New Footings, Continuing Connections: Banner Text

After the First World War, restrictive measures like the Babel Proclamation were lifted. Yet the German language had lost its place in public life. German-language newspapers had switched to English during the war, for example – and for most, the change was permanent.

But other changes also made German Americans seem less distinctive after the First World War. Ethnic clubs like the Turners (gymnasts) and singing societies had been popular before the war, but in the 1920s young people were often drawn to more modern forms of entertainment and socializing, like the movies. In the 19th century, Iowa City’s Englert family was best known for its brewery, but in the 20th century, the family name became associated with entertainment. The German and German American culture of physical fitness was  updated, too, for example by branching into more American sports. And marriage to spouses of other ethnicities became more common,  producing children who had a sense of mixed European heritage.

Political and economic turmoil in Germany led to a new wave of immigration after the war. German immigrants benefitted from new laws that restricted immigration by Southern and Eastern Europeans  as well as Asians, and thus privileged Northern Europeans. As the Ku Klux Klan established strongholds in Iowa and the Midwest, it targeted Catholics, Jews, and immigrants as well as African Americans. Nevertheless, people of German heritage – including new immigrants – blended into the “white” majority.

German Iowans were increasingly integrated into their local communities, but connections with relatives and friends in Germany remained important. In addition to communicating family matters like marriages and new babies, trans-Atlantic families offered economic assistance and closely followed political developments in both lands.