Francis Daniel Pastorius led the first Germans to America in 1683 to reestablish themselves in Pennsylvania. More German immigrants followed over the next 250 years and came to the United States, seeking liberty and a new life, especially the ability to worship as they wish without fear of persecution. Pennsylvania Germans and German-Americans voted in similar ways to many other immigrant groups like themselves in US HIstory. Being conservative in character, their most recent voting patterns showed them having a tendency to vote Republican.

1. Pennsylvania, the Midwest, and German Religious Faith
In the United States
Andrew Langford (BA, Political Science)
September 4, 2017
Introduction:
Francis Daniel Pastorius led 10,000 Germans from the Rhineland and the
Palatinate to the newly created British colony of Pennsylvania in the New World
in 1683. He purchased 15,000 acres of land from William Penn and built the city
of Germantown, north of Philadelphia with the people who arrived with him. The
group of Germans he led to Pennsylvania sought religious freedom and to
worship without fear of religious persecution. More Germans eventually followed
and settled in Pennsylvania. German immigrants started moving out to the
frontier in western Pennsylvania and started building communities out in the
Midwest as well after the Founding of the United States. Pennsylvania and the
Midwest were a favorite destination of German immigrants as late as the early
Twentieth Century, especially newcomers of faith who sought to flee religious
persecution and live in peace and with religious freedom.
Origins of the Germans:
Much of what we know of the Germans today and in history is blurred by hatred,
prejudice, and propaganda. The Romans from the time of Caesar Augustus until
the fall of the Byzantine Empire referred to the Germans as “barbarians.” The
French and Italians started developing animosity against the Germans in the
Middle Ages. The Slavic populations of Eastern Europe hated and even resented
the Germans since the early Middle Ages. The “Allied Powers” portrayed the
Germans as “barbaric,” “uncivilized,” “militant,” “illiberal,” “undemocratic,” and
“authoritarian” before World War 1 at the turn of the Century up until the end of
World War 2. The mobilization for World War 1 in the United States turned as
extreme as hatred and animosity grew among citizens against German-
Americans. President FDR ordered the internment of a portion of the German-
American population along with the Japanese-Americans after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor. The USSR and the Communist Eastern Bloc rounded up,
killed, and/or enslaved up to over 10,000,000 ethnic Germans after World War 2
out of pure hatred for the Germans in a merciless act of vengeance.
The Roman visitors who encountered the Ancient Germanic tribes observed and
reported of their kindness and hospitality to others in the Roman Empire. Tacitus
wrote in Germania the Germans were “simplistic” in their virtues and “primitive” in
their vice. The Ancient Romans put the Germans into three main groups, based
on Ancient Germanic mythology. Tradition held every individual, kin, and tribe
directly descended from deity. They believed every German was of the offspring
of a god.

2. The Ingvaeones inhabited the North Sea in Jutland, Holstein, Frisia, and the
Danish islands. The Ingvaeones consisted of the Frisii, Saxons, Jutes, and
Angles. They descended from the Son of Yngvi, who was made a god by them.
They were also referred to as North Sea Germanic. The Frisii inhabited what’s
part of the Netherlands today. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded Roman
Britain in the early 5th Century and took control of what would eventually be
England in the Middle Ages.
The Istvaeones originated in Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of the Netherlands
and Germany. The Franks, the invaders of Roman Gaul, claimed the Istvaeones
consisted of the Franks, Latins, Germans, and Britons. These groups lived in the
land of what would be the Frankish Kingdom at its greatest extent under
Charlemagne. This group is found in the Netherlands, northern Belgium, northern
France, western Germany, Suriname, Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Namibia, and
South Africa today.
The Irminones settled along the Elbe watershed. They expanded into Bavaria,
Swabia, and Bohemia; in the interior of Germany and in Czechoslavakia. They
consisted of the Suebi, Semnones, Quadi, Marcomanni, Ostrogoths, Visigoths,
Crimean Goths, Valogoths, Cibidi, Burgundians, and Lombards. The main tribes
of the Irminones were the Alamanni, Hermunduri, Marcomanni, Quadi, and
Suebi. The Burgundians captured part of Gaul from the Western Roman Empire.
The Ostrogoths took control of Italy. The Lombards carved a kingdom out of part
of the Western Roman Empire in the Alps and northern Italy. The Visigoths
conquered Spain and southern Gaul. The Alamanni made some invasions into
Gaul. The Vandals, also from the area, conquered Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and
the Western Roman territory in North Africa. The remaining tribes of the
Irminones remained and consolidated their control in Germany.
Wealth, Vice, and Corruption:
The Ancient Germans lived with simplicity before their encounter with the
Romans. They lived a nearly carefree life in what’s Germany today for over a
thousand years. They provided for themselves, living beyond the “limits of
civilization,” and learned to be self-reliant and independent. The Germans made
their own tools and weapons of the resources they had available to them. They
built their homes and made their dishes and utensils for eating out of wood. The
roofs of their homes were typically straw. They grew their own food as
subsistence farmers and hunted for their own meat. Their culture and lifestyle
was what the “civilized” world referred to as “primitive.”
Julius Caesar led his legions in military expeditions against the Germans in 55BC
and 53BC to protect Gaul from German interference. He integrated the Germans
west of the Rhine into the Roman Empire. The first Roman Emperor, Caesar
Augustus, extended the Roman Empire beyond the Rhine and the Alps. He
sought to conquer and subdue the Germans through the “lure of civilization” and

3. established Roman cities and colonies in the areas of Germania under Roman
control.
The corruption of the Germans began with Roman influence and the Germanic
peoples west of the Rhine under Roman rule. The Ancient Germanic tribes
started engaging in trade with the Romans where they traded for Roman
currency and other Roman wealth. The Germans started engaging in the slave
trade and sold many of their own people to the Romans as slaves. Human dignity
and honor were replaced by self-interest and cowardice. Their economic
interests were now more important to them than independence and autonomy.
Germanic war clans started forming with more sophisticated weapons and
shields. These new Germanic warriors even had helmets and armor. They
started raiding and plundering the frontiers of the Roman Empire in the 3rd
Century. They even moved into the Roman Empire and started living in its
borders. Their women started being less important and started being relegated to
secondary roles and a lower status than men. These Germanic clans even
started owning slaves and plundered Roman towns and cities for wealth in the
form of gold, silver, and anything else valuable. They created kingdoms out of the
land they captured when the Western Roman Empire fell in AD476. It was clear
by the late Seventeenth Century the Germans were corrupted by the culture of
Continental Europe and in need of a restoration of their former culture, customs,
tradition, norms, and principles.
The “Holy Experiment” and the Pennsylvania Germans:
King Charles II of England granted a charter for west of the Delaware River to
William Penn in 1681. William Penn personally went to the colony he was
granted and purchased the land from the Native population. He called his colony
Pennsylvania, meaning “Penn’s Woods” and referred to it as the “Holy
Experiment.” Francis Daniel Pastorius led a group of Germans from the
Rhineland and the Palatinate to Pennsylvania in 1683. He purchased land north
of Philadelphia and established the city of Germantown. More Germans
immigrated to Pennsylvania in the next Century mostly under the patronage of
Count Niklaus Zinzendorf and built communities further up the Delaware River
and further west of Philadelphia.
William Penn and the Establishment of the “Holy Experiment:”
William Penn sought a refuge for himself and the Quakers in the New World.
King Charles II granted a charter to him in 1681 west of East Jersey, what’s now
New Jersey, in payment of a debt to Penn’s father, Admiral William Penn. William
Penn sent his cousin, William Markham, to establish the claim on the land and
begin the establishment of Philadelphia, meaning the “City of Brotherly Love.”
William Penn personally went to Pennsylvania the next year in 1682.

4. He designed the government of Pennsylvania to give a voice to both the wealthy
and poor in the political affairs. He felt neither should be able to overrule the
legitimate interests of the other. William Penn devised a government with a
Governor appointed by the Proprietor. A 72-member Provincial Council initiated
legislation. A 200-member Assembly either approved or disapproved the
legislation. The Governor and the Council were charged with the routine
administration of justice. William Penn granted liberty of conscience, freedom
from persecution, no taxation without representation, and due process of law to
the residents of Pennsylvania. He opened Pennsylvania to people of all nations
to immigrate and live.
Francis Daniel Pastorius and the Pennsylvania Germans:
The term, “Pennsylvania Dutch,” is a misnomer. The Pennsylvania Germans
called themselves “Pennsylfawnish Deutsch.” They also called themselves
“Pennsylfawnish Deitsch.” They settled along the Delaware River, mostly in
Pennsylvania and settled along the Western Frontier of the Colony. They even
travelled beyond the Ohio River and settled in the Midwest.
Francis Daniel Pastorius (1651-1720) was a lawyer with an education from the
University of Altdorf, the University of Strausborg, and the University of Jena. He
started practicing law in Windsheim and continued his practice in Frankfurt-am-
Main. He joined the Lutheran Pietists in 1679 and constantly urged adherence to
the Golden Rule of Christ. He led a group of Mennonites, Pietists, and Quakers;
10,000 in all; from Frankfurt to Pennsylvania in 1683. He negotiated the purchase
of 15,000 acres when they arrived. William Penn gave land north of Philadelphia
to them. Francis Daniel Pastorius and the first Pennsylvania Germans built the
community of Germantown on the land they purchased.
William Penn signed a charter on October 6, 1683, constituting some of the
inhabitants of German town the corporation, “the bailiff, burgesses, and
commonality of Germantown in the county of Philadelphia in the Province of
Pennsylvania.” Francis Daniel Pastorius served as the first Mayor and Bailiff of
Germantown. The anti-slavery movement began in Germantown when Pastorius,
Gerrett Hendricks, Derick Updendroeth, and Abraham Upendraef wrote a two-
page condemnation of slavery at the home of Thones Kunders in 1688. Slavery
was banned from the Society of Friends, the governing body of the Quaker
Church in Germantown, in 1776. Slavery was abolished in Pennsylvania in 1780.
Francis Daniel Pastorius espoused universalism in Pennsylvania and moved
toward Quakerism. He taught at the Friend’s school in Philadelphia later in his
life, 1698-1700. He founded and began his own school in Germantown where he
taught for seventeen years. He extensively wrote on many topics, especially on
horticulture, law, agriculture, medicine, beekeeping, religion, and politics. He
wrote Methodical Directions to Attain the True Spelling, Reading, and Writing in
English in 1698 and wrote many other works in English and German.

5. Count Niklaus Zinzendorf, the Moravians, and Pennsylvania:
Moravia was located next to Bohemia and Germany. It is part of Czechoslavakia
today. The inhabitants of Moravia were part of the Hussite uprising and part of
the Protestant Movement in the Reformation. The Moravian Church was an
offshoot of the Reformation. It was weakened by the Counter-Reformation in the
Seventeenth Century. The remaining members of the Moravian Church resettled
in Saxony in 1722. They founded the community of Herrnhut there.
Count Niklaus Zinzendorf aided the Moravians in escaping Moravia and Bohemia
to his estate in Saxony. He attempted to keep them in the Lutheran Church. But,
he reluctantly helped them revive their tradition after his attempts failed. A group
of Moravians immigrated to North America and initially settled in Georgia in 1735.
Count Zinzendorf saw an opportunity to evangelize the Native Americans. The
group of Moravians moved to Pennsylvania in 1740 after they failed in Georgia.
They founded Bethlehem and Nazareth in Pennsylvania where he sought to unite
the sectarian Germans under a united Church. The Moravians who settled in
Pennsylvania, from Norway and Germany, lived in Bethlehem, Nazareth, and
Lititz.
The Pennsylvania Germans, More Waves of German Immigration, and the
Midwest:
The Midwest was French territory at the time Francis Daniel Pastorius and the
first German immigrants migrated to the British Colonies in 1683. The British
gained the Midwest as part of its gains after the French and Indian War in 1763.
The British Empire created a “Proclamation Line,” prohibiting colonial settlement
beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists ignored the line and started
settling west of the Appalachians. The British gave the Mississippi River Valley
and the Ohio River Valley to the United States after the American Revolution.
The United States drafted a series of ordinances in 1784, 1785, and 1787 to
govern the Ohio River Valley that would be a blueprint for future territory to be
acquired by the United States.
The Northwest Ordinance:
Several of the States laid claim to territory in the Ohio River Valley at the end of
the American Revolution. These States gave their claims up and ceded the
territory to the US Government. The Continental Congress drafted the Northwest
Ordinances after the Revolution to regulate the Northwest Territory as they called
it then. The Ordinance of 1784 divided the territory into self-governing districts.
The Ordinance of 1785 provided for the scientific survey and systematic
subdivision of the lands in the Northwest.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 defined and outlined the government of the
territory. It defined the procedure for the admission of new States and the status

6. of a new State with already existing States. It outlined the rights of the free
inhabitants of the territory and a new State upon admission. It addressed the
slavery issue and dealings with the Native Americans. I intend to address
portions of the Ordinance of 1787 in this section as I feel it is important in
connection with the Pennsylvania Germans and German-Americans who settle in
the Midwest.
Article 1 provides for the freedom of religion. It was the reason why many left the
British Isles, France, and Germany for the new land. It is what Colonists were
granted in Pennsylvania when William Penn established the Colony. Religious
freedom was one of the liberties the Continental Congress and Continental Army
fought to obtain in the American Revolution. The first liberties we were granted in
the Bill of Rights under the First Amendment were freedom from a state-
established religion and freedom of religion. Many German Lutherans, Pietists,
Quakers, Schwenkfelders, Dunkers, and Catholics immigrated to the United
States as late as the early Twentieth Century in search of religious freedom.
Article 2 lists more of the rights inhabitants are afforded. It grants trial by jury,
common law, and judicial proceedings. Article 2 prohibits excessive bale and
fines and prohibits cruel, unusual punishment. It is essentially our civil laws,
guaranteed by common law, as it was customary under Ancient Germanic law.
There are three parts to Article 3. It begins with stating, “Religion, morality, and
knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.”
It begins with stating what’s required for self-government and happiness. Each
was essential to the Ancient Germanic world. Religion, morality, and knowledge
are essential. The next part explains, “Schools and means of education shall
forever be encouraged.” Not only it provides for the establishment of schools and
means of education. But, Article 3 also explains why schools and education
would be established in the Northwest Territory. Schools and education are part
of German communities across the United States. The last section of Article 3
concerns the Native Americans and calls for dealing and interacting with them
with fairness, justice, and equality.
Section 5 deals with Statehood and State government. There would not be any
less than three States and not any more than five States in the territory. Ohio
was the first State to be admitted into the Union in 1803. Indiana followed in
1816. Illinois followed shortly after in 1818. Michigan was the fourth in the area to
be admitted in 1837. Wisconsin followed as the fifth State in the region in 1848.
Part of Minnesota was also part of the Northwest Territory. The newly formed
States were at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State government,
provided it was republican and conformed with the principles of the Northwest
Ordinance. These were customs and traditions that were consistent with the
Ancient Germanic peoples and German Conservatism.

7. Article 6 prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude in the Midwest. This began
placing Northern limits on slavery, keeping the land north and west of the Ohio
River free of slavery. It helped move the United States in the direction of
abolishing slavery in the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation of
1863 and the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. This was the region were the
Republican Party was formed in 1854 and would be home to Abraham Lincoln.
The German-Americans who settled Pennsylvania and the Midwest objected to
slavery and called for its abolition.
Christian Eschatology and German “Utopianism” in the United States, the
Nineteenth Century:
The “end-of-times,” or “Second Coming of Christ,” and the “millennial reign” are
central to Christianity. These concepts showed up in Christian literature in the
Reformation period of Europe. The German Lutheran theologian, Johann
Valentin Andrea (1586-1654), wrote his influential work, Description of a
Christian Republic, also titled Christianopolis: The Ideal State of the Seventeenth
Century, published in 1616. Christianopolis and the works of Count Niklaus
Zinzendorf in the Eighteenth Century were among the key influences on Christian
“utopias,” and especially German “utopias” in the United States. Fredrich
Christian (FC) Oetinger (1702-1782), an Eighteenth Century Pietist theologian
and Lutheran mystic, claimed the “end-time” expectation generated definite
social and political demands like dissolution of the state, abolition of poverty, and
elimination of class differences.
Late Eighteenth-Century and early Nineteenth-Century German immigrants were
motivated by these ideals. They established “utopias” in Pennsylvania and the
Midwest in the early years of the United States to prepare for the “millennial
reign” of Christ. Harmony and Economy were communities they established in
Pennsylvania. Zoar was another community that was created in Ohio. Amana
was set up and created in Iowa. Each of these “experimental” communities,
“utopias,” did not turn out well and had to be sold or given up. Another “utopia”
was established by German Catholics, led by Ambrose Oschwald, in St. Nazianz,
Wisconsin that’s worth mention and discussion in this piece.
Ambrose Oschwald and St. Nazianz, Wisconsin:
Ambrose Oschwald (1801-1873) was a Roman Catholic priest in Germany who
was ordained to the Priesthood on August 1, 1833. He led a group of German
Catholics from Strassbourg to the United States on the Feast of Corpus Christi in
1854. He purchased 3,840 acres of land in Manitowoc County at $3.50 an acre
when he arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by train with the first group. He sent a
group of six men ahead to locate the land, finding it on August 27th. Ambrose
Oschwald followed on September 1st with more men. They cleared the land and
started building log houses and a church. They named the community St.

8. Nazianz in honor of St. Gregory Nazianzus. He sought to form a religious haven
for his congregation in the United States.
The settlers started going by the title, “The Association,” and agreed to share
everything in common and work without pay. The group built shops and mills.
The community started thriving only after a few years of its start. The people
worked in trades like blacksmithing, carpentry, masonry, shoemaking,
woodworking, tailoring, weaving, brickmaking, baking soda, and brewing.
Oschwald helped start several religious orders, including the Oschwald Brothers
and the Sisters of the Third Order. The Salvatorian priests and brothers arrived in
St. Nazianz in 1896. The Salvatorian priests and brothers and the Salvatorian
sisters worked to improve the holdings of the former “Association.” They built St.
Ambrose Church in 1898.
Pennsylvania Germans and German-Americans in Politics:
Pennsylvania Germans and German-Americans were reluctant to get involved in
politics. They usually voted in elections. But, very few campaigned for elected
office. 80% of German-Americans voted for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860
Presidential Election. They supported the Union war effort in the Civil War. The
German-Americans also overwhelmingly supported President Lincoln in his 1864
reelection campaign. They opposed secession and supported the abolition of
slavery. But, they were reluctant to support civil rights and suffrage for freed
slaves. Their political involvement and partisan affiliations could be divided into
five different eras.
Multi-Party Era of the United States: 1880s to 1892:
Pennsylvania Germans and German-Americans split their party affiliations along
religious lines in this era as it happened among all Americans at the time.
German Lutherans and German Catholics were overwhelmingly Democrat.
Secular Germans and Jewish Germans were overwhelmingly Republican.
Confessional German Lutherans were 65% to 35% Democrat. The less
Confessional German Lutherans were 55% to 45% Republican. The German
Reformed voters were 60% to 40% Democrat. German Sectarians were 70% to
30% Republican. Pennsylvania Germans and German-Americans were about
fairly split between the Democrat Party and the Republican Party in voter
registration and elections from the 1880s up until the 1892 Presidential Election.
William McKinley and the Progressive Era, 1896-1920:
The Populist Party merged with the Democrat Party in 1896. The newly formed
Populist-Democrat Coalition nominated William Jennings Bryan as their
Presidential Candidate at the Democrat National Convention in 1896. The
Democrat Party adopted “free silver,” dropping of the Gold Standard, and the
“nationalization” of US railroads and the economy as its platform. Many

9. Pennsylvania Germans and German-Americans voted for the Republican
Presidential Candidate, William McKinley, in opposition to “free silver” and in
support of the Gold Standard. They split their votes again between William
Jennings Bryan and William McKinley in 1900 in opposition to President
McKinley’s foreign policy.
A new era began at the turn of the Century in US History we know of as the
“Progressive Era.” Progressivism started taking root in academia and the
government under the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909). The
government started assuming more power and authority from local to federal
level. Theodore Roosevelt issued 1,001 Executive Orders, by far the most issued
by a single President in History. He started the regulation of food, industry, and
the workplace by the federal government. He moved the United States further
from the Monroe Doctrine than President McKinley was even accused of doing in
US foreign policy.
The Presidents who succeeded Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft (1909-
1913) and Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), continued moving the United States
further from the Founding and closer to Progressivism. William Howard Taft
broke twice as many trusts up as “Trust-Buster” Theodore Roosevelt, 88 in all in
four years. He condoned the deepening schism developing in the Republican
Party between Progressive Republicans and Conservative Republicans, a
division persisting to this day. He did little to stop or push for the ratification of the
Sixteenth Amendment as US Congress pushed the Amendment through, getting
ratified by all but four States, with the State of Pennsylvania refusing to vote on
the Sixteenth Amendment, making income taxes “constitutional” in the United
States.
The 1912 Presidential Election presented three versions of Progressivism to US
voters. Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Republicans splintered off from
the Republican Party and formed the “Bull Moose” Progressive party in
opposition to President Taft. The Democrat Party nominated the Progressive
scholar and Governor of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson, as their Candidate.
William Howard Taft was left with the Conservative Republicans as the
Republican Presidential Candidate. Theodore Roosevelt campaigned on his
platform he titled “New Nationalism” where he advocated for the “nationalization”
of the US economy. Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats campaigned on his
“New Freedom.” President Taft’s politics were the more “pragmatic” and
“moderate” of the three. His Administration and policies were more conservative
than his predecessor. He only won Vermont and Utah in 1912. Theodore
Roosevelt won Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Washington,
and California. Woodrow Wilson was elected President of the United States;
sweeping the South; winning the Northeast, with the exception of Vermont and
Pennsylvania; and the Midwest, with the except for Michigan, Minnesota, and
South Dakota; and sweeping the West, except for Utah, Washington, and
California.

10. I have a feeling Pennsylvania Germans and German-Americans felt uneasy
about the government and state of US politics in the Progressive Era. US foreign
policy switched from protecting US interests in its “sphere of influence” to seeking
to compete with European powers to create an overseas “colonial” empire.
Government grew bigger and more centralized and started intruding on the US
economy and personal finances. Income taxes started disproportionately
harming the United States with the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment.
Woodrow Wilson and US Congress created the Federal Reserve in the same
year. Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats preached neutrality in World War 1 as
the government incited and intensified deep hatred and animosity against
Germany, the Germans, and especially German-Americans and anybody and/or
anything German in appearance, smell, taste, disposition, and/or character. The
Pennsylvania Germans and German-Americans remained fairly split between
Democrat and Republican along religious lines in the Progressive Era. The
Democrat Presidential Candidate, Alton Parker, seemed to have been a good
alternative to Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, though Parker was limited to the
South and the State of Texas. William Jennings Bryan seems to have been a
good alternative to William Howard Taft in 1908, though Bryan was limited to
Texas, the new State of Oklahoma, and the South. The Republican Presidential
Candidate, Charles Evan Hughes, won West Virginia and penetrated the
Northeast and Midwest in 1916 where President Wilson won reelection 277
Electoral Votes to 254 with the promise to keep us out of World War 1.
“The Return to Normalcy,” the 1920s:
German-Americans soured on the Democrats toward the end of the Wilson
Administration and in the 1920s. Many German-Americans voted Republican in
the 1918 mid-term elections. The Republican Party regained control of Congress,
controlling the US Senate 49-47. The German-Americans objected to the Treaty
of Versailles because of World War 1, the terms imposed on Germany, and the
League of Nations. The Treaty of Versailles did not get ratified by the US Senate
because enough Democrats refused to accept the Lodge Reservations, and
enough Republicans refused to ratify the treaty altogether, even with the
Reservations.
The German-Americans turned against the Democrats and voted Republican
again in the 1920 Presidential Election. Warren Harding carried the whole
Northeast, won West Virginia, and carried the Midwest and West with the
exception of Missouri and Texas. The new Republican Presidential
Administration of Warren Harding reduced taxes and cut government back. US
Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon (1921-1933) reduced the US national debt
in the twelve years under Warren Harding (1921-1923), Calvin Coolidge (1923-
1929), and Herbert Hoover (1929-1933). The Democrat Presidential Candidate,
John Davis, only won 14% of the German-American vote in 1924. The urban
Republican vote splintered off to the Progressive, Robert La Follette, clearly

11. preferring Progressivism to conservatism. But, Calvin Coolidge won a majority of
both the popular vote and the Electoral Vote over both John Davis and Robert La
Follette combined. But, another political realignment occurred among German-
Americans, beginning in 1928 and with the Great Depression.
Pennsylvania Germans, German-Americans, and the “New Deal” Coalition;
1928-1964:
President Coolidge decided to not campaign for another term in 1928. His
decision left an open race for President. The Democrats nominated the Governor
of New York, Alfred Smith, the first Catholic to be a Presidential Candidate for
either major political party. The Republicans nominated the US Secretary of
Commerce, Herbert Hoover, for President. Fear of the Vatican imposing its will
on the United States through one of its own as President led many Protestants
and Evangelicals and the rural voters to vote for Herbert Hoover. Alfred Smith
won 60% of the German-American vote and only won Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, and the Deep South.
The tide turned against Herbert Hoover and the Republican Party with the Stock
Market Crash of October 1929 and the Great Depression. President Hoover
raised taxes as a way to cope with the Depression and adopted Keynsian
Economics, “spending your way to prosperity and government stimulation of the
economy.” The Republican Party renominated Herbert Hoover for reelection in
1932. The Democrat Party nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Governor of
New York, for President. FDR promised a “New Deal” for Americans and to “do
something” and “try anything.” Herbert Hoover “campaigned against socialism”
and attempted to convince voters FDR was an “unacceptable alternative.”
President Herbert Hoover only managed to win Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. FDR easily won against
Herbert Hoover and won 77% of the German-American vote.
FDR held on to the German-American vote in his reelection victory against Alfred
Landon in 1936. The rise of Nazi Germany, the outbreak of World War 2, and
fear of mob violence turned many German-Americans against FDR in 1940.
Many of them voted for Wendell Willkie instead of FDR. Another reason why they
voted for Wendell Willkie could have been because he was of German ancestry.
They continued resenting FDR in the course of World War 2. The margin
between FDR and Thomas Dewey in 1944 was narrower than the margin
between FDR and Wendell Willkie four years ago.
Harry Truman, Vice President of the United States since January 20, 1945, took
over as President after the death of FDR on April 12th. World War 2 ended after
the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hieroshima. The
Allies and the USSR divided Germany up after the Germans surrendered. The
Allies divided West Germany into the US Zone, the British Zone, and the French
Zone. President Truman took a stand against Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam

12. Conference, gaining favor among German-Americans. His foreign policy, anti-
communism, and military actions against the USSR in Berlin also made him
favorable to German-Americans. He encountered opposition from three sides in
the 1948 Presidential Election. The Republicans nominated Thomas Dewey for
President again over Robert Taft. Former US Secretary of Commerce, Henry
Wallace, led the Progressives in opposition to containment, seeking
reconciliation with the Communists. J Strom Thurmound led a group of Southern
Democrats, also called Dixiecrats, in opposition to Harry Truman over civil rights.
Henry Wallace made little impact on the election. J Strom Thurmound won his
home State of South Caroline and swept much of the Deep South, winning
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Thomas Dewey won all of the Northeast,
except for Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and won Indiana, Michigan, North
Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Harry Truman won in the end. The
German-American vote was a possible factor to President Truman’s victory in
1948.
Dwight Eisenhower did not get a similar outpouring of support from German-
Americans in 1952 and 1956 as Harry Truman got in 1948. They did not have
particularly warm feelings for Dwight Eisenhower because of US policy against
Germany after World War 2. German-American voters voted along religious lines
again in 1960. If the 2000 Presidential Election seemed irregular to many, 2000
was mildly irregular compared to the 1960 Presidential Election. JFK split
Electoral Votes in Alabama with Harry Byrd, who also won the Electoral Votes
from Mississippi and another Electoral Vote from Oklahoma without a single
popular vote recorded for him. Many charged there was illegal voting that
contributed to the narrow margin in the popular vote between JFK and Richard
Nixon. Splitting the Midwest with JFK and doing well in the Upper South, Richard
Nixon was strongest in the West and won Florida. JFK did his best where
Catholics were most concentrated. Lyndon Johnson won in a landslide victory
against Barry Goldwater in 1964 more out of fear of war and nuclear destruction
and out of a desire for peace and to protect their government benefits more than
it either being a mandate for Johnson or an indictment on Goldwater as some
claimed.
The Break-Up of the “New Deal” Coalition, Since 1968:
The 1960s was a time of social and political turmoil in the United States. The
Counterculture Movement challenged and even threatened traditions and
principles earlier generations largely lived up to that point. Drug consumption and
overdose spiked up. Families were torn apart and divided. Social, moral, and
civic standards were reduced from generally acceptable to absolutely
unacceptable. Professors stirred contempt for the United States and for tradition,
morality, and authority among young adults in colleges and universities across
the United States. Race riots continued between whites and blacks in the South
and in cities.

13. The 1960s also signaled a political backlash as well. President Lyndon Johnson
announced he would neither seek nor accept the Democrat Presidential
Nomination on March 31, 1968 after he started losing to US Senator Eugene
McCarthy in the Primary Campaign. Not campaigning in the Primaries, Vice
President Hubert Humphrey was nominated the Democrat Presidential
Candidate by the delegates, as protestors clashed with the Police and National
Guard outside of the Convention in Chicago. Having dealt a serious blow to
Governor of Michigan, George Romney, in the New Hampshire Primary and
defeating his main challenger, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, in the
Primary Campaign, Richard Nixon easily won the Republican Presidential
Nomination in 1968. Hubert Humphrey was dragged down by Lyndon Johnson,
the Vietnam War, and his unpopularity among Democrats, as Richard Nixon
benefited from being acceptable to both Moderates and Conservatives in the
Republican Party.
The insurgent candidacy of the American Independent candidate, George
Wallace (1919-1998), threw everything off and changed everything for Humphrey
and Nixon in 1968. The worldview and political philosophy of George Wallace
was closely aligned with Hubert Humphrey and the Democrats, being a Dixiecrat
and the future Governor of Alabama (1963-1967, 1971-1987). George Wallace
was closely aligned with conservatives on civil rights and the Cold War. He stood
at the entrance of the University of Alabama five years ago in 1963 as Governor
and attempted to prevent the entrance of a black student; declaring, “segregation
today, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.” His famous lines of the
1968 Presidential Election were when he proclaimed we should ‘bayonet the
blacks back into their place [and] bomb North Vietnam back into the Stone Age.”
He won five States all in the Deep South; Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Arkansas, and Louisiana; and won a significant portion of the white ethnic
working class voters in Northern cities. The candidacy aided of George Wallace
aided in removing the South from the Democrat Party and pulling white ethnic
voters out of the “New Deal” Coalition. Hubert Humphrey fared worse than JFK
in the Northeast and Midwest and, just as what happened Nixon eight years ago,
lost to Richard Nixon in the popular vote by a close vote. Richard Nixon won New
Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, and Delaware in the Northeast; won Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida in the South;
and swept the Midwest and the West, except for Michigan, Minnesota, Texas,
Hawaii, and Washington.
The Democrats nominated the anti-war ultra-liberal US Senator George
McGovern of South Dakota as their Presidential Candidate in 1972. He won in a
Primary Campaign against more respectable candidates like Hubert Humphrey,
George Wallace, R Seargant Shriver, Edmund Muskie, and John Lindsay.
George McGovern was more liberal than even Lyndon Johnson. Moderate
Democrats and Conservative Democrats opposed the candidacy of George
McGovern and voted for Richard Nixon instead. The Democrats held on to their
majorities in Congress and a majority of the Governorships after 1972. But,

14. George McGovern suffered a devastating defeat in the election. He only won
Massachusetts and Washington, DC. But, Richard Nixon and the Republican
Party would be the casualties of his second term. The Watergate Scandal
plagued Nixon’s second term and remained in the minds of voters for the next
four years.
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned within the first months of the second term.
President Nixon replaced him with Gerald Ford as Vice President. President
Nixon himself resigned as President on August 9, 1974, making Gerald Ford
President. President Ford selected Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President. The
Republican Party suffered defeat again in the 1974 mid-term elections. The
Republican defeat of 1974 had less to do with who voted and more to do with
who did not vote. The conservatives did not vote in 1974.
A Southern Born-Again Christian and former Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter,
emerged in 1976 and won the Democrat Presidential Nomination. He selected
US Senator Walter Mondale as his running mate and temporarily reunited the
“New Deal” Coalition. Gerald Ford barely managed to fend a conservative
challenge off from Ronald Reagan, and he dropped Nelson Rockefeller for US
Senator Bob Dole of Kansas for Vice President. Jimmy Carter carried the whole
South, except for Virginia, and won Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Texas, and Hawaii. He won against President Ford by a close vote on November
2nd.
A new coalition started forming on the Right in the 1970s at the time the
Republican Party suffered defeat in 1974 and 1976. It was a coalition Ronald
Reagan was elected Governor of California with in 1966 and reelected with in
1970. It was the same coalition that got behind Ronald Reagan in his Primary
challenge against President Ford in 1976. It is very rare in US History, very rare
in US politics, you would get religious groups more often in conflict with each
other, uniting behind a common cause and supporting the same candidate in
office. But, this started happening in the 1970s and 1980s. Protestants,
Evangelicals, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mormons, and even a
significant number of Jews united in common opposition to the counterculture,
drugs, abortion, homosexuality, communism, and secularism and in common
support for life, limited government, morality, religion, and the Judeo-Christian
tradition. This trend was especially true among the Pennsylvania Germans and
German-Americans at this time. Usually dividing their votes between Democrat
and Republican along religious lines, religious Germans of every faith; be it
Lutheran, Reformed, Sectarian, Jewish, or Catholic; all united for their common
religious tradition in support of Ronald Reagan in 1976 against President Ford
and in 1980 and 1984.
1976 only ended up being a short-term victory for Jimmy Carter and the
Democrats. He benefited from being a “Washington outsider” and his pledge to

15. “clean up government.” But, his policies and agenda, combined with forces
beyond his influence, undid him the next four years. He expressed “human
rights” as his foreign policy aim, making him unpopular in the United States and
around the world. His attempt to streamline government only expanded
government more. Liberals were not particularly endeared to him and saw him as
a traitor to the New Deal and the liberal cause. Political failures, liberal dissent in
the Democrat Party, and the rise of religious conservatism in the Republican
Party all combined to turn the tide on his political fortunes in 1980.
Ronald Reagan emerged as the frontrunner early in the Republican Primary
campaign. He had a temporary setback when George HW Bush won the Iowa
Caucuses over him by a close vote. But, Ronald Reagan regained his frontrunner
position when he won the New Hampshire Primary over Bush by a double-digit
margin and went on to win the South Carolina Primary by a double-digit margin
over John Connally, who dropped out after South Carolina. Bob Dole, Howard
Baker, and Phil Crane soon also dropped out of the race after New Hampshire.
John Anderson dropped out in April and continued his campaign as an
Independent. George Bush garnered much of his support from suburban
Republicans and won Primaries in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania,
and Michigan. Ronald Reagan campaigned with the support of the New Religious
Right and easily won the Republican Presidential Nomination with 33 of 37
Primaries.
Both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were off to a bad start in the General
Election Campaign. High interest rates, double-digit inflation, high
unemployment, a recession, and the Iranian hostage crisis drove President
Carter’s approval ratings down. President Carter also emerged from defeating a
Primary challenge from US Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Ronald
Reagan started the race off, trailing behind Jimmy Carter in the polls. He made
campaign statements that increased his challenges. John Anderson added to the
campaign troubles of both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. But, it was Jimmy
Carter who lost out at the end of the day. Economic ills, the Iranian hostage
crisis, and the culture war at home continued dogging him. Ronald Reagan
coalesced the conservative vote around him and won with 51% of the vote over
Jimmy Carter with 41%. Ronald Reagan won with 44 of 50 States in the 1980
election, taking a Senate majority with him into his first term.
The last “New Deal” Democrat to be the nominee for the Democrats was Walter
Mondale in 1984. George McGovern, Jerry Brown, and George Wallace were the
only other candidates in the Democrat Primary campaign who campaigned for
President before. The other candidates in the race were Reubin Askew, John
Glenn, Gary Hart, and Jesse Jackson. Reubin Askew was Governor of Florida.
US Senator John Glenn of Ohio was also an astronaut. Jesse Jackson was a
Black reverend and a civil rights advocate. US Senator Gary Hart of Colorado
was a “New Democrat.” The Democrat field narrowed down to Jesse Jackson,
Gary Hart, and Walter Mondale in the 1984 Primary campaign. Walter Mondale

16. secured the nomination with the labor vote and the endorsement of AFL-CIO.
But, the “New Deal” Coalition was nearly nonexistent by 1984. Unopposed in the
Republican Party, Ronald Reagan won reelection with 59% of the vote to 41%
with all but Minnesota, where Walter Mondale won by a close vote, and
Washington, DC.
Vice President George HW Bush was elected President of the United States in
1988 over Michael Dukakis more as a result of President Reagan’s popularity
than it was of his own merit. George HW Bush won 54% to 46% and 426
Electoral Votes to 112 for Michael Dukakis. Reagan’s popularity was not of any
service to Bush 41 in 1992. His Progressivism and the recession of 1990 only
harmed him in his reelection campaign. I disagree with the notion Ross Perot
threw the election to Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. George HW Bush had a
conservative challenge form the syndicated columnist, Pat Buchanan, in the
Republican Primary campaign in 1992. Bob Dole had a tough journey to the
Republican Presidential Nomination in 1996 with conservative challenges from
Phil Gramm, Alan Keyes, Lamar Alexander, Steve Forbes, and Pat Buchanan. I
believe George HW Bush would have still lost reelection in 1992 without Ross
Perot in the race. I believe Bob Dole would have still lost in 1996 without Ross
Perot as a factor. If Ross Perot did not campaign as a third party candidate in
1992 and 1996, conservatives would have either stayed home and not voted or
would have splintered off to minor parties like American Taxpayers, American
Constitution, or Natural Rights. “Compassionate conservatism” was a liability to
George W. Bush among conservatives in 2000 and 2004, both close elections he
won. Many conservatives sat out in the 2008 Presidential Election and did not
vote for the Progressive-Liberal Republican, John McCain, giving the Presidency
to Barak Obama. Many conservatives doubted the conservative credentials of
Mitt Romney in 2012 and did not vote, giving a second term to President Obama.
Donald Trump won Pennsylvania and dominated the Midwest where the
German-Americans are most numerous and easily won the 2016 Presidential
Election over Hillary Clinton.
Conclusion:
The German-American community celebrated 300 years of being in America on
October 6, 1983. US President Ronald Reagan signed the first Presidential
Proclamation of German-American Day on October 6, 1987. The Germans who
immigrated to the United States over the years came with a wealthy heritage and
a great culture and tradition. Americans of German ancestry carry a noble
heritage and a great tradition on. It is a culture, shared by native Germans in
Germany and ethnic Germans around the world. The first Germans to immigrate
to America in 1683 sought refuge to worship as they wished. They took
settlement up in Pennsylvania where they were granted religious freedom.
German immigrants who came to the United States mostly in the Nineteenth
Century, many of them religious, also took settlement up in the Midwest where
lots of cheap land was in abundance. I am led to believe through my study and

17. research German culture and tradition have conservative leanings. The German-
American voters were, are, and will be essential to the Republican Party and the
conservative movement in and between elections.