The “Spirit of the Fatherland”: German-American Culture and Community in the Library and Archive of the German Society of Pennsylvania, ca. 1887–1920

Abstract

ABSTRACT Established to nourish and showcase the vibrancy of German-American ethnic, scholarly, and cultural life, the library and archive of the German Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have long served as artifacts of identity, politics, and intellectual discourse in one of the United States' largest cities. The library's opulent reading room showcases the central role of literary and cultural pride in German-American life. This article analyzes a pivotal era in the history of the German Society, its library, and its archive—between roughly 1887 and 1920—when burgeoning German ethnic pride came face to face with challenges posed by interethnic tensions, and, eventually, shifting geopolitical alignments culminating in the First World War. Study of the construction of the Society's headquarters and library reading room, along with examination of the contents of the library and archive, reveals that the Society operated as a crucible for evolving understandings of German-American ethnicity and republican citizenship.