Despite representing a significantly smaller population than their Irish, French, Polish, or Puerto Rican counterparts, in the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, German immigrants predominantly from Saxony and Rhineland played a significant economic, cultural, and political role in the history of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The influx of these immigrants can largely be attributed to a single mill and millworker complex, the Germania Woolen Mills, which formed the basis of the immigrant colony (, "the German immigrant colony from Holyoke") that would make the ward encompassing the South Holyoke neighborhood that with the highest German population per capita, in all of New England by 1875. Along with unionization efforts by the Irish community, Germans would also play a key role in the city and region's socialist labor movements as workers organized for higher pay and improved living conditions in the textile and paper mill economies.
Reflecting anti-German sentiment in the United States nationwide, as well as the concurrent decline of the Holyoke economy, much of the community dispersed or became Americanized following the World Wars in the 20th century; as of 2010, residents of German ancestry represented 4.7% or 1,887 of Holyoke's residents, and 6.0% or 27,526 residents in Hampden County. With the exception of a handful of restaurants and institutions in the Greater Springfield area, the influence of German culture in the city remains largely relegated to historical accounts today. Following this decline in the 1940s through 1970s, much of the Germania area of South Holyoke was razed or entirely redeveloped, with some exceptions such as the Turner Hall. Other institutions like the Sons of Hermann and Heinritz's Drug Store have been preserved and repurposed as a church and cultural center respectively, for the generation of Puerto Rican immigrants who began settling there in the mid-20th century.
History Early immigration, establishment of the Germania Mills
In its earliest days, Holyoke, though an ambitious project, was hardly an ensured economic success. Until new industrial orders came in the American Civil War, the Panic of 1857 had decimated the industrial economy of the nation on the whole, and Holyoke was not an exception. In this same time news of the planned industrial city had reached Germany, a country that had heard of the previous success of the Boston Associates' work in Lowell, and one which had seen a substantial loss due to the economic downturn of the American economy. One particular town in Rhineland, Lennep, a center of woolen textiles, was to a certain degree able to endure the severe global recession by choosing to set up sales agencies directly in the United States rather than going through agents in Hamburg as many others had. This was largely due to the foresight of the Stursberg family whose patriarch, Wilhelm Stursberg, had first begun production in 1789 in neighboring Beyenburg (DE) and maintained his offices, home, and a number of village institutions in Lennep. In time one of his grandsons, a Hermann Stursberg, had been able to set up a successful sales office of woolen goods in New York City. Currency fluctuations in the United States from the Civil War however led to severe losses, and ultimately it was decided by the family it would be expedient to no longer rely on imports, but rather set up a mill overseas.
On January 19, 1865, August Stursberg would purchase a woolen mill in South Holyoke that had opened two years prior, renaming it "Germania Mill", as it was to be known for nearly the next 100 years. He would embark to America with his family and a team of skilled workers and supervisors on September 16, 1865, aboard the S.S. Allamania. August would play a substantial role in the emerging community both in the shaping of this industry but also in the accompanying cultural institutions that would support it. A devout Lutheran, he was credited with bringing in the German-language Lutheran ministers who first preached in a schoolhouse at the corner of Sargeant and Clemente (Park) Streets in 1866, and was a significant benefactor in the building of the first permanent home of the German Lutheran Church, now known as the First Lutheran Church, established in 1867. One historical account by the Holyoke Transcript notes that the church in its earliest years was a product of several other denominations, having been aided by local Congregationalists and served by two Presbyterian ministers, Pastor Schwartz and Pastor Frankel, the former of which also taught German classes in Holyoke. For the first several years the official denomination of the church was met with fervent debate, and it remained the only major German institution outside of Germania Mills, while still being strongly influenced by the Stursbergs.
Although the Jewish community would later be characterized by immigrants predominantly from Vilna, Lithuania, the city's first Hebrew families would also arrive from Germany around the same time as the Lutheran community, with five such families living in Holyoke by 1890; among the early settlers were the names Adler, Cole, King, and Marks. For the better part of the first half of the twentieth century, the Jewish center of the city remained in South Holyoke alongside the German community, as the long-since demolished first synagogue of Congregation Rodphey Sholem was built there on Park/Clemente Street in 1904.
Seeking to create a Turnen Verein (Gymnastics Society) as a community space outside of church, about twenty members of the German community met at the butchery of one Robert Schubert on the evening of May 28, 1871, laying the groundwork for such an organization. Historian Gerhard Wiesinger notes in his account on Holyoke's Germans that this may have been prompted by anticipation of community growth, as the meeting occurred only two weeks after the Treaty of Frankfurt. At the first official meeting of the organization on June 8, at Schubert's house and garden, officers were elected and the motions were made to formally incorporate the Holyoke Turn Verein as an organization "in order to provide the German language, German customs and traditions, and particularly German gymnastics with a permanent home". Over the next several years the group would meet at various member's homes, as well as at the Germania Hotel which stood at the corner of Race and Hamilton Streets.
In 1874 the Turn Verein purchased land from the Holyoke Water Power Company and built the beginnings of the Turn Hall still on South Bridge Street today. Part of the impetus for this were blue laws against Sunday activities, including exercise, in public.HLY.46, Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS), Massachusetts Historical Commission The turnhall would expand its hall in 1893, also purchasing several tracts of land adjacent to the original building for a biergarten and for outdoor gymnastic exercises.
Second wave of immigration
More German workers would arrive in the subsequent decade, predominantly from Saxony, with such immigration reaching a peak in 1881. With this new wave of immigrant workers, came new attitudes both about culture and politics, introducing a socialist-union element to Holyoke politics. In time an Irish-German political alliance had formed under one Henry Winkler, however this machine would fail after supporting 1891 Mayor Michael J. Griffin, who had in time gained a reputation for corruption. Even still in the 1880s, more than a place of refreshment, the turnhall had become venue for the political class, with candidates for mayor attending gymnastics events there and at least one French-Canadian "Candidate [for City Clerk] Genest acted like a native of the Fatherland" there.
A number of greater festivals would be held there as well, including a turnfest hosted by the Springdale Turner Vorwaerts featuring 1,200 gymnasts from more than 30 clubs on the east coast in 1899. Such turnfests typically included many events known to modern track and field, such as shot-put, high jump, and broad jump. In 1916 the Holyoke Turnhall would similarly take part in the Hartford Bezirksturnfest, coming in first overall, before concluding the event singing a series of songs including several American patriotic tunes and Deutschlandlied, at that time not yet the German national anthem. Similarly in 1938 the Holyoke Turnerverein hosted the New England Turnfest, which brought 10 other Turner teams and more than 2000 people to Camp Jahn in Southampton, Massachusetts.
Another example of German cultural events in Holyoke came with the "Schiller Festival" at the Holyoke Opera House to celebrate noted German poet Friedrich Schiller's work. On May 14, 1905 a number of members of the Western Massachusetts and Connecticut German communities descended on the venue to listen to dramatic readings of the poet's work as well as accompanying music furnished by the Springfield orchestral club. Proceeds of the event, organized by Jacques Wisly, then-publisher of the New England Rundschau and his editor Otto J. Miller, benefited the Holyoke City Hospital at the time.
The German community would also bring with it a number of musical acts; indeed a plurality of orchestras in the Springfield-Holyoke area were established and led by German immigrants in the late 19th century and early 20th century including, but not limited to, examples such as Weizel's, Wildner's, and Wagner's orchestras.
Decline and contemporary history
Germania Mills would become another economic casualty of the Great Depression when in 1934 the mills closed. That same year the company would drop the name Germania and adopt that of its former Livingston Worsted Division, which it moved from Washington, Rhode Island to Holyoke. Previously the division handled the weaving and finishing of the fiber spun at the Holyoke mill, following its closure the company moved entirely to the former. Livingston Worsted mills would continue manufacturing fabric for a number of clothing firms including Hickey Freeman, but on August 28, 1964, J. Herman Stursberg, descendant of the founders, would announce the company's closure just short of its 100th anniversary. Speaking with the press Stursberg would attribute the move to economics, saying the worsted mills could not compete with Japanese imports as 50% of overhead costs for the mill went into wages significantly higher than foreign counterparts.
Similarly to the redevelopment of the Polish community in the downtown area, the German blocks of South Holyoke abutting Germania Park were entirely razed beyond recognition through fires and urban renewal initiatives in the mid-20th century. Of the original Germania Mills complex, only two of the "Battleship Block" apartment buildings remain, with no other worker housing buildings or residences of any kind extant in the immediate vicinity. Germania Park and the so-named worker housing on the opposite side of Clemente Street were considered as being combined into a larger park as early as 1944, however the plan to remove the road and raze these structures was still under discussion for an urban renewal project by 1956. By August 1956, the local landmark had been badly damaged in a case of arson which razed one of its units; the unoccupied rowhouses had been reportedly plagued by a series of smaller fires as well, attributed to children who would break into the vacant units on weekday evenings. By 1957 the blocks had been razed and with the abutting street had been converted to a parking lot. New trees were planted in the Germania Park, and by some point in 1982 the street had been incorporated into the park, then called Germania Bonin Field.