One of the things often lost on myself and my American German kinsmen is the sheer complexity of our pre-New World heritage. And that is before we incorporate the even more complex results that is the extrapolating from that into the current American German Cultures.

You had the German Tribes, which led into different warring states, the Franks, Saxons, Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, Minority status in majority non-German Countries, Northern Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germanic areas of France, Eastern Europe, The Volga Germans, Germans who settled the Balkans, Prussia. We've had a rather interesting time of it before our bloodlines touched the soil of North America with plans to stay. I myself have quite a few ancestors from Baden-Württemberg, Hessen and neighboring states but I also have ancestors from German Regions of France and Switzerland, Austria and even parts of Prussia that are neither German speaking nor part of Germany anymore. But they were ethnically German... (Part 1/?)

American Germans or as I call them from time to time Usoniandeutsch are a variety of people, you have the Hermanndeutsch in the Missouri Rhineland, the Pennsylvania Dutch in well... Pennsylvania, The Volga Germans when pushed out of Russia after being there for generations emigrated to the Great Plains. You have Appalachian Germans, and Rocky Mountain Swiss, you have those who have ended up as Hoosiers, Buckeyes, Hawkeyes, Tarheels among many others. We have made our indelible mark on this great land. Our folklore, language, cuisine and much more. This is not a betrayal of ancestors of the old country but a carrying forth of their will to the new. The Mountains, Forests and Prairie stripped back all the extra and left what must remain. The "Stamm" or Stem has shifted but we continue forth as the Race "Root". We are still descended of those who fought back the Romans led by Hermann the hero of the Germans, we still dealt with the complexities of the Holy Roman Empire (2/?)

While Germans did assimilate it wasn't until Post WW2 that we began to drop our language and more overt presentation of our own heritage. But the marks stuck many of the most American things are of German Origin, Blue jeans descend from our pants making traditions, Hot Dogs and Hamburgers are German recipes, Pretzels, Beer, even going into the indelible mark we made on the religious landscape with the Amish, Mennonite and other communities which while no longer entirely German Ethnically often not only uphold the German reputation of quality craftsmanship but a unique dialect shaped by this land. It is our Dog Breeds who are often by the side of law enforcement or who fight beside soldiers on the battlefield. If you find yourself on the German side of social media posts of silly pranks, trick shots or homestyle meals and find yourself half surprised they speak German when they look like your Iowan town you may not realize that you grew up surrounded by Germans. Maybe not by country but by blood. (3/?)

Even the accent many Midwestern Germans speak with is the result of centuries of isolated German Dialects speaking English, if you speak with a Midwest Accent you are more than likely speaking with an American German accent. The stork delivering babies descends from the stork spirits delivering infant souls of our own beloved Goddess Holle, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow Fame finds his origin in the Hessian German Mercenaries and the lore of the Wild Hunt from Germania, Santa Claus the Jolly Old Elf descends from German Folklore of Kobolds, Saints and Wildmen and his original home was even an Enchanted German Castle, architecture, music, cuisine. Even the way we dress while warped by modernity and circumstance is a continuation of our German Heritage maybe not as blatant as it would be cocooned in the old Country but present all the same.

You are part of the unbroken line of German Heritage that Stemmed Off onto this new land, but you are no less German of Blood and Bone for it. (4/4)