How Did Conditions Change For German Americans Between 1915 And 1918?

Ch. 20-Thinking Like a Historian: German American in World War I Analyzing the Evidence (p. 641)

1. How did conditions change for German Americans between 1915 and 1918? Conditions changed for German Americans between 1915 and 1918 due to the United States increased amount of involvement in World War 1. German Americans experience hate, and social pressures, and were targeted by local American groups who believed all Germans were dangerous and or that the Germans who lived in the United States were not loyal to the nation. Starting early in World War 1 with the sinking of Lusitania, due to a German torpedo, which ended up killing 128 Americans who were on the boat, the United States was suspicious about Germany, and local Germans. As mentioned

According to these sources, what aspects of German American culture did other Americans find threatening? What forms did anti-Germany hostility take?

An example according to these sources, a few aspects of German American Culture that other Americans found threatening were German goods being imported from Germany. In source 7, it notes,” I remember when they smashed out store windows at Uniontown that said [sauer] kraut…Went in, gathered up everything that was made in Germany, and had a big bonfire out in the middle of the street.” As conveyed by Lola Gamble Clyde in 1917, many Americans were threatened by the fact German goods were being sold in the stores, and that advertisements for German goods were in windows.

3. Compare the sources that offer a German American perspective (sources 1, 2, 6, and 7) to those that represent a German-Americans way of life (3, 4, 5). How did German Americans respond to growing anti-German sentiment in this

Many German Americasn felt they needed to pick aside between their culture or their loyalty to the United States. Source 5, a radio address in 1917, by James W. Gerard the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain expressed, “Majority of American citizens of German descent have shown…loyalty to our flag,” he continues to state, “ But now that we are in the war there are only two sides, and the time has come where every citizen must declare himself American – or traitor!” This address displays one way in which German Americans were forced to pick a side if one was offered. On the other hand source, 2 mentions C.J.Hexamer's speech given in Milwaukee, in 1915, where he explains that Germans have always been told to “merge” into American society. Hexamer argues in his speech that Germans are “giving to the people the best the earth affords, the benefits of Germanic culture.” In addition, from a German perspective, German Americans have offered the best of what they can, their cultu ,,e and loyalty. While in reality their way of life is surrounded by daily