There were several causes for Wisconsin’s receiving so large a German population. In the first place there was an effort made, as in the case of Missouri and Texas, to individualize Wisconsin as a German state. The plan to found a German state in the Wisconsin territory failed as it had elsewhere, but as in the other cases the result was favorable for the state selected, the latter being thereby rapidly supplied with a desirable and abundant population. We observed above the foundation of the “Giessener Gesellschaft” [= Gießener Auswanderungsgesellschaft, (town of) Giessen Emigration Society] in 1833, and the large consequent immigration entering Missouri. In 1835 a society called “Germania” was formed on this side of the ocean, with the purpose of maintaining German customs, speech, and traditions against all destructive influences, and assisting German refugees and immigrants arriving in the United States.¹ After a rebuff met by their memorial to Congress, asking that land be set aside on easy terms for German² fugitives, their next plan was to direct German immigration to specific areas, of which they might gain control through their numbers, so as to make of them German states. The promoters could not agree on the region to be settled; Texas and Oregon were desired by some, while the majority favored the Northwest Territory, between the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. The society did not have a long life. A similar movement took place in 1836, started in Philadelphia by the German-American Settlement Society,³ the final result of which was the founding of the town of Hermann, in Gasconade County, Missouri. Franz Löher, perhaps the first German traveler and man of letters who felt sincerely interested in the German-American population of the United States, and who wrote the so-called “romantic history” of the Germans in America,⁴ advocated as the best place for German settlers the territory between the waters of the Ohio and Missouri, and thence to the northwest. The Irish, he argued, remained in the East or in the cities, whereas the native Americans were scattered through the Far West. That left the centre and northwest, the real pick of the territory, to the German immigration. He favored concentration, and spoke in favor of Wisconsin and Iowa, for German settlement, and if elsewhere, Texas. The same general plan is advocated in numerous other works.⁵

An influence still stronger were the favorable reports sent home by immigrants who were well pleased with their location in Wisconsin. “Nothing succeeds like success” is an adage nowhere more applicable than to immigrations. The climate of Wisconsin was such as to encourage them. Though the winters were cold, the air was dry, and fevers incident to new settlements were not so frequent as elsewhere. The climate and soil closely resembled what the Germans had left at home. The products of the soil were the same as they had raised in Germany for generations,—wheat, rye, oats, and garden vegetables. Moreover there was no competition with slave labor, and, after the period of slavery, with free negro labor, felt to be degrading by the self-respecting German, who had been attracted by the reports he had heard of the dignity of labor in America.

Several other well-marked causes united in bringing Wisconsin so large a foreign and particularly a German population. In the first place, Wisconsin, when admitted to statehood in 1848, was unincumbered by public debts arising from internal improvements on a large scale.⁶ No burdens of taxation, therefore, were to be feared by the immigrant. In the second place, the constitution adopted by the state was very liberal toward foreigners. To secure the right of voting, only one year of residence was required. This unusual privilege⁷ was the result, to be sure, of a struggle, one in which two Germans had been very influential. These two were Dr. Franz Hübschmann, the representative of the Germans in the first convention of 1846, and Moritz Schöffler, their able spokesman in the second convention of 1847–48.⁸

Another feature favorable to the immigration was Wisconsin’s liberal land policy. The land granted her by the government for the maintenance of schools was sold at low prices and without delay to the immigrants. Altogether the state received nearly four million acres of land⁹ for the benefit of schools and the University, and the greater part of these lands were offered for sale at the minimum government price of $1.25 per acre. Some sections in remote regions sold for less, others were appraised higher, but excellent pieces of land were even sold on credit. Naturally the liberality of this system bore fruit, for even the poorest immigrant, after some years of honest toil, was enabled to meet the financial obligations thus assumed.

Still another circumstance favoring the Germans was the appointment by the state of a commissioner of immigration. The law passed in 1852 required the commissioner to reside in New York City throughout the year and to give immigrants information favorable to Wisconsin. The first appointee, G. Van Steenwyk, was followed in 1853 by Hermann Härtel. Both men distributed pamphlets, and advertised in German newspapers in the East and in Europe. Leipzig, Kassel, Nuremberg, Basel, Bremen, and other places in Germany were made acquainted with the advantages of Wisconsin’s soil and climate. Härtel reported that within eight months he had answered three hundred and seventeen letters from Europe, and that, of the three thousand people who had visited his New York office, two thirds were Germans. Often money was sent to him from settlers in Wisconsin to assist their relatives on arrival at New York. The American consul at Bremen, Dr. Hildebrandt (a German of Mineral Point, Wisconsin), gave valuable assistance in circulating information. Nearly thirty thousand pamphlets were distributed, one half of them in Europe. The third commissioner, F. W. Horn (of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin), appointed in 1854, used similar means of advertising, and of directing immigrants to Wisconsin. A branch office was established in Quebec, though not with satisfactory results.

The existence of the Wisconsin Bureau of Immigration became widely known throughout Europe, and its square dealing strengthened the good name the state had already gained. The office was discontinued in 1855, but in 1867 the state established a board of immigration. The governor, ex officio a member, was authorized to appoint a local committee of three citizens in each county to assist the board, particularly in making out lists of the names and addresses of European friends of Wisconsin settlers, so that information in regard to the state might be sent to them.¹⁰ For some years Bernhard Domschke, a German editor of Milwaukee, was a member of the board, and German pamphlets were distributed in large numbers. In 1871 the board was abolished, and the office of a state commissioner of immigration was created, to be elective for a term of two years. The incumbent was to reside in Milwaukee and to appoint a local agent for Chicago. The duties of the commissioner were to prepare and distribute pamphlets, giving information about the resources of the state and the land still available for settlement. In 1879 the experiment of a board of immigration was renewed, and it was maintained from 1881 to 1887; J. A. Becher was the well-qualified president of the board. During this period Wisconsin was well represented in Europe, especially in Germany.¹¹ The Wisconsin Central Railroad sent its agent, K. K. Kennan, to Basel, Switzerland. He found it to his advantage to be under the state authority and to represent the interests of the whole state of Wisconsin, rather than those of a private corporation. Through his efforts and those of the board, about five thousand immigrants were secured, mainly from the forest lands of Bavaria, and were distributed along the line of the Wisconsin Central Railroad from Stevens Point to Ashland. The inducement held out to them was good wages in the lumber camps, where they might in a short time earn enough to buy land and build homes. Some provision was made by the Wisconsin Central to accommodate the settlers; e. g., in Medford, where a house was used to shelter from seventy-five to one hundred immigrants for two weeks free of charge, with the use of a large cooking-stove.¹²

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1. Cf. Gustav Körner, Das deutsche Element in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, 1818–1848, p. 108 [see 2nd ed., New York, 1884, p. 108]. (Cincinnati, 1880.) Cf. also Löher, Geschichte und Zustände der Deutschen in Amerika, pp. 281–282. (1847.)

2. There had been a precedent. June 30, 1834, thirty-six sections of public land, in Illinois or Michigan, had been granted to 235 Polish refugees by Act of Congress.

3. The “Deutsche Ansiedlnngs-Gesellschaft,” in which J. G. Wesselhoeft, editor of the Alte und neue Welt, and many others were interested. Cf. the work already referred to: W. G. Bek, The German-American Settlement Society of Philadelphia and its Colony, Hermann, Missouri. (Americana Germanica Press, Philadelphia, 1907.)

4. The book already referred to: Franz Löher, Geschichte und Zustände in Amerika. (2te Ausgabe, Göttingen, 1855.) Cf. pp. 501–505: Länder für deutsche Staatenbildung; and pp. 280–285: Staatenpläne.

5. Cf. A. E. Hasse’s book, published in Grimma, 1841, in which he directly counsels the Germans to settle in Wisconsin, basing his advice on his “own observations and experience.” Cf. also Everest-Levi, How Wisconsin came by its Large German Element, pp. 303–312 [see reprint, as Kate Asaphine Everest, 1892, pp. 7–16]. Cf. Theodor Wettstein, Berichte aus Wisconsin. (Elberfeld, 1850.) The author regards the state as best suited for Germans because of its natural advantages of soil and climate.

6. The Milwaukee Courier, quoting the Mohawk Courier (N. Y.), says, August 31, 1842, “Immigration now turns to Wisconsin, Missouri, and Iowa, for Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana have public debts.” Everest-Levi, p. 314. (Reprint, p. 18.)

7. Wisconsin was the only state possessing so liberal a franchise in 1848; in 1851 Indiana put a similar clause into her constitution; Minnesota in 1857. Other states followed in ten or fifteen years. Everest-Levi, supra. (Reprint, p. 18.)

8. Dr. Franz Hübschmann was a native of Weimar, who settled in Milwaukee as a physician in 1842. He was interested in all public affairs of the city and state, became instrumental in getting the appropriation for the harbor of Milwaukee, was leader in all political, social, and musical activities of the German element, and brought to the city other men of talent, such as the journalist, Moritz Schöffler. Hübschmann’s speech on the franchise was published in the Wisconsin Banner, November 7, 1846. Under the editorship of Schöffler, the Wisconsin Banner became the leading organ in the movement for the liberal franchise for foreigners. The Germans were joined in their efforts by the Irish element. In the earlier years of the struggle, 1843–44, the Germans, K. J. Kern, H. Härtel, F. A. Lüning, were also influential. Cf. R. A. Kosz [Rudolf A. Koss], Milwaukee (Milwaukee, 1871), pp. 231, 258; Hense-Jensen, Wisconsins Deutsch-Amerikaner, vol. i, pp. 103–109.

9. Everest-Levi, supra, pp. 321–322. (Reprint, p. 25.)

10. Cf. Everest-Levi, supra, pp. 327–328. (Reprint, pp. 31–33.)

11. Twenty thousand pamphlets and nine thousand copies of a pocket map, with a description of Wisconsin, were printed in 1882 and largely distributed in Germany. Ibid., p. 33, note.

12. Everest-Levi (Reprint), p. 36.

The largest Bavarian groups in Wisconsin are from the vicinity of the village of Wunsiedel, near Baireuth, in the Fichtel mountains, where small farms exist; from the Bohemian mountains near Eger and Zwiesel, and from the forests of Lower Bavaria; there are also many from Rhenish Bavaria and other parts of the country.