Kultur 1

Hallo und Guten Tag!

Being a black American, I've never felt any significant ties with a European heritage (although I do have some from various distant ancestors).  I'm fairly confident that I do not have any German heritage, however.  Unfortunately, Germany faced a harsh stigma after the first world war that is sometimes still seen today.  In the media, people of German descent are often portrayed as cold and emotionless individuals who are more than willing to engage in various types of criminal activity (many action movies feature German villains, for example).  It's unfortunate that our society sometimes chooses to generalize an entire group of people based on the actions of a select few; in more recent years, we've seen this occurring with people of Middle Eastern descent.

Most people who migrated from Germany did so for the same reasons nearly every other ethnic group did: the promise of a new life that would offer limitless freedom and financial opportunities.  As with most other groups that migrated to America, the Germans brought much of their culture with them to the United States and over time these unique aspects of their heritage evolved into a part of daily life in America.  Some could argue that the popularity of alcohol in the United States is the result of German influence (although it has been noted that the German's love of alcohol caused a cultural division between them and Christian Americans at one time).  Another example of German influence on American culture are hotdogs (which, today, are considered a uniquely American food).