Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 58

Repository:

German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library

Extent:

0.63 linear feet (2 boxes + 1 oversize folder)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

National German-American Alliance records, Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library, German Society of Pennsylvania

Date:

1910-1918 (bulk) and 1903-1938 (inclusive)

Creator:

Cronau, Rudolf, 1855-1939, Hexamer, C. J., (Charles John), 1862-1921, Mayer, John B., 1864-1922, and National German-American Alliance.

Form:

Clippings (information artifacts), Correspondence, Fliers (printed matter), Manuscripts, German--20th century, Printed ephemera, Programs (documents), and Reports

Abstract:

This collection contains records of the National German-American Alliance (NGAA; Deutschamerikanischer Nationalbund), a federation of German-American organizations in the United States based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that existed from 1901 to 1918, for most of that time under the leadership of Charles J. Hexamer. The NGAA aimed to foster fellowship and common endeavors among German Americans, to advocate on issues affecting German-American life, and to support the preservation of German culture in the United States. The collection includes correspondence, reports, clippings, and printed ephemera. The bulk of the materials dates from 1910 to 1918, and pertains to the NGAA's efforts to erect two monuments to figures of German-American history: one in Germantown, Philadelphia, honoring the first German settlers and their leader, Francis Daniel Pastorius; and the other in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, dedicated to the revolutionary war general Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. Included are papers kept by the German-American artist and journalist Rudolf Cronau, who chaired the NGAA commission that oversaw the planning for the Germantown monument.

The National German-American Alliance (NGAA; German: Deutschamerikanischer Nationalbund) was a federation of German-American organizations in the United States that existed from 1901 to 1918. Its primary mission was to foster fellowship and common endeavors among German Americans, to advocate on issues affecting German-American life, and to support the preservation of German culture in the United States. At the same time, it stressed its American patriotism, and encouraged German immigrants to become citizens as soon as possible and to take active part in civic life.

As part of its cultural mission, the NGAA advocated for the teaching of German language in public schools; and it supported activities and publications to increase awareness of the contributions of German Americans to American history and culture. Significant activities included fundraising for and erection of monuments to German-American figures; the founding of the German American Historical Society and an associated journal, Americana Germanica (later: German-American Annals); and the publication of pamphlets and books about German-American culture, as well as a journal reporting the proceedings of its meetings ( Mitteilungen des Deutschamerikanischen Nationalbundes).

The activities of the NGAA were closely identified with the figure of Charles J. Hexamer, an engineer of Philadelphia, who served as the organization's president from the founding until fall 1917. Born in Philadelphia, Hexamer was the son of the German immigrant and 1848er Ernst Hexamer (1827-1912). For most of his term as NGAA president Hexamer was simultaneously president of the German Society of Pennsylvania. (His term as GSP president was from 1900 to 1916.) After Hexamer's resignation, Philadelphia pastor Siegmund von Bosse (son of the pastor Georg von Bosse) succeeded him as president for the last months of the organization's existence.

Two other long-time leaders of the NGAA were Adolph Timm, who served as secretary throughout its existence; and Hans Weniger, who was treasurer from 1902 to 1913. Like Hexamer, Timm and Weniger were also active in the GSP. Timm headed the GSP School Committee from 1904 through at least 1917, and Weniger was GSP treasurer from 1894 to 1914. Another NGAA member, John B. Mayer, who served on the commission for the erection of the Pastorius monument at Germantown, was also a member of the GSP and later served as its president, from 1917 to 1923.

The formation of the NGAA was supported by existing German-American organizations as well as by the German-American press, with the main impetus coming from a state-level umbrella group in Pennsylvania, the German-American Central Alliance of Pennsylvania (Deutschamerikanischer Zentralbund von Pennsylvanien), of which both Hexamer and Timm were leaders (Hexamer was president, and Timm was secretary). On June 19, 1900, the Pennsylvania group, under the leadership of Hexamer, hosted a meeting in Philadelphia of representatives from German-American organizations in Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. This core group, chaired by Hexamer, subsequently organized a larger meeting in Philadelphia the following year, on October 6. (The day of the meeting coincided with the annual celebration of "German Day," commemorating the founding of the first permanent German settlement in America, at Germantown, in 1683.) The NGAA was officially founded at that Philadelphia meeting, on October 6, 1901.

The NGAA received a United States congressional charter on February 21, 1907. Under its charter it was prohibited from engaging in politics to the extent of supporting particular political candidates. Nevertheless, representatives of the NGAA did take public positions on political issues, especially concerning immigration and prohibition. The NGAA in general opposed restrictions on immigration, but it came out in favor of the strictures against anarchists in the Immigration Act of 1907. It opposed prohibition, using the rationale that such laws were an unjustified constraint on personal liberty; since the drinking of beer, and the custom of the Sunday "beer garden" were integral to everyday German-American culture, the NGAA regarded both "Blue Laws" and prohibition as an encroachment on German-American life. The state and local branches, which for the most part were independent of the parent organization, were not under the same obligation to refrain from political advocacy, and did indeed support particular candidates in elections, based on the candidates' positions on issues relevant to German-American life.

During the First World War, the NGAA also raised money for war relief in the German-speaking lands, from the beginning of the war, in August 1914, until the entrance of the United States into the war, in April 1917.

In an atmosphere of increasing anti-German sentiment, the NGAA became the subject of a Senate investigation in 1918, leading to the revocation of its charter, under a bill that was signed into law on August 31, 1918. The NGAA had already officially ceased to exist in April 1918.

References

Johnson, Charles Thomas (1999). Culture at twilight: The National German-American Alliance, 1901-1918. New York: Peter Lang.

Kazal, Russell A. (2004). Becoming old stock: The paradox of German-American identity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Luebke, Frederick C. (1974). Bonds of loyalty: German-Americans and World War I. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press.

Polsander, Hans A. (2010). German monuments in the Americas: Bonds across the Atlantic. Oxford: Peter Lang. See chapters 2 ("The Pioneers") and 3 ("The American Revolution"), pp. 3-44.

This collection contains records of the National German-American Alliance (NGAA; Deutschamerikanischer Nationalbund), a federation of German-American organizations in the United States based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that existed from 1901 to 1918, for most of that time under the leadership of Charles J. Hexamer. The NGAA aimed to foster fellowship and common endeavors among German Americans, to advocate on issues affecting German-American life, and to support the preservation of German culture in the United States.

The collection includes correspondence, reports, clippings, and printed ephemera. The bulk of the materials dates from 1910 to 1918, and pertains to the NGAA's efforts to erect two monuments to figures of German-American history: one in Germantown, Philadelphia, honoring the first German settlers and their leader, Francis Daniel Pastorius; and the other in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, dedicated to the revolutionary war general Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben.

The records are organized into four series: I. Charles J. Hexamer correspondence; II. John B. Mayer correspondence; III. Rudolf Cronau papers related to the NGAA; and IV. Ephemera and Clippings. The correspondence of Charles Hexamer, who served as president of the organization from its founding until fall 1917 (Series I), comprises nearly half of the collection. The correspondence of John B. Mayer (Series II) and the papers of Rudolf Cronau (Series III) together make up approximately 20% of the collection, and pertain mainly to the work of Mayer and Cronau on the NGAA commission in charge of the Germantown monument (Cronau was chair, and Mayer was secretary). The remainder of the materials comprises printed ephemera and clippings, mainly related to the NGAA's work on the two monuments, with a small amount concerning the NGAA more generally, including program for a banquet in honor of Charles Hexamer in 1912, autographed by 13 of the attendees (Folder 54); and a souvenir program (Folder 55) for a musical event honoring the NGAA ("Souvenir programme: grand banner dedication of the National German-American Alliance") in 1914, carried out by the women's auxiliary of the Pennsylvania branch (Deutschamerikanischer Zentralbund von Pennsylvanien), with participation of the Philadelphia choral societies Maennerchor, Junger Maennerchor, and Harmonie.

Significant correspondents include the sculptors Albert Jaegers and J. Otto Schweizer, who both submitted designs for the Pastorius monument. Jaegers was also the artist responsible for the Steuben monument in Valley Forge. Since the Pastorius monument received funding from the United States Congress, that project was ultimately carried out in cooperation with the United States Commission of Fine Arts, and the War Department, which included the Corps of Engineers. Correspondence from all of these participants is found under the relevant name headings in Series I, II, and III. Other significant correspondents of Charles Hexamer (Series I) are Herman Ridder and C.B. Wolffram, both publishers of German-language newspapers in New York, whom Hexamer called upon to assist with fundraising for the Steuben monument.