Did you know Americas official language almost became German after Revolutionary War?

Question

I wonder if the USA would have supported NAZI germany during World War 2 to defeat the British

Answer 1

That is an urban legend.

The story goes that the US voted on an official language and that opinions were split between English and German. Supposedly it all came down to the final vote: English won - by a single vote, because one German-favoring guy was sitting on the toilet.

On January 13, 1795, Congress considered a proposal, not to give German any official status, but merely to print the federal laws in German as well as English. During the debate, a motion to adjourn failed by one vote. The final vote rejecting the translation of federal laws, which took place one month later, is not recorded, but the recommendation failed in the end.

Americans have never had a legally-established official language. The so-called German vote did not take place in 1776, and it had nothing to do with privileging German over English. The legend that it did, which has gone around since at least the 1850s, was spread initially by propagandists celebrating German contributions to American culture. It has since been taken over by those who claim that the English language in the United States is an endangered species. The story of the German Vote is occasionally trotted out by ELA supporters to demonstrate the power of ethnic groups to subvert national unity and to warn Americans that although the German threat to English has been defused, the Spanish one has not.

http://www.watzmann.net/scg/german-by-one-vote.html

If common language meant that one would automatically side with someone during a conflict then we probably could have avoided many wars in history.....like the Revolution!

Answer 2

Nein, ist das richtig wirklich? Don't forget the Hessians (Germans) who were mercenaries for the British. Lots of them were given land here in return for defecting. I don't think the "looked down on" thing is correct for that time period. That was more the Irish and Italians in the latter 1800's and early 1900's. Most German immigrants were tradesmen and were able to do something other than manual labor (like the Irish and Italians). Germans were well known as providing needed crafts such as machinists, carpenters, bricklayers, cobblers, engineers, vintners, farmers and yes, beer brewers. Germans WERE looked down on after WWI and people wouldn't eat cabbage and kicked Dachund dogs (really). Before WWII, the United States had PLENTY of German immigrants and first generation Germans-Americans. As proof, in the 20's and 30's, Missouri alone had over 20 German language only newspapers, and in rural schools in the central and southeast part of the state, German was a required class. However, I think you'd be hard pressed to find any German or German-Americans that emigrated back to Germany so they could fight for Der Furher. In fact, in WWII my dad served with native Germans that had left Germany to join the US military, so there were even Germans didn't support the Nazi movement.

Answer 3

It's good that sites like snopes can help us all sort out and debunk urban legends like these (see the snopes link below).

But actually, we shouldn't always NEED to know things like which piece of legislation produced this legend. A look at the make-up and traditions of the colonies (with more details readily available via a bit of web-searching), should make it obvious that the founders would never have even considered such a move:

Consider this --

The 13 colonies were all BRITISH colonies, under British government (so that government affairs, the courts, etc., would have conducted business in ENGLISH) and in EACH of them the dominant group was British. In New England the colonists were overwhelmingly English or Welsh. Yes, there were significant pockets of Germans, some Dutch, French, etc. but NONE of these groups offered serious competition to English.

Here's a chart of the overall breakdown:
English 48.7 %
African 20.0 %
Scot-Irish 7.8 %
German 6.9 %
Scottish 6.6 %
Dutch 2.7 %
French 1.4 %
Swedish0.6 %
Other 5.3 %

Add the British groups together and you get 63.1%. Further, if you discount the Africans from the total (who would certainly have been in no position to impose their languages) you are left with 16.9% non-British. In other words, about 75% of the white population was British, and most of that from England. Even if were not all under British rule, there would have been NO contest!

You might also consider the fact that the English-speaking colonists were generally VERY proud of their heritage. Though they thought the current rulers of Britain were violating their right, the SPECIFIC rights they repeatedly appealed to as being abused were their historic rights as ENGLISHMEN (to make their own laws, to trial by jury, etc). Many colonists, esp. those of New England (despite being "the seat of the rebellion") continued to be very pro-British after the war.

Now, given that history and those numbers, what possible reason on earth would these people have had for making everyone (themselves including) learn and speak German all the time, or even just for all official government business (which is what an "official language") is really about anyway) ??!

More specifically --about German:
True, German was the largest non-English speaking European group, but even they were a fraction of the size of the English population, about one tenth [8% vs. 75% of the white population]. But wait, "German" here only refers to their ORIGINS -- a significant proportion had lived in the English colonies long enough that they mainly or only spoke English themselves. And, as majorities work, the English-speaking would likely be even MORE highly represented in Congress. I don't have the precise number of those in Congress who would have 'spoken German at home', but if there were any, the number would be minute. So, aside from the absurdity of the proposal, much less that the English-speaking would ever consider it, exactly who is it that would ever MADE such a proposal??

On the origins of the urban legend about our "almost choosing German" for our national language...not hardly -- see the link below.

Answer 4

German didnt even become a really widespread language until well after the revolution.
Even then it was mostly in the western parts of the country since the Germans were looked down upon just like the Irish on the East cost, but they were smart enough to leave.

Answer 5

I find this very hard to believe considering that America had greater loyalty to England and France. Not to mention there *wasn't* a Germany, henceforth no official German language.

Answer 6

Never heard this and I can't see the southern colonies supporting it. Possibly ONE colony was in favor of it.

The ideals of Nazi Germany clashed with the ideals of Americans. It would have made no difference in WWII.

Answer 7

What fool told you that? Rediculous! It was actually Dutch!

Answer 8

Did you know that the world teems with false "did you know?" assertions and that's one of them?

Well, now you do.