My goodness, where did I land here?! - In Bavaria, you American “Sau-Preiß”*

*A rude, but often humorous Bavarian “name” for Prussians. (The text is written in dialects)

This chapter reports of a nation of great inner variety. About historic rivalries and an always given feeling of belonging together. Thereby it’s of course closely related to our history chapter. They were once even thought to become a common branch. However both are to big to combine the topics, especially as this chapter here is of course also closely connected to other chapters like nutrition or lifestyle.

Germerika wishes for the history of the future, that a German-American community creates new things in her homeland out of the traditions of the German people. This does however also mean, that one may not misinterpret the American motto “E Pluribus Unum“. The description of the tribes and their history is elementary for the cultural assets of the Germans in the USA today and tomorrow, because if a Bavarian “tracht = costume” is felt to be an expression of the own tradition in an area full of Friesians, this is just sad …

Colourful, little impressions of how diverse this culture is, are given by the examples of trachten in the articles.

In every case the German people arose of Old-Germanic tribes and was therefore already always very diverse in itself. The term “tribes“ stayed absolutely usual far into the 20th century. In the meantime the awareness of the Nation of tribes has been destroyed to a huge extend. It doesn’t fit into the interests of tax collecting states, which are partly only fantasy-products of the occupying forces after 1945. Therefore and because the old tribal-dukedoms declined over the centuries, it is hard in some cases to describe these tribes precisely, as a “tribe“ is an ethnic unit, which contains people of equal language and culture, and there are important cultural Groups inside the German people, which are actually parts of the “Altstämme = Oldtribes”, like for example the “Westphalians” among the Saxons.

Also the „Hessians“ differ from other Parts of the old Franks. It are however the tribes, which one falls back upon, to order the German dialects. If you draw the areas in which they are spread, state-borders loose their meaning and historic borders arise (more or less) again ...

This site therefore has to simplify some things. It shows modern symbols, if the old lives in them, but it also explains (apolitically), where references would be misleading. The good thing thereby: The German-Americans are citizens of the United States of America. Period.

It is however very remarkable at the end, how many names of parts of the German people never received a translation into English! Dictionaries usually only call them “people from …”!

We use the German name in anglicised forms. Only on this page here they are being explained.

The German “Altstämme = Old-tribes“. They have survived until today. Many other Germanic tribes have merged into them.

(East Friesians and North Friesians. The West Friesians belong to the Netherlanders/ Dutch and so they have started to wear orange clothes and wooden shoes ...)

Upper Saxons, Zipsers, Lower Saxons = Westphalians, Eastphalians, and “Schleswig-Holsteiners” (“People from Schleswig-Holstein”; except of the Danish and Friesians of course)

Lower-Franks (as far as into the Netherlands), Rhinelanders, Lorrainers, “Pfälzers” (“people from the Palatinate”), Hessians and Franconians (colloquially “Frrranken” … = Frrranconians ... because of their dialect)

Mostly just live as Thuringians in Thuringia. What else should we write here? ... - Maybe that Hecker loves „”Thuringians“! ... - (the sausages)

Württembergers (people from Württemberg), “Badeners“ (people from Baden), Alsatians, German Swiss, “Vorarlbergers“ (“people from Vorarlberg”) and “Liechtensteiners” (“people from Liechtenstein”) and the unlucky Swabians in areas ruled by Bavaria ...

Bavarians and Austrians – or rather: Upper- and Lower-Bavarians, Upper- and Lower-Austrians, “Tyrolers” (people from Tyrol), Carinthians, Styrians, “Burgenländers” (“people form the Burgenland”), “Salzburgers” (“people from the State of Salzburg”)

*The word “Bajuvarian” is not used in English anymore, but it’s important, as it would be wrong to call Austrians “Bavarians”.

In the middle-ages “Neustämme = New-tribes“ arose, as the settlement of Germans in the east led to the rise of new German cultural communities, with new, own dialects.

Also known as “Sudetendeutsche“ = “Germans from the sudetic mountains”. The English name is however especially misleading.

The developments of the middle-ages partly repeated in the “New World“. There wasn’t an organization of the public life in accordance to German laws, but new dialects and other specific appearances of German culture arose here as well. At first we can however only refer to our according state-sites.

There were also Germans in eastern Europe, who lived outside the connected German culture area. In some cases they built remarkably large connected areas of settlement themselves. In the Soviet Union there was even an “Autonomous Socialist Soviet-Republic of the Volga Germans” until World War II.

Already in the 19th century many of these Germans immigrated to the US however. Influenced by negative experiences in Russia, it was especially important to them, to maintain the German identity of their families.

The Balkans is another such territory. Until today Siebenbürger-Sachsen and Donauschwaben are very active and of an indescribable value for our culture in America!

Accordingly this topic will require a lot of work.