German New York City

Richard Panchyk

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781439620267
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

German New York is an interesting history of the rich cultural heritage of this community.

German New York City celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the hundreds of thousands of German immigrants who left the poverty and turmoil of 19th- and 20th-century Europe for the promise of a better life in the bustling American metropolis. German immigration to New York peaked during the 1850s and again during the 1880s, and by the end of the 19th century New York had the third-largest German-born population of any city worldwide. German immigrants established their new community in a downtown Manhattan neighborhood that became known as Kleindeutschland or Little Germany. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the German population moved north to the Upper East Side's Yorkville and subsequently spread out to the other boroughs of the city.

Two

PLACES AND BUSINESSES

Early German immigrants lived on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. As the city expanded northward over the course of the 19th century, many German immigrants moved north as well. The Upper East Side neighborhood known as Yorkville gained popularity with Germans during the 1870s and 1880s. Although the true heart of Yorkville was the blocks immediately around 86th Street between First and Second Avenues, in actuality, the neighborhood spanned from about 76th Street to 96th Street, from about Lexington Avenue to the East River. There they coexisted with Polish, Russians, Hungarians, and other eastern Europeans, but the neighborhood was predominantly German. Kleindeutschland remained a German stronghold until 1904, when a deadly fire on a ship carrying Germans from Kleindeutschland resulted in much of that neighborhood’s remaining German population moving to Yorkville.

Although some German families remained at one address for years, many others moved from place to place as their families grew and their circumstances changed; some needed a cheaper apartment as their employment fortunes declined, while others sought better lodgings as they made more money.

As the 20th century progressed, thousands of German Americans moved to the other boroughs, to neighborhoods such as Morrisania, Ridgewood, Williamsburg, Astoria, Glendale, and Middle Village. Although those neighborhoods in particular had a heavy concentration of Germans, there was no neighborhood in the entire city that did not attract some German families. By the early 20th century, thriving German-owned businesses were spread all over the city.

Shown here is Broadway at Bowling Green in 1828. Between 1821 and 1830, only 6,761 German immigrants arrived in the United States, compared to 75,803 from the United Kingdom. The small, quiet New York City that the early German immigrants came to was a far cry from the noisy and bustling city of the later 19th century. The population of the city was just 202,589 in 1830, but by 1880 it had grown to 1,206,299.

The Five Points was a notorious Lower East Side 19th-century New York City neighborhood. Although it was predominantly Irish, many Germans lived in this neighborhood before they moved to better lodgings uptown in the second half of the 19th century and first decades of the 20th century. This 1860 illustration shows a policeman trying to keep the peace.

This 1874 map of New York City was drawn by Johann Bachmann and printed by Schlegel of William Street. In 1874 alone, 87,291 Germans immigrated to the United States, with many thousands of them choosing to remain in New York City.

The Bowery, from the Dutch word bowerie (meaning farm) was another locale populated by Germans in the early to mid-19th century. Similar to other Lower East Side neighborhoods, Germans migrated uptown from here toward the end of the 19th century. This image of everyday life on the Bowery was taken around the beginning of the 20th century.

Tenements on the Lower East Side were very overcrowded. One survey made during the early 1890s found 1,400 people in 300 families living in one block. Of those families, 244 were German, 16 Irish, and 11 American-born. Shown here is a row of downtown tenement buildings on Elizabeth Street in 1912.

The German Savings Bank, seen here in 1874, was located at 8th Street and Fourth Avenue, near Union Square. The bank was founded in 1858, and Mayor Daniel F. Tiemann was a charter member. The bank operated out of the Cooper Union Building for a few years, until it moved into its own building. It eventually became a part of the Apple Bank for Savings.

The Brooklyn Bridge was designed by John Augustus Roebling, a German engineer who arrived in the United States in 1831. Roebling first made his mark designing bridges in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. The Brooklyn Bridge was many years in the making, from planning to completion. Roebling died in 1869 on the bridge site as the result of an accident. His son Col. Washington Augustus Roebling took over the project but was severely injured by the bends while working underwater at the bridge piers. The bridge finally opened in May 1883 ...