German Americans () are citizens of the United States who are of German ancestry. They form the largest ethnic ancestry group in the United States, accounting for 17% of U.S. population.; In 2009, 50.7 million claimed German ancestry. The 2000 U.S. census gives 15.2% or 42.8 million. Ten years earlier, in the 1990 census, it was 23.3% or 57.9 million people.
The first significant numbers arrived in the 1680s in New York and Pennsylvania. Some eight million German immigrants have entered the United States since then. Immigration continued in substantial numbers during the 19th century; the largest number of arrivals came from 1840 to 1900, when Germans formed the largest group of immigrants coming to the U.S., outnumbering the Irish and English. Some arrived seeking religious or political freedom (see Forty-eighters), others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others for the chance to start afresh in the New World. California and Pennsylvania have the largest populations of German origin, with more than six million German Americans residing in the two states alone. More than 50 million people in the United States identify German as their ancestry; it is often mixed with other Northern European ethnicities.German ancestry "U.S. Census Bureau, German ancestry – German: 50,764,352" This list also includes people of German Jewish descent.
Americans of German descent live in nearly every American county, from the East Coast, where the first German settlers arrived in the 17th century, to the West Coast and in all the states in between. German Americans and those Germans who settled in the U.S. have been influential in almost every field, from science, to architecture, to entertainment, and to commercial industry.
Art and literature Architects
Dankmar Adler – architectBrody, Seymour "Sy"; biographical sketch of Dankmar Adler in the Jewish Virtual Library Adolf Cluss – architect, builder of numerous public buildings in Washington, D.C. Frederick P. Dinkelberg – architect, co-designer of the Flatiron Building Ferdinand Gottlieb – architect heading his own firm, Ferdinand Gottlieb & Associates, based in Dobbs Ferry, New York Walter Gropius – pioneer in modern architecture, founder of Bauhaus Albert Kahn – industrial architect; known as the "architect of Detroit" Richard Kiehnel – senior partner of Kiehnel, Elliot and ChalfantGreenfield PreK-8 "German-born and educated Richard Kiehnel (1877–1944) and his partner John Blair Elliott (b. 1868) were commissioned to design the school." Henry C. Koch – architect based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin William F. Lamb – architect, principal designer of the Empire State Building; co-founder of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – architect, academic, and interior designer Joseph Molitor – Chicago-based church architect John A. Roebling – architect, known for designing the Brooklyn Bridge Washington Roebling – civil engineer known for his work on the Brooklyn Bridge, which was designed by his father John A. RoeblingWashington Roebling Quote: "Washington Roebling grew up in Saxonburg, a village of German farmers who had just made the journey to America. John Roebling founded this settlement by leading a group of immigrants from Mühlhausen, Germany, to America in 1832. Roebling surveyed and planned the village and distributed land to the families." Frederick C. Sauer – architect, particularly in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, region of the late 19th and early 20th centuriesSauer Buildings "Frederick C. Sauer was a German immigrant-architect and builder who established a Pittsburgh office in 1884, and practiced locally for many years.Saints in the Strip "The church was designed by Frederick C. Sauer. While at Technical School in Wittenberg, Germany he worked as a stone cutter, brick layer arid carpenter. After graduation in 1879 he came to Pittsburgh at the age of 19." Frederick G. Scheibler Jr. – Art Nouveau Pittsburgh architectAurand, Martin. 1994. The Progressive Architecture of Frederick G. Scheibler Jr., University of Pittsburgh Press. Pittsburgh. August Schoenborn – helped design the United States Capitol Dome "German-born designer of the US capitol dome. (c. 1817–1900)" Hans Schuler – sculptor and monument maker; first American sculptor to win the Salon Gold Medal Louis Skidmore – architect, co-founder of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Adolph Strauch – landscape architect Horace Trumbauer – prominent architect of the Gilded Age, known for designing residential manors for the wealthy Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – pioneer of modern architecture, second Chicago School of ArchitectureLudwig Mies van der Rohe "German-born Architect" Thomas Ustick Walter – fourth Architect of the Capitol, designed the current United States Capitol dome Henry B. Winter – Manhattan, Kansas-based architect
Artists
Anni Albers – printmaker, textile artist"German-born American Textile Artist", Artcyclopedia Josef Albers – painter and graphic artistRoderick Conway Morris (October 21, 2011), Making of a Bauhaus Master New York Times. Leonard Bahr – portrait painter, muralist, illustrator and educator. He worked for many years as a painting professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Earl W. Bascom – painter, printmaker, and sculptor ("Cowboy of Cowboy Artists") Robert Benecke – early photographerPeter Palmquist, "Robert Benecke", Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide (Stanford University Press, 2005), pp. 102–103. Albert Bierstadt – painter, known for his large landscapes of the American WestAlbert Bierstadt PBS "German-born Bierstadt, whose teachers had included the German Romantic painter Lessing ..." Richard Bock – sculptor and associate of Frank Lloyd Wright Ida Bothe – artist and educator Charles Dellschau – one of America's earliest known outsider artists, draftsman engineer, creating drawings, collages and watercolors of airplanes and airships Rudolph Dirks – comic strip artist who created The Katzenjammer KidsRudolph Dirks "Born in Heide, Germany, Rudolph Dirks moved with his parents to Chicago at the age of seven." Alfred Eisenstaedt – photographer and photojournalist best remembered for his photograph capturing the celebration of V-J Day Jimmy Ernst – painter Carl Eytel – artist of desert landscapes living in early 20th-century Palm Springs, California Claire Falkenstein – sculptor, painter, print-maker and jewelry designer known for her large-scale abstract metal and glass sculptures Andreas Feininger – photographer and writer on photographic technique Lyonel Feininger – painter and caricaturistLyonel Feininger "Lyonel Feininger (Léonell Charles Feininger) is born in New York City on July 17. He is the first child of the violinist Karl Feininger from Durlach in Baden (South West Germany) and the American singer Elizabeth Cecilia Feininger, born Lutz, who is also of German descent." Carl Giers – early photographerJames A. Hoobler and Sarah Hunter Marks, Nashville: From the Collection of Carl and Otto Giers (Arcadia Publishing, 2000), p. 7. George Grosz – member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group, known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s "early 20th century German artist, George Grosz." Don Heck – comics artist best known for co-creating the Marvel Comics characters Iron Man and the Wasp, and for his long run penciling the Marvel superhero-team series The Avengers during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books Uli Herzner – fashion designer "Ulrike Herzner ("Uli"), is a 35-year-old German native who currently resides in Miami Beach." Hans Hofmann – abstract expressionist painterHofmann, Hans "German-American painter and teacher, often called the dean of abstract expressionism" Ub Iwerks – Academy Award-winning animator, cartoonist and special effects technician, famous for his work for Walt Disney Klaus Janson – comic book artist (inker), working regularly for Marvel Comics and DC Comics and sporadically for independent companies Milt Kahl – animator, one of the "Nine Old Men" at Walt Disney Productions Ulli Kampelmann – painter and filmmaker Kenya (Robinson) – multimedia artist Harold Knerr – illustrator of The Katzenjammer Kids until 1949Harold H. Knerr Lambiek Comiclopedia "Harold Hering Knerr was the son of an emigrated German physician." Fritz Kredel – woodcut artist and illustrator known for fairy tale and young readers' fiction drawings, delicate and hand-colored botanical woodcuts, and US and European armies' uniforms over time John Lewis Krimmel – America's first genre painterBio. Krimmel German Heritage "Born in Ebingen, Württemberg. Krimmel immigrated to the United States in 1810. Settled in Philadelphia, where he painted portraits, miniatures and gently satirical street and domestic scenes. He returned to Germany from 1817 to 1818. Back in Philadelphia in 1819. Early 1821 he was elected president of the Association of American Artists, but on July 15 of the same year he accidentally drowned near Germantown, Pennsylvania." Dorothea Lange – documentary photographer and photojournalist Emanuel Leutze – history painter best known for his painting Washington Crossing the DelawarePress release "German Americans also have influenced greatly our artistic heritage. Emanuel Leutze's 1851 painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware River, remains a cherished and recognized symbol of American courage and determination." Cornelius Krieghoff – painterCornelius Krieghoff "... born in Germany. Worked as an itinerant artist in Europe before immigrating to the United States in 1837. While living in New York City he married a French-Canadian and spent most of his life in Canada." Nicola Marschall – artist, designed the first Confederate flag and the Confederate uniformNicola Marschall state.al.us "German-born artist, designed the first Confederate flag and the Confederate uniform". Louis Maurer – lithographerLouis Maurer artnet.com "German/American, 1832–1932" David Muench – landscape and nature photographer known for portraying the American western landscapeMuench Bio nau.edu "Josef Muench (David's father) was born in Schweinfurt, Bavaria on February 8, 1904." Marc Muench – sports and landscape photographer Charles Christian Nahl – painter who is called California's first significant artistBio. Nahl germanheritage.com "Nahl, Charles Christian (1818–1878), born in Kassel, immigrated to United States in 1849". Thomas Nast – political cartoonist "Thomas Nast – German-born Father of American Caricature ..." Elisabet Ney – sculptor Erwin Panofsky – art historian Britannica.com "German American art historian who gained particular prominence for his studies in iconography (the study of symbols and themes in works of art)." Suzanne Pastor – photographer Wolfgang Reitherman – animator, director and producer, one of the "Nine Old Men" at Walt Disney Productions William Henry Rinehart – Neoclassical sculptor Julian Ritter – Classical Realist painter best known for his paintings of nudes, clowns and portraits and his ill-fated voyage of the South Pacific "German-American painter trained in the "Munich School" style who is best known for his nudes, clowns and portraits and his ill-fated voyage of the South Pacific which nearly cost him his life" Severin Roesen – still life painter "German native Severin Roesen is most famous for his abundant fruit ..." Paulus Roetter – landscape and botanical painterBios. Roetter German Heritage "... born most likely in Nuremberg, landscape and botanical painter. Studied art in Düsseldorf and Munich. In 1825 he went to Switzerland, where he stayed for 20 years before he emigrated to America in 1845."