| Studies on German immigrants in America have traditionally assumed that a single German ethnic identity defined the millions who emigrated from the thirty-four provinces that eventually formed the second German Empire in 1871. However, regional, religious, political, cultural, and social variations characterized these immigrants in Europe and America. Although scholars have advanced several definitions of ethnicity, the most promising ones treat it as a form of multiple self-definition. Until 1871, a broadly-conceived "German" ethnic identity and community in Philadelphia were products of careful creation and cultivation by leaders whose occupational interests and/or political views demanded that the immigrants as a whole occasionally identify themselves as Germans, not only as emigrants with specific provincial or religious loyalties.;The extent of regional and occupational variation appeared among German immigrants and occupational patterns of German emigration and immigrant settlement occurred. Although emigration moved from the German southwest into the north and east and drew handicraft workers, agricultural laborers, and farmers depending on the region, American cities and towns attracted their own unique regional and occupational mixtures of Germans. Second, between 1850 and 1880 in Philadelphia, northern Germans were more likely to attain higher status occupations, while southern and central Germans flocked to skilled and handicraft work.;Despite these variations, three arenas in which Philadelphia German leaders emerged encouraged the formation of a German-American ethnic identity and community. The voluntary associations catered to the diverse interests of Philadelphia Germans, yet bound them to a loosely-defined "German-America." The German-language press committed itself to nationalist German aspirations, while diverging in its American political affiliations. Yet, the editors and publishers, as leaders, united in their commitment to ethnic group development, while their press provided a universal German language for their readers. Third, the brewing industry created a symbolic product--lager beer--which, despite its southern German origins, became German beer in America. The brewers joined the voluntary association leaders and journalists in assisting in the making of Philadelphia's German-America. |
