The Great “German Triangle” of the Midwest

March 27, 2017

As a result of the 19th-century German immigration to the United States, St. Louis, Missouri, along with Milwaukee, Wisconsin  and Cincinnati, Ohio became known as the great “German triangle” of the Midwest.  See other Postings on this subject by clicking

Vicki’s note – from a book summary in Genealogical.com that shows a German-American community on the eve of World War I.  Look for other aids on German Ancestry genealogy searches on the BLOG’s tab “Genealogy Links and Electronic Helps”.  We have several books at the Beloit Public Library on German Genealogy.   “The German Element in St. Louis” is one that I will not be adding to our WI library:) That book is at Genealogical.com.   

I  see a different book, that is another part of the German Triangle,  which I will be purchasing for the Library – “Wisconsin’s German Element: J. H. A. Lacher’s Introductory History”.  It is also edited by Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann.  

The German Element in St. Louis

As a result of the 19th-century German immigration to the United States, St. Louis, Missouri, along with Milwaukee and Cincinnati, became known as the great “German triangle” of the Midwest.

In 1893 Ernst Kargau, a reporter and editor for various German-American newspapers, published a German language commemorative history of St. Louis’s German population entitled St. Louis in Former Years. Kargau’s urban memoir constitutes one of the best snapshots we have of culture and society in a German-American community on the eve of World War I.

In the 1940s, William Bek translated Kargau’s book into English; however, Bek’s translation lay in obscurity at the University of Missouri-Columbia for more than a half-century. Now, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann, who has secured the permission of the University and edited the Bek manuscript, we are able to make Kargau’s excellent history widely available under the new title The German Element in St. Louis.

The Kargau opus is divided into three parts. The first of these, which is divided into twenty chapters, represents a veritable walking tour of German St. Louis, from Main Street to South Seventh Street. Here we encounter, street-by-street, the edifices and some of the personalities–the brewers, the politicians, the ministers, etc.–whose energies were at the heart of turn-of-the century St. Louis.

Part II is concerned with German-American life and institutions. Representative chapters treat German music and theater, religious denominations, the Turner societies, and the important German Immigration Society of St. Louis.

The focus of the final section of the book is upon business and industry. In addition to sections concerned with river commerce, street railways, and mail service, Kargau has included a lengthy section on German-owned businesses in brewing, lumber, baking, chemical, and other industries.

For the convenience of the reader, the editor has added a selective bibliography for further reading and a name index with over 3,500 entries pertaining to German-Americans mentioned in the book.