German Language in U.S. History

The strong presence of a single language other than English in the United States is hardly a new phenomenon. In the 18th and 19th centuries, German speakers were numerous and influential in the political process in ways similar to today's Spanish speakers. Legend has it that German would have become the official language of the land, were it not for a tie-breaking, dissenting vote. This entry attempts to set the record straight about the legend of German as the official language in the United States, a legend that has roots at two levels of government—the federal level and at the state level in Pennsylvania.

Karl Arndt traced the earliest written account about the status of German to an 1813 article by the Rev. Justus H. C. Helmuth of Philadelphia, who had also been trustee and a professor of German at the University of Pennsylvania. This account predates Franz von Lohrer's 1847 report that is the generally accepted, definitive source on German language policy in early U.S. history. Helmuth reported on recommendations to handle court cases of German speakers in German and to publish the laws of the land in German in places where there were many German-speaking people. Helmuth's vision was for German to be a natural official language in a number of states, but not to be imposed on all states, and certainly not to supplant English. Some aspects of his vision were never realized.

Helmuth also reported on a 1794 petition to the House of Representatives by several Germans who lived in Virginia. The petitioners outlined the language-related obstacles to civic engagement to which German-speakers were subjected; they requested that U.S. laws be made available in German in places where there were many German speakers. The petition was referred to a committee consisting of Francis Preston of Virginia, Daniel Heister of Pennsylvania, and Peter Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, who was also brother of then Speaker of the House Friedrich A. C. Muhlenberg. In April 1794, the committee passed the bill, but it was never brought to the floor because of political pressures on the speaker of the House, a German American who did not want to appear to be pro-German in an English-dominant political environment. The bill was sidetracked or tabled repeatedly in 1794 and 1795. Though official records include much of the debate on this issue, no official record exists of speeches made by Peter Muhlenberg or Heister in favor of printing U.S. laws in German. Arndt claims that some pro-German comments or speeches were deliberately suppressed to prevent German speakers from pushing for even greater recognition of their language. Thus, it appears that from its beginnings, the United States has been a [Page 321]markedly pro-English nation where there has been little room for other languages in the political arena.

At the state level, specifically in Pennsylvania, Arndt refers to an 1828 article published anonymously in Stuttgart that was corroborated by several other articles in circulation in Europe and the United States at the time. The article reported that German nearly achieved official status in Pennsylvania because of the unified efforts of German speakers in that state. A second article, Mittheilungen aus Nordamerika [Reports from North America] by Dr. Ernst Ludwig Brauns, appeared in Braunschweig in 1829. Brauns affirmed Helmuth and repeated the call for German to be coequal with English in places in the United States where there were large numbers of German speakers. Brauns also referred to a motion made in Pennsylvania to elevate German to coequal status with English that failed by one vote.

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