Kapitel 1 Kultur - William Burton

While reading ‘How German Is American?’ I found several aspects of early German existence in America and the ways in which German presence has helped to form our country into what it is today, very fascinating. In particular, the image of Uncle Sam, seen by many Americans as the undisputed 'mascot' of the United States, was given to us by a German-born American in Thomas Nast. This Image, while accepted as the work of a German-American, has since simply become seen as American. It seems that in addition to the works of Thomas Nast which include Uncle Sam, the republican-elephant and the democrat-donkey, and the popular image of Santa Claus, many aspects of German culture, namely beer and hot dogs, simply seem to appeal to Americans. So much so that like Uncle Sam, they are no longer identified by Americans as German contributions to American culture, but simply as American Culture. "Groundhog day is explained as a New World expression of the traditional European mid-winter holiday of Candlemas." which for the longest time I simply assumed was the work of a madman who couldn't think of any other reason to go outside in February.

I find it very interesting to see that these hugely important aspects of German-American culture (I don't think many college students will disagree that Beer and hot dogs are an important part of American culture) are no longer identified as German, or in some cases even German-American, but simply as American. As the brochure explains "German-speakers have been coming to America for over three centuries, and more Americans claim German ancestry than any other." Knowing this and having seen some examples of the impact of Germans on American culture it occurred to me that it would be an exercise in futility to attempt to pick out every aspect of German culture from our own to identify them as such, the size and importance of the German influence on our culture is too great.