35% of Immigrants Were of German Heritage

For several hundred years, the nation now known as Germany was divided into small states. These states fought with each other constantly, and the people suffered greatly. Between 1820 and 1900 about five million Germans came to America. During this period, out of 100 immigrants, 15 were English, 35 German, 33 Irish and 17 other nationalities. Many of them were farmers with small stipends that allowed them to move beyond the eastern cities, settling in the rich, arable land of the Midwest. This, of course, included Shelby County, Ohio, where such towns as Berlin (now Ft. Loramie), and New Bremen were born and nurtured by the determination of German immigrants.

Germans choosing to emigrate in the mid 1800s left behind severe economic depression and unemployment; political unrest and the failure of the liberal revolutionary movement of the late 1840s. Prior to this, very few Germans came to the United States. In 1820, 968 people left Germany, and in the next nine years, only 6,761 more would leave their country. However, in the next decade, between 1830 - 1840, a total of 152,454 Germans came to the U.S., with many moving to, and settling in, Ohio.

Cincinnati was considered the ‘hub’ of the German migration to Ohio. Ft. Loramie historians acknowledge the efforts of Mr. Francis Stallo who had a print shop in Cincinnati from which he ‘flooded’ Germany with leaflets extolling Ohio and its many opportunities. The educated Germans could read these many advertisements and were subsequently lured to settle in this area.

'Immigration' segment written in November, 1997 by David Lodge

[ Back to Immigration Index ]