On February 25, 1919, Governor James P. Goodrich signed into law State Senator Franklin McCray's anti-German language...
Posted by Indiana Historical Bureau on Monday, February 25, 2019Monday, February 25, 2019 post by the Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:
On February 25, 1919,
Governor James P. Goodrich signed into law State Senator Franklin McCray's anti-German language act, which forbade elementary schools from teaching the language. The statute also prohibited correctional schools, parochial schools, and benevolent organizations from teaching German.
Indiana became one of fourteen states to ban the teaching of German to children. The legislation was a reflection of the strong anti-German sentiment stemming from World War I. Many Americans considered retention of German language and culture in the midst of war as un-American. During this time, German-language newspapers folded, German names of streets or places changed (e.g Das Deutsche Haus became the Athenaeum), German surnames were Anglicized, churches were pressured to conduct their services in English, and even dachshunds came under attack because of their German origins.Learn more about the anti-German language act here: WHEN INDIANA BANNED THE GERMAN LANGUAGE IN 1919 by Stephen J. Taylor published August 26, 2015 on Hoosier State Chronicles Indiana's Digital Historic Newspaper Program.
The image below is an example of an anti-German political cartoon from this era.
An April 6, 2022 post by The History Center on Facebook.
On April 6, 1917, exactly 105 years ago today, the United States declared war on Germany and held that all German citizens, natives and denizens were enemy aliens. In Allen County the process of registering all “enemy aliens” began under the guidance of the local police department. Residents (all men, women and women married to German men) were initially given until June 9, later extended until June 18, to register. This task was immense, given the large German population in Fort Wayne. All residents filled out a four page document, which included their place of birth, time of emigration, current residence, employer, family (including those still in Germany), mug shot, fingerprints and physical description. In response to these new restrictions and identifications, attitudes towards our combined German heritage began to change. Most churches, schools, businesses and governmental proceedings dropped their use of the German language, adopting a more Anglo-American stance. #sociallyhistory
The forms of 1918: Hoosier-style Judy G. Russell, May 21, 2015 on The Legal Genealogist blog.
The photos on the are from The Enemy Alien Registration Files created by the Fort Wayne Police Department in 1918 as a four page form titled "United States of America, Department of Justice, Registration Affidavit of Alien Enemy." You can search for names from the forms in the Genealogical Records of German Families of Allen County, Indiana, 1918 Index at The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
From the indystar.... some of the Anti-German hysteria explained in this article https://www.facebook.com/indianapolisstar/posts/10156327417824852
Posted by Indiana German Heritage Society on Wednesday, April 5, 2017Wednesday, April 5, 2017 post by the Indiana German Heritage Society on Facebook:
From the indystar.... some of the Anti-German hysteria explained in this article RetroIndy: April 6 marks the centennial of the U.S. entry into World War I and the hatred of all things German
June 17, 1918 News Sentinel
The Alien Enemies Act of 1917 A disturbing chapter in the history of Allen County nearly wiped out the city’s rich German heritage published August 8, 2016 in the Fort Wayne Reader by Jim Sack.
The Alien Enemies Act of 1917 A disturbing chapter in the history of Allen County nearly wiped out the city’s rich German heritage again November 5, 2018 in the Fort Wayne Reader by Jim Sack.
World War I Enemy Alien Records at The Library of Congress.
Some background information is at The WWI Home Front: War Hysteria & the Persecution of German-Americans on Authentic History.com.
Alien Registration Records 23-page report on the Manatee Genealogical Society of Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida.
When Indiana Banned the German Language in 1919
February 11, 2022 post by the Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:
On February 25, 1919, three months after the armistice that ended World War I, the Hoosier State banned the teaching of German to children, one of 34 states to institute English-only requirements by the early 1920s. Learn more at the blog: When Indiana Banned the German Language in 1919
Similar post WHEN INDIANA BANNED THE GERMAN LANGUAGE IN 1919 by Stephen J. Taylor published August 26, 2015 in the Indiana Historic Newspaper Digitization, Labor History, World War I on Hoosier State Chronicles Indiana's Digital Historic Newspaper Program.
History Note #27 – World War I World War I began on July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Within...
Posted by Emmanuel Ev. Lutheran Church (Soest), Fort Wayne on Thursday, July 9, 2020Thursday, July 9, 2020 post by Emmanuel Ev. Lutheran Church (Soest), Fort Wayne on Facebook:
History Note #27 – World War I [ See World War I page ]
World War I began on July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Within a week, Russia, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom joined the fray. Watching from afar, most Americans preferred to stay out of the war, though some strongly urged American intervention. Anti-German and anti-German-American bigotry began to spread during this time (considerably aided by the bigoted speeches of former president Teddy Roosevelt), but for the most part, life continued as before. All that changed on April 6, 1917, when the United States declared war on Germany. That same day, Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation defining as “alien enemies” all non-naturalized German immigrants over the age of 14, and mandating registration of the same. Allen County’s registration records have been destroyed, but thanks to the preservation of Fort Wayne’s records, we know that at least one former Soest family was impacted by this decree.
As the war progressed, anti-German hysteria grew. Local high school students were praised in the newspapers for burning their German textbooks, librarians removed German books from circulation, and German-American farmers were arrested for sedition after speaking out against the purchase of war bonds. The Indiana State Council of Defense declared that “the use of German as any part of a church service may rightfully be regarded as un-American,” and the Allen County Council of Defense sent spies to congregations who nevertheless continued to hold services in German.
Locally and nationally, Lutherans of all stripes were looked at with suspicion. The Missouri Synod had to repeatedly defend itself against the charge of secretly supporting and carrying out orders from the Kaiser. Lutheran churches suffered repeated vandalism, while in some states, Lutheran pastors had to hide in woods and fields to avoid lynch mobs. Locally, Zion Lutheran School in Schumm, Ohio (near Van Wert) was dynamited early one Sunday in October 1918.
Despite these pressures, many young German-American men joined the armed forces, including Allen County’s first war casualty, one Carl Winkelmeyer. Soest members who joined include William Ahrens, Lansing Behrman, George Feldt, Albert Lepper, Charles Lepper, John Roege, and George Rohrbach (all but one of whom were buried in our cemetery), plus nine others whose names we do not currently have record of. As the war drew to a close, many hoped for a return to normalcy and for the safe return of their soldier family members and friends. Neither came fully to pass. In late 1917 and all of 1918, an influenza pandemic raged throughout the United States and Europe. On October 28, 1918, word was received that William Ahrens had succumbed to the flu at an army base in Kentucky; a month later, word came that Lansing Behrman had died of pneumonia while stationed in France.
Image 1 – 1918 pamphlet in our church archives, defending the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod from the charge of secretly supporting and taking orders from the German Kaiser
Image 2 – Memorial stone of Pvt. Lansing Behrman and tombstone of Pvt. William Ahrens in our church cemetery. Behrman was buried in France, but his family erected a stone at Soest as well.
Image 3 – Newspaper notice of Lansing Behrman’s death. Source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/53744672/lansing-behrman
History Note #28 – Spanish Flu For the past five months, the world has been gripped by news of the coronavirus and...
Posted by Emmanuel Ev. Lutheran Church (Soest), Fort Wayne on Thursday, July 16, 2020Thursday, July 16, 2020 post by Emmanuel Ev. Lutheran Church (Soest), Fort Wayne on Facebook:
History Note #28 – Spanish Flu [ See Spanish Influenza page ]
For the past five months, the world has been gripped by news of the coronavirus and dramatically altered by shutdowns in response to it. These days, large numbers of deaths from disease are uncommon, but that was not always the case. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, northeast Indiana suffered multiple waves of diseases, including several rounds of an international cholera epidemic in the mid-1800s, a smallpox epidemic in the 1880s, and the famous Spanish Flu in 1918–19.
Historians and virologists disagree on the geographical source of the flu, with France, the United States, and China all proposed as possibilities. What is known is that it quickly spread through the trenches in Europe, military camps in the United States, and then into the civilian population, eventually infecting up to 500 million people, or a third of the world’s population at that time. Death toll estimates range from 17 to 100 million people, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.
Locally, residents read about the spread of the flu in Europe throughout the summer of 1918, and by early fall, concern began to set in as reports of deaths in army camps within the United States made the newspapers. Starting in October, Fort Wayne newspapers began reporting a steady slew of influenza victims originally from the Fort Wayne area, many of whom died in army hospitals in the U.S.
On October 6, the Indiana Board of Health banned all public meetings and closed all churches, schools, and places of amusement, permitting only factories and retail stores to stay open. The order went into effect in Fort Wayne on October 8, but at the request of the Allen County Health Commissioner and many leading businessmen of Fort Wayne, the State Board of Health permitted everything in Fort Wayne to reopen two days later. A mere two days after that, Fort Wayne officials changed their minds and reinstated the ban after two adjoining counties reported hundreds of cases of the flu.
For the next month, Fort Wayne citizens had to settle in for a dreary routine, with some stores and all places of amusement shuttered, social gatherings and church services banned, and all schools closed. By the end of October, Fort Wayne had had 109 recorded cases of influenza. By comparison, the combined caseload in all army camps in the U.S. had surpassed 400,000, on top of nearly 45,000 cases of pneumonia and nearly 17,000 deaths. In light of the staggering number of cases outside of Fort Wayne, the city decided to extend the shutdown into November, prompting quick protests from many of the unemployed workers.
On November 10, seventy labor representatives, who together represented some 12,000 men, met with the Allen County Board of Health to discuss the effects of the shutdown on the unemployed workers, many of whom hadn’t been to work in five weeks due to the ban. Theater workers, musicians, builders, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and painters had been prevented from working, while many other businesses remained open and fully staffed. The labor representatives suggested shutting down all businesses in order to entirely stop the spread of the flu. When that was brushed aside, they threatened legal action against the city for unfairly targeting their professions.
The next day—November 11, 1918—all worries about the flu were forgotten as the entire city celebrated Armistice Day and the end of World War I. Four days later, Fort Wayne lifted the shutdown entirely. For the next three weeks, everything seemed to be returning to normal, until outbreaks in several of the small towns in Allen County caused another shutdown on December 2 in the county and on December 4 in Fort Wayne. This time, the shutdown within Fort Wayne city limits was limited to the closure of the schools. The students were no doubt dismayed by the news. Not only had they been restricted to their homes for four weeks in October and November, but memories of the summer of 1916 surely flashed before their eyes, when an outbreak of infantile paralysis caused the city to place severe restrictions on all persons aged 16 and younger. For weeks, Fort Wayne children had been forbidden to leave their homes. Now some of the same restrictions were being placed on them twice in rapid succession! Adults fared rather better, only being required to wear masks wherever three or more were gathered.
On December 14, in light of a new report showing over 5,000 cases of flu in Fort Wayne, the city’s Common Council passed detailed new rules to fight the contagion. Public meetings, schools, and libraries were closed. Children were forbidden to attend churches, movies, theaters, or retail stores. Churches could only hold services if all those present stayed at least two feet apart. Occupancy restrictions were placed on stores and theaters. Bowling alleys and pool halls were forbidden to allow spectators. Basketball games, boxing matches, and dances were forbidden. Elective surgeries were cancelled and visitors forbidden at the hospitals and jail, though exceptions were made for close relatives of the deathly ill. Because Lutheran Hospital had been shut down since early November due to an outbreak among the nurses, an emergency hospital was set up in the Concordia College gymnasium, though it never was used.
On December 17, Fort Wayne hospitals reported 185 new cases and five deaths from the flu; the day after that brought another 85 cases and five additional deaths. In response, the city banned all Christmas celebrations, only permitting church services to be held under the same restrictions as before. By the end of December, there had been over 1,800 recorded cases of the flu in Fort Wayne, plus an additional 489 cases in Allen County. Out of the towns in the county, Yoder (158 cases), Monroeville (110 cases), Woodburn (80 cases), New Haven (58 cases), and Hoagland (45 cases) were the hardest hit. Finally, on January 1, 1919, in light of decreasing numbers, the last of the bans was lifted.
The flu continued to spread in Fort Wayne and Allen County for the next four months, but the number of cases fell from 2,316 in December to 722 in January, 960 in February, 663 in March, and a mere 8 in April. Just as quickly as the flu had come, it was gone. Another, much less deadly, wave of the flu hit northeast Indiana in January and February 1920, but the fatality rate was low.
When looking back on the Spanish Flu, one thing that sets it apart from many other diseases is the uniquely high death rate among young adults. Unlike many diseases that kill both the very young and the very old (and unlike the recent coronavirus, which seems to largely target those over the age of 65), the Spanish Flu killed the very young, the very old, and young adults. In 1918–1919, fully 99% of the deaths from Spanish Flu in the United States were those under the age of 65, with nearly half of fatalities occurring among those aged 20 to 40. The 1920 strain killed more elderly, but those under age 65 still made up 92% of deaths. This pattern had dramatic long-term effects on the population. Because the disease targeted young adults, soldiers were particularly vulnerable. By the end of the war, half of Allen County’s war casualties had died from the flu. Also, between the war and the pandemic, average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped 12 years, to 36.6 for men and 42.2 for women.
Despite the massive international implications of the flu, the community around Soest seems to have been largely unaffected. It is unknown how many members contracted the flu, but the only fatality within the congregation was William Ahrens, who caught the flu and died while serving at an army base in Kentucky. The main impact seems to have been the temporary closures of the church and school, with school in session for a mere 180 days in 1918, in contrast to the usual 200.
Image 1 – Monthly recorded cases of influenza in Allen County, June 2018 through June 2019.
Image 2 – Obituary of Pvt. William Ahrens, sole Spanish Flu fatality at Soest. Source: https://www.findagrave.com/.../50988156/william-henry-ahrens
Image 3 – Brief newspaper article about Albert and Charles Lepper, members of Soest who served in WWI. The article notes that Albert Lepper was being hospitalized in France after having caught the flu. Source: Kathy Lepper
Image 4 – Indiana State Board of Health poster with instructions on dealing with the flu. Source: https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/spanish-flu/
History Note #29 – Ban on German Even before America’s entry into World War I, anti-German bigotry began its slow,...
Posted by Emmanuel Ev. Lutheran Church (Soest), Fort Wayne on Thursday, July 23, 2020Thursday, July 23, 2020 post by Emmanuel Ev. Lutheran Church (Soest), Fort Wayne on Facebook:
History Note #29 – Ban on German
Even before America’s entry into World War I, anti-German bigotry began its slow, insidious spread throughout American society. Anti-German sentiment played a large and explicit role in Indiana Prohibitionists’ successful 1917 effort to enact Prohibition throughout the state, with alcohol consumption condemned as “unpatriotic” and “Hunnish.” The fact that most of Indiana’s brewers and many of Indiana’s tavern owners were of German descent made this campaign’s push all the easier. The law went into effect on April 2, 1918—almost exactly a year after the United States declared war on Germany—and was a considerable blow against German culture in the state. Three days later, a German-American miner in southern Illinois was lynched by an angry mob. The Journal Gazette ran several investigative features on this story, reporting on the mob’s subsequent threats to tar and feather the local Lutheran pastor, just as they had tarred and feathered many local German-descended residents before.
History note #27 told of the anti-German activities in the area during World War I, and history note #28 focused on the Spanish Flu that accompanied the tail end of the war. The largely Germanic residents of Soest, reviewing the course of preceding two years at the end of 1918, must have breathed a sigh of relief that the war was finally over, the Spanish Flu was receding, the anti-German measures would no doubt soon be dropped, and life would finally return to normal.
If that was the attitude of these hapless farmers, they were soon to find themselves even more discomfited. On January 9, at the opening of the 1919 session of the Indiana House of Representatives, Governor James P. Goodrich delivered a speech laying out his legislative agenda for the new year. Included in that list was the banning of German in all the schools of the state. “We should have only one language taught in the common schools of our country—the language of the Declaration of Independence. If we are to think as Americans, act as Americans, and ever make this truly a nation in heart and soul, it can only be through the teaching of a common tongue to our children.” The legislature wasted no time in drawing up bills to accomplish this purpose, proposing to ban the teaching of German in all schools, public or private, up to the eighth grade.
The Lutherans of this state likewise wasted no time in organizing opposition to this plan. August C. Stellhorn, Superintendent of Schools of the Central District (forerunner to the Indiana District of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, then still known as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States), immediately began meeting with legislators, corresponding with Lutheran pastors and teachers throughout Indiana and Ohio, and taking a survey of every Lutheran school in the state. Pastor Eickstadt, of St John's Lutheran Church & School in LaPorte, together with five of his congregants, published an open letter, complaining that “as the bill stands, instruction in religion by means by any other but the English language would be a misdemeanor and those conducting the school would be subject to prosecution. This is unjust and un-American.” Similar protests were sent to the legislature from Lutherans in Seymour, Michigan City and Adams County, the latter protest being signed by 75 individuals. Numerous other letters were sent by individual Lutherans throughout the state, protesting that the ban on German would be “a direct violation of separation of church and state and religious freedom, as it is guaranteed in the bill of rights of the Constitution of Indiana.”
In response to these protests, several legislators sought to soften the language of the bills, either exempting parochial schools or exempting non-required subjects such as religion. Legislators and newspapers from across the state denounced these attempts with the strongest language possible. “A law must be enacted which will prohibit private and parochial schools from continuing to cultivate the baneful influence of the German language,” declared the Marion County Council of Defense, in a letter quoted by newspapers throughout the state. Many newspapers also noted derisively the efforts from “some Germans in the northern part of the state” to oppose the bills. It was likewise noted that some politicians seemed hesitant to support the anti-German measures precisely for fear of upsetting these Germans. This was a particularly relevant concern at that time, as the “German vote” was then in the process of switching from solidly Democratic to solidly Republican, a consequence of Woodrow Wilson’s actions and attitudes during the war.
It must be noted, however, that not all Germans in the state were opposed to the bill, many even going so far as to vocally support it. Shortly before the bill was passed, 150 German-descended Seymour residents demanded immediate passage of the bill. Seeing the divisions among the Germans, several newspapers in the state resorted to a misinformation campaign in order to turn doubters into supporters. Wrote one such paper, “This is, of course, as far as the legislature could go in excluding the German language from the education of the girls and boys of the state. Its powers do not extend to the regulation of parochial schools, in some of which the German language will continue to be taught until through pure force of public sentiment it is discontinued.” This was a blatant lie, but it and similar stories managed to persuade many fence-sitters to jump on the banning bandwagon.
Finally, on February 13, the bill—known as the McCray Anti-German Bill—passed unanimously in the House and one vote shy of unanimously in the Senate. German would no longer be taught in any of the elementary schools of the state. The voters’ assembly at Soest quickly decided to join in a lawsuit with other Lutheran churches in the state, arguing that the law was unconstitutional. Even before the lawsuit could work its way through the courts, however, the Lutherans in Adams County defiantly continued to hold religious instruction in German, as they believed was their right. At Soest, religious instruction continued to be held in German, but was held outside of normal school hours in the unheated church in order to maintain compliance with the law. The teacher also quietly and illegally continued to have reading instruction in both German and English over the next two years.
Indiana was not alone in banning the German tongue in the elementary schools within its borders. A total of 22 states banned the teaching of foreign languages at the elementary school level, including California, Nebraska, Ohio, Iowa, and Wisconsin. In 1920, a Nebraska Lutheran schoolteacher named Robert T. Meyer was arrested and fined for reading the Bible in German in his classroom. Instead of paying the fine, Meyer worked with the Missouri Synod to challenge the constitutionality of the law. The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled against him, but on June 4, 1923, the United States Supreme Court overturned his conviction and struck down all laws banning foreign language instruction in the nation.
Image 1 – “Beat back the Hun” Prohibition poster
Image 2 – Soest’s 1918 school questionnaire from August C. Stellhorn’s files.
Image 3 – Newspaper article from the Alexandria Times-Tribune about the Lutheran schools in Adams County, October 2, 1919.
We have more on the Emmanuel Ev. Lutheran Church (Soest) on our Church page.
June 3, 2023 post by Historic 07 District - Fort Wayne on Facebook:
Exactly 106 years ago this week, the City of Fort Wayne was dealing with an “enemy alien” problem. It was the height of World War I, and in April 1917, the U.S. entered the war. One major problem was that German-born Americans were one of the largest groups of immigrants, especially in Fort Wayne. As we enter Germanfest week, today’s story begins with Henry Rudisill and ends with the Americanization of Fort Wayne’s German roots. Read on for more.
Henry, a U.S.-born German, came to Fort Wayne on Christmas Eve in 1829 when only 150 people lived there. Some were French, some were Indians, and Henry had been hired by U.S. land agents John Barr, and John Mccorkle, to develop the area. At the time, there weren’t many Germans in America. He helped relocate thousands to Fort Wayne by being Lutheran and being able to speak both German and English.
When Rudisill passed away, there were 30,000 residents in Allen County, but a significant portion were German. By the early 1900s, the German population might have been as much as 60%. Our local bank was known as the German American National Bank, there were two German public elementary schools, two German-language newspapers, Germania Park sat on the St. Joseph River, the Germania Café was a classy seafood restaurant, Main Street was also known as “Haupt Strasse” and Berghoff Brewery’s tagline was “A real German brew.” Even the Chicago Tribune would call Fort Wayne “a most German town,” but then WWI happened, and it all changed.
In 1917, for the most part, American sentiment was more neutral, especially amongst German Americans. But as we entered the war, Woodrow Wilson drafted the Alien Enemy Presidential Proclamation of 1917. These regulations required German-born males over 14 to register as aliens. In addition, the City of Fort Wayne and other cities created zones where German-born males could or could not travel without their registration cards.
Across the country, this spurred unrest where restricted travel, work, and even arrests became commonplace. In addition, thousands were incarcerated in camps in Utah and Georgia for the duration of the war. This ultimately led to the Americanization of what was a German town. Schools no longer could teach in German, sermons at German Churches transitioned to English, German street signs were removed, the German American Bank became the Lincoln Bank (think Lincoln Tower), and even the Berghoff Brewery changed its tagline.
As you enjoy Germanfest this week, remember the deep roots of German culture in Fort Wayne. Speaking of Rudisill, if you happen to be in the Historic 07 District - Fort Wayne today, it will be yard sale city, and Williams Woodland Park Neighborhood has their fantastic Porchfest event today!
British Germans also changed their surnames during World War I.
Could your family's surname have a secret past? During WW1, thousands of people, including the Royal Family, changed...
Posted by Findmypast on Tuesday, March 25, 2025Tuesday, March 25, 2025 post by Findmypast on Facebook:
Could your family's surname have a secret past?
During WW1, thousands of people, including the Royal Family, changed their surnames. But why? ⬇️ It's 1914, and Britain is at war with Germany. Anti-German sentiment in Britain is strong. But what did that mean for those with German heritage living in Britain?
Thousands of families changed their surnames to sound 'more British' to distance themselves from their roots. There were increases in changes after the sinking of the Lusitania, which prompted outrage, and after the Armistice in 1918.
So if you've lost track of your family around WW1 and you're not sure why they seem to disappear from the records, you might want to check out the lists created by the Graphic newspaper. Could they have changed their surname? Could you find long-lost German roots?
Could this list of surnames help you solve a family mystery?
You can explore the lists in more detail with our free collection
The War's Effect on Germanic Names
