My wife and I just came from a cultural performance at the German Society of Pennsylvania . The Society was founded in 1764, with the purpose of providing aid to the thousands of German immigrants that were coming into Pennsylvania through the port of Philadelphia.
There was a need for such an organization, because the immigrants were not well acquainted with the customs, procedures, and the language. Because so many of the immigrants were coming under contracts of indenture (to be executed), there were opportunities to take advantage of the Germans, and to get them to agree to things which they did not understand. The best source of information was fellow Germans who knew the rules of the game. These more experienced Germans could meet the ships and talk to the passengers in a language which they understood. They could tell them what to expect and what was fair. The abuses had been bad, and the German Society of Pennsylvania was organized to help them.
Twenty years later (1784), the German Society of New York was founded. In New York, the aim was to assist local German churches provide assistance to the thousands of Germans who were beginning to use New York as the port of immigration. The purposes of the Society were "...the Encouragement of Emigration from Germany, assistance of needy immigrants, and the spreading of useful knowledge among their countrymen in this State".
When incorporation papers were filed, the Council of Revisions vetoed the incorporation, arguing that it would be too difficult to make good Americans out of so many Germans "...totally unacquainted with the principles of civil liberty". The Society had to wait another twenty years before it could be incorporated.
The Society grew as New York became a major port. The staff went from unsalaried to salaried. John Jacob Astor, president from 1837 to 1841, gave $20,000 to the Society. The second half of the century was a real test of the functions, since so many Germans came in this period. At first they came through Castle Garden on the lower tip of Manhattan Island, but later, after 1891, through Ellis Island. When the gates closed to immigration in 1914, there were 300,000 inhabitants of German descent in New York City. At the time this was as many as lived in Cologne. More than one million immigrants had been helped before the Society printed its final immigration guide in 1958.
As the number of German immigrants to Philadelphia declined, the German Society of Pennsylvania changed to a cultural organization, offering programs open for everyone, including a large library facility. The Society still owns a building in downtown Philadelphia, but the expense of maintaining the building shows.
Material for this note came from Robert and Barbara Selig, who were writing in the April/May issue of
German Life
magazine.
(25 Mar 02
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.