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'{{Infobox ethnic group |group = German Canadians <br> Deutsch-Kanadier </small> <br> Canadiens-allemands </small> |pop = '''3,322,405'''<br />(by ancestry, <small>[[Canada 2016 Census|2016 Census]]</small>)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/hlt-fst/imm/Table.cfm?Lang=E&T=31&Geo=01|title=Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity Highlight Tables - Ethnic Origin, both sexes, age (total), Canada, 2016 Census – 25% Sample data|first=Government of Canada, Statistics|last=Canada|website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref> |popplace = [[Ontario]], [[Western Canada]], [[Atlantic Canada]], [[Quebec]] |langs = [[Canadian English|English]], [[Canadian French|French]], and [[German language|German]] |rels = [[Lutheran]], [[Roman Catholic]], [[Judaism]], [[Anabaptism]] ([[Amish]], [[Mennonite]], [[Hutterite]]) | image = German_ancestry_in_the_USA_and_Canada.png | image_caption = <div style="text-align: center>German Canadians % of population by area</div> |related = [[Germans]], [[German American]]s, [[Austrian Canadians]], [[Swiss Canadians]], [[Luxembourgish Canadians]] }} '''German Canadians''' ({{lang-de|Deutsch-Kanadier}} or {{lang|de|Deutschkanadier}}, {{IPA-de|ˈdɔʏ̯tʃkaˌnaːdi̯ɐ|pron}}) are [[Canadians|Canadian]] citizens of [[ethnic German]] ancestry. The 2016 Canadian census put the number of Canadians of German ethnicity at over 3.3 million. Some immigrants came from what is today [[Germany]], while larger numbers came from German settlements in [[History of German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe|Eastern Europe]] and [[History of Germans in Russia, Ukraine and the Soviet Union|Imperial Russia]]; others came from former parts of the [[German Confederation]] like [[Austria-Hungary]] and some emigrated from Switzerland. ==History== [[File:Little Ducth Church.jpg|thumbnail|[[Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church]] - oldest German church in Canada (1756), Halifax, Nova Scotia]] When Governor [[Edward Cornwallis]] established [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]] (1749), he also settled the first German community in present-day Canada. They were known as [[Foreign Protestants]]. These were continental Protestants encouraged to come to Nova Scotia to counterbalance the large number of Catholic [[Acadians]]. This influx happened between 1750 to 1752. Family surnames, Lutheran churches and village names along the [[South Shore (Nova Scotia)|South Shore]] of Nova Scotia retain their German heritage, such as [[Lunenburg, Nova Scotia|Lunenburg]]. The first German church in Canada, the [[Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church]] in [[Halifax Regional Municipality|Halifax]], is located on land set aside for the German-speaking community in 1756. The church was designated a [[National Historic Sites of Canada|National Historic Site of Canada]] in 1997.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=3252|title=HistoricPlaces.ca - HistoricPlaces.ca|website=Historicplaces.ca|accessdate=19 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{CRHP|12462|Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church National Historic Site of Canada|24 March 2013}}</ref> [[Image:PioneerTower-plaque.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The Waterloo Pioneer Tower honours the Mennonite Germans who helped populate Waterloo County.]] A smaller number of Germans who had fought for [[prince-elector]] king [[George III]] during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] stayed in North America and mixed with the [[French-Canadians]].<ref>Wilhelmy: Les Mercenaires allemands au Québec, 1776-1783</ref> The [[American Revolution]] saw a small group of [[German-American]] migrants to Canada. German speakers from New York and Pennsylvania (and other areas) made up a significant percentage of [[United Empire Loyalists]]. To fight the war, Britain had hired regiments from small German states; these soldiers were known as "[[Hessian (soldiers)|Hessians]]." About 2,200 settled in Canada once their terms of service expired or they were released from American captivity. For example, a group from the Brunswick regiment settled southwest of [[Montreal]] and south of [[Quebec City]].<ref>Lehmann (1986) p 371</ref> The largest group fleeing the United States were the [[Mennonites]] from the U.S., called [[Pennsylvania Dutch]], actually Pennsilfaanisch ''Deitsch'', (German).<ref name="historicplaces.ca">{{cite web|url=http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=3297|title=HistoricPlaces.ca - HistoricPlaces.ca|website=Historicplaces.ca|accessdate=19 August 2017}}</ref> Many of those families' ancestors had been from Southern Germany or Switzerland. Starting in the early 1800s, they moved to what is today southwest Ontario, settling around the [[Grand River (Ontario)|Grand River]], especially in [[Berlin, Ontario]] (now known as [[Kitchener, Ontario|Kitchener]]) and in the northern part of what later became [[Waterloo County, Ontario]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.waterlooregionmuseum.com/collections-and-research/place-names-in-waterloo-region/waterloo-township/ |title=Waterloo Township |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2013 |website=Waterloo Region Museum Research |publisher=Region of Waterloo |access-date=13 March 2017}}</ref> This same geographic area also attracted new German migrants from Europe, roughly 50,000 between the 1830 and 1860.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/german-canadians/ |title=German Canadians |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2016 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |access-date=13 March 2017}}</ref><ref>Lehmann (1986) passim</ref><ref name="auto"/> Research indicates that there was no apparent conflict between the Germans from Europe and those who came from Pennsylvania.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://waterlooregionww1.uwaterloo.ca/category/pre-1914/ |title=Religion in Waterloo North (Pre 1911) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |website=Waterloo Region |publisher=Waterloo Region |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref> ===1850 to 1900=== By 1871, nearly 55 percent of the population of Waterloo County had German origins.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/waterloocountyto00bloo/waterloocountyto00bloo_djvu.txt|title=Full text of "Waterloo County to 1972 : an annotated bibliography of regional history"|website=archive.org|accessdate=19 August 2017}}</ref> Especially in Berlin, German was the dominant language spoken. Research indicates that there was no apparent conflict between the Germans from Europe and those who came from Pennsylvania.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://waterlooregionww1.uwaterloo.ca/category/pre-1914/ |title=Religion in Waterloo North (Pre 1911) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |website=Waterloo Region |publisher=Waterloo Region |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref> The German Protestants developed the Lutheran Church along Canadian lines. In Waterloo County, Ontario, with large German elements that arrived after 1850, the Lutheran churches played major roles in the religious, cultural and social life of the community. After 1914 English became the preferred language for sermons and publications. Absent a seminary, the churches trained their own ministers, but there was a doctrinal schism in the 1860s. While the Anglophone Protestants promoted the [[Social Gospel]] and prohibition, the Lutherans stood apart.<ref>Wilfrid H. Heick, "Becoming an Indigenous Church: The Lutheran Church in Waterloo County, Ontario," ''Ontario History,'' Dec 1964, Vol. 56 Issue 4, pp 249–260</ref> In [[Montreal]], immigrants and Canadians of German-descent founded the [[German Society of Montreal]] in April 1835. The secular organization's purpose was to bring together the German community in the city, and act as a unified voice, help sick and needy members of the community and to keep alive customs and traditions.<ref name=bookHist>{{cite book|last=Gürttler|first=Karin R.|title=Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft zu Montreal (1835-1985)|year=1985|publisher=German Society of Montreal|location=Montreal, QC|isbn=2-9800421-0-2|pages=108}}</ref> The Society is still active today and celebrated its 180th anniversary in 2015. ===20th century=== [[File:German immigrants, Quebec City, Canada, 1911.jpg|thumb|A family of German immigrants to [[Quebec City]] in 1911.]] The population of the Canadian west beginning in 1896 drew further large numbers of German immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe. Once again German-speaking [[Mennonite]]s (of Dutch-Prussian ancestry) were especially prominent, being persecuted by the [[Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality|Tsarist regime]] in Russia. The farmers, used to the harsh conditions of farming in southern Imperial Russia (today's [[Ukraine]]), were some of the most successful in adapting to the Canadian prairies. This accelerated when, in the 1920s, the United States imposed quotas on Central and Eastern European immigration. Soon after Canada imposed its own limits, however, and prevented most of those trying to flee the [[Third Reich]] from moving to Canada. Many of the Mennonites settled in the [[Winnipeg]] and [[Steinbach, Manitoba]], and the area just north of [[Saskatoon, Saskatchewan]].<ref>Lehmann (1986) pp 186–94, 198–204</ref> By the early 1900s, the northern part of [[Waterloo County]], Ontario exhibited a strong German culture and those of German origin made up a third of the population in 1911. Lutherans were the primary religious group. There were nearly three times as many Lutherans as Mennonites at that time. The latter, who had moved here from Pennsylvania in the first half of the 1800s, primarily resided in the rural areas and small communities.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://waterlooregionww1.uwaterloo.ca/category/pre-1914/ |title=Waterloo Region Pre-1914 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |website=Waterloo Region WWI |publisher=University of Waterloo |access-date=20 March 2017}}</ref> Before and during World War I, there was some [[Anti-German sentiment]] in the Waterloo County area and some cultural sanctions on the community, primarily in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener).<ref name="historicplaces.ca"/> Mennonites in the area were pacifist so they could not enlist and some who had immigrated from Germany (and were not born in Canada) found it morally difficult to fight against a country that was a significant part of their heritage.<ref>{{cite news |last=D'Amato |first=Louisa |date=28 June 2014 |title=First World War ripped away Canada's 'age of innocence' |url=https://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news-story/4605027-first-world-war-ripped-away-canada-s-age-of-innocence-/ | work=Kitchener Post, Waterloo Region Record |location=Kitchener |access-date=14 March 2017}}</ref> It was this anti-German sentiment that precipitated the [[Berlin to Kitchener name change]] in 1916. The city was named after [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]], famously pictured on the "[[Lord Kitchener Wants You]]" recruiting posters. Several streets in Toronto that had previously been named for Liszt, Humboldt, Schiller, Bismarck, etc., were changed to names with strong British associations, such as Balmoral. There were anti-German riots in Victoria, BC and in Calgary, Alberta in the first years of the war. News reports from Waterloo County, Ontario indicate that "A Lutheran minister was pulled out of his house ... he was dragged through the streets. German clubs were ransacked through the course of the war. It was just a really nasty time period.".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/kitchener-ontario-berlin-name-change-100-years-tom-reitz-berry-vrbanovic-1.3744212|title=Kitchener mayor notes 100th year of name change|website=Cbc.ca|accessdate=19 August 2017}}</ref> That sentiment was the primary reason for the 1916 [[Berlin to Kitchener name change]] in Waterloo County. A document in the Archives of Canada makes the following comment: "Although ludicrous to modern eyes, the whole issue of a name for Berlin highlights the effects that fear, hatred and nationalism can have upon a society in the face of war."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-3300-e.html|title=ARCHIVED - Did You Know That… - ARCHIVED - Canada and the First World War - Library and Archives Canada|date=30 June 2016|website=Collectionscamnada.gc.ca|accessdate=19 August 2017|url-status=bot: unknown|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630163552/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-3300-e.html#d|archivedate=30 June 2016}}</ref> Across Canada, internment camps opened in 1915 and 8,579 "enemy aliens" were held there until the end of the war; many were German speaking immigrants from Austria, Hungary, Germany and the Ukraine. Only 3,138 were classed as prisoners of war; the rest were civilians.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/enemy-aliens/anti-german-sentiment |title=Anti-German Sentiment |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |website=Canadian War Museum |publisher=Government of Canada |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref><ref> {{cite web |url=http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/first-world-war-internment-camps-a-dark-chapter-in-canadian-history-1.1945156 |title=First World War internment camps a dark chapter in Canadian history |last=Tahirali |first=Jesse |date=3 August 2014 |website=CTV News |publisher=Bell Media |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref> There was also anti-German sentiment in Canada during WWII. Under the [[War Measures Act]], some 26 POW camps opened and interred those who had been born in Germany, Italy and particularly in Japan, if they were deemed to be "enemy aliens". For Germans, this applied especially to single males who had some association with the Nazi Party of Canada. No compensation was paid to them after the war.<ref> {{cite web |url=https://cdnhistorybits.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/internment-in-canada-ww1-vs-ww2/ |title=INTERNMENT IN CANADA: WW1 VS WW2 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=23 February 2016 |website=ALL ABOUT CANADIAN HISTORY |publisher=ALL ABOUT CANADIAN HISTORY |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref> In Ontario, the largest internment centre for German Canadians was at [[Camp Petawawa]], housing 750 who had been born in Germany and Austria.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.petawawaheritagevillage.com/history/canadian-internment-camps |title=Canadian Internment Camps |last=MacKinnon |first=Dianne |date=16 August 2011 |website=Renfrew County Museums |publisher=Renfrew County Museums |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref> Between 1945 and 1994, some 400,000 German-speaking immigrants arrived in Canada.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/german-canadians/ |title=German Canadians |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2016 |website=Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref> The vast majority have been largely assimilated. Culturally and linguistically there is far less to distinguish Germans from the Anglo-French majority compared to the more visible immigrant groups. ==Geography== [[File:Censusdivisions-ethnic.png|thumb|People who have self-identified as having German ancestors are the [[wikt:plurality|plurality]] in many parts of the [[Prairie provinces]] (areas coloured in yellow).]] ===Ethnic-bloc settlements in the Prairies=== There are several German ethnic-bloc settlements in the [[Canadian Prairies]] in western Canada. Close to half of people in Saskatchewan are German-Canadians. German bloc settlements include the areas around Strasbourg, Bulyea, Leader, Burstall, Fox Valley, Eatonia, St. Walburg, Paradise Hill, Loon Lake, Goodsoil, Pierceland, Meadow Lake, Edenwold, Windthorst, Lemberg, Qu'appelle, Neudorf, Grayson, Langenburg, Kerrobert, Unity, Luseland, Macklin, Humboldt, Watson, Cudworth, Lampman, Midale, Tribune, Consul, Rockglen, Shaunavon and Swift Current. ===Saskatchewan=== In Saskatchewan the German settlers came directly from Russia, or, after 1914 from the Dakotas.<ref>Heinz Lehmann and Gerhard P. Bassler, ''The German Canadians, 1750–1937: immigration, settlement & culture'' (1986)</ref> They came not as large groups but as part of a chain of family members, where the first immigrants would find suitable locations and send for the others. They formed compact German-speaking communities built around their Catholic or Lutheran churches, and continuing old-world customs. They were farmers who grew wheat and sugar beets.<ref>Jessica Clark and Thomas D. Isern, "Germans from Russia in Saskatchewan: An Oral History," ''American Review of Canadian Studies,'' Spring 2010, Vol. 40 Issue 1, pp 71–85</ref> Arrivals from Russia, [[Bukovina]], and Romanian [[Dobruja]] established their villages in a 40-mile-wide tract east of Regina.<ref>Adam Giesinger, "The Germans from Russia Who Pioneered in Saskatchewan," ''Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia,'' Summer 1984, Vol. 7 Issue 2, pp 1–14</ref> The Germans operated parochial schools primarily to maintain their religious faith; often they offered only an hour of German language instruction a week, but they always had extensive coverage of religion. Most German Catholic children by 1910 attended schools taught entirely in English.<ref>Clinton O. White, "Pre-World War I Saskatchewan German Catholic thought concerning the perpetuation of their language and religion," ''Canadian Ethnic Studies'', 1994, Vol. 26 Issue 2, pp 15–30</ref> From 1900 to 1930, German Catholics generally voted for the Liberal ticket (rather than the Provincial Rights and Conservative tickets), seeing Liberals as more willing to protect religious minorities. Occasionally they voted for Conservatives or independent candidates who offered greater support for public funding of parochial schools.<ref>Clinton O. White, "The Politics of Elementary Schools in a German-American Roman Catholic Settlement in Canada's Province of Saskatchewan, 1903–1925," ''Great Plains Research,'' Sept 1997, Vol. 7 Issue 2, pp 251–272</ref> Nazi Germany made a systematic effort to proselytize among Saskatchewan's Germans in the 1930s. Fewer than 1% endorsed their message, but some did migrate back to Germany before anti-Nazi sentiment became overwhelming in 1939.<ref>Jonathan F. Wagner, "The Deutscher Bund Canada in Saskatchewan," ''Saskatchewan History,'' May 1978, Vol. 31 Issue 2, pp 41–50 </ref> ==Education== There are two German international schools in Canada: * [[Alexander von Humboldt Schule Montréal]] * [[German International School Toronto]] ==See also== {{Portal|Canada|Germany}} *[[Germans]] *[[Ethnic German]] *[[German Americans]] *[[Hessian (soldiers)]] *[[German inventors and discoverers]] *[[German Mills, Ontario]] *[[German Canadian Club Hansa]] *[[Waterloo County, Ontario]] ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== {{commons category|Canadians of German descent}} *[http://goo.gl/maps/sGnLP German Clubs, Communities and Businesses in Canada and USA] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110521100411/http://www.ualberta.ca/~german/PAA/German-speakingcommunitiesinAlberta.htm University of Alberta's History of Germans in Alberta] *[http://www.multiculturalcanada.ca Multicultural Canada website] including German books and periodicals and digitized issues of the Berliner Journal, 1880–1916 *[http://brantford.library.on.ca/genealogy/pdfs/historyofoursgerman.pdf History of Ours: the German People] A history of Germans in Brantford, Ontario. *[http://www.hansahaus.ca German Canadian Club "Hansa Haus" in Mississauga, Ontario] German-Canadian Cultural Centre in the GTA *[https://germancanadianassociation.ca German Canadian Association of Nova Scotia] Nonprofit organization in Nova Scotia that promotes German Canadian heritage and cultures *[http://www.gccmb.ca German Canadian Congress] ==Further reading== * Becker, Anthony. "The Germans in Western Canada, A Vanishing People." ''Bulletin of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association'' (1975). [http://www.cchahistory.ca/journal/CCHA1975/Becker.pdf online] * Foster, Lois, and Anne Seitz. "Official attitudes to Germans during World War II: some Australian and Canadian comparisons." ''Ethnic and Racial Studies'' 14.4 (1991): 474-492. * Freund, Alexander. "Troubling memories in Nation-Building: World War II memories and Germans' inter-ethnic encounters in Canada after 1945." ''Social History'' 39.77 (2006): 129+. [https://hssh.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/hssh/article/download/4214/3412 online] * Gürttler, Karin R. "Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft zu Montreal (1835-1985)". (1985) Montreal, QC: German Society of Montreal. 108 p. {{ISBN|2-9800421-0-2}}. * Grams, Grant W.: ''German Emigration to Canada and the Support of its Deutschtum during the Weimar Republic - the Role of the Deutsches Ausland Institut, Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland and German-Canadian Organisations'' (Peter Lang Publishers, Frankfurt am Main, 2001. * Grams, Grant W.: "Der Volksverein deutsch-canadischer Katholiken, the rise and fall of a German-Catholic Cultural and Immigration Society, 1909-1952", ''The Catholic Historical Review,'' 2013. * Grams, Grant W.: "The Deportation of German Nationals from Canada, 1919 to 1939", ''Journal of International Migration and Integration,'' 2010. * Grams, Grant W.: "Immigration and Return Migration of German Nationals, Saskatchewan 1919 to 1939", '' Prairie Forum'', 2008. * Grams, Grant W.: "Karl Respa and German Espionage in Canada during World War One", ''Journal of Military and Strategic Studies,'' 2005. * Grams, Grant W.: "Sankt Raphael’s Verein and German-Catholic Emigration to Canada between 1919 and 1939", ''The Catholic Historical Review'', 2005. * Grams, Grant, W.. "German emigration to Canada & the support of its Deutschtum during the Weimar Republic: the role of the Deutsches Ausland-Institut, Verein fur das Deutschtum in Ausland & German-Canadian organisations." ''Canadian Ethnic Studies'' 33.1 (2001): 143. * Heinz Antor (2003) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=CEocfbvIMMMC&lpg=PA40&dq=German%20Canadians&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true Refractions of Germany in Canadian literature and culture]'' Walter de Gruyter * Lehmann, Heinz. ''German-Canadians 1750–1937'' (1986) * Keyserlingk, Robert H. "The Canadian Government's Attitude Towards Germans and German Canadians in World War Two." ''Canadian ethnic studies= Études ethniques au Canada'' 16.1 (1984): 16+. * McLaughlin, K. M. ''The Germans in Canada'' (Canadian Historical Association, 1985). * Magocsi, Paul, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples'' (1999) extensive coverage * Sauer, Angelika E. "The unbounded German nation: Dr. Otto Hahn and German emigration to Canada in the 1870s and 1880s." ''Canadian Ethnic Studies'' 39.1-2 (2007): 129-144. * Wagner, Jonathan. ''A History of Migration from Germany to Canada 1850–1939 '' (UBC Press, 2006) * Waters, Tony. "Towards a theory of ethnic identity and migration: the formation of ethnic enclaves by migrant Germans in Russia and North America." ''International Migration Review'' 29.2 (1995): 515-544. * {{fr icon}} Meune, Manuel. ''Les Allemands du Québec: Parcours et discours d'une communauté méconnue''. Montréal: Méridien, 2003. {{ISBN|2-89415293-0}}. {{People of Canada}} {{German diaspora}} [[Category:Canadian people of German descent| ]] [[Category:Ethnic groups in Canada|German]] [[Category:European Canadian|German]] [[Category:German Canadian| ]] [[Category:German diaspora by country|Canada]]'