What is now the US has seen large german waves of immigration since at least the 17th century, today "german Americans" are estimated at over 40 million people.
However, only about 5% of those people today speak german at all:
WWI saw massive pressure to anglicise and assimilate, leading to a much stronger assimilation of the german demographic than for most other immigrant groups. German America all but disappeared as a cultural and linguistic expression, at least in proportion to its sheer size.
From what I gather WWI was really the turning point, though I suppose for a true change the POD might have to be placed earlier, in the 19th century... and, geographically, in germany, rather than the US, ironically enough.
So what I propose is, WWI never happens, whatever changes in the lead up this requires (especially in imperial german politics).
German-Americans remain an integrated, but very distinctive group, and an American-german dialect is widely spoken.
So much so that books and movies, radio shows and later movies are produced in American-german and exported to germany and Austria, where in turn they have almost as large a cultural impact as US culture had on British culture. Perhaps stronger, even, because it would lack the antipathy you get between former colony vs old imperial center.
So my question is
a) would that ATL culture I describe "flow back" into Europe, the way I described
and
b) could this even include political influence?
Say even without WWI the situation in Europe is tense and fascist-, nationalist- and authoritarian political ideas still develop. Would the "positive example" of democratic American germans inspire democratic reforms/revolutions in german-speaking Europe, or would it more realistically be the other way round - german Americans would import and absorb whatever ideology crystallizes in the old country?
Or would they simply evolve into very distinct cultures altogether?
However, only about 5% of those people today speak german at all:
WWI saw massive pressure to anglicise and assimilate, leading to a much stronger assimilation of the german demographic than for most other immigrant groups. German America all but disappeared as a cultural and linguistic expression, at least in proportion to its sheer size.
From what I gather WWI was really the turning point, though I suppose for a true change the POD might have to be placed earlier, in the 19th century... and, geographically, in germany, rather than the US, ironically enough.
So what I propose is, WWI never happens, whatever changes in the lead up this requires (especially in imperial german politics).
German-Americans remain an integrated, but very distinctive group, and an American-german dialect is widely spoken.
So much so that books and movies, radio shows and later movies are produced in American-german and exported to germany and Austria, where in turn they have almost as large a cultural impact as US culture had on British culture. Perhaps stronger, even, because it would lack the antipathy you get between former colony vs old imperial center.
So my question is
a) would that ATL culture I describe "flow back" into Europe, the way I described
and
b) could this even include political influence?
Say even without WWI the situation in Europe is tense and fascist-, nationalist- and authoritarian political ideas still develop. Would the "positive example" of democratic American germans inspire democratic reforms/revolutions in german-speaking Europe, or would it more realistically be the other way round - german Americans would import and absorb whatever ideology crystallizes in the old country?
Or would they simply evolve into very distinct cultures altogether?
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