Talk:Texas Germans

Hispanicization
Germans who settled in Texas were strongly influenced by their Tejano hosts. The collection of Spanish immigrants to Texas preceded, accepted, and largely integrated well with the German settlers who came later.

The Wikipedia article on Tejanos specifically talks about the integration of German settlers and how they became increasingly hispanicized while never forgetting their roots.

There's no need to be racist by pretending the Germans remained somehow an island unto themselves. Save that racism burden for another time. People who live here in Texas clearly understand how various immigrants learned to all get along and find themselves well integrated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.31.98.123 (talk) 23:44, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Delete Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eisenhower's photo should be deleted, as he doesn't have anything in common with most German immigrants to TX. It is absurd to include him here. His paternal ancesty went back to immigrants to PA in 1741, and he moved to KS at the age of two with his parents. --Parkwells (talk) 23:33, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Added by Dave Zinzow: I had read Eisenhower's two autobiographies by the time I was in high school- me being born in Ohio, raised in New Jersey (either end of Pennsylvania) I could understood the difference between the 18th century German immigration into Pennsylvania, such as the Anabaptists who became the Amish and Mennonites.(Ben Franklin wrote his objections to "swarthy Southern Germans" displacing the English) and other German settlement in the New Hemisphere. And though a Northern Ohio German-American, I was aware of a little Southern Ohio history- a German community formed in Cincinnati in the 1870s. I was named after Eisenhower (as several people I have met my age were), "David", by parents that thought highly of him, especially my father, who was a quarter German, who was quite bonded to his German grandfather who died in Cleveland in 1944 just as the D-Day invasion of Europe had begun. Though actually otherwise surrounded by an otherwise Irish family- he actually swapped his German and Irish middle name to sound more German. However, the Eisenhower's immigrated to the US at this time. German immigration was continuous into the US however until WW1- my ancestors were 1868 immies directly to Cleveland, fanning themselves out into the many other ethnicities in the Cleveland area. Many Germans only know that they are of German ancestry because of their grandparent's last name. Until the Iron curtain fell and maps were updated I did not know that my name came from a small gin-producing region in Pommern.

It is an expansive topic never the less, Germans in the Southwest.

After living in San Antonio for many years, I knew that in large areas of west San Antonio, currently owned largely by Mexican descendants, has many old mansions built by German residents (so well built they have withstood 200 years of wear despite benign neglect).

The San Antonio Octoberfest is still one of the biggest in Texas.

Probably the highest ranking military officer from this Greater San Antonio region, not being Eisenhower, was Admiral Zumwalt, Chief of Naval Operations during the Viet Nam era, famous for authorizing Agent Orange use in Viet Nam, btw which he lost a son from exposure to the herbicide.

Some streets in San Antonio have German names such as Fredericksburg Road And Huebner Road.

And no mention of Castroville is in the article; in the 1930's the American Nazi Party was headquartered in Castroville. Up to the 1980's, there was a German American Day parade in Castroville, with a set of seats reserved for the last members, mostly ladies, of this group, still proudly wearing their swastika pins. I do not live there now, but I doubt this still happens, that they might have timed out. I learned of this from a historian in my San Antonio Army Reserve unit, and in my required Texas History course in college there. However, this group of Germans might have been the most consistently conservative-leaning of all American German settlement, contributing to Texas's still-Conservative bendings. (For instance, the Cincinnati Germans ("The '48ers) were German progressive radicals fleeing persecution). The Texas Germans, in such a close proximity to the Mexican border, may have been a consideration of the writers of the Zimmerman letter, where German diplomats proposed to unite with Mexico in their constant border issues with the US, encouraging Mexico to join the German cause in WW 1 to win back the US's Southwest.

Many Germans emigrated to Mexico. For example, when Arizona was still considered part of Mexico, Linda Ronstadt's great grandfather immigrated from Hanover Germany to establish a cattle ranch outside of Tucson, blending into the culture and sharing his musical traditions and his German surname in his new home.

I knew that in San Antonio, Mexicans were impressed with German folk music, and especially the accordions of the Germans. That instrument eventually was adapted to local musicians Mexican sounds mostly by imitation- Mexican accordions generally have fewer working buttons. Both Tejano and Tex-Mex music relies on these accordions today.

Also, the city in the Western hemisphere with the second largest Jewish population (after New York), mostly from Germany, is Mexico City. This would be a great topic to touch on, somewhere.

Civil War
The careful omission of any discussion of the Germano-Texans in the Civil War suggests an unwillingness to admit most of them were Unionists.

This article could also benefit from a discussion of the German relationship with Tejanos. --Al-Nofi (talk) 20:31, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

In the section "Post-Civil War" the text makes only sense, when you change the text "1865 to 1980" to "1865 to 1880". I leave it up to the Author. (87.145.126.235 (talk) 10:33, 10 December 2009 (UTC))


 * Agreed, concerning the Civil War. The article Forty-Eighters makes it very clear that their politics were liberal, progressive, even socialist.  "In the United States, most Forty-Eighters opposed nativism and slavery, in keeping with the liberal ideals that had led them to flee Europe."  "Galveston, Texas was a port of entry to many Forty-Eighters. Some settled there and in Houston, but many settled in the Texas Hill Country in the vicinity of Fredericksburg. Due to their liberal ideals, they strongly opposed Texas's secession in 1861. In the Bellville area of Austin County, another destination for Forty-Eighters, the German precincts voted decisively against the secession ordinance."    Heavenlyblue (talk) 09:55, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

World War 2
This article talks about World War 1, but suspiciously absent is World War 2. Is there anything to say to it?

Iæfai (talk) 18:48, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

I believe Texas Germans generally were in support of the German actions, especially since Castroville became the hub of the American Nazi Party.

What happened to the rest of this article?
This was a highly developed article; now it's a bare stub. I restored the references; surely there's some way to get this back into shape. Djembayz (talk) 21:32, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Not my doing- I am an adder not a deleter — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:1C2:4E02:9580:71F2:303F:3ADA:B0F (talk) 15:59, 16 December 2021 (UTC)