, who both served in Congress during those early years and were both first-generation Americans, being born to German parents and having studied and worked for a time in Germany, were not far removed from the land of their ancestors, both of them were for ridding themselves of the title of "German". Peter Muhlenberg is himself responsible for convincing Germans to pick up their rifles and fight on the side of the colonists against the British, because their cause was the same.
Anyway, they are the reason I don't call myself German-American. I enjoy parts of German culture, I like learning the language and would love to spend time there, including time to learn about my ancestors. But, my German speaking ancestors migrated here around the same time as the parents of the Muhlenbergs (at least some of them did, some came later). If those that came from the immigrants directly are putting out the call to stop being German and start being American, then why should I, however many generations removed, call myself German-American? Yes, my family's culture is still heavily influenced by our German speaking ancestors, but it's also been influenced by those others that came here. That is what makes us uniquely American.
We have a museum here that I am a member of because I support their mission.
It's called the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia. At the museum there are farms that have been taken apart, shipped over here, and reassembled. Farms from Ireland, England, and Germany. A forge from Scotland. They've constructed an Igbo village. All of this is in the "old world" section of the museum, to see where we came from. You can see the distinct architecture and the differences in the way they made their homes. As you move to the new world section, you pass a Ganatastwi village, you pass a one room frontier cabin, essentially, and then you come to the two big farms. These are the American farms, and the one listed as from 1820 is my favorite. It is actually a local farm, the original part is from the mid-1700s, but it was added on to. The original part is very German. When you look at it, you think that it could have been transplanted from Germany just as the German farm was. But it was added on to with English flair. You can see the dividing line between old and new as it became distinctly American. Across the road from it is the 1850s farm, which has the same type of combination, German, English, a little Scotch-Irish, even a little Igbo, but it is all in one. It is seamless. It is American.
That is always what I think of when we discuss these things. I think of those American farms at the FCMVA and the way we incorporated things not just from where our individual families came from, but from where those around us came from. Their influences on our cultures and traditions. Every family and region has their quirks, that happens in every country. There is a north-south divide in Germany just as there is here. But in any given region there is collaboration of cultures that created something new. Something unique. Something American. It's just be nice if more people saw that.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
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