From The Peopling of New York City

Contents 1 First Residential Settlement in New York 2 Kleindeutschland and other German areas 3 The General Slocum Disaster 4 Other Areas of Residency 5 References

First Residential Settlement in New York

The first group of German immigrants arrived in New York City in 1710. James du Pré, the commissary of stores for the Germans, estimated that around 2,400 arrived in New York.^[1] However, that is about three-fourth of the original 3,000 Germans that boarded the ship. Although the Germans boarded the ship in December of 1709, it did not actually set sail until April of 1710. Thus, many of the Germans had died from illnesses and diseases acquired from the time they boarded the boat and when they finally arrived in New York City.

After their arrival, the Germans mostly settled in Nutten Island, what is now called Governors Island.

Kleindeutschland and other German areas

A large portion of the German immigrants settled in the area around Thompkins Square Park in the Lower East Side - what was then the city's Tenth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Seventeenth wards. Thus, the area gained the name of Kleindeutschland, or "Little Germany." By 1875 the four wards were more than 64 percent German American, representing approximately half of the city's German population; and by the 1870s there were more than 60,000 Germans living in Kleindeutschland. [citation here from "All the Nations under Heaven"] All around there were beer gardens, theaters, bookshops, restaurants, sport clubs, libraries, choirs, shooting clubs, German schools, and churches; there was almost no need for the German immigrants to leave the neighborhood. However, the number of Germans living in Kleindeutsch began to decline rapidly following the General Slocum disaster in 1904.

The General Slocum Disaster

The General Slocum disaster was said to be one of the deadliest fires in American history. What started out as a relaxing celebration, ended up as a tragic event resulting in over 1,000 deaths. In celebrating the end of the Sunday school year, the St. Mark's Lutheran church chartered an excursion boat to take over 1,300 people for their annual outing. Everything was going well, until a blaze broke out from a storage room on the boat. After numerous failed attempts to put out the fire, the passengers were thrown into a state of chaos. The crew members were ill-prepared for a fire emergency, and all the equipment onboard were either rotten or expired - leaving the some passengers with no choice but to jump overboard. All hope was lost, when Captain William Van Schaick refused to dock the boat because of his fear of setting off an explosion near the many oil tanks on the pier. Eventually, the boat reached it's destination on Locust Grove on Long Island Sound, completely engulfed in flames.

News of the disaster spread worldwide and consolations were sent to the survivors and the families and friends of those who were killed in the fire. Such a tragic event struck the German community hard as masses of people moved away from Kleindeutschland in hopes of escaping the tragic atmosphere that consumed the area. By 1910, only a few families remained.

Other Areas of Residency

Even before the disaster, Germans had begun to move out to different areas including College Point and Astoria in Queens. Because of the Germans' mastery in a variety of occupations, the economic and commercial growth during the second half of the 1800s allowed for German settlement in these two areas. Even in their new location, they continued to enjoy privileges and amenities of a German neighborhood, such as beer halls and theaters. However, it was not the same for the Germans occupying Yorkville, Manhattan, where assimilation, high rents and changing immigration laws displaced the Germans.

References

1. ↑ Otterness, Philip. Becoming German: The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York. Cornell University Press, 2004.

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