World War II and Its Aftermath: Banner Text

German Americans' experience in World War II differed dramatically from their experience in World War I. Suspicion of "Germans" in the United States mainly targeted those who held German rather than American citizenship. Rather than facing widespread suspicion, German Americans often found themselves in demand. German Americans could not only understand the enemy's language. They also had "insider" knowledge of Germany that could be useful for the war effort--and later to the reconstruction of West Germany in the Cold War environment.

The experience of German prisoners of war shows the enduring German traces in Iowa--as well as the ways a sense of kinship could override enemy status. German POWs assigned to civilian jobs often worked side by side with Iowans who knew some German and had ties to Germany. This sense of connection between enemies contrasted to the divide between white Americans and Asian or African Americans. U.S. citizens of Japanese heritage were interned en masse, especially on the West Coast, and African Americans might be denied service at a diner serving a German POW. Many lasting friendships developed between Iowans and German POWs, and some of the POWs later emigrated to the United States.

Germany faced hard times after the war, and Germans again emigrated to the United States in large numbers. By the 1960s, however, life in West Germany was good--and East Germans were trapped behind the Berlin Wall. Immigration reform in 1965 eased the way for non-Europeans to enter the United States. By the 2000 census, Germans no longer constituted the largest immigrant group to Iowa. With many German Iowans moving from small towns to larger cities, their old neighborhoods often provided homes for other immigrants and their descendants; members of older communities such as Mexican Iowans, or new arrivals like Vietnamese refugees. Iowa's landscape today bears witness to its layered history of migration and multiculturalism.