Germans In The United States: Anti-German Analysis

Now the fears that people had, had a little bit of evidence that Germany was scheming to attack the US. So naturally, this fear was brought down upon any Germans in the US because people that they were working with the German government. (Thompson 2015)

When the anti-German policies were initiated the people of the United States did a lot to make sure that they were followed. In Iowa for example if someone was suspect of being a German sympathizer or someone that was speaking German when they shouldn’t have been; people would splash the person’s house with yellow paint. If you didn’t buy enough war bonds to support the war and you were German a vigilante group would show up to your house, and take you to court. At court, you were “convinced”

Advertisers for most German businesses ended their relationships. This especially hurt the German newspapers that were already hurt from the passage of the Trading with the Enemy Act; now the newspapers could not get anymore ad revenue from their papers. This was the final blow for most newspapers and forced the papers to quit printing. People also stop shopping at any stores that were owned by Germans; putting most German owned stores under. These indiscrete actions were not as brutal but they still had a devastating impact upon the Germans that were in the US. The only way that German Americans could help stop the what was happening to them and show that they had unwavering loyalty was to join the military. Joining the Military was enough to get attacks to stop happen to the German’s specific family, and enough to get people to stop questioning if they were true patriots. (Manning 2014) In general, American people played a key role in damaging German people and German culture. If the American people would have not been so scared of the Germans in America; Germans would have not faced such a strong anti-German

The media stated many times for all true Americans to burn German books, change the name of anything German to something American. The media then attacked the German language saying that any language that creates the ruthless conquistadors like the Germans should not be taught to pure American boys and girls. The media even went so far to so that any German item should be called something else. The hamburger was supposed to be called a liberty steak, German measles should be called liberty measles, sauerkraut should be called liberty cabbage, and that dachshunds should be called liberty hounds. (Wheel 2012) After the media had helped bring down anything German; the media started having headlines that were just plain lies to get people to fear Germans. The media had headlines saying Red Cross bandages had been sabotage with chemicals and broken glass by Germans, spies had poisoned water, sabotage production of guns of ammo, and infected communities with illnesses. (Wheel 2012) All this headlines were just blatant lies; not one German was every convicted of being a spy. The media was not a major creator of the original fear for Germans, but the media took that idea of fearing the Germans and ran with it. The media was the main player in spreading the fear and keeping it alive in all Americans. If the media had been more neutral; German persecution would have been much less and German Americans