Kultur 1

Over past centuries German culture has been assimilated with American culture to such an extent that the distinct label of "German-American" has become much less evident. Germans began immigrating in the 1840's through 1914 creating what is known as "The German Belt." Economic struggles and new opportunities pushed them towards america. Upon settling in America, Germans began to create religious congregations for their new communities. I found it interesting that the religious scene was so widely spread when germans first came to America, the religious scene was represented by many different religious denominations. As I recall, every class I have had in the past that touched on immigration accounted religion as one of the main reasons for immigration, though this article stated that Germans weren't attempting to flee religious confinement. I was surprised to read that such draw wasn't the case, rather the draw the Germans felt toward the land. Overall Germans that immigrated to America went through religious separations just as English immigrants just not on such an extreme scale.  

It was also intriguing that the Turner movement brought about so much change in German-American culture, stemming from the introduction of a sport. Turner societies were formed in 1848, they adopted the name of "the fourty-eighters." The fourty-eighters were liberal and they supported "progressive ideas" that were presented by the Free thinkers.

Below is a chronological account of German-Americans that I found to be interesting. The date range is much more spread than the date range in the article. I like the pictures too.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/european/imde/germchro.html

Also through my extensive googling(not really), I found out that National German-American day is October 6th... so happy extremely belated German-American day!