Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the largest city of Wisconsin in the United States.
History
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the City of Milwaukee has a population of 594,833.[1] Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee–Racine–Waukesha Metropolitan Area with a population of 1,751,316 as of 2010. Milwaukee is also the regional center of the seven county Greater Milwaukee Area, with an estimated population of 2,014,032 as of 2008.
The first Europeans to pass through the area were French missionaries and fur traders. In 1818, the French-Canadian explorer Solomon Juneau settled in the area, and in 1846 Juneau's town combined with two neighboring towns to incorporate as the City of Milwaukee. Large numbers of German and other immigrants helped increase the city's population during the 1840s and the following decades.
Once known almost exclusively as a brewing and manufacturing powerhouse, Milwaukee's image has changed with the decline of industry in the region. In the past decade, major new additions to the city include the Milwaukee Riverwalk, the Frontier Airlines Center, Miller Park, an internationally renowned addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum, and Pier Wisconsin, as well as major renovations to the U.S. Cellular Arena. In addition, many new skyscrapers, condos, lofts and apartments have been constructed in neighborhoods on and near the lakefront and riverbanks.
Germans in Milwaukee
Milwaukee, just like the state of Wisconsin itself, has one of the largest German-American populations in the United States, with an estimated 40% people claiming German ancestry. In addition, the Greater Milwaukee Area has over 60% self-identified German-Americans. Many Germans chose Milwaukee due to its geographic position on Lake Michigan's west coast. It eventually became known as "the German Athens" (German: Das deutsche Athen). Germans trained in politics in the old country dominated the city's Socialists political scene. Skilled workers dominated many crafts, while entrepreneurs created the brewing industry; the most famous brands included Pabst, Schlitz, Miller, and Blatz.
- Milwaukee is the most German of major American cities, and Germans have constituted Milwaukee’s largest immigrant group. The city’s brewing industry, tradition of ethnic festivals, built environment, and history of working-class politics all display the influence of the German immigrants who arrived in especially large numbers during the half-century following 1850. As the number of newcomers began to decline in the early twentieth century, almost half of city of Milwaukee residents reported that they, or their parents, had been born in Germany. The very scale of German migration makes it difficult to generalize about the characteristics and contributions of the immigrants and their descendants. German Americans settled in urban and rural areas, worked in various jobs, held a range of religious beliefs, and supported different political parties. In fact, until Germany unified in 1871, they came from distinct European countries. [...] To a large extent, timing accounts for the number of German immigrants who came to Milwaukee. Southeastern Wisconsin first opened to white settlement during the 1830s and 1840s, a period of economic disruption in Central Europe. Crop failures, agricultural consolidation, and industrial competition created hardships for Germans who relied on traditional farming and handwork. For families with some resources, crossing the Atlantic Ocean was one option. The appeal of migration only increased after 1848. That year, German radicals and reformers called for the German lands to unite under democratic control. When the Revolutions of 1848 failed, some participants—known as “Forty-Eighters”—fled to escape retaliation, but far more Germans moved because they lost hope that things would improve at home. Religious restrictions and prejudice exacerbated the hardships that some people experienced, but it is difficult to separate religion from other reasons that Germans migrated to Milwaukee.
- By the late 1830s, German immigrants were arriving in the frontier town “in droves.” The size of Milwaukee’s German community quickly became its own attraction. One immigrant explained that his family chose Milwaukee in the 1840s because Germans could “get along” there in their native language. Germans were so influential, he wrote, that some Americans took the trouble to learn German. The early immigrants concentrated in neighborhoods northwest of today’s City Hall, but many of them intended to stay in the city only temporarily before purchasing a farm. Of those who realized their dream, significant numbers settled in nearby counties that would eventually become part of metropolitan Milwaukee. In 1870, the German-born populations of Waukesha, Washington, and Ozaukee counties sat at 16, 28, and 34 percent, respectively, while the city of Milwaukee sat at about 32 percent. In contrast to most immigrant groups, German Americans were not overwhelmingly urban. Milwaukee’s German community was integrated into the most German state and the most German region in the country. As a hub, it was connected to, but different from, smaller German settlements. [...] Before the Civil War, some German-born craftworkers and retailers owned small businesses, but a relatively low percentage of immigrant men controlled substantial companies or worked as professionals. The wealthiest immigrants had often accumulated capital and experience in Europe before exploiting auspicious personal connections in Milwaukee. The Best brewing family, for example, relocated its operations from the Rhineland to Milwaukee in 1844. During the 1860s, the city’s two largest breweries belonged to Valentin Blatz, a German-trained brewmaster, and Joseph Schlitz, the son of a wine merchant. Both Blatz and Schlitz married the widows of brewers. German immigrants prospered in other industries too. Guido Pfister and Frederick Vogel owned the largest of Milwaukee’s numerous tanning companies in the late nineteenth century. [...]
- German-American trade unions, choral and folk culture societies, sharpshooting clubs, aid societies, and fraternal orders formed in Milwaukee in the 1840s, and elite cultural institutions and radical political groups proliferated the following decade. Among them, the Milwaukee Musical Society quickly included other Americans, the German and English Academy offered private bilingual education, and the Turnverein combined gymnastics, German culture, and, in the case of Milwaukee’s largest chapter, left-wing politics. As important as such groups were, they included few observant Catholics and Lutherans. For all the divisions among German immigrants, they agreed on their superiority over other Americans when it came to fostering meaningful human interactions and warm sociability. As the Milwaukee-born son of a German woman wrote, “The Yankees [Anglo-Americans] were regarded as a class of bloodless and soulless individuals who worshiped the almighty dollar, constantly sought to practice paternalism over the newcomer, and lacked an appreciation for the higher and nobler impulses of life.” To introduce other Americans to German culture and meet their own emotional needs, German Americans opened beer gardens and held festivals. The Volksfest of 1852 was a prime example of religious and secular organizations coming together to parade, enjoy German music and sports demonstrations, and, importantly, drink. Immigrants considered alcohol consumption integral to their way of life, and defending the right to drink often became a political rallying cry.[1]
