Little pieces of German can be found in a lot of places. Maybe when you were growing up, your next-door neighbor was German and she baked apple cake for you because she knew you loved it so much. Or maybe your town had a German name? With 42 Million German Americans in the US, you don’t have to look far for a German person, custom, or something that may now be a precious memory for you and has made a part of your personal history German.

If so, you’re in good company. Just look at the city of New York, where you can find German traces and influences at almost every street corner. The essay below gives many examples of how Germans have left a mark on the city and still do today. It’s a great read and may start the flow of memories for you. Let them come and write them down for us. We’d love to hear how German culture and people have contributed to your life and maybe made it a bit more special. And we all know that special things come in all shapes and sizes, so please don’t think your story has to be the size of New York. We bet there is a pearl in your story as long as it’s close to your heart, so please share it with us.

German Roots in New York – contribution to the city’s success

Little Germany

Little Germany, occasionally called Dutchtown, was a district in the Lower East Side, a quarter of Manhattan in New York City. Primarily German immigrants lived there. In the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century a constant inflow of immigrants, which was taking place via Ellis Island, caused a continuous growth of the population in Little Germany. Solely in the 1850s about 800.000 Germans entered the US by New York.

Stanley Nadel (University of Portland) wrote in “Germany: Ethnicity, Religion, and Class in New York City, 1845-80″: ‘Known as ‘Kleindeutschland’ it [the Lower East Side as a German-American immigrant neighborhood] was the first of the giant urban foreign language settlements that came to characterize American cities in later years and was the prototypical urban immigrant community.

More than half of the baker and carpenter in New York were German or of German origin, and many Germans also worked in construction. Higher educated Germans were important contributors in building labor unions and were often politically active. At the beginning of the 20th century Little Germany had a population of 500.000. The community was the cultural center for the activities of the population with German origin in New York.

Between 1855 and 1880 the ‘German’ New York was the third largest German speaking city of the world (only Berlin and Vienna had a respectively even higher German speaking population). In the year 1871 Little Germany (with about half of the German population of New York) would have been the fifth largest city of the newly founded German Empire.

Not only due to the population Little Germany was the third largest German speaking city in the world. Due to its position in the cultural and economic center of the United States the district advanced on its part to a cultural and economic center of the German America as well. The German Lower East Side formed the junction of trade between Europe and the German-American traders who supplied both rural and urban settlements in North America with goods. Also the German-American labor movement had its roots in New York. It contributed decisively to the success of the nationwide U.S. labor movement. German-Americans like Samuel Gompers and Adolf Strasse became chairman of the U.S.-American labor union association called the American Federation of Labor.

The German book-market boomed, and also an extremely lively theater- and music-scene was established bit by bit in Little Germany.

The quarter was situated around the Tompkins Square, which was named ‘White place’ by its residents, in todays East Village. The name of the quarter derived from the Irish population, the Germans called their quarter ‘Deutschlaendle’ referring to the numerous residents with Swabian origin.

The “General Slocum”-catastrophe hit Little Germany on June 15th 1904. A ship, the General Slocum was chartered to bring 1.300 passengers, most of them being women and children, to a joyride on New York’s East River. In the catastrophe about 1.021 people died. Eventually the whole community of Little Germany was not able to linger due to the catastrophe. Schools were without children, stores didn’t have an owner, and some surviving dependants like parents, spouses, children or friends committed suicide in the aftermath.

The community broke apart. In addition, the social advancement at the beginning of the 20th century led to the change of the residential quarter. Many Germans moved to Yorkville on the Upper East Side later on. Until 1930 the population figure decreased to 249.755.

Today German bakery products can still be found at the bakery Glaser (1654 Second Avenue) and in the Heidelberg (1648 Second Avenue) German food is served.

The Steubenparade which is taking place annually in September, named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, reminds of the German origin of numerous New Yorker.

Schneider’s Saloon (97 Orchard Street)

Schneider’s saloon was once the center of political life of the German community in New York. That is where the meetings of the German-American reform club took place. Its members supported the candidature of Otto Ottendorfer running for mayor of New York with a strong emphasis. As a member of the democrats it was Ottendorfer’s ambition to bring a fresh breeze to New York’s policy after the Tweed-scandal.

John Jacob Astor (1763-1848)

Being born on July 17th in 1763 in Walldorf close to Heidelberg Johann Jacob Astor emigrated by London to America in the spring-time. At first he gained the wherewithal in the trade of musical instruments in order to open up a music shop in New York. But by 1786 he already got into the fur trade. After receiving a trade license for every harbor of the East India Company the American Fur Company founded by Astor in 1808 grew to one of the mightiest monopolized companies – 1810 he gained his first million US-dollars. J.J. Astor laid the foundation stone for the later hotel-empire of his descendants with the in 1836 opened Astor House Hotel. He became a speaker and speculated with real estate in Manhattan starting in 1800. With his death on March 29th in 1848 the 25-times millionaire left a donation of 400.000 dollars to the foundation of the Astor Library – out of this library donation later emerged the world-famous New York Public Library. John Jacob Astor built the first wing of the Astor Library (the southern part) as a present to the city.

Gropius influence through the Pan-Am Building

The Met Life Building, former Pan Am Building, is located on 200 Park Avenue in New York City. It was designed by Emery Roth & Sons with the support of Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi. The building is 246.60 meter high and stretches over 58 floors. The Pan Am Building was, when it was opened on March 7th in 1963, the biggest commercial business building of the world. In the year 2005 Metlife sold the building for 1.72 billion US-dollars, the highest price an office building in the USA ever achieved. The building is also known for its helicopter service to the JFK International Airport. It was shown in several movies, amongst others Coogan’s Bluff and Godzilla.

Oscar Hammerstein (1848-1919)

Oscar Hammerstein was a writer, designer, showman, and inventor. He was born in Stettin, Pommern in 1848, as the oldest son of a German-speaking Jewish middleclass family. With 15, after his mother’s death, he turned away from his brutal father, to start a new life in the “New World”. After an extremely straining 89-day transatlantic journey Hammerstein arrived in the New York of the American civil war. Early he got to know the business of cigars. In 1874 he founded and edited a tobacco-business-information-magazine, the US Tobacco Journal which he supervised till 1888.

He developed a machine for cigars and had it patented. This machine as well as his paper industry reformed and industrialized the tobacco-industry and provided Hammerstein with a reliable source of income, so that he was able to meet his opera- and theater-ambition.

Hammerstein’s theater construction started on 125th Street at first. In Harlem he built more than 50 residences. In 1889 he built the first theater with the Harlem Opera House on 125th Street. Amongst others artists like Edwin Booth, Joseph Jefferson, Georgie Drew Barrymore, Lilian Russell, Fanny Davenport, E.H. Sothern, Margaret Mather, Otis Skinner, and Helena Modjeska performed there. In 1890 Hammerstein built his second building, also on 125th Street, the Columbus Theater, where again artists like George M. Cohan, Chauncy Olcott, and Walter Damrosch celebrated their success.

In 1893 Hammerstein constructed his third theater, the first Manhattan Opera Theater on 34th Street. Within 10 years Hammerstein built three other theaters in the heart of the Theater District around the Times Square. In 1899 he constructed his fifth, the Victoria Theatre, on the corner of 42nd Street and 7th Avenue. Celebrities like Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Bustor Keaton, Houdini and Mae West were some of the thousands of performers who developed the Vaudeville “nut house” Times Square out of the Oscars Victoria Theatre.

In 1900 Hammerstein built his sixth theater, the Republic Theatre, supposedly next to the Victoria Theatre on 42nd Street and rented it to the extremely successful producer, David Belasco. Hammerstein constructed his seventh theater in 1904, the Lew Fields Theatre, which is situated on 42nd Street.

At the age of 59 years Hammerstein’s obsessive opera-passion paid off. Hammerstein opened his eighth theater in 1906, his second Manhattan Opera House and gathered a group of opera singer. For four years Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera Company dominated the great opera world in New York City financially and creatively.

In 1909, he constructed his ninth house, the Philadelphia Opera House. He published the extremely successful American beginnings of Mary Garden and Louisa Tetrazzini. His group was built up with Stellar Performers like Nellie Melba, Emma Trentini, Giovanni Zenatello, Allesandro Bonci, Maurice Renaud, Charles Dalmoras, Mario Sammarco, and John MacCormack. He featured extraordinary productions of traditional standards such as Aida, Carmen, La Traviata, Otello, La Boheme, Tosca, Rigoletteo, Il Barbiere Di Siviglia and many more.

The competition with the Met inflated the costs of the opera production and saturated the audience’s interest in operas. This led to Hammerstein’s bankruptcy in the forth year. Hammerstein’s son, Arthur Hammerstein negotiated with the Met and with the financier Otto Kahn who paid Hammerstein an apartment rent of 1.2 Million US-dollars, on the condition that Hammerstein wasn’t allowed to produce a big opera in the United States for the next ten years. Inexorably Hammerstein took the money and left for England in order to open his ninth theater, the London Opera House, there. Again he dared a fanatical and financially ruinous opera-fight with the Covent Garden’s Royal Opera Company.

Hammerstein spent the Met’s money and again went bankrupt within two years. When he came back to America he sold the Victoria Theater in order to build his last theater, the Lexington Opera House. The Lexington opened as a movie theater and was sold again quickly afterwards. Hammerstein died, financially totally ruined in 1919, as the father of Times Square.

Otto Kahn (1908-1934)

Otto Kahn was born in Mannheim in 1867. He worked as a banker before emigrating to the USA. He settled down in New York where he associated himself with Kuhn, Loeb and Company, one of the biggest international banks on Wall Street in 1897. With his partner Paul Warburg and Jacob Schiff Kahn made a big deal in order to get money for the financing of the railroad tracks. But he also was the most famous and most influential chief financier in the art scene of America. In 1919, he was one of the key figures, who led the Wall Street to finance Hollywood.

OHEKA Castle, 135 West Gate Drive, Huntington, New York, 11743, phone: 516-741-8141

Otto Kahn created a 443 hectare big land. The castle has 126 rooms and the middle part was built in a French style. When the estate was built it was and still is the second largest private residence which was ever built in America. When it was completed in 1921 it was described as the ‘finest estate of America’ by the New York Times.

The author Robert B. King wrote an excellent book “Raising a fallen treasure” about the history of the OHEKA-castle and Otto Kahn.

Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868)

Emanuel Leutze was an US-American painter of history born in Germany. In 1825 he came to the USA as a child and later studied painting in Philadelphia. At the age of 25 he returned to Germany temporarily in order to study under the lead of Carl Friedrich Lessing at the academy of arts in Duesseldorf. Leutze therefore is, referring to art history, assigned to the painting school of Duesseldorf. In 1859 he settled back over to America where he was supposed to decorate the conference rooms of the Congress and the Senate in the Capitol in Washington. He died in 1868.

“Washington Crossing the Delaware” painting in the possession of the MoMA (Leutze, Emanuel)

On Christmas day in 1776, Washington crossed, together with 2.400 men of the artillery, the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to Trenton, New Jersey, in order to surprise the British army there. More than six years after the campaign, which strengthened Washington’s reputation, the painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware was created by the painter Emanuel Leutze. The painting was described as absurd by many art critics. Washington who is positioned at the bow of the rowboat seems ridiculous; the flag is an anachronism; and the river which is covered with ice is not the Delaware but the Rhine. Nonetheless the painting is one of the most famous creations of Leutze and the mostly known concept about the crossing of the river. The second version of this painting is in possession of the MoMA today. The first one burnt during World War II. in the art hall in Bremen.

Ottmar Mergenthaler

In 1872 Ottmar Mergenthaler, who was born in Hachtel, Baden-Wuerttemberg on May 11th 1854 to a schoolmaster and trained by his uncle Luis Hahl to become a watchmaker in Bietigheim, emigrated to America. After a short stop in Washington D.C. he found work in Charles T. Moore’s machine factory in Baltimore where Mergenthaler constructed his first composing machine “Blower” in 1882 which was installed in the printing plant of the New Yorker “Tribune” on June 3rd 1886.

At the World exhibition in Paris in 1889 Mergenthaler’s composing machine with its highly complicated precision mechanism reminiscent of oversized clockwork was the sensation. There were always three lines at a time in the works: while the compositor keyed in one line, the previously composed stencil line was spaced in center justification width and effused while the antecessor was stored. That way a capacity of 6.000 letters was reached.

In 1890 the “Mergenthaler Linotype Company” was founded in Brooklyn, New York, USA as well as the European subsidiary “Mergenthaler Linotype & Machinery Ltd.” in Manchester, England. In 1892 the production of the 1.000th Linotype could proudly be announced already.

On October 28th 1899 Mergenthaler died of tuberculosis in Baltimore being 45 years old.

Brooklyn Bridge (John August Roebling + his son Washington Roebling and whose wife Emily Warren Roebling)

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge from 1870 till 1883 is one of the most interesting but at the same time most tragic stories of bridge building ever. Its development is closely connected with the fate of the German family Roebling. Johann August Roebling derived from Muehlhausen in Thuringia and had studied architecture and construction engineering in Berlin. In 1831 he emigrated to America. After a couple of more or less successful attempts to gain foothold in his new homeland, he founded a wire factory and eventually turned his attention to bridge building. In this field he was very successful and quickly made a name for himself. Amongst others he built a suspension bridge across the Niagara in 1855, where railroad and traffic drove on top of each other.

In Prof. Johann Friedrich Dietlein’s lectures he found out about the first suspension bridges which had just been built in Bavaria, Palatinate, and Westphalia and inspected these promptly.

In 1865 Roebling started his planning of the Brooklyn Bridge which was supposed to span the East River of New York in order to connect the districts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Shortly after the beginning of construction Roebling suffered from a tragic accident though. During the measurement for an abutment he had an accident on July 6th 1869, as a consequence of which he died 16 days later from a tetanus infection.

His son, Washington Roebling continued his work. Roebling Junior was by no means a greenhorn in the field of bridge building. He had already been his father’s closest employee associate during earlier bridge projects and already had some experiences at his disposal, although he was only 32 years old when he took over the construction management.

But Washington Roebling fell ill only three years later with the caisson disease and became hemiplegia, deaf, and his sight worsened noticeably as well. Washington Roebling announced his wife Emily Warren Roebing to be the leading engineer. Until the end of construction which after all still lasted 11 long years she fulfilled the unexpected assignment with bravery. In June 1882, only a few months before the completion of the bridge, the customers held that Washington Roebling could no longer fill the position of chief engineer in his condition. In their opinion the construction was in serious danger and they wanted to put another engineer in charge. In this situation Emily Roebling delivered a convincing pleading in favor of her husband before the American community of civil engineers and was successful: she prevented her husband’s replacement. On May 24th 1883 she crossed the bridge to be the first human being.

With its completion the bridge was a downright sensation and was partially described as an eighth wonder of the world. Both technically and architecturally it set a new benchmark. Of course it was the longest suspension bridge of the world and it held the record for 20 whole years. The Brooklyn Bridge has an overall length of 1.07 kilometers and is located 85 meters above the water. On the superior level there is a sidewalk from which one can see the impressing skyline of Manhattan and the gothic arcs of the abutments at close range. Almost directly under the bridge there is the noble River Café in Brooklyn with a charming view. The sight of the Brooklyn Bridge by day, at sunset or by night is spectacular.

In 1950 a substantial restoration and rehabilitation of the bridge took place without changing its outer appearance though.

Seagram Building NY (1954-1958) in cooperation with Philip Johnson – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The in an international Style constructed Seagram Building was opened in 1958 and its construction costs were about 36 million US-dollars. The block made of bronze glass and steel was designed by Mies van der Rohe in teamwork with Philip Cortelyou Johnson. The constructor was Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. The noble restaurant Four Seasons can also be found in this building. The Seagram Building is located on 375 Park Avenue. It is 160 meters high and has 42 floors. In 1983 it was bought up by the Lehman Brothers for 375 million US-dollars.

Carl Schurz Park in NYC (Yorkville) 1910

In 1910 the Carl Schurz Park was named after the soldier, journalist and statesman by the Board of Aldermen. It overviews the turbulent water of Hell Gate. The park was created in honor of Carl Schurz. He was born in 1829 in Liblar, Prussia. The park was supported by the big adjacent German community of Yorkville.

After Schurz’ emigration to the USA in 1852 he quickly got a good reputation as a keen speaker and assisted the election campaign of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. His most important political positions were United States Senator for Missouri (1869-1875) and Secretary of the Interior (1877-1881) during the administration of Hayes. Later Schurz became an editor at the New York Tribune and a journalist at Harper’s Weekly.

Schurz was also honored by Karl Bitter’s statue in 1913 which is to be found at Morningside Drive and 16th Street. Karl Bitter’s bronze statue was formed by the prominent attorney Joseph H. Choate after Bitter’s death in 1906. Choate also donated 93.000 US-dollars in order to finance the statue. It is made of bronze and granite.

Paul Moritz Warburg (1868-1932)

Paul Moritz Warburg was the son of the banker family Warburg from Hamburg, Germany, who is till this day involved in the banking business with the banking house M.M. Warburg & Co.

After an apprenticeship in Hamburg he kept on learning for a few years in London and Paris. In 1893, during a stay in the USA, he married the daughter of a partner of the banking business Kuhn, Loeb & Co.

After his return to Hamburg he became partner of the family-owned bank. While his brother Max kept managing the bank, Paul Moritz Warburg and his brother Felix went to New York, where they became a partner of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. The in 1867 founded bank was merged to Lehman Brothers in 1977.

In 1910 Warburg acquired the citizenship of America. Paul Warburg proposed the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank according to the German pattern. In 1903 he published a paper with the title “Planning for a central bank”. His efforts resulted in the Owen-Glass Act of 1913, the foundation of the FED. The chairmanship of the Federal Reserve Bank was offered to Paul Warburg but he rejected it as he had just been nationalized as German Jew.

Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (1797-1871)

Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg built pianos as a profession. He had a childhood full of strokes of fate and started his career at the age of 15 as a carpenter and later built organs in Goslar. Very soon he discovered his love to music became an organist and started to build instruments in his kitchen secretly due to the strict conditions of his guild. In Brunswick he started building guitars and zithers and exchanged into building virginals, pianinos and grand pianos. His first homemade virginal he gave to his bride Juliane at the wedding.

Due to the uneasy political situation Steinweg passed the establishment in Brunswick to his son Theodor. In 1851 he emigrated with four other sons to New York where they at first worked in a piano enterprise. In 1853 they went into business for themselves. Heinrich Steinweg anglicized his name to Henry E. Steinway in 1854. Since then the company was called Steinway and sons. The enterprise quickly took an enormous boom after winning the first price at the New Yorker industrial exhibition for its cross-strung pianoforte. This was a development of Henry Steinway Jr.

In 1856 the first grand piano was built. In 1866 the company built its first own concert hall, the Steinway Hall which was one of the biggest concert halls at that time. Theodor Steinway sold the enterprise in Germany to Wilhelm Grotrian in 1865 and joined the New Yorker enterprise after the death of his brothers Heinrich and Karl.

The first Steinway Hall was built in 1866 on 14th Street in Manhattan and was considered to be one of the first concert halls in New York. Until the construction of the Carnegie Hall the New York Philharmonics held their concerts there. William Steinway discovered early that famous pianists who played on an instrument made by Steinway would be sales-promotional to the piano business. Anton Rubenstein’s performance was seen by 3.000 spectators. Further cultural highlights were the performances of Fritz Kreisler, Walter Damrosch, Jenny Lind, readings by Charles Dickens and the performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In 1925 another, still existing, Steinway Hall was built on 57th Street in New York between the Avenue of the Americas and the Seventh Avenue. The new Steinway Building replaced the old one which was closed on January 11th in 1925 and doesn’t exist anymore. The marble vaults and domes decorated the exhibition and sales rooms.

Under new management the Steinway Building was sold in 1958 together with the real estate. Steinway & Sons just remained subtenant in the building they built themselves. In May 1999 Steinway & Sons purchased the building back for 62 million US-dollars but they only received the real estate for a 99 years long tenancy.

Henry Kissinger (1923 - )

Henry Kissinger was the 56th Secretary of State of the United States from 1973-1977. From 1969-1975 he was assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. After leaving the government he founded Kissinger Associates, an international consultancy which he managed. Kissinger was born in 1923 in Fuerth, Germany. In 1938 he came to America and became American citizen in 1943. He attended the Harvard University. In 1973 he was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.

Herbert H. Lehman (1878 – 1963)

He was a member of the Democratic Party of America and the state of New York. Lehman was Governor of New York from 1933 to 1942 and represented New York in the Senate from 1949 to 1957.

In 1878 Lehman was born to the German-Jewish immigrant Meyer Lehman (one of the three founders of the Lehman Brothers Investment banking company). During World War I. Herbert Lehman was colonel at the U.S. army. The Lehman College of the City University of New York was named after him.

Robert F. Wagner (1877-1953)

He was a member of the Democratic Party of America and Senator of the state of New York from 1927 to 1949. He was born in Nastaetten, Hesse-Nassau, in Germany. Wagner immigrated to the USA with his parents in 1885. He attended the City College of New York as well as the New York Law School.

Wagner became a member of the State Assembly (1905-1908), the State Senate (1909-1918) and chairman of the State Factory Investigating Committee (1911-1915). He also worked at the Supreme Court of New York (1919-1926).

Institutions:

Deutsche Sprachschule Long Island (Stony Brook, NY 11790, tel.: 631.929.0043)

German American School (4 locations) 70-01 Freshpond Road Ridgewood, NY 11385, tel.: 212.787.7543)

German Language School of Albany, NY, tel.: 518.469.8003

German Language School of New York, 25-50 East River Drive, New York, 10010

German Language School of Zion-St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran German

Church in New York, 339 East 84 Street, New York, NY 10028, tel.: 212.288.0600

Goethe Institute New York

It is located on 1014 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028, USA. The Goethe- Institute New York organizes and supports a vast spectrum of cultural events which take place to present German culture and boost intercultural exchange. Language courses are held through the German House at the New York University in cooperation with the Goethe-Institute New York.

At the Goethe-Institute New York the central information service of all Goethe- Institutes in the USA is resident. This is where information about current aspects of the cultural, political, and social life in Germany is communicated. Furthermore there is a library with various books, newspapers, and professional journals situated in the building as well as access to different databases. Different exhibitions take place.

The Goethe-Institute New York coordinates moreover the eleven Goethe- Institutes in the region of North America. In North America there are Goethe- Institutes in New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, as well as in Canada (Montreal and Toronto) and in Mexico (Mexico City and Guadalajara). Cuba also belongs to the North American region. In Havana the foundation of a Goethe-Institute is on its way.

The seven Goethe-Institutes in the USA form a network which pursues the same goals and tasks.

Deutsche Sprachschule, New York, Inc. 24-50 East River Drive, New York, 10010

Deutsche Schule New York (DSNY)

It is located on 50 Patridge Road White Plains, NY 10605, tel.: 914.948.6513. On September 8th, 1980 the school opened for 64 pupils, classes 1 through 5. At the ceremonial inauguration on September 23rd, 1980 the German foreign secretary Genscher as a representative of the Federal Republic of Germany announced that the assignment of the school is to enable German-speaking children an apprenticeship that is approved in their home country. The school however is not supposed to be a “German island” but shall have a positive affection on the American environment in order to serve as a bridge and site of encounter between Germans and Americans.

The DSNY is an independent, coeducational and bilingual (German/English) foreign school which is at the same time a forum for the introduction and promotion of the German language and culture. German-speaking pupils are being accepted without putting any attention to their race, skin color, religion, national and ethnical belonging. The school is geared to the educational planning of the Federal Republic of Germany as well as to the requirements of the state New York.

Possible degrees are the German “Abitur” (general qualification for university entrance) the New York State High School Diploma, “Real- and Hauptschulabschluss” (secondary school). The elementary school starts with the American K-class for 5-year-olds. The “Gymnasium” (High School) lasts 8 years and starts with the “Orientierungsstufe” in class 5 and 6. The order of foreign languages is as follows: English (1. foreign language), French (2.), and Spanish (3.). Starting in grade seven one can also choose to study Latin.

German Lutheran Church of St. Paul

315 West 22nd Street (between 8th & 9th Avenue) P.O. Box 1971, New York, NY

10113-1971, tel.: 212.929.1695

stpaul@stpaulny.org

The St. Paul’s church has had a changing history, shaped by international sensations, but it still exists. As the only German-speaking community of formerly 20 in New York it is the only one that made it through rough times.

It started on August 15th, 1841: Probably due to limited space the parting of a group of St. Matthaeus-church took place. The church wasn’t able to host all Germans despite three services on Sundays. Therefore a group of Germans met with Pastor Friedrich Wilhelm Geissenhainer in the hall No. 148 at 8th Avenue starting on August 22nd, 1841.

About a year after that, on October 17th, 1842, the foundation stone of the first St.-Paul’s-church was set at the corner of 15th Street and 6th Avenue. The same year on Christmas the building was inaugurated. It also served as school. More and more Germans surged to the USA so that a rapid growth of the number of members of the new church took place. Soon they had to think about building a bigger church.

On May 6th, 1860, only 18 years after the inauguration the last service took place in the first church. After that it was knocked down and gave way for a glorious new building with almost 1.000 seats. On March 20th and 21st, 1861 the church was ceremonially turned over to the community. But the fortune in this part of the rapidly growing city New York didn’t last long. Due to an elevated railway which ran a stop on 6th Avenue and 14th Street the noise exposure became unbearable. Therefore they had to search for an alternative place for a new church.

This was found in 1897 in the 22nd Street. The German architect Francis A. Minuth was assigned with the construction of the third church in a neo-Gothic style. The old church was sold for 190.000 US-dollars. On July 4th, 1897 the foundation stone was ceremonially set with the collaboration of the church choir. After only seven months of construction the church was already inaugurated on February 13th, 1898.

In 1923, the year of the hyperinflation in Germany 115.500 German emigrants came to the USA. In 1941 after Germany’s declaration of war to America the community letter became forbidden and many community members detained. Not until 1947 they were set free again. This was extremely hard for all of them as their sons, who had already become American fought against the Germans in the army.

Ten months after the surrender of Germany the pastors of St. Paul’s directed an appeal to the community members, friends, and acquaintances as well as the association of Greater New York and its surroundings to attend the work of love of the German emergency assistance, Lutheran World Relief. In this year 6.000 pounds of clothing and 10.500 US-dollars were donated by the St. Paul’s church to help Germany overcome hunger as well as the post war misery. New York’s helpfulness and sympathy didn’t just only cause relief in Germany but also caused a recovery in the community. In an American publication it said: “St. Paul’s was the center for information about Germany after the war.”

Niemoeller, Dibelius, Lilje and Thielicke were now characters from Germany who went in and out of St. Paul’s. The picture shows the German Federal President, Theodore Heuss who was in office at that time. A boom with an increasing number of emigrants from Germany (600.000 from 1950 to 1960) caused a new revival at St. Paul’s church. However the bonding of the post war emigrants to their church wasn’t as intense as it was back in the 20s. The protocol of the consistory therefore diagnosed a considerable decrease of churchgoers.

Since the foundation of the St. Paul’s church it had been shaped by German emigrants. Now a new period of time dawned. The number of Germans who worked in the USA for companies, embassies, and schools increased rapidly. In 1972 the EKD established a rectorate for these “Expatriots” in New York. In 1978 this rectorate was merged with the St. Paul’s church. Since that day the letter head reads St. Paul’s church in association with the EKD. The offer of the St. Paul’s church directs itself to any German living in the metropolitan area since that day.

The pastors of St. Paul’s church were Friedrich Wilhelm Geissenhainer (1841-1879), Johann Friedrich Christian Hennicke (1874-1880), Henrich Arend Kropp (1919-1940), Heinrich Paul Suhr (1940-1985), Max Preilipper (1978-1986), Soenke Schmidt-Lange (1987-2002), Hinrich Buss (interim pastor), and Wilfried Wassermann who is in office since 2003.

St. Joseph’s Church 404 East 87th Street NYC, tel.: 212.534.5625

Zion St. Mark’s Evangelisch Lutherische Kirche 229 East 84th Street (between 2nd and 1st Ave) Manhattan

References:

http://www.bernd-nebel.de/bruecken/3_bedeutend/brooklyn/brooklyn.html

http://cazoo.org/Germans/index.shtml

http://www.typolexikon.de/l/linotype.html

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php

http://www.answers.com/topic/metlife-building

http://www.ibdb.com/venue.asp?ID=1254

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/gw/el_gw_bigimage.htm

http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/ney/uun/deindex.htm

http://www.dsny.org/index.php?id=117

http://www.stpaulny.org

http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/StPaulsLuth.html

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/UES/UES070.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkahn.htm

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hammerstein.html

http://www.oheka-castle.com/Html/history.html

http://www.lehman.edu/lehman/about/h.lehman/profile.html