By Andreas Hübner

It is one of the found­ing myths of “Ger­man Amer­i­cana” that the first migrants from Ger­man-speak­ing ter­ri­to­ries arrived on Octo­ber 6, 1683, on North Amer­i­can soil. Unsur­pris­ing­ly, Ger­man Amer­i­cans have always sought to cel­e­brate this par­tic­u­lar date in order to pro­mote and to secure Ger­man Amer­i­can tra­di­tions and inter­ests. Such cel­e­bra­tions, for­mer­ly often called “Ger­man Day,” flour­ished dur­ing the 19^th cen­tu­ry and ceased after the world wars. After the 1983 tri­cen­ten­ni­al, Ger­man Amer­i­can stake­hold­ers were able to revive and to con­tin­ue the cel­e­bra­tions: On August 18, 1987, Con­gress approved a joint res­o­lu­tion to des­ig­nate Octo­ber 6, 1987, as Ger­man-Amer­i­can Day.

Since that time, most Amer­i­can pres­i­dents have issued annu­al procla­ma­tions to cel­e­brate the achieve­ments and con­tri­bu­tions of Ger­man Amer­i­cans to our Nation with appro­pri­ate cer­e­monies, activ­i­ties, and pro­grams. Also, Ger­man Amer­i­can soci­eties have tak­en on the ‘task’ and includ­ed annu­al Ger­man-Amer­i­can Day cel­e­bra­tions into their cal­en­dars, often in com­bi­na­tion with the famous Oktoberfest.

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