Little Germany, Manhattan

Little Germany, known as Kleindeutschland in German, was a densely populated German neighborhood around Tompkins Square Park (which is bounded by Avenue A and Avenue B and 7th and 10th Streets) in the Lower East Side, New York City, USA. This area of New York City later became known as Alphabet City. The neighborhood of Little Germany went into a major decline starting in 1904 after the General Slocum disaster wiped out the social core of the area.

Growth

A constant flow of immigrants entering the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through Ellis Island provided a constant population influx for Little Germany. In the 1850s alone, 800,000 Germans passed through New York. The German immigrants differed as they usually were educated and had marketable skills in crafts. More than half of the bakers and cabinet makers were Germans or of German origin, and many Germans also worked in the construction business. Educated Germans were important players in the creation of Trade unions, and were also often politically active. At the beginning of the 20th century, Little Germany had a population of almost 50,000 people. The neighborhood was the cultural center of German activities in New York, including beer gardens, sport clubs, libraries, choirs, shooting clubs, German schools, and churches.

General Slocum Disaster

Disaster struck Little Germany on June 15, 1904. St Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church had organized their 17th annual picnic to commemorate the end of the school year. A large paddlewheeler, the "General Slocum", was chartered for a cruise on the East River to a picnic site on Long Island. Over 1,300 passengers, mostly women and children, participated in the event. Shortly after departing, a fire started in a storage compartment in the forward section. Although the ship was equipped with lifeboats and preservers, both were in disrepair. Passengers found the boats stuck and inoperable, and the life preservers were rotten and failed to float. The absence of adequate safety equipment, compounded with the poor leadership of Captain William Van Schaick, caused an estimated 1,021 passengers to die by fire or drowning. Although only one percent of Little Germany's population was killed by the disaster, those lost were members of the most established families, the social foundation of Little Germany's community, and the extent of the disaster had enormous repercussions on the St Mark's parish. The disaster accelerated an exodus that was already well underway. Some bereaved parents, spouses, children, and friends committed suicide. [See R. T. O'Donnell (2003) "Ship ablaze: The tragedy of the steamboat General Slocum" (Broadway Books, New York, ISBN 0767909054). ] The desire to find a culprit led to conflicting public opinion, and family quarrels about the distribution of money from a Relief Fund amongst survivors led the society of Little Germany to turn sour. [See R. T. O'Donnell (2003) "Ship ablaze: The tragedy of the steamboat General Slocum" (Broadway Books, New York, ISBN 0767909054). ]

The decline of Little Germany

The General Slocum disaster was a key factor in hastening the end of the Lower East Side German community. Many of the remaining German settlers in New York moved to Yorkville. [Collins, Glenn. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE4DA1F31F93BA35755C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 " A 100-Year-Old Horror, Through 9/11 Eyes; In the Sinking of the Slocum, a Template For the Arc of a City's Grief and Recovery"] , "The New York Times", June 8, 2004. Accessed November 20, 2007. "The disaster helped accelerate the flight of Germans from the Lower East Side to Yorkville and other neighborhoods, although there were other motivations as well. "The very dense old housing on the Lower East Side was no longer attractive to upwardly mobile Germans," said Dr. John Logan, director of the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at the State University of New York at Albany."] [Strausbaugh, John. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/arts/14expl.html?_r=1&oref=slogin "Paths of Resistance in the East Village"] , "The New York Times", September 14, 2007. Accessed December 29, 2007. "On June 15, 1904, about 1,200 people from St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (323 Sixth Street, between First and Second Avenues, the site of the Community Synagogue since 1940) died when the steamship the General Slocum, taking them on a day trip up the East River, burned. It was the deadliest disaster in the city before Sept. 11, 2001. It traumatized the community and hastened residents’ flight to uptown areas like Yorkville."]

ee also

*Yorkville, another historically German neighborhood in Manhattan
*List of named ethnic enclaves in North American cities

References