Germans in the Southwest: 1850-1920 (review)

European immigrants swept into the West during the 1800s, driven by the prospect of cheap land they falsely believed to be unoccupied. Germans often integrated into the larger context of this Anglo American expansion, but those who settled in the Southwest, specifically New Mexico, experienced a unique transition into their new homeland.

In Germans in the Southwest: 1850–1920, Tomas Jaehn describes the structure and progress of the German immigrant community in New Mexico. In their country of origin the Germans had never considered that the Hispanic domination of the Southwest had created an environment that many visitors saw as essentially different from the rest of the United States. They had instead immersed themselves in the inordinately successful works of Karl May, an author of Western fiction who had never set foot on the frontier. These potential Americans absorbed epic tales of manliness and chivalry that reflected more the tenets of German nationalism than the spirit of the plains. Also, while they acknowledged the Native Americans as "noble savages," the Spanish and Mexican influence simply did not register.

Jaehn convincingly explains how German settlers played a role in developing New Mexico that was disproportionate to their small numbers. His most intriguing point focuses on the observation that this community felt no great need to protect their ethnic identity from the Hispanics with whom they intermarried and whose language they learned, but did become more defensive of it as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad brought with it the promotion of the Anglo American way of life. Both the Germans and the Mexicans, for instance, preferred to socialize in cantinas (most often separately) while the Anglo Americans stood and drank quickly in saloons, or, most disturbing of all to both groups, did not consume alcohol at all. Other differences included the Germans' old world approach to town planning and a notable lack of interest in politics.

Financial consideration, according to Jaehn, remained paramount for the leaders of the German community in New Mexico, and it eventually proved stronger than their ethnic consciousness. They considered the German language a luxury while English and Spanish kept them in business. As the Anglos took control of the region, the Germans increasingly married into their ranks and turned away from the Hispanics who now formed the economic underclass of manual laborers. This process of amalgamation reached a crucial point during World War I. The Germans experienced relatively little persecution by the Anglos (who always remained more suspicious of the Hispanics' loyalty), but they did have to display their American patriotism. The war, coupled with the immigration restrictions of the 1920s, essentially brought this episode of trans-Atlantic migration to an end.

Germans in the Southwest is a thought-provoking book. The title appears somewhat misleading as the reader has to accept that New Mexico is fully interchangeable with the term "Southwest" rather than one specific part of it. Nevertheless, Tomas Jaehn has produced a well documented and readable examination of an often overlooked region of European immigration.