
Cincinnati's German Heritage #22-31
Posted by:
BruceS
N 39° 06.011 W 084° 29.918
16S E 716306 N 4330872
Historical marker commemorating the role Germans played in the development of Cincinnati. The marker is located in Sawyer Point Park along the river in Cincinnati.
Waymark Code: WM3H8C
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 04/06/2008
Views: 87
Side A : "Cincinnati's German Heritage"
Cincinnati, along with Milwaukee and St. Louis, is one of the three corners of
the "German Triangle," so-called for its historically high concentration of
German-American residents. During the 19th century, Cincinnati was both a
destination for immigrants to the tri-state area and a hub from which many
groups of Germans moved inland to settle new Ohio communities-many along the
Miami and Erie canal corridor which began here. German-Americans have greatly
influenced the social, cultural, economic and political life of the Cincinnati
area. At the turn of the 21st century, approximately half of Cincinnati's
population was of German descent.
Side B :
The first Germans arrived in Cincinnati in 1788, and after 1795 Martin Baum,
known as the father of German immigration to Cincinnati, recruited many early
German arrivals. In 1802 American Revolution veteran Major David Ziegler became
Cincinnati's first mayor. Mass migration began in the 1830s with Cincinnati's
boom in the meatpacking and shipping industries, especially from northern
Germany. It accelerated after the 1848 Revolution in Prussia, and many of the
refugees, or "forty-eighters," assumed community leadership roles here. The last
major wave of German immigration were Danube-Swabians in the mid 20th century.
The city's symbol, the Tyler-Davidson Fountain, was created in Cincinnati's
sister city Munich; other landmarks of German heritage include the
Over-the-Rhine district, the Roebling suspension bridge, Cincinnati's brewing
tradition, and many of its street names.