The historical Chinese American population in the Mississippi Delta region of Mississippi. At the community's height in the 1970s there were around 3,000 people of Chinese descent living in the Mississippi Delta, but the community dates back all the way to the 1870s. I think it'd make a very interesting subject for a video if you ever decide to use this idea.
If we are on the Topic of German Communities abroad i know there are some in South America. For example the Brazilian City of Blumenau founded by a German pharmacist. Maybe that could be interesting.
Second that. I would even say it is remarkably similar, considering it split more than 100 years ago. I would even say it is more similar to standard German than many local German accents.
Hearing Hermanndeutsch as a German - from the actual Rhineland as well - i agree with you. BUT i also have a friend from the german-speaking part of Luxembourg (not that far away from the Rhineland), and he sounds very similar to the Hermanndeutsch shown here. On the other hand, the dialect my grandparents speak (Kölsch and Bergisch Platt), sound very different. So, i think, that may be what german sounded like in the regions around the rhineland in the 1800, before they lost contact to any other german speakers?
As a German, I think the man who spoke "Hermanndeutsch" was quite easy to understand. Apart from some loanwords like soy instead of Soja and farmer instead of Bauer/Landwirt, few other differences are hearable. The strongest giveaway that this speaker is not from Germany but from America is the way he pronounces his r. He uses the English r and not the French/German r, which is the most common here. Like others have mentioned, it sounds like German with an American accent. It was, however, easier to understand than Texas German. At least for me.
I'm an American learning German right now, and I actually understood him almost perfectly, which is rarely the case when hearing European German speakers yet 😅 Funny how that works, but I guess it shouldn't be surprising!
Agreed, very easy to understand and besides the americanized "r", it was very German-like. There are dialects in Germany that are harder to understand.
I grew up in this region. Most people I knew had a German last name, including myself; Kaisers, Zimmermans, Yeagers, Muelers, to name a few. I never realized how unique that was until I moved away and encountered way more Anglo names. From someone with deep roots along the Missouri from the Waverly-Marshall area, thank you for giving this often overlooked story attention.
Outside of the First Name, these are all Anglicised, if they hadn't been Anglicised "Zimmerman" would have been "Zimmermann" (Carpenter) considering "Mann" is spelled with Two N's, "Jäger" (Hunter), and Müller (Miller), though back in the Past and to this Day Families could also be named Mueller instead because in the Past the Umlaut wasn't always written. Anyway, very Interesting to hear Your Perspective, coming from a German.
I grew up in the mid-Hudson Valley, where Dutch was commonly spoken until the late 18th century, and Pres. Martin Van Buren's first language was Dutch. Our neighbors had names such as Van Vliet, Osterhoudt, Schoonmaker. My family are Jews & originally immigrants from eastern Europe. My grandparents bought their house & farm from the Schoonmakers.
@@feragosmyxixarashtra7948 Nearly all families anglicized their German names around WW1 & 2. Some chose to change the spelling so English phonetics would sound correct, some changed pronunciation but kept most of the original spelling, most simplified to make it look less foreign, & some just changed names completely.
@@davidkottman3440 I am aware. But how can a Name be "Foreign"? Many Germans had lived in the United States for Generations before either Conflict that put a Negative Light on their Germanness, which was incorrectly perceived as being these People being Foreign and Traitors to the Nation.
I have grown up living here my whole life and I've always had the same sentiment. I had a friend before who was getting a roommate that we both knew online who used to live in Texas. He moved up here and I remember when I asked him what he thought about the area, he told me that it was what he imagined when he'd think of a medieval fantasy world's landscape with the rolling hills, green fields, woods, rivers, the farmland and small towns, and bluffs. Some may say it's typical or general, but I feel like this area of Missouri is very beautiful and that guy coming from a flat area all the way up to Missouri and talking about how great he thought it was made me appreciate the land all over again.
@@jonasastrom7422I'm from the Swabian region in Germany and it is plain Hochdeutsch. Sounds like a lot of US Americans speak, that are able to speak fluid German. Edit: to my opinion, at least
I mean the accent is of course going to be different, the dialect is largely dead, that guy is like among dozens or hundreds who probably still can speak it, and they probably werent necessarily raised or have the accent having grown up with and are native english speakers.
@@brokkrepI’m an American that’s conversationally fluent. He sounds exactly like me if I’m not focusing on my accent. A lot of the “German” sounds like ch/ts/r have been leveled into something much more natural for an American English speaker.
As someone who is from the Missouri Rhineland (Specifically in one of the counties closer to St. Louis) who was raised by a VERY American monolingual English speaking family, it still is fascinating having all that German culture. I still didn't know a lot of the information presented here beforehand, so it was interesting to learn. I've been learning about German culture and it was very interesting seeing something on German Culture from where I was born!
My (Several greats) Grandpa was George Stark who owned Stone Hill Winery. My grandparents are taking me on a tour of Hermann next week to explore that branch of the family history. Excellently timed video, Thanks Tigerstar
Please do let us know when you get here! We always love connecting with the relatives of the pre-prohibition owners. If your family has any pictures of George, his kids, or the winery, that would be amazing to see as well!
If you continue west past the Kansas (my home state) border, you will fine that "green" highlighted area continues west clear to the Colorado border. German, Austrian, and "Volgan" Germans are all over the southern plains. You can find small communities where churches and community centers often have German events and hearing people speak German is very common. My friends grandfather had a party for Christmas this last year with a Polka Band, and I was shocked by how many in the retirement center were singing songs in German. I don't speak any German and I am not ethnically German, but it was a really fun event. I've known for a long time that German is fairly common in the rural areas of the plains, but that was almost like a cultural shock, I couldn't believe how many of the older folks could speak German at a conversational level.
Yep. My grandfather's first language growing up in South Central KS was German. He didn't speak English until he started school around 6 or 7 years old. His family quit speaking German due to threats of violence against German-Americans during WWI, but many families from Garnett all the way to Russell, KS still speak German, especially in conservative Mennonite families. Many of us are mixed with Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian ancestry, and you can see it in our food cooked by our grandmothers.
@@Direness This is east of Hays, not far from Victoria. They mentioned the threats against German language as well as a reason many of them switched to English. They have recently pushed hard on teaching their children and grandchildren German. I think it’s an interesting unique identity they should embrace.
As someone who lives in central Missouri, it’s crazy how much southern Missouri feels like the south and northern Missouri feels like the Midwest. Accents and everything. This German corridor feels like the kind of border between the two cultures
I think it is unfortunate how the contributions of German immigrants to America are, at best, no longer easy to see or, at worst, have been completely lost. Especially considering that, to this day, more Americans claim German heritage than any other ethnic group, including Irish, Hispanic, or African American. Days like St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo are very popular, even Columbus Day, which was partly created to honor Italian Americans, is a federal holiday. But I still feel like Oktoberfests are still relatively niche. It’s worth noting that the pressure on German-Americans during WW1 and WW2 was different than it was on other ethnic groups.The pressure on Japanese-Americans for example (and Black Americans for that matter) was to just exclude them from society, but German-Americans were pressured more to actually give up their heritage and fully assimilate to the dominant Anglo-American culture. And I think you can see that that’s what happened by the fact that today, you rarely hear people talk about their German heritage like people talk about their Irish heritage, Italian heritage, Hispanic heritage, or Jewish, Polish, or African American heritage.
My family stopped speaking German in the 1940s when my grandpa went to school and had to learn English. He doesn’t talk much about it but given that my home county is in the edge of the Rhineland I suspect there was probably some pretty traumatic elements (anti-German rhetoric and bullying) to his learning English.
It's because of how they settled. Most were in farms or small towns whereas the Irish were poorer, couldn't afford to get further than the cities they'd disembarked in, and had concentrated pockets in major cities where major media was located etc. My neighborhood is one of the best examples, South Boston.
English is the largest European ethnic group in America. German is second. Your misunderstanding comes from a popular survey where many English descendants identified as "American", as English were the founding Americans. This identification issue made it seem as though there were more Germans. Not so. The English identity of the original colonists was largely swallowed up as "American," because they began to view themselves as a distinct culture and civilization, but they were nonetheless overwhelming English descent. When you add up the two categories of "English" and "American," with most claiming "American" being English, these two categories outnumber German. But not by a massive amount. Germans are truly not far behind population wise. My comment is not intended in any way to diminish the massive contribution of the Germans on American culture. I have great respect for the German peoples here in America and those in Europe. I view them as highly compatible with English. It is my understanding is that the three largest European ethnic groups in America are, by far, English, German, and then a distant third was the Irish (still tens of millions, but quite a bit fewer than English and German).
@@lexingtonconcord8751 hmm I've just checked a whole bunch of different polls and I mostly get German, black, Mexican, Irish English. Although of those 5 they all have English in them with the exception of Mexican. I think it's just cuz people don't tend to claim English, it's a little too bland. Actual extensive English settlement of North America doesn't extend too far past the Mississippi. There was like secondary immigration, Tennessee to Texas but those western areas were really being flooded by Germans and Scandihoovians, and to a lesser extent Irish Russian Polish etc.
@@lexingtonconcord8751 Even in the earliest days much of the population would not have been English, Scots Irish French Dutch and Swedish. And even some of the folks coming from the actual island of Great Britain would identify as maybe Welsh, Cornish or Scottish. But if you factor in that pretty much every American black person has at least 10 percent English Blood. Down South there is absolutely a higher proportion and way up north there's still a lot of Yankee names, but even Maine tends to have way more Scots Irish and French than straight up English. Best indicator is probably religion, Episcopalians would be primarily English
My dad worked at Stone Hill Winery for years. A bunch of the modern woodworking there can be accredited to him! I spent several years of my childhood exploring all the chambers of the complex and walking through the grapevines there, and it really is a beautiful place. I will ALWAYS remember it fondly, and the rich history of it and Hermann as a whole really feels special out here in the Midwest.
My first full time job was working in the Stone Hill Winery vineyards. That's where I discovered my love for agriculture. I spent nearly 6 great years there before moving on after I met my now wife.
I went coast to coast by car 7 times. Turned off the hiway and there was HERMAN. Went to the winery. They have PORTO better tnan in Portugal ! Real gem of the town.
I'm a Fifth-Generation German-American Hermannite. Between the rich history, culture, and natural beauty, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Thank you for sharing our story.
Great video! I grew up in Hermann, and I loved to learn a bit more about my home town! I’m actually one of the kids who are doing the maypole dance at 11:57
We love Hermann and the surrounding area... worked on a railroad survey crew in Gasconade 35 years ago... stayed in Hermann.. been going back ever since... was there 2 weeks ago
As a southern German who always lived very close to or had family from the Rhineland, Hermanndeutsch sounds like if a very adaptive American moved to the Rhineland to learn German there or someone from the Rhineland who moved to the US and now has a slight US accent when speaking German. 😂 Cool and interesting one way or another thank you for this Derek as always a great and interesting video 👍
Reminds me a bit of The Texan Germans. I visited that part of the state recently. When I checked into my hotel, the guy working the counter was hispanic and greeted me with "howdy" in a slightly German accent. Fun fact: the State of Texas gave equal recognition to English, Spanish, and German until WWI.
I would also add that the largest conservative Lutheran denomination in the USA is headquartered in St. Louis. The LCMS seminary is also there. LCMS stands for Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Founded in the 1840s, the LCMS is the most culturally German and the largest confessional, conservative branch of Lutheranism in the United States.
Agree. You had the initial settlement in Perry County. A lot moved to St Louis. There is also a huge LCMS presence just across the Mississippi River on the Illinois side.
As I grew up with family members from both Missouri Synod and Wisconsin Synod, my experience is that Wisconsin Synod is way more conservative than Missouri synod. My local church and school were Wisconsin Synod, my father and his whole family in Illinois were Missouri Synod. Personally preferred the more open-minded Missouri Synod which my father’s family represented. That was 7 decades ago. Don’t know what it is like now, nor do I care.
For those wanting more of the historical background there: That would be before the debacle that led to the dissolution of the Synodical Conference and the end of fellowship between WELS (and ELS) and LCMS. Following SEMINEX, things have changed a bit.
My family came from Germany to escape the Prussians in the 1840s. They knew what they were looking for in the way of land and found it between the Forks of the Chariton River in Chariton County, just north of the Missouri River at Brunswick.They donated land to the Lutheran Church to build the first Synod West of the Mississippi in Forest Green, Missouri. The Church is there as well as the school, Salem Lutheran School and Parish House plaque reads 1861-1952. There is a small museum locked in the school. Linneman, Lienhardt, Kothe, Gebhardt, Imgarten, Hafemeister, Easterhaus are all names in the Cemetary at the Church. My Great Grandparents were Kothe and Meyer. They had 10 children, 7 that lived well into adulthood. There are Kothe and Meyer still in the area Farming. Vast amounts of Pecan trees there, literally thousands.
Thank you for spotlighting our beautiful region, and especially for mentioning the wine heritage of it! Great video, as always! We hope to see more people coming to explore the Missouri Rhineland and its unique history. There is a lot to discover about the German influence on America, and much of it has been forgotten or lost unfortunately.
Do they still produce Wine in this region? If so, what brands should I look for?( I live in Maryland ) I don't like California's Wines, I prefer European and South American Wines( Chile-Argetina) I am Latino ( Nicaraguan) with a Mix of German Ancestry and yes my great grand Uncle who was from Austria but settled in Nicaragua 2 decades prior WW2 he was sent to a POW in the US and later sent to another one in Soviet Union labeled as Spy, and obviously all his lands were taken by the Dictator we had at the time, Somoza-DaBayle
i am from a little east of cologne, so very much the original rhineland, but i have moved elsewhere in germany about 10 years ago and the speaker of hermanndeutsch really makes me feel homesick. there are a few phonemes that are distincly rhinenish apart from the massive influence of american english. added bonus: this is massively easier to understand for me than bavarian oder austrian are.
6:20 I come from the Rhineland myself (Mönchengladbach, right between Düsseldorf and Cologne). Doesn't sound Rhineland at all, more like standard German with a strong American accent. But a really interesting video nonetheless. It reminds me of my English classes in school because we talked about the German settlers in the US, especially Hermann, several times because it was indeed an interesting cultural mix. The German culture that you can see today is sometimes... kinda funny I guess. I remember talking about a few festivals like Oktoberfest (actually German/Bavarian) or Wurstfest (what the hell). But I myself am looking forward to visiting the area next year for a weekend or so. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it as originally planned due to the pandemic.
My family came from Mönchengladbach and Krefeld to Linn, Missouri (In the Missouri Rhineland) and lived there for 7 generations. So interesting to hear from someone from quite literally, my direct ancestral homeland lol. No one speaks German there anymore except some of the Mennonites though, which is a totally different group. I would imagine that a lot of German speakers in the Missouri Rhineland are imperfect speakers largely filling in the gaps with education focused on more standard german, so like many English dialects are dying in the US proper, the uniqueness of Missouri-German dialects will probably just start to disappear as they teach their kids using European German materials and the standard in German just totally overtakes it.
@@xefjord Are there no (voluntary) German language classes in highschool in that region? Though I imagine if you don't practice constantly, you won't be able to speak it anyway after some years.
whuzzzup Yes there are German classes in pretty much any middle, high school or college, but I have yet to meet an American who ever actually learned a second language, myself included. I’ve been trying to study German for years on my own. I’ve gotten better, but it’s just so difficult.
@@whuzzzupGerman is one of three-four languages taught at high schools throughout the American Midwest. French and Spanish are just so much more useful that in my experience pretty much only culturally connected German-American kids take it. Since Germans were largely forced to assimilate post WWI, it’s a pretty small population compared to the amount of Americans with a nominal connection to Germany.
Totally agree. I am from Leverkusen (same region between Cologne and Düsseldorf), and could not hear any "modern" rhineland dialect. Hermanndeutsch for me sounds more like german-speaking people from luxembourg or belgium, or indeed americans trying to speak german.
I must say, after years of being subbed to tiger star, I never thought I’d see a thumbnail of my home region. I’ve been driving I-70 all my life, super excited for this video. Cheers!
Thanks for a great video. My paternal grandparents were both raised speaking both German and English in South St. Louis. Both of them being confirmed (in the Lutheran Church) in the German language. During World War I, they abruptly switched to English only. My father and his siblings were raised as English speakers only. I never heard them speak German although my father said they sometimes used it with their parents. Although the language changed, a lot of cultural things did not. To this day we still maintain a lot of German traditions, especially relating to holidays and food.
I'm a German-American in the Rhineland, with my mother's side from the Rhineland itself and my father's side from North Dakota. I learned a lot from this video and didn't know there was such a rich history of German-Americans in the area I live. Thank you for making this video I'm glad to learn my heritage is much more then I had originally thought. I still have a German last name from my father's side and we still make many german foods, mainly deserts. While I don't speak German my late grandmother did and I would really like to learn some day. It saddens me to learn about German-American oppressions during WW1/2. In school I only really learned about Japanese-Americans being put in interment camps, not German-Americans. This video has made me more proud of my heritage then before, and I look forward to learning even more going forward.
Funny that most Americans think, that they do not speak German. There is a lot of German stuff you are using every day like some of the week days. Tuesday - Tius day Tiu the god of war in the German myth. I´m sure you guess what Thursday means.
My father's side is Missouri Rhineland German and my mother's side is Ozark ScotsIrish so I am finding these videos very interesting. Actually I never heard the term Missouri Rhineland before and i grew up literally on the banks of the river. Excellent video
Great video, very informative & lots of topics that I knew a little about but so much that I learned. Planing a solo bike 🚴 trip as far west on the Katy trail as the Amtrak will take me then bike back to St. Charles.
I am from this region myself, I’m from Jeff City. I still have a German last name, even if it’s Anglicized, which I suspect happened during the Americanization of Germans in WW1. My family doesn’t speak German anymore, but we keep the culture alive, with traditions and foods. I am proud of my heritage.
this video explains my heritage pretty well. thank you. my dad's family live in central missouri that are german descent and its cool how this video ties all of it together. my mom and her entire family are full-blooded dutch and theyre from a region of iowa (pella, oskaloosa area). all that i know that they've been there since the 1890s and I'm the first generation thats not full-blooded dutch. it would be cool to a video breaking down that area.
I think a video on the Low Country of the Southeast US from Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina would be a fun idea to cover. Groups like the Gulluah and many others and the historical Whiplash in terms of interesting and shameful parts of its history is quite fascinating. Loving this Series sofar, Keep it up! I cant wait to hear more about other regions!
As a person of predominantly German descent who lives in the Missouri Rhineland, I've made a conscious effort to learn German. Is my German perfect? No, far from it. But it still feels good to try and retain some semblance of where some of my ancestors came from y'know? Wish I had time to learn all the languages of forebears but unfortunately I don't.
The chunks of the Canadian Shield inside of America. The two spots are the Adirondacks(which gets mistakenly lumped in with the Appalachians a lot) and the Superior Region (The Upper Peninsula of Michigan, The Arrowhead Region of Minnesota, plus the northern third of Wisconsin linking them)
My property is near Herman Missouri, and I often go there with my dog to get a coffee. The rolling hills are so beautiful, especially if you take the road through Daniel Boone Conservation Area. You get great scenic views of the river valley and will understand why Germans settled there. I’ll have to upload some drove footage of it soon.
My family moved to Bates County in western Missouri around the time of the civil war after being born in Bavaria and we live about a mile away from the house my great grandpa grew up in. The Lutheran Church that brought them to the area is less than 10 minutes away. Lots of German heritage in the surrounding area!
It's a good video. i grew up and still live right in the middle of it. My great grandparents spoke german at home . My grandparents spoke english but they also spoke german good. Grand ma prided her self on talking english. During WW1 and WW2, the family changed how you pronounce our last name to sound, either russian, perhaps polish so as to not be considered german. They pronounce it as wagen-nish, which is not it . Cole Camp has a low german theator and choir. Concordia has, mostily, german folk. Checking on our family history, half came over before the USA existed, and some came over very late 1905 or so. All from along the baltic coast are.
I live in Pettis County, which I would say is on the periphery of the Missouri rhineland, but we still have an enormous German influence her. Cole Camp, especially, still holds on to its German traditions to this day very strongly.
An interesting fact: Missouri vintners helped save the French wine industry. A root blight destroyed the vast majority of French grapes. The blight was similar to the root blight that caused potatoes to rot in the ground in Ireland. The wine industry was devastated in France. Missouri grape vines were resistant to the blight and root stock was sent from Missouri to France and the BBC Missouri root stock was used to regrow French vines and the French wine industry. That is the story that I have read. There is a particular Missouri varietal of white wine called a Vignoles that I have only found in Herman. It is to die for if you ever come across it!
My great great grandfather moved from Germany to Franklin county, Missouri in 1853. His name was Herman Obeberkamper and my great grandfather was William Oberkamper. He married into another German family by the name of Stubbe, Sophia Stubbe. Thank you so much for this fantastic video. There's so much here that I didn't know.
A funny note- my mother was researching family genealogy when she came across a 1870 editorial decrying a "Dutch" settlement (now St Clements MO) 4 miles south of Bowling Green , MO The last line is the funny bit- "Unless you want a bunch of blond headed, blue eyed grandchildren running around- then meet at the livery stable and we'll run them out of the county" Oh my, how horrible...... They must not have done a very good job, as my Blond headed, blue eyed grandson will attest....,
I have a long family history connecting back to Herman Missouri, as well as visiting many times as a kid because my family owns a farm out there. So cool to see it being talked about in a UA-cam video.
So Germans played a significant role in why Missouri transitioned from a Southern to a Midwestern state after the Civil War. Southern Missouri especially in the southeast is still very much part of the South.
Grew up in Cole Camp, with a majority of German descendants. Lots of German foods and festivals growing up. Battle of Cole Camp took place on the hill across the valley from our house. Many of my friends great-grandparents grew up only speaking German. That changed due to WWI.
My family was one of the first German families to immigrate to the US in 1795. Settling in the still very rough area of central Missouri. They helped build multiple cities around the Jefferson City area.
The fact that American born people with German ancestry were internalized during WW1 and 2 just blew my mind...never heard of it before sure as hell it wasn't mentioned in history class ...but as we know winners write history and definitely from their point of view.
I've lived in Kansas City my entire life and had no idea there was something called the Missouri Rhineland, or that we had a specific dialect of German that exists in Hermann. The only thing I know about Hermann is that it has a lot of wineries and B&Bs, and the train runs from Kansas City to Hermann frequently. Many bachelorette parties are held there because it is a very walkable small town.
That farmer speaking German reminded me of how both of my parents spoke. We used to laugh at: Die cow ist ueber die fence gejumpt. And our refrigerator was only known as the icebox.
The wine production I was not aware of. This is actually a really close connection to the original Rhineland. For last few centuries until today, Rhineland-Pfalz is considered the wine country of Germany. I believe it is still Germany's largest wine producing region, and they hold an annual week long wine festival similar to Oktoberfest.
I lived in Mainz in 2022, Capital of the R-P, which is in the Rheinhessen wine district. Wine is life in the The Rhenish world. Viticulture was basically introduced into the area by Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse) when he reigned at the Imperial Palace (Kaiserpfalz) in Ingelheim am Rhein in the 800s.
Learning about these immigrant communities in America is fascinating. Being from Texas myself, I've heard a fair amount about Texas Germans, and how they also speak their own dialect of German. They similarly had a cultural falloff due to the World Wars, but the German heritage is still very prominent in the central Texas region.
It's amazing how similar Missouri & Texas actually are despite no shared borders. From the original explorations of the Spanish, to the influence of Kentucky frontiersmen, being on the western edge of the Civil War, being on opposite ends of the cattle drives, & huge German immigration to settle the farmlands... to football & barbecue! It seems to me TX & MO have a lot in common.
Heya! local from Columbia, Missouri. loved the video, really helps explain why despite being pretty equidistant to both St Louis and Kansas City, we seem to share a lot more with St Louis folks. Anheuser-Busch is still so like everywhere here, esp at Mizzou (Uni of Missouri-Columbia), the most impressive buildings here are Anheuser-Busch owned and built
There is also a small group of historically German areas just across the Missouri in Illinois. My great-grandfather lived in Fults, IL. Small town, population of less than 50. My grandfather lived in Dupo, just across from St. Louis. That same area was also settled earlier by french explorers and trappers.
If you want another German centric area, the Dutch Fork of South Carolina, between the Saluda and Broad Rivers, was settled by German Protestants (mostly Lutherans) in the Colonial Era. The only major influences that remain are that Lutherans are far more common than elsewhere in the South and Newberry, SC celebrates Oktoberfest.
as someone living in the STL area with German heritage, it is so cool to hear about this history ! No ones ever taught me about all this, and it's such a cool feeling to feel a connection to parts of history.
German Lutherans had a huge presence and identity. Saxon colony in Perry County. In St. Louis publications like Der Lutheraner and Lehre und Wehre, Concordia Seminary, etc. Even the "German Lutheran Synod of Missouri and other States" today's Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.
Adolphus Busch’s older brother actually started a brewery in Washington, MO before Anhueser. The brewery is till there with his home and it sits on “Busch” creek.
Great video. It’s crazy how much influence German culture has had here in the Lou. The MO Rhineland is such an overlooked gem of a region. Probably because StL is the most underrated city in the world. 😉
"The Lou" - no one ever called it that. STL was once the 3rd largest city in the U.S. It is now not even in the top 50. If it was, it would have the highest violent crime rate of them all. STL has been going down the drain for 60+ years. Its glory days are long gone, never to return. The young and educated flee in droves. Underrated?
@@purplesprigs how you can tell a St. Louisan what we do and don’t call our own city lmao. Where are the young and educated moving to? Mostly car-centric places with less geographical advantages. It’s only a matter of time until the Lou starts booming again. 😜
As a son of a german immigrant who live literally 5 min north of dutzow, I really appreciate a bigger youtube channel covering why we have so much German culture in central Missouri.
Thank you for making this video. I've lived in the St. Louis metro my whole life and I didn't hear about the Missouri Rhineland until I went down a Wikipedia rabbithole on the wineries around St. Louis.
The property was sold with Prohibition, and the facility fell into quite a bit of disrepair until the 60s, but thankfully the mushroom farming operation did keep the cellars alive and in good condition until wine could return to them!
@@StoneHillWinery were the pre-prohibition wine yeast strains lost as well? I know many of the Kentucky Bourbon distillers lost their yeast strains during those years.
It’s very interesting to see the map at 4:30 and be able to pick and see exactly where my house is along the banks of the Missouri. I’m really happy you are covering this often overlooked part of America and American history. I think a stand-alone video on the travels of Lewis and Clark if you haven’t already made one would be awesome, especially knowing that history is so close to home which I’m starting to realize may sound ridiculous to someone that might be European, or really anyone without an American-centric understanding of the world. This land is young. The history of it is usually considered short and we haven’t lived on it very long so the few times we get recognition for the small (but very interesting) history we have, I consider it something to be celebrated if that makes sense. Someone that lives in Rome can step outside and they’ll be in history (their dirty slimy EUROPEAN 🤢 history). They can’t escape it. In America, we have pockets of history, but we still have plenty that is still untamed. Part of me likes that. This feeling isn’t new to people from the old world, of being in history. But, I like that feeling of knowing your among the first people that will live on the land that I currently live on. Just one of the potentially hundreds of thousands, eventually down the line millions, that will live and die on the same soil I have. Long after I pass and anyone reading this comment passes, someone else will occupy the land you once did. I like that when I caught this land and got to have the pleasure of living on it I found it still wild enough to make people feel free if they want to be. In 200 years, the land I live on may no longer be wild with forests everywhere and national parks within driving distance. In 200 years, people might not be able to just drive 10 minutes and simply be on a state trail with just them and the wilderness. I see that as an absolute privilege. The thing I love about this land most is that it strikes a balance. I can drive 10 minutes and I’m on a trail. I could also drive 10 minutes and I’m in the busy town. I love my country.
I live in a town in Minnesota, next to one where most people are German. I really like them. I donated to their library a collection of Hummel figurines, some very valuable, that my dad bought in Germany when I was 13-16, when the Berlin Wall was being built, to thank them for helping Puerto Rico, where I was born, after the three terrible hurricanes that hit PR one after the other, and the US DID NOTHING MUCH (although every one there is a US citizen) to help. They send people from their small town that included electricians, firemen, etc, and they restored electricity there. You can bet that any time I need some work done in my house, they are the ones I contact. In fact an electrician from there is coming today. When I donated them the ladies in the library were surprised, but dad is dead and I am old, and my daughter agreed with me that they deserved them.
Hermannsville, Arkansas was changed to Dutch Mills due to hostility to Germans in the Confederacy. The Sager family came to St. Louis, moved on to Westport (Kansas City) and Sager's were the family with a history of the "Wind Wagon" and the movie 7 Alone is based upon the Sager family. One Sager moved to Siloam Springs, Arkansas (aka Hico) and while not a slave owner, supported the Confederacy. In Monett and Pulaskiville, MO there were a mix of German and Polish immigrants.
After living in St. Louis for five years, it seems the German influence has been very positive. This is far from true for that other group, the one that can't be openly critiqued.
6:20 Native German speaker here. The dialect sounds like he pronounces a lot of the German words with an American accent. Now I don't know if that is how the dialect is supposed to sound like, or if he grew up with American English as his native tongue and only later decided to learn the dialect. If I'd met him on the street without knowing anything else, I'd just assume he's a standard American trying to speak German. I can definitely understand him, but it's quite a strong accent.
I’d suspect he probably grew up learning it from a generation that also grew up learning it. So day to day business was English but German was spoke at home with the more elderly and possibly working with the Amish but I don’t know how much Pennsylvania Dutch would be understood.
I grew up living along the MO River in Cole, Osage, and Gasconade counties. The MO River valley is a beautiful place, I just wish the real estate was much cheaper. I remember the older generations used to speak German around each other when I was a kid in the early 70's. A lot of German immigrants lived in between St. Louis and Herman for a time before moving farther west to the Great Plains. If it was not for St. Louis having a large German population during the Civil War, MO would not have had near as many union troops as it did. I dearly miss visiting family members all through the MO River valley, especially in the fall when the leaves were changing.
My family on my grandmother’s side is from the Detmold/Beemont area, and she was sent home from the public school as a kindergartener with instructions to the family to teach her to speak English instead of German, because she only knew German. This was not that long ago, the late 1930’s.
Where I grew up in central MN, this area was also settled by people of German ancestry, I'm 40% German. These people were pretty quiet and down to earth. It was a great place to grow up.
Duden (as in Gottfried Duden 1:55 ) happens to also be the very rare last name of the inventor of the German dictionary (Konrad Duden) which bears his name, similar to Merriam-Webster in America
I was born in this region and am a proud German American. I wish you had shown more pictures of the beautiful German Towns especially those along the river. But thanks for the video.
Fun fact, my wife is from North Carolina, I’m Portuguese, we live in Bamberg Germany which is the Beer Capital of the world and my wife’sGerman slang sounds exactly like “Hermangerman” 😅
I'm a high school German teacher, teaching in a suburb outside of KCMO and found your video very insightful. I can't wait to impart this knowledge on my students! Danke sehr
As someone who grew up with speaking German from recent immigrants in St. Louis, the Hermanndeutsch is one of the easiest dialects to understand I’ve ever heard. Interesting!
Yoooo hey neighbor thanks for telling my family's origin story I've never seen a major channel cover it! Warren County here I still go to Straussenbash, Dutch Days, and Oktoberfest every year. Dutzow MO has the best wine you'll ever taste in your life.
What are some other interesting cultural regions I should make a video on next?
Definitely make a video on the Hmong population of Wisconsin, it's a verrrry interesting topic :)
Not in the US, but there's the Welsh colony in Argentinian Patagonia: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_Wladfa
The historical Chinese American population in the Mississippi Delta region of Mississippi. At the community's height in the 1970s there were around 3,000 people of Chinese descent living in the Mississippi Delta, but the community dates back all the way to the 1870s. I think it'd make a very interesting subject for a video if you ever decide to use this idea.
If we are on the Topic of German Communities abroad i know there are some in South America. For example the Brazilian City of Blumenau founded by a German pharmacist. Maybe that could be interesting.
Make a video about the Germans who live in Germany
As a German Speaker the "Hermanndeutsch" kinda sounds like a Standard German Speaker doing a stereotypical American accent
And they say America doesn't have culture 🇺🇸
As an American learning German, it was easier for me to understand than most German accents.
Second that. I would even say it is remarkably similar, considering it split more than 100 years ago. I would even say it is more similar to standard German than many local German accents.
Bang on
Hearing Hermanndeutsch as a German - from the actual Rhineland as well - i agree with you.
BUT i also have a friend from the german-speaking part of Luxembourg (not that far away from the Rhineland), and he sounds very similar to the Hermanndeutsch shown here.
On the other hand, the dialect my grandparents speak (Kölsch and Bergisch Platt), sound very different.
So, i think, that may be what german sounded like in the regions around the rhineland in the 1800, before they lost contact to any other german speakers?
As a German, I think the man who spoke "Hermanndeutsch" was quite easy to understand. Apart from some loanwords like soy instead of Soja and farmer instead of Bauer/Landwirt, few other differences are hearable. The strongest giveaway that this speaker is not from Germany but from America is the way he pronounces his r. He uses the English r and not the French/German r, which is the most common here. Like others have mentioned, it sounds like German with an American accent. It was, however, easier to understand than Texas German. At least for me.
And his grammar is americanized, mostly sounding like a direct translation.
I'm an American learning German right now, and I actually understood him almost perfectly, which is rarely the case when hearing European German speakers yet 😅 Funny how that works, but I guess it shouldn't be surprising!
To me he sounded like could speak both German and English and decided to speak German but accidentally spoke English occasionally.
Agreed, very easy to understand and besides the americanized "r", it was very German-like. There are dialects in Germany that are harder to understand.
"Wie gehts, y'all?" 😃
I grew up in this region. Most people I knew had a German last name, including myself; Kaisers, Zimmermans, Yeagers, Muelers, to name a few. I never realized how unique that was until I moved away and encountered way more Anglo names. From someone with deep roots along the Missouri from the Waverly-Marshall area, thank you for giving this often overlooked story attention.
Outside of the First Name, these are all Anglicised, if they hadn't been Anglicised "Zimmerman" would have been "Zimmermann" (Carpenter) considering "Mann" is spelled with Two N's, "Jäger" (Hunter), and Müller (Miller), though back in the Past and to this Day Families could also be named Mueller instead because in the Past the Umlaut wasn't always written. Anyway, very Interesting to hear Your Perspective, coming from a German.
I grew up in the mid-Hudson Valley, where Dutch was commonly spoken until the late 18th century, and Pres. Martin Van Buren's first language was Dutch. Our neighbors had names such as Van Vliet, Osterhoudt, Schoonmaker. My family are Jews & originally immigrants from eastern Europe. My grandparents bought their house & farm from the Schoonmakers.
@@feragosmyxixarashtra7948 Nearly all families anglicized their German names around WW1 & 2. Some chose to change the spelling so English phonetics would sound correct, some changed pronunciation but kept most of the original spelling, most simplified to make it look less foreign, & some just changed names completely.
@@davidkottman3440 I am aware. But how can a Name be "Foreign"? Many Germans had lived in the United States for Generations before either Conflict that put a Negative Light on their Germanness, which was incorrectly perceived as being these People being Foreign and Traitors to the Nation.
Also, Yoders and Wengers
Missouri Rhineland is such a beautiful place, thank you for covering this region!
I have grown up living here my whole life and I've always had the same sentiment. I had a friend before who was getting a roommate that we both knew online who used to live in Texas. He moved up here and I remember when I asked him what he thought about the area, he told me that it was what he imagined when he'd think of a medieval fantasy world's landscape with the rolling hills, green fields, woods, rivers, the farmland and small towns, and bluffs. Some may say it's typical or general, but I feel like this area of Missouri is very beautiful and that guy coming from a flat area all the way up to Missouri and talking about how great he thought it was made me appreciate the land all over again.
This is shaping up to be a really cool series.
i am a native german speaker from rhineland-palatinate and to me the Hermanndeutsch dialect sounds like german just with an american accent
Just standard German? You notice anything that sounds regional?
@@jonasastrom7422I'm from the Swabian region in Germany and it is plain Hochdeutsch. Sounds like a lot of US Americans speak, that are able to speak fluid German.
Edit: to my opinion, at least
I mean the accent is of course going to be different, the dialect is largely dead, that guy is like among dozens or hundreds who probably still can speak it, and they probably werent necessarily raised or have the accent having grown up with and are native english speakers.
@@brokkrepI’m an American that’s conversationally fluent. He sounds exactly like me if I’m not focusing on my accent. A lot of the “German” sounds like ch/ts/r have been leveled into something much more natural for an American English speaker.
@@RazgrizWing the problem with this particular man's speech is that there is no trace at all of anything resembling a 19th century rheinland dialect.
As someone who is from the Missouri Rhineland (Specifically in one of the counties closer to St. Louis) who was raised by a VERY American monolingual English speaking family, it still is fascinating having all that German culture. I still didn't know a lot of the information presented here beforehand, so it was interesting to learn. I've been learning about German culture and it was very interesting seeing something on German Culture from where I was born!
Let me guess, Washington?
@@zombieranger3410 No. I'm in O'Fallon.
@@KeeGalaxy ah
@@KeeGalaxyI got stranded in that place back in April
@@zombieranger3410 I'm in washington lol
My (Several greats) Grandpa was George Stark who owned Stone Hill Winery. My grandparents are taking me on a tour of Hermann next week to explore that branch of the family history. Excellently timed video, Thanks Tigerstar
Please do let us know when you get here! We always love connecting with the relatives of the pre-prohibition owners. If your family has any pictures of George, his kids, or the winery, that would be amazing to see as well!
I hope you have an awesome trip!
If you continue west past the Kansas (my home state) border, you will fine that "green" highlighted area continues west clear to the Colorado border. German, Austrian, and "Volgan" Germans are all over the southern plains. You can find small communities where churches and community centers often have German events and hearing people speak German is very common. My friends grandfather had a party for Christmas this last year with a Polka Band, and I was shocked by how many in the retirement center were singing songs in German. I don't speak any German and I am not ethnically German, but it was a really fun event. I've known for a long time that German is fairly common in the rural areas of the plains, but that was almost like a cultural shock, I couldn't believe how many of the older folks could speak German at a conversational level.
Yep. My grandfather's first language growing up in South Central KS was German. He didn't speak English until he started school around 6 or 7 years old. His family quit speaking German due to threats of violence against German-Americans during WWI, but many families from Garnett all the way to Russell, KS still speak German, especially in conservative Mennonite families. Many of us are mixed with Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian ancestry, and you can see it in our food cooked by our grandmothers.
I’m from Kansas and my ex’s whole family was German. His moms, his dads and his stepdads
@@Direness This is east of Hays, not far from Victoria.
They mentioned the threats against German language as well as a reason many of them switched to English. They have recently pushed hard on teaching their children and grandchildren German. I think it’s an interesting unique identity they should embrace.
Yes, Lindsborg, KS come to mind.
@ Lindborg is actually Swedish. It’s nicknamed Little Sweden.
As someone who lives in central Missouri, it’s crazy how much southern Missouri feels like the south and northern Missouri feels like the Midwest. Accents and everything. This German corridor feels like the kind of border between the two cultures
I think it is unfortunate how the contributions of German immigrants to America are, at best, no longer easy to see or, at worst, have been completely lost. Especially considering that, to this day, more Americans claim German heritage than any other ethnic group, including Irish, Hispanic, or African American. Days like St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo are very popular, even Columbus Day, which was partly created to honor Italian Americans, is a federal holiday. But I still feel like Oktoberfests are still relatively niche.
It’s worth noting that the pressure on German-Americans during WW1 and WW2 was different than it was on other ethnic groups.The pressure on Japanese-Americans for example (and Black Americans for that matter) was to just exclude them from society, but German-Americans were pressured more to actually give up their heritage and fully assimilate to the dominant Anglo-American culture. And I think you can see that that’s what happened by the fact that today, you rarely hear people talk about their German heritage like people talk about their Irish heritage, Italian heritage, Hispanic heritage, or Jewish, Polish, or African American heritage.
My family stopped speaking German in the 1940s when my grandpa went to school and had to learn English. He doesn’t talk much about it but given that my home county is in the edge of the Rhineland I suspect there was probably some pretty traumatic elements (anti-German rhetoric and bullying) to his learning English.
It's because of how they settled. Most were in farms or small towns whereas the Irish were poorer, couldn't afford to get further than the cities they'd disembarked in, and had concentrated pockets in major cities where major media was located etc. My neighborhood is one of the best examples, South Boston.
English is the largest European ethnic group in America.
German is second.
Your misunderstanding comes from a popular survey where many English descendants identified as "American", as English were the founding Americans. This identification issue made it seem as though there were more Germans. Not so.
The English identity of the original colonists was largely swallowed up as "American," because they began to view themselves as a distinct culture and civilization, but they were nonetheless overwhelming English descent. When you add up the two categories of "English" and "American," with most claiming "American" being English, these two categories outnumber German. But not by a massive amount. Germans are truly not far behind population wise.
My comment is not intended in any way to diminish the massive contribution of the Germans on American culture. I have great respect for the German peoples here in America and those in Europe. I view them as highly compatible with English.
It is my understanding is that the three largest European ethnic groups in America are, by far, English, German, and then a distant third was the Irish (still tens of millions, but quite a bit fewer than English and German).
@@lexingtonconcord8751 hmm I've just checked a whole bunch of different polls and I mostly get German, black, Mexican, Irish English. Although of those 5 they all have English in them with the exception of Mexican. I think it's just cuz people don't tend to claim English, it's a little too bland. Actual extensive English settlement of North America doesn't extend too far past the Mississippi. There was like secondary immigration, Tennessee to Texas but those western areas were really being flooded by Germans and Scandihoovians, and to a lesser extent Irish Russian Polish etc.
@@lexingtonconcord8751 Even in the earliest days much of the population would not have been English, Scots Irish French Dutch and Swedish. And even some of the folks coming from the actual island of Great Britain would identify as maybe Welsh, Cornish or Scottish. But if you factor in that pretty much every American black person has at least 10 percent English Blood. Down South there is absolutely a higher proportion and way up north there's still a lot of Yankee names, but even Maine tends to have way more Scots Irish and French than straight up English. Best indicator is probably religion, Episcopalians would be primarily English
My dad worked at Stone Hill Winery for years. A bunch of the modern woodworking there can be accredited to him! I spent several years of my childhood exploring all the chambers of the complex and walking through the grapevines there, and it really is a beautiful place. I will ALWAYS remember it fondly, and the rich history of it and Hermann as a whole really feels special out here in the Midwest.
Who's your dad?!? Hermann born and raised here, my dad was a historic German woodworker!
Thanks for remembering us and the town fondly! Your dad did an incredible job regarding the woodwork.
My first full time job was working in the Stone Hill Winery vineyards. That's where I discovered my love for agriculture. I spent nearly 6 great years there before moving on after I met my now wife.
I visited many great wineries in Missouri, and Stonehill was by far the best.
I went coast to coast by car 7 times.
Turned off the hiway and there was
HERMAN. Went to the winery.
They have PORTO better tnan
in Portugal ! Real gem of the town.
I'm a Fifth-Generation German-American Hermannite. Between the rich history, culture, and natural beauty, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Thank you for sharing our story.
Great video! I grew up in Hermann, and I loved to learn a bit more about my home town! I’m actually one of the kids who are doing the maypole dance at 11:57
Hermann!
that's so cool! you still live there?
We love Hermann and the surrounding area... worked on a railroad survey crew in Gasconade 35 years ago... stayed in Hermann.. been going back ever since... was there 2 weeks ago
As a southern German who always lived very close to or had family from the Rhineland, Hermanndeutsch sounds like if a very adaptive American moved to the Rhineland to learn German there or someone from the Rhineland who moved to the US and now has a slight US accent when speaking German. 😂 Cool and interesting one way or another thank you for this Derek as always a great and interesting video 👍
Reminds me a bit of The Texan Germans. I visited that part of the state recently. When I checked into my hotel, the guy working the counter was hispanic and greeted me with "howdy" in a slightly German accent.
Fun fact: the State of Texas gave equal recognition to English, Spanish, and German until WWI.
The Wendish are part of the reason Texas has a large Lutheran population.
I lived in Austin for a few years and came to love that part of the state too. Fredericksberg, New Braunfels, biergarten culture, all of that!
I would also add that the largest conservative Lutheran denomination in the USA is headquartered in St. Louis. The LCMS seminary is also there. LCMS stands for Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
Founded in the 1840s, the LCMS is the most culturally German and the largest confessional, conservative branch of Lutheranism in the United States.
Agree. You had the initial settlement in Perry County. A lot moved to St Louis. There is also a huge LCMS presence just across the Mississippi River on the Illinois side.
The Lutheran Church in my hometown of Centralia, which is about 70 miles or so east of St Louis is a member of the Missouri Synod.
As I grew up with family members from both Missouri Synod and Wisconsin Synod, my experience is that Wisconsin Synod is way more conservative than Missouri synod. My local church and school were Wisconsin Synod, my father and his whole family in Illinois were Missouri Synod. Personally preferred the more open-minded Missouri Synod which my father’s family represented. That was 7 decades ago. Don’t know what it is like now, nor do I care.
For those wanting more of the historical background there: That would be before the debacle that led to the dissolution of the Synodical Conference and the end of fellowship between WELS (and ELS) and LCMS. Following SEMINEX, things have changed a bit.
My family came from Germany to escape the Prussians in the 1840s. They knew what they were looking for in the way of land and found it between the Forks of the Chariton River in Chariton County, just north of the Missouri River at Brunswick.They donated land to the Lutheran Church to build the first Synod West of the Mississippi in Forest Green, Missouri. The Church is there as well as the school, Salem Lutheran School and Parish House plaque reads 1861-1952. There is a small museum locked in the school. Linneman, Lienhardt, Kothe, Gebhardt, Imgarten, Hafemeister, Easterhaus are all names in the Cemetary at the Church. My Great Grandparents were Kothe and Meyer. They had 10 children, 7 that lived well into adulthood. There are Kothe and Meyer still in the area Farming. Vast amounts of Pecan trees there, literally thousands.
This where I grew up, and want to return soon. It really is one of the most beautiful places in America.
Return to Missouri. The rest of the world is too crazy 👍🏻
As a French, i love the fact that a large German-speaking population lives in a city called Saint Louis ^^
You should see the types of people that live in the section of Germantown, Philadelphia 😂
Are they, dare I say enwords?
Total French colonial victory
Well, the French settled it and named it- then the Germans moved in.
@@donwillman4587 Apparently one of the town's founders was from Lorraine, which makes the case even more interesting.
Thank you for spotlighting our beautiful region, and especially for mentioning the wine heritage of it! Great video, as always! We hope to see more people coming to explore the Missouri Rhineland and its unique history. There is a lot to discover about the German influence on America, and much of it has been forgotten or lost unfortunately.
Do they still produce Wine in this region? If so, what brands should I look for?( I live in Maryland ) I don't like California's Wines, I prefer European and South American Wines( Chile-Argetina) I am Latino ( Nicaraguan) with a Mix of German Ancestry and yes my great grand Uncle who was from Austria but settled in Nicaragua 2 decades prior WW2 he was sent to a POW in the US and later sent to another one in Soviet Union labeled as Spy, and obviously all his lands were taken by the Dictator we had at the time, Somoza-DaBayle
@@Drskopf Lots, Stone Hill being but one of many vineyards along the river. Also several further south down by I44.
i am from a little east of cologne, so very much the original rhineland, but i have moved elsewhere in germany about 10 years ago and the speaker of hermanndeutsch really makes me feel homesick. there are a few phonemes that are distincly rhinenish apart from the massive influence of american english. added bonus: this is massively easier to understand for me than bavarian oder austrian are.
6:20 I come from the Rhineland myself (Mönchengladbach, right between Düsseldorf and Cologne). Doesn't sound Rhineland at all, more like standard German with a strong American accent.
But a really interesting video nonetheless. It reminds me of my English classes in school because we talked about the German settlers in the US, especially Hermann, several times because it was indeed an interesting cultural mix. The German culture that you can see today is sometimes... kinda funny I guess. I remember talking about a few festivals like Oktoberfest (actually German/Bavarian) or Wurstfest (what the hell). But I myself am looking forward to visiting the area next year for a weekend or so. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it as originally planned due to the pandemic.
My family came from Mönchengladbach and Krefeld to Linn, Missouri (In the Missouri Rhineland) and lived there for 7 generations. So interesting to hear from someone from quite literally, my direct ancestral homeland lol. No one speaks German there anymore except some of the Mennonites though, which is a totally different group.
I would imagine that a lot of German speakers in the Missouri Rhineland are imperfect speakers largely filling in the gaps with education focused on more standard german, so like many English dialects are dying in the US proper, the uniqueness of Missouri-German dialects will probably just start to disappear as they teach their kids using European German materials and the standard in German just totally overtakes it.
@@xefjord Are there no (voluntary) German language classes in highschool in that region? Though I imagine if you don't practice constantly, you won't be able to speak it anyway after some years.
whuzzzup
Yes there are German classes in pretty much any middle, high school or college, but I have yet to meet an American who ever actually learned a second language, myself included. I’ve been trying to study German for years on my own. I’ve gotten better, but it’s just so difficult.
@@whuzzzupGerman is one of three-four languages taught at high schools throughout the American Midwest. French and Spanish are just so much more useful that in my experience pretty much only culturally connected German-American kids take it. Since Germans were largely forced to assimilate post WWI, it’s a pretty small population compared to the amount of Americans with a nominal connection to Germany.
Totally agree. I am from Leverkusen (same region between Cologne and Düsseldorf), and could not hear any "modern" rhineland dialect. Hermanndeutsch for me sounds more like german-speaking people from luxembourg or belgium, or indeed americans trying to speak german.
I must say, after years of being subbed to tiger star, I never thought I’d see a thumbnail of my home region. I’ve been driving I-70 all my life, super excited for this video. Cheers!
I am a descendant of Germans that settled the south side of the Missouri River in Cooper County. Thank you for making this!
Thanks for featuring us! Grüß Gott aus Hoene Spring, MO!
As someone who lives in the Missouri Rhineland, this was a great video to watch. I go to the Oktoberfest in Hermann every year by train.
Yeah, we like to drive over from Jefferson City. I love it here along the Missouri.
Thanks for a great video. My paternal grandparents were both raised speaking both German and English in South St. Louis. Both of them being confirmed (in the Lutheran Church) in the German language. During World War I, they abruptly switched to English only. My father and his siblings were raised as English speakers only. I never heard them speak German although my father said they sometimes used it with their parents. Although the language changed, a lot of cultural things did not. To this day we still maintain a lot of German traditions, especially relating to holidays and food.
The guy speaking german was very easily understandable to me, sounded like pretty normal german with an american accent to me
It's so strange hearing these towns names I've known all my life on UA-cam video. Thanks tigerstar!
Same! I drive through Herman often.. and this is THE emporer tiger star!
I'm a German-American in the Rhineland, with my mother's side from the Rhineland itself and my father's side from North Dakota. I learned a lot from this video and didn't know there was such a rich history of German-Americans in the area I live. Thank you for making this video I'm glad to learn my heritage is much more then I had originally thought. I still have a German last name from my father's side and we still make many german foods, mainly deserts. While I don't speak German my late grandmother did and I would really like to learn some day. It saddens me to learn about German-American oppressions during WW1/2. In school I only really learned about Japanese-Americans being put in interment camps, not German-Americans. This video has made me more proud of my heritage then before, and I look forward to learning even more going forward.
Follow through by learning German, marrying another German girl and having at least 6 kids, raising them in German and English.
Funny that most Americans think, that they do not speak German. There is a lot of German stuff you are using every day like some of the week days. Tuesday - Tius day Tiu the god of war in the German myth. I´m sure you guess what Thursday means.
I’m glad this oft-overlooked portion of America is getting its own video, the culture of the Missouri Rhineland is incredibly fascinating.
My father's side is Missouri Rhineland German and my mother's side is Ozark ScotsIrish so I am finding these videos very interesting. Actually I never heard the term Missouri Rhineland before and i grew up literally on the banks of the river. Excellent video
I love half Irish/Scottish and German people
Seems like most people who have their roots in MO seem to be a mix of German and Scots Irish.
Great video, very informative & lots of topics that I knew a little about but so much that I learned. Planing a solo bike 🚴 trip as far west on the Katy trail as the Amtrak will take me then bike back to St. Charles.
I am from this region myself, I’m from Jeff City. I still have a German last name, even if it’s Anglicized, which I suspect happened during the Americanization of Germans in WW1. My family doesn’t speak German anymore, but we keep the culture alive, with traditions and foods. I am proud of my heritage.
@Zipped44 I grew up in between toas and wardsville and have a German last name as well.
im from the area as well, wish my family kept some of our german roots.
this video explains my heritage pretty well. thank you. my dad's family live in central missouri that are german descent and its cool how this video ties all of it together. my mom and her entire family are full-blooded dutch and theyre from a region of iowa (pella, oskaloosa area). all that i know that they've been there since the 1890s and I'm the first generation thats not full-blooded dutch. it would be cool to a video breaking down that area.
I think a video on the Low Country of the Southeast US from Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina would be a fun idea to cover. Groups like the Gulluah and many others and the historical Whiplash in terms of interesting and shameful parts of its history is quite fascinating. Loving this Series sofar, Keep it up! I cant wait to hear more about other regions!
As a person of predominantly German descent who lives in the Missouri Rhineland, I've made a conscious effort to learn German. Is my German perfect? No, far from it. But it still feels good to try and retain some semblance of where some of my ancestors came from y'know? Wish I had time to learn all the languages of forebears but unfortunately I don't.
The chunks of the Canadian Shield inside of America. The two spots are the Adirondacks(which gets mistakenly lumped in with the Appalachians a lot) and the Superior Region (The Upper Peninsula of Michigan, The Arrowhead Region of Minnesota, plus the northern third of Wisconsin linking them)
My property is near Herman Missouri, and I often go there with my dog to get a coffee. The rolling hills are so beautiful, especially if you take the road through Daniel Boone Conservation Area. You get great scenic views of the river valley and will understand why Germans settled there. I’ll have to upload some drove footage of it soon.
My family moved to Bates County in western Missouri around the time of the civil war after being born in Bavaria and we live about a mile away from the house my great grandpa grew up in. The Lutheran Church that brought them to the area is less than 10 minutes away. Lots of German heritage in the surrounding area!
I'm just south of you on I-49 👍🏻
Mostly English settlers just south of you, and in southern Missouri, in general.
The earliest settlers in Bates county were Mennonites near Papinsville.
It's a good video. i grew up and still live right in the middle of it. My great grandparents spoke german at home . My grandparents spoke english but they also spoke german good. Grand ma prided her self on talking english. During WW1 and WW2, the family changed how you pronounce our last name to sound, either russian, perhaps polish so as to not be considered german. They pronounce it as wagen-nish, which is not it . Cole Camp has a low german theator and choir. Concordia has, mostily, german folk. Checking on our family history, half came over before the USA existed, and some came over very late 1905 or so. All from along the baltic coast are.
Do you know any Dircks ?
I live in Pettis County, which I would say is on the periphery of the Missouri rhineland, but we still have an enormous German influence her. Cole Camp, especially, still holds on to its German traditions to this day very strongly.
Where in Pettis County ? Do you know any Dircks ?
@@bigmama818 I'm in Sedalia. I don't know any Dircks.
Wow.
Excellent video.
Thanks for all the info.
An interesting fact: Missouri vintners helped save the French wine industry. A root blight destroyed the vast majority of French grapes. The blight was similar to the root blight that caused potatoes to rot in the ground in Ireland. The wine industry was devastated in France.
Missouri grape vines were resistant to the blight and root stock was sent from Missouri to France and the BBC Missouri root stock was used to regrow French vines and the French wine industry.
That is the story that I have read.
There is a particular Missouri varietal of white wine called a Vignoles that I have only found in Herman. It is to die for if you ever come across it!
My great great grandfather moved from Germany to Franklin county, Missouri in 1853. His name was Herman Obeberkamper and my great grandfather was William Oberkamper. He married into another German family by the name of Stubbe, Sophia Stubbe. Thank you so much for this fantastic video. There's so much here that I didn't know.
As a German speaker who grew up in STL.. thank you. We have so much German influence in STL that is hardly talked about outside of STL.
Feels so nice to see some love shown to such a beautiful and historically rich portion of my home state. THANK YOU!!
A funny note- my mother was researching family genealogy when she came across a 1870 editorial decrying a "Dutch" settlement (now St Clements MO) 4 miles south of Bowling Green , MO
The last line is the funny bit-
"Unless you want a bunch of blond headed, blue eyed grandchildren running around- then meet at the livery stable and we'll run them out of the county"
Oh my, how horrible......
They must not have done a very good job, as my Blond headed, blue eyed grandson will attest....,
I have a long family history connecting back to Herman Missouri, as well as visiting many times as a kid because my family owns a farm out there. So cool to see it being talked about in a UA-cam video.
I live in Missouri. Perryville, St Genevieve, Cape Girardeau cities are full of German last names along the Missisipi river.
This video was sick. Very good work
So Germans played a significant role in why Missouri transitioned from a Southern to a Midwestern state after the Civil War. Southern Missouri especially in the southeast is still very much part of the South.
Grew up in Cole Camp, with a majority of German descendants. Lots of German foods and festivals growing up. Battle of Cole Camp took place on the hill across the valley from our house. Many of my friends great-grandparents grew up only speaking German. That changed due to WWI.
Cole Camp is a beautiful place.
My family was one of the first German families to immigrate to the US in 1795. Settling in the still very rough area of central Missouri. They helped build multiple cities around the Jefferson City area.
The fact that American born people with German ancestry were internalized during WW1 and 2 just blew my mind...never heard of it before sure as hell it wasn't mentioned in history class ...but as we know winners write history and definitely from their point of view.
I've lived in Kansas City my entire life and had no idea there was something called the Missouri Rhineland, or that we had a specific dialect of German that exists in Hermann. The only thing I know about Hermann is that it has a lot of wineries and B&Bs, and the train runs from Kansas City to Hermann frequently. Many bachelorette parties are held there because it is a very walkable small town.
Great video! I have family ties to Hermann. And I’m of German decent and live in the “MO Rhineland”
That farmer speaking German reminded me of how both of my parents spoke. We used to laugh at: Die cow ist ueber die fence gejumpt. And our refrigerator was only known as the icebox.
Took the Amtrak from KC to Hermann last year and it was amazing!
We took it last yr from washington, mo to kansas city
As someone from a very german-influenced region in a different country (Brazil) this is very interesting to me
Santa Catarina is far more German than this place. I was in Floripa last year. Wow! Can’t wait to return.
The wine production I was not aware of. This is actually a really close connection to the original Rhineland. For last few centuries until today, Rhineland-Pfalz is considered the wine country of Germany. I believe it is still Germany's largest wine producing region, and they hold an annual week long wine festival similar to Oktoberfest.
I lived in Mainz in 2022, Capital of the R-P, which is in the Rheinhessen wine district. Wine is life in the The Rhenish world. Viticulture was basically introduced into the area by Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse) when he reigned at the Imperial Palace (Kaiserpfalz) in Ingelheim am Rhein in the 800s.
Learning about these immigrant communities in America is fascinating.
Being from Texas myself, I've heard a fair amount about Texas Germans, and how they also speak their own dialect of German. They similarly had a cultural falloff due to the World Wars, but the German heritage is still very prominent in the central Texas region.
It's amazing how similar Missouri & Texas actually are despite no shared borders. From the original explorations of the Spanish, to the influence of Kentucky frontiersmen, being on the western edge of the Civil War, being on opposite ends of the cattle drives, & huge German immigration to settle the farmlands... to football & barbecue! It seems to me TX & MO have a lot in common.
Wonderful video. I never knew this about Missouri.
Thanks for producing such an interesting You-tube.
Heya! local from Columbia, Missouri. loved the video, really helps explain why despite being pretty equidistant to both St Louis and Kansas City, we seem to share a lot more with St Louis folks.
Anheuser-Busch is still so like everywhere here, esp at Mizzou (Uni of Missouri-Columbia), the most impressive buildings here are Anheuser-Busch owned and built
There is also a small group of historically German areas just across the Missouri in Illinois. My great-grandfather lived in Fults, IL. Small town, population of less than 50. My grandfather lived in Dupo, just across from St. Louis. That same area was also settled earlier by french explorers and trappers.
another great video. love the format/structure, no bs production
If you want another German centric area, the Dutch Fork of South Carolina, between the Saluda and Broad Rivers, was settled by German Protestants (mostly Lutherans) in the Colonial Era. The only major influences that remain are that Lutherans are far more common than elsewhere in the South and Newberry, SC celebrates Oktoberfest.
The gentleman who spoke "Hermanndeutsch" sounded like an American who had some German lessons. Although he was quite fluent, I give him that.
Thank you, Karen.
So Missouri has 2 languages? Missouri french and Missouri german, thats pretty cool
as someone living in the STL area with German heritage, it is so cool to hear about this history ! No ones ever taught me about all this, and it's such a cool feeling to feel a connection to parts of history.
Lovely video! There was also a lot of Swiss Germans in St Louis, and over on the Illinois side of the border.
German Lutherans had a huge presence and identity. Saxon colony in Perry County. In St. Louis publications like Der Lutheraner and Lehre und Wehre, Concordia Seminary, etc. Even the "German Lutheran Synod of Missouri and other States" today's Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.
I was supposed to see some recognition for the LCMS until I saw the username
Adolphus Busch’s older brother actually started a brewery in Washington, MO before Anhueser. The brewery is till there with his home and it sits on “Busch” creek.
One of my friends mother speaks fluent German. Been in Missouri her whole life she says her parents came here right before she was born in early 1900
Great video. It’s crazy how much influence German culture has had here in the Lou. The MO Rhineland is such an overlooked gem of a region. Probably because StL is the most underrated city in the world. 😉
"The Lou" - no one ever called it that. STL was once the 3rd largest city in the U.S. It is now not even in the top 50. If it was, it would have the highest violent crime rate of them all. STL has been going down the drain for 60+ years. Its glory days are long gone, never to return. The young and educated flee in droves. Underrated?
@@purplesprigswow what do you have against St Louis? I love the architecture, walkabilty, authentic people, and cheap rent here
@ozarkharshnoisescene must be from chicago
@@quinnrowden1952 I lived in the STL area since 2009
@@purplesprigs how you can tell a St. Louisan what we do and don’t call our own city lmao. Where are the young and educated moving to? Mostly car-centric places with less geographical advantages. It’s only a matter of time until the Lou starts booming again. 😜
As a son of a german immigrant who live literally 5 min north of dutzow, I really appreciate a bigger youtube channel covering why we have so much German culture in central Missouri.
So u live in marthasville
So proud to be German. Such a strong and smart and industrious people.
Thank you for making this video. I've lived in the St. Louis metro my whole life and I didn't hear about the Missouri Rhineland until I went down a Wikipedia rabbithole on the wineries around St. Louis.
Stone Hill Winery survived the prohibition by switching to growing mushrooms in their wine cellars
The property was sold with Prohibition, and the facility fell into quite a bit of disrepair until the 60s, but thankfully the mushroom farming operation did keep the cellars alive and in good condition until wine could return to them!
@@StoneHillWinery were the pre-prohibition wine yeast strains lost as well? I know many of the Kentucky Bourbon distillers lost their yeast strains during those years.
Rhineland mentioned !!!🔥🔥🔥
It’s very interesting to see the map at 4:30 and be able to pick and see exactly where my house is along the banks of the Missouri. I’m really happy you are covering this often overlooked part of America and American history.
I think a stand-alone video on the travels of Lewis and Clark if you haven’t already made one would be awesome, especially knowing that history is so close to home which I’m starting to realize may sound ridiculous to someone that might be European, or really anyone without an American-centric understanding of the world. This land is young. The history of it is usually considered short and we haven’t lived on it very long so the few times we get recognition for the small (but very interesting) history we have, I consider it something to be celebrated if that makes sense.
Someone that lives in Rome can step outside and they’ll be in history (their dirty slimy EUROPEAN 🤢 history). They can’t escape it. In America, we have pockets of history, but we still have plenty that is still untamed. Part of me likes that. This feeling isn’t new to people from the old world, of being in history. But, I like that feeling of knowing your among the first people that will live on the land that I currently live on. Just one of the potentially hundreds of thousands, eventually down the line millions, that will live and die on the same soil I have. Long after I pass and anyone reading this comment passes, someone else will occupy the land you once did. I like that when I caught this land and got to have the pleasure of living on it I found it still wild enough to make people feel free if they want to be. In 200 years, the land I live on may no longer be wild with forests everywhere and national parks within driving distance. In 200 years, people might not be able to just drive 10 minutes and simply be on a state trail with just them and the wilderness. I see that as an absolute privilege.
The thing I love about this land most is that it strikes a balance. I can drive 10 minutes and I’m on a trail. I could also drive 10 minutes and I’m in the busy town. I love my country.
I live in a town in Minnesota, next to one where most people are German. I really like them. I donated to their library a collection of Hummel figurines, some very valuable, that my dad bought in Germany when I was 13-16, when the Berlin Wall was being built, to thank them for helping Puerto Rico, where I was born, after the three terrible hurricanes that hit PR one after the other, and the US DID NOTHING MUCH (although every one there is a US citizen) to help. They send people from their small town that included electricians, firemen, etc, and they restored electricity there. You can bet that any time I need some work done in my house, they are the ones I contact. In fact an electrician from there is coming today. When I donated them the ladies in the library were surprised, but dad is dead and I am old, and my daughter agreed with me that they deserved them.
Being from Washington MO. This is cool to see, my family settled in the area in the mid 1800’s. I am also of German heritage
Hermannsville, Arkansas was changed to Dutch Mills due to hostility to Germans in the Confederacy. The Sager family came to St. Louis, moved on to Westport (Kansas City) and Sager's were the family with a history of the "Wind Wagon" and the movie 7 Alone is based upon the Sager family. One Sager moved to Siloam Springs, Arkansas (aka Hico) and while not a slave owner, supported the Confederacy. In Monett and Pulaskiville, MO there were a mix of German and Polish immigrants.
These videos are great! Even as a non American, these regions are very interesting and they make me see the US in a different light
After living in St. Louis for five years, it seems the German influence has been very positive.
This is far from true for that other group, the one that can't be openly critiqued.
Having a grandmother native to Germany, the gentleman speaking sounds like my father speaking German. It sounds devoid of an authentic accent.
6:20 Native German speaker here. The dialect sounds like he pronounces a lot of the German words with an American accent. Now I don't know if that is how the dialect is supposed to sound like, or if he grew up with American English as his native tongue and only later decided to learn the dialect. If I'd met him on the street without knowing anything else, I'd just assume he's a standard American trying to speak German. I can definitely understand him, but it's quite a strong accent.
I’d suspect he probably grew up learning it from a generation that also grew up learning it. So day to day business was English but German was spoke at home with the more elderly and possibly working with the Amish but I don’t know how much Pennsylvania Dutch would be understood.
I grew up living along the MO River in Cole, Osage, and Gasconade counties. The MO River valley is a beautiful place, I just wish the real estate was much cheaper. I remember the older generations used to speak German around each other when I was a kid in the early 70's. A lot of German immigrants lived in between St. Louis and Herman for a time before moving farther west to the Great Plains.
If it was not for St. Louis having a large German population during the Civil War, MO would not have had near as many union troops as it did. I dearly miss visiting family members all through the MO River valley, especially in the fall when the leaves were changing.
My family on my grandmother’s side is from the Detmold/Beemont area, and she was sent home from the public school as a kindergartener with instructions to the family to teach her to speak English instead of German, because she only knew German. This was not that long ago, the late 1930’s.
Where I grew up in central MN, this area was also settled by people of German ancestry, I'm 40% German. These people were pretty quiet and down to earth. It was a great place to grow up.
Duden (as in Gottfried Duden 1:55 ) happens to also be the very rare last name of the inventor of the German dictionary (Konrad Duden) which bears his name, similar to Merriam-Webster in America
I was born in this region and am a proud German American. I wish you had shown more pictures of the beautiful German Towns especially those along the river. But thanks for the video.
Fun fact, my wife is from North Carolina, I’m Portuguese, we live in Bamberg Germany which is the Beer Capital of the world and my wife’sGerman slang sounds exactly like “Hermangerman” 😅
I'm a high school German teacher, teaching in a suburb outside of KCMO and found your video very insightful. I can't wait to impart this knowledge on my students! Danke sehr
As someone who grew up with speaking German from recent immigrants in St. Louis, the Hermanndeutsch is one of the easiest dialects to understand I’ve ever heard. Interesting!
This is a fantastic series. Can't wait for more.
PLEASE make a KC video talking about the early French, LDS, Wyandotte, Croats/Slovaks, Great Exodus, etc theres so much there
Yoooo hey neighbor thanks for telling my family's origin story I've never seen a major channel cover it! Warren County here I still go to Straussenbash, Dutch Days, and Oktoberfest every year. Dutzow MO has the best wine you'll ever taste in your life.