Germans in St. Louis: Die Freie Gemeinde
Die Freie Gemeinde von Nord St. Louis were people that formed a collective group for the development of a schooling system for German immigrant children in the area.
The School Hall
The image above shows the school building the group would go on to build as they outgrew their previous schools. The school served many German immigrants coming to St. Louis after the 1848 immigration due to revolutions in Europe at the time, causing many Germans to flee to the United States in search of a new life.
Die Freie Gemeinde had distinct ideals from their American counterparts. The school aimed to take on the children because at the time German was not an instruction language common in the St. Louis Public Schools. Morals and lessons were taught without the use of religion, which was distinct from the typical Anglo-American style of incorporating religion into education, exactly the opposite of the group’s goals. The goals were to educate the children without the use of religion and foster intellectual conversations about morals without the use of the Bible. They used the term political atheism to describe their ideas about education.
This aligned with the phrase on one of the cornerstones of the new school,
“Wahrheit Macht Frei,”
which translated means the truth will set one free. Unlike most citizens of the US at the time, the Freie Gemeinde was a staunch proponent of social equality, including the abolition of slavery, and women’s suffrage.
Aiding in the Civil War
These views lined up with the group known as the Forty-Eighters, who were German immigrants who fled Germany during the revolutions that demanded democratic governments and more human rights. The Freie Gemeinde did include some Forty-Eighters, with the earliest groups arriving in the early 1850s. Later in its political influence, the group would rally for the Socialist Party in St. Louis, further documenting their radical views in history.
St. Louis was among three major cities Germans migrated to, including Milwaukee and Cincinnati. In a report from the National Bureau for Economic Reheard (NBER), Dippel and Heblich state:
The immigrants would prove themselves in the war, fighting for the Union and the freedom of enslaved people in the United States because of the reign in Europe they ran from.
Anti-German Sentiment
Soon the public school system would introduce lessons in German, as well as a more independent way of thought, free of religious material, which was growing unfavorable in schools beginning in the 1870s. This caused a massive decline in enrollment at the school, leading to a tough financial situation for the group where they were forced to increase tuition. The group rented out rooms to the public schools and groups that wished to use them to make additional income. Later in 1887, English was set in law as the only legal language of instruction for schools, forcing all foreigners to conform and learn the English language.
The removal of German from public school instruction language, which forced all students to learn in English, was the beginning of both anti-German sentiment and sadly, the slow death of German culture in St. Louis. While there was still strong immigration of Germans through the early 1900s, the English language dominated daily life more than it had ever before.
The State of German Culture Today
German culture still exists in St. Louis, but on a much less grand scale, and has been very Americanized. Elements of German culture, like breweries, winemaking and the Sunday culture have all been adopted by Missouri citizens, but the remnants of the past are continually destroyed, with the city of Saint Louis looking much different than it did only 100 years ago.
Places like Das Bevo are helping keep the semi-authentic German culture alive but must appeal to modern tastes to continue operating. Microbreweries have revived the small-scale brewing culture brought over, with countless across the area such as Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, Schlafly, 4 Hands and countless others.
As someone with German heritage and dual citizenship, it hurts me to learn about how much German culture has died in Missouri, but what’s left is an important mark on the city. Breweries, Biergartens and their influence on the public schools are all things we may not think about in our daily lives, but we can thank the Germans for bringing them here.
