Call Number:

Ms. Coll. AA 231

Repository:

German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library

Extent:

0.21 linear feet (1 box + 6 posters + 1 oversize folder)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Liberty Loan Committee of Americans of German Birth or Descent records, Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library, German Society of Pennsylvania

Date:

1918-1919 (inclusive)

Creator:

Liberty Loan Committee of Americans of German Birth or Descent. (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Schmidt, Louis H.

Form:

Broadsides (notices), Buttons (information artifacts), Clippings (information artifacts), Correspondence, Financial records, Fliers (printed matter), Posters, Printed ephemera, Reports, and Subscription lists

Abstract:

This collection contains the records of the Liberty Loan Committee of Americans of German Birth or Descent, a committee that coordinated the campaign for the purchase of Liberty Bonds among German Americans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1918, during the First World War. Liberty Bonds were issued by the United States government to finance the American war effort. These records were kept by Louis H. Schmidt, treasurer of the Committee, and pertain mainly to the Third and Fourth Liberty Loans, with inclusion of a few subscription lists related to the fifth loan, issued in 1919 and known as the Victory Liberty Loan. The collection contains correspondence, subscription forms, lists of subscribers, reports, clippings, and ephemera, including Liberty Loan volunteer buttons and six posters promoting the purchase of Liberty Bonds.

Following the entry of the United States into the First World War in April 1917, one of the methods used to finance the war effort was the issue of bonds by the United States Treasury under the Emergency Loan Act. A total of four loans, called 'Liberty Loans' were issued in the course of the war, the fourth in September 1918. The bonds that were purchased were referred to as 'Liberty Bonds.' A fifth loan, issued after the war, in April 1919, was known as the Victory Liberty Loan. The loans amounted to over 21 billion dollars. The bonds of the various issues were long-term bonds paying interest rates of between 3.5 and 4.75%.

The purchase of Liberty Bonds was understood as a demonstration of patriotism, and was vigorously promoted by community leaders and specially formed committees throughout the country. All of the loans were oversubscribed.

German Americans and Liberty Bonds

In some instances the pressure to support the war effort by conforming to an ideal of American unity, or 'superpatriotism,' developed hand in hand with an intolerance for any expressions of ethnic particularity, especially in the case of German Americans, since their homeland was now at war with the United States (Luebke 218-220, 225-265). An atmosphere of intolerance toward any kind of German-American distinctiveness had already taken root back in 1915, before the entry of the country into the war, upon the sinking of the British ocean liner Lusitania by a German submarine in May 1915, with the death of over a thousand people, including 128 Americans (Pfleger 40).

In the face of intensifying intolerance or outright hostility toward German culture and language in American life, many German-American organizations across the country disbanded or experienced a sharp decline in membership during the war. Those that continued in existence were eager to confirm their American identity and loyalties by emphasizing explicitly patriotic activities such as the support of Liberty Bond drives (Luebke 270, 284). German-American support was not particularly strong for the first Liberty Loan but gained momentum in response to the second Liberty Loan issue in October 1917 (Luebke 273). The concerted efforts on the part of leaders and spokespersons of German-American newspapers, organizations, and churches to stress patriotic attitudes and activities had the effect of dampening, although not completely diffusing hostility toward German Americans by the summer of 1918 (Luebke 286).

The Liberty Loan Committee of Americans of German Birth or Descent

In the Philadelphia area, the Liberty Loan Committee of Americans of German Birth or Descent took part in the third and fourth Liberty Loan campaigns. The treasurer and secretary of the Committee, Louis H. Schmidt (b. 1868) and Franz Ehrlich, Jr. (b. 1878), respectively, were active members in the German Society of Pennsylvania. Ehrlich was vice president of the Society at the time (he served from 1916 to 1920). Louis Schmidt, who held the rank of captain in the Pennsylvania National Guard, had served on the Society's committee responsible for social events (Vergnügungsausschuss) since 1913; later, he was president of the Society, from 1923 to 1942.

This German-American Liberty Loan committee was part of the Foreign Language Division of the Liberty Loan Organization of the Third Federal Reserve District. The division included committees for 19 different nationalities, with German Americans, Italian Americans, and Polish Americans accounting for the largest shares of purchases.

In its final report for the Fourth Liberty Loan, the Foreign Language Division of the Third Federal Reserve District describes its work as aiming to "promote the Fourth Liberty Loan among the people of foreign birth and descent and to cultivate a friendly relationship between the older Americans and the newer immigrants by bringing them into common play and work for the same cause of the country" (p. 36)

References

Fourth Liberty Loan, Foreign Language Division, Third Federal Reserve District: Report of C. A. Sienkiewicz, Executive Secretary. Philadephia, October 1918. Typewritten. (See Folder 8.)

Luebke, Frederick C. Bonds of loyalty: German Americans and World War I. Dekalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, c1974.

Pfleger, Birte. Ethnicity matters: a history of the German Society of Pennsylvania. Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute, 2006.

The collection contains the records of the Liberty Loan Committee of Americans of German Birth or Descent, a committee that coordinated the campaign for the purchase of Liberty Bonds among German Americans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1918, during the First World War. Liberty Bonds were issued by the United States government to finance the American war effort. These records were kept by Louis H. Schmidt, treasurer of the Committee, and pertain mainly to the Third and Fourth Liberty Loans, with inclusion of a few subscription lists related to the fifth loan, issued in 1919 and known as the Victory Liberty Loan.

The collection contains correspondence, subscription forms, lists of subscribers, reports, clippings, and ephemera, including Liberty Loan volunteer buttons and six posters promoting the purchase of Liberty Bonds. Also included is a copy of the report issued for the Fourth Liberty Loan, Foreign Language Division, Third Federal Reserve District.

A miscellaneous item found with the records is related to the Philadelphia Turngemeinde (Philadelphia Turners), a prominent German-American gymnastics organization. The item is a broadside entitled "Philadelphia Turngemeinde Honor Roll, World War, 1917-1918," giving a list of approximately 330 names.