The Ruins of Deutsch-Athen: The Remains of the Wisconsin-German Culture in the Modern Landscape

Keywords: Wisconsin, German-Americans, culture
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

From the middle of the nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth century, a German immigrant culture flourished in the state of Wisconsin. As time went on, this culture developed unique characteristics that distinguished it from other German-speaking cultures and began to affect the state’s culture. However, during both World Wars, the German culture in the United States was brutally suppressed. While several scholars argue that the Wisconsin German culture and language are now extinct, my research findings based on fieldwork at several research sites in Wisconsin and archival work do not support this conclusion. The Wisconsin German culture is not only alive and well, but it has also ingrained itself so deeply within the culture of Wisconsin as a state that the two are now inseparable. Likewise, not all of the dialects of Wisconsin German have gone extinct. Even those German dialects in the state that have disappeared have impacted Wisconsin English so strongly that the resulting accent instantly identifies an individual originating from Wisconsin.