Cincinnati's German Heritage
2004
German-American Heritage Month Programs
More than four Ohioans
in 10 report German ancestry and Ohio has the third largest number of
people claiming German ancestry, according to the 1980 U.S. Census,
but a higher percentage can be found in Cincinnati, where 50% of the
population claims German ancestry! It, along with Milwaukee and St.
Louis, formed what became known as the "German Triangle" Cincinnati's
German heritage dates back to 1788 with the arrival of Major Benjamin
Steitz (Stites) and Matthias Denmann. German immigration has continued,
most recently the Danube Swabian immigration of the 1950's.
The continued interest
in the German heritage in the community is reflected by the Fairview
Bilingual School, the twenty German-American societies, a German Language
Newspaper, as well as numerous social and cultural events and festivities-
from the may festival to the downtown Oktoberfest, the largest outside
of Munich!
The University houses
a large German-Americana Collection. Established in 1974, the German-Americana
Collection is one of the nation's largest. It consists of books, pamphlets,
documents, journals, and manuscripts pertaining to German-American history,
literature and culture. The German-American Studies Program was established
in 1987, the Max Kade German Cultural Center in 1997.
