German and Polish Immigrants in America:
The Assimilation Process 1900-1920
By Barbara Peters
In 1898 a Polish immigrant by the name of Felix Wisniewski
(pronounced Visnefski), entered the United States of America
through the immigration port of Ellis Island, New York.
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John and Maria Petr,
Oct. 1907,
Peters Family Archives
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He was probably met there by cousins who had come before
him, and who took him to their home in Montville, New
Jersey. He stayed with them for a year before sending
for his wife and two children to follow him. Felix had
been a peasant farmer in Russia Poland, and in the United
States was considered an unskilled laborer. On his daughter’s
birth certificate of 1907 his occupation was listed as
"laborer."1 He eventually found a job at the
Nicholas Copper Factory in Maspeth, NY, where he settled
and remained for the rest of his life. His wife Josephine
died after the birth of their sixth child and he quickly
remarried another Polish immigrant with whom he had several
more children. He maintained the peasant tradition of
cultivating a personal vegetable garden in his private
yard throughout his life, never learned to speak "good"
English, never attained an economic status better than
lower middle-class, and never anglicized the spelling
of his last name. His surviving children all speak and
understand both Polish and English.2
In contrast,
in 1905 a 26 year old male named Jan Petr, subject of
Austria and a skilled artist, entered the gates at Ellis
Island. He was met there by two acquaintances from the
old country, Max and Hedwig Georgi, who generously offered
him a place to stay at their home in Brooklyn until he
found work and his own residence. A year later, Jan was
followed by his fiancee, Maria Prochaska, also a subject
of Austria, but of Czech descent. They were married in
1907, with the Georgi’s serving as witnesses3.
Their wedding photograph shows an attractive young couple
who were obviously not poor. Certainly it suggests that
this young couple had enough mwitnessesoney to spend on
the luxury of a formal photograph, let alone a wedding
gown and suit.4
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Note from John to Marie Peters,
1919
Peters Family Archives
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By 1916,
two years after the onset of World War I, and one year
before the U.S. entered the war, he had changed his
name to John Peters, had moved from Brooklyn, NY to
West New York, NJ and had established his own business
as a freelance designer of embroidery. He was naturalized
as a citizen of the United States on March 2, 1917,
one month before U.S. entrance in the war. By Christmas
1919 he could read and write, and presumably speak,
understandable English. Furthermore, the gift of fifty
dollars that he mentions in the note is an indication
of a fluid income for that time period.5
None of their three children, in adulthood, spoke German
or Czech.
Census records
of 1900 and 1910 indicate that Felix Wisniewski and
Jan Petr were typical of immigrants from their respective
ethnic origins. Why then was the assimilation process
more advanced for the Austrian or German speaking immigrants
than for the Poles?
One reason
might be very obvious: the belligerent status of Germany
and Austria-Hungary during World War I forced German
speaking immigrants in America to assimilate quickly
in order to avoid anti-German discrimination. Polish
immigrants, on the other hand, gained sympathy through
their whole-hearted support of the Allies, and their
conviction that an Allied victory would result in the
creation of an independent Poland.6
However,
economic factors may also have contributed to the assimilation
process. At least one third of the Polish immigrants
arriving in the U.S. at the turn of the century were
illiterate and unskilled. By contrast, over half of
all German speaking immigrants were considered skilled
craftsmen or artisans.7 The economic advantages
of skilled workers could have contributed to the German
immigrants assimilation into the "larger" English speaking
community, whereas, the disadvantages associated with
being "unskilled" contributed to the isolation of the
lower class Poles, as an ethnic group, from the larger
community.
The Polish Immigrants
An independent
Poland did not exist between the late 18th century and
the end of World War I. After the partitions of Poland,
the country was divided geographically under the influence
of Russia, Austria and Prussia. The fifty year period
between 1870 and 1920 constituted the largest migration
of Russian Poles to the United States. There were three
distinct but different reasons for this migration: (1)
Polish landlords reduced the peasants’ land allotments,
and this combined with competition from the import of
American grain led to a "land hunger," resulting in
pushing the Polish peasants off their land. (2) Nationalist
response of Poles to the "Russification" imposed by
the Russian state, (3) the draft; many young males emigrated
to escape conscription into the Russian army. Land hunger,
however, was the predominant reason that this period
of emigration is known as za chlebem, "for bread."8
Many who migrated intended their stay in America to
be temporary, just long enough to make some money and
return to their homeland when the agricultural crisis
was over. For this reason among others, Polish immigrants
settled in isolated ethnic communities, with no intention
of assimilating into the larger American community.
However, the agricultural crisis in Poland did not diminish,
and most Polish immigrants remained in America.
Felix Wisniewski,
as an example of a typical Polish immigrant, migrated
for a combination of all three above mentioned reasons.
He had been drafted into the Russian army, serving as
a cook during his conscription. He was released from
the army and forever after hated the Russians, not only
because he had been conscripted, but presumably because
of the "Russification" that was being imposed on all
Russian Poles. Moreover, he apparently had lost his
farmstead while he was in the army. He came home from
the army to a wife and child and no viable means of
subsistence. He migrated to America with no intention
of ever returning to his homeland.9
The isolation
of the Polish immigrant community, known as Polonia,
stems from three factors: (1) the assumed temporary
nature of their stay, (2) their economic status of working
class laborers confined most males to jobs in which
they had no need or opportunity to learn English, (3)
a general inferiority complex due to hundreds of years
of oppression by non-Polish states, (i.e. Russia, Austria
and Prussia).
In the first
instance, many Polish immigrants, as mentioned previously,
only planned on staying in the United States until conditions
in their homeland improved enough that they would enjoy
an opportunity to subsist as traditional peasant farmers.
As John Bukowczyk puts it, "Poles more often considered
themselves temporary sojourners and were slower to adopt
America and act as though they had a stake in its society."10
For this reason they tended to migrate to industrial
urban areas where a job for an unskilled laborer was
relatively easy to come by, and where their fellow countrymen
were prevalent. Most stayed with relatives or friends
from their native villages who had already migrated
and settled, continuing the tradition of extended peasant
families living under one roof. Thus, isolated, self-contained,
Polish enclave communities developed where almost everyone
spoke and understood the Polish language, and there
was very little need to venture outside of that community.
In addition
to this, the men in the community tended to obtain employment
as unskilled laborers in local factories. All or most
of the men in the community would work in the same factory.
In the case of Felix Wisniewski, his place of employment,
the Nicholas Copper Factory, was within walking distance
of his home, making him more isolated than if he had
had to commute by rail.11
In the workplace,
Poles fell victim to racist attitudes of industrialists.
Management preferred Poles and other Slavs for heavy
industrial work because of the reputed "habit of silent
submission," a result of centuries of oppression by
foreign powers.12 According to Bukowczyk
there was an apparent pecking order of hiring preferences
in the industrial work place. Employers established
this order on the basis of race, ranking native-born
Americans first, then Irish, Scots, English, Welsh and
Germans, then Poles, Italians, Slovaks and Russians,
and at the bottom, Black Americans. This racist attitude
in hiring practices diminished the Polish immigrants
chances of upward mobility and impeded access to cleaner,
safer jobs.13 In addition, the rigors of
heavy industrial work and the employers practice of
hiring specific ethnicities led to a process of increased
Polish consciousness as these immigrants bonded together
to form an isolated community that would cushion and
retard their entry into American society.
The German Immigrants
Prior to
1900 the greatest influx of German immigrants to the
Unites States occurred between 1840 and 1885, with the
peak years of 1853 and 1882 witnessing nearly a quarter
million Germans entering the country per year. The majority
of these were farmers who settled in rural areas of
the Midwest, the Northern Plains and Texas, and continued
to make a living in agriculture.14 However,
in the post Civil War years, many German immigrants
were actually recruited by American railroads and industry.
By 1905 the number of German immigrants entering the
U.S. had receded to approximately 50,000 annually.15
According to the census records of 1910, more than 75
percent of the Germans who arrived in the U.S. between
1900 and 1910 were literate and settled in urban areas,
and more than half claimed an occupation other than
agriculture that required some skill or craftsmanship.16
Like all
newly arriving immigrants, these skilled workers tended
to settle in neighborhoods where other German immigrants
were prevalent. For example, the East 80’s in New York
City became known as "Germantown." In New Jersey, large
German communities developed in Hoboken, Jersey City,
Weehawken and West New York.17 Jan Petr moved
from Brooklyn, NY to West New York, NJ sometime between
1910 and 1913. This however, might not have been solely
because West New York had a large German community,
but because West New York, Weehawken and Hoboken had
a high concentration of embroidery factories, and Jan
was a designer of embroidery by profession.18
Unlike the
blue collar Polish neighborhood of Maspeth, NY, middle-class
German immigrants were more likely to integrate with
English speaking Americans out of necessity, due to
their occupations. In other words, Jan Petr would have
had to learn some English in order to understand an
order for an embroidery design submitted by an American
embroidery factory, whereas the Pole, Felix Wisniewski,
worked with hundreds of other Poles with a Polish speaking
foreman in an isolated factory.
La Vern Rippley
contends that German immigrants had a conspicuous tendency
toward assimilation and naturalization before World
War I. By 1910 more than 90 percent of the German born
population had applied for citizenship. He argues further
that after 1900 the German language was used less frequently,
despite efforts to halt its decline.19 While
he offers no conclusive reason for this tendency, he
does illustrate that the assimilation was accelerated
by the advent of World War I and the anti-German sentiments
of Americans after 1914.
In an effort
to halt the decline of German culture and language in
America, the German-American Alliance was formed in
1901. According to its constitution, the Alliance fostered
the use of the German language, was opposed to any limits
on immigration, and urged all German immigrants to apply
for citizenship as soon as possible. To promote involvement
in the political process the Alliance published German
language editions of state constitutions and public
documents.
The onset
of World War in Europe strengthened the German-American
Alliance. Initially, the Alliance seemed pacifist, advocating
strict American neutrality and promoting legislation
that prohibited the shipment of arms to the belligerents.20
But by 1915 the Alliance was denouncing the Allies petition
for American loans, and threatening to create a run
on any bank that participated in a loan to Great Britain.
In addition German-American leaders promoted over ten
million dollars in loans to imperial Germany by the
end of 1915.21 These actions triggered accusations
of a pro-German plot and outright treason. At the 1916
convention in St. Louis, the Democratic party singled
out the German-American Alliance, condemning any organization
of whatever nationality or descent, that conspired to
weaken the government or improperly influence public
representatives in negotiating with any foreign power.22
The influence of the Alliance waned considerably after
President Wilson’s re-election.
Simultaneous
with the decline of the German-American Alliance, anti-German
hysteria grew rapidly in the U.S., subtly promoted by
the Wilson administration. Attorney general Thomas Gregory
organized hundreds of thousands of volunteers across
the country to feed the Justice Department with any
information about suspected aliens or disloyal citizens.
The resulting American Protective League created a climate
of suspicion and alarm. German born Americans were arrested
on suspicion rather than evidence. German speaking Red
Cross workers were accused of putting glass into bandages
and bacteria into medical supplies. Meat packers in
Cincinnati were accused of grinding glass into sausages.
In 1918 German born Robert Prager was lynched by a mob
as a lesson in patriotism.23
As a result,
anything German sounding was re-christened in English.
Hamburger became salisbury steak, German shepherds became
Alsatian shepherds, sauerkraut turned to liberty cabbage.
Names of streets and even of towns and cities were changed:
Berlin, Iowa became Lincoln, Iowa; Hamburg Avenue in
Brooklyn was re-named Wilson Avenue. The German language
was forbidden not only in schools, but in churches and
semi-public places and over the telephone.24
Many German
immigrants had anglicized their family names prior to
the advent of the war, among the most famous of the
time being Eddie Rickenbacker, (originally Richenbacher)
and John Pershing, (originally Pfoerschin.) However,
the war and the anti-German hysteria caused by it may
have been a catalyst for thousands of German family
names to be anglicized. A comparison of the 1910 and
1920 census’ taken in the same German neighborhood shows
that at least a third of the families residing at the
same address during both census’ had changed the spelling
of their names.25
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Certificate of Marriage,
John Petr & Maria Prochaska,
1907, Brooklyn, NY
Peters Family Archives
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My example
of a typical German immigrant, Jan Petr, had already translated
his first name to John by the time of his marriage in
1907. In 1910, his last name was still spelled in the
German form, Petr, as evidenced by a doctor’s bill addressed
to him. However, by 1916, two years after the war in Europe
had begun, his last name had changed to Peters. The evidence
that proves this name change, a certificate of membership
in the National Geographic Society, also infers that he
could read a monthly periodical published in English.
Moreover, his wife changed her name from Maria, as shown
on her marriage certificate and wedding invitation in
1907, to Marie, as listed on his naturalization papers
in 1917.26
Conclusion
All of this
is not to say that John Peters wouldn’t have anglicized
his name and learned how to speak English eventually.
The Polish immigrant, Felix Wisniewski, did eventually
learn English, but not fluently, and according to his
daughter Kate Kazmierczak, Polish was the primary language
spoken in the household. Furthermore, certain Polish
customs or traditions have trickled down to his great-grandchildren,
primarily observed on holidays such as Easter, Christmas
and New Year’s Day, that suggest multi-generational
links to Polish culture. Whether these links and his
slowness in assimilating can be directly attributed
to the fact that he resided and worked in an isolated,
working class, ethnic community that fostered the continuation
of Polish customs and traditions cannot be conclusively
proven, but can be strongly inferred.
The fact
that John Peters assimilated faster could possibly be
the result of his higher economic status. However, the
process was probably accelerated by the anti-German
propaganda and sentiments that existed during the war
years. A middle class income and access to the larger
community was enough to give them an advantage in assimilating.
The need to avoid suspicion and discrimination due to
the belligerent status of Germans during the war was
a catalyst for becoming Anglicized quickly. The combination
of these two factors, economic and social-political,
led to a faster and more complete assimilation of German
immigrants. The fact that none of John Peters three
children could speak or understand German, and that
there is no evidence of links to German culture or tradition
in his descendants illustrates a complete break from
the German immigrant community and the German-American
community as a whole.
End Notes__________________________
1. New York
City Department of Records and Information Services,
Municipal Archives, Certificate and Record of Birth,
No. 4054, September 16, 1907.
2. Interview with
Kate Kazmierczak (daughter of Felix Wisniewski) October
6, 1996, Maspeth NY.
3. Peters Family
Archives, Certificate of Marriage, Trinity Parish
of New York, October 12, 1907.
4. Ibid.,
Photograph by F.H. Huttenlocher, Brooklyn, NY.
5. Ibid., The
National Geographic Society Certificate of Membership,
May 2, 1916; John Peters' business card, 653 Madison
St. West New York, NJ; The United States of America
Certificate of Naturalization, No. 712366, Petition,
volume 44, No. 10079, March 2, 1917; Christmas note,
1919.
6. Helena Znaniecki
Lopata, Polish Ameicans - Status Competition
in an Ethnic Comminity (Prentis-Hall,
Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1976), p.82
7. Susan Cotts Watkins,
After Ellis Islan: Newcomers and Natives in the
1910 Cencus (Russell Sage Foundation, NY, 1994)
p. 445
8. John J. Bukowczyk,
And My Children Did Not Know Me - A History of
the Polish-Americans (Indiana University Press,
Indianapolis, 1987), pp. 11-14
9. Interview with
Kate Kazmierczak (daughter of Felix Wisniewski) October
6, 1996, Maspeth NY.
10. Bukowczyk, p.
17
11. Interview with
Kate Kazmierczak (daughter of Felix Wisniewski) October
6, 1996, Maspeth NY.
12. Bukowczyk, p.
21
13. Ibid., p. 21
14. La Vern J. Ripley,
The German Americans (Twayne Publishers, Boston,
1976), p. 75
15. Ibid., p. 75
16. Susan Cotts
Watkins, After Ellis Islan: Newcomers and Natives
in the 1910 Cencus (Russell Sage Foundation,
NY, 1994), pp. 376-377
17. Giles R. Wright,
Arrival and Settlement in a New Place, (NJ
Historical Commission, Ternton, NJ, 1986), p. 56
18. Peters Family
Archives, Business Card
19. Ripley, p. 180
20. Ibid., p. 182
21. Ibid., p. 182
22. Ibid., p. 183
23. Ibid., pp. 185-186
24. Ibid., pp.186-187
25. Twelfth Cencus
of the United States, New York City, Schedule No. 1,
Borough of Manhattan, 1910 and 1920, Enumeration District
763
26. Peters Family
Archives, Certificate of Marriage, Trinity Parish
of New York, October 12, 1907; The National Geographic
Society Certificate of Membership, May 2, 1916; The
United States of America Certificate of Naturalization,
No. 712366, Pettition, volume 44, No. 10079, March 2,
1917
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bukowczyk, John J. And My Children
Did Not Know Me - A History of Polish-Americans-
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987
Kazmierczak, Kate Interview
with Barbara Peters, 10/6/96, Maspeth, New York
Lopata Helena Znaniecki Polish-Americans
- Status Competition in an Ethnic Community - Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentis-Hall, Inc., 1976
Namias, June First Generation:
In the Words of 20th Century American Immigrants
- Boston: Beacon Press, 1978
Nugent, Walter Crossings: The
Great Transatlantic Migrations 1870-1914 - Indianapolis,
Indiana University Press, 1992
Peters Family Archives, ca. 1905-1945
Rippley, La Vern The German-Americans
- Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1976
Twelfth Cencus of the United States, New York City,
Schedule No. 1, Borough of Manhattan, 1919 and 1920,
Enumeration District 763
Wandel, Joseph The German
Dimesion of American History - Chicago: Nelson Hall,
1979
Watkin, Susan Cotts After Ellis
Island: Newcomers and Natives in the 1910 Cencus
- New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1994
Wright, Giles R. Arrival and
Settlement in a New Place - New Jersey Historical
Commision, 1986
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