German Texans are an ethnic category belonging to residents of the state of Texas who acknowledge German ancestry and self-identify with the term. From their first immigration to Texas in the 1830s, the Germans tended to cluster in ethnic enclaves. A majority settled in a broad, fragmented belt across the south central part of the state.[1] "In 1990 about three-million Texans considered themselves at least part German.[2]
History[edit]
A large portion of the early settlers were Forty-Eighters who dispersed into areas of Central Texas, where, after a period of activism during the 1850s, Civil War, and Reconstruction, they lived in relative obscurity as teachers, civil servants, merchants, farmers, and ranchers.[3]
The Adelsverein, or Verein zum Schutze deutscher Einwanderer in Texas (Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas) was a group of Germans dedicated to colonizing Texas in the 1800s.[2]
German-American cultural institutions in Texas include the Sophienburg Museum in New Braunfels, the Pioneer Museum in Fredericksburg,[4] the Witte-Schmid Haus Museum in Austin County.[5] the German-Texan Heritage Society,[6] and the Texas German Society.[7]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Biesele, Rudolph Leopold, The History of the German Settlements in Texas: 1831-1861. 1930, 1964. Reprint, San Marcos: German-Texan Heritage Society, 1987.
- Jordan, Terry G. The German Settlement of Texas after 1865. Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Vol. 73, No. 2, Oct. 1969, pp. 193–212.
- Jordan, Terry G. German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-Century Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966, 1975, etc.
- Lich, Glen E. The German Texans. San Antonio: University of Texas at San Antonio Institute of Texan Cultures, 1981; revised, 1996.
- Lonn, Ella Foreigners in the Confederacy. First published in 1940, it remains the only work on the subject, republished February 2002
- The German Texans. San Antonio: University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, 1970, 1987. (Pamphlet in the "Texians and Texans" series)
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1 Poles came to the United States legally as Austrians, Germans or Prussians as well as Russians throughout the 19th century, because from 1772-1795 till 1918, all Polish lands had been partitioned between imperial Austria, Prussia (a protoplast of Germany) and Russia until Poland regained its sovereignty at the end of World War One. The country's borders were consolidated in 1922/1923.
2 Russia is a transcontinental country in eastern Europe and northern Asia. Although most of its territory is in Asia (78%), mostly its post-colonial territories added to European Russia, vast majority of its population (80%) lives in European Russia, therefore Russia as a whole is included as a European country.
3 Yugoslav Americans are the American people from the former Yugoslavia, formed by most of current countries of the Balkans.
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