There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, a thriving German immigrant community could be found in the city of Indianapolis. The more liberal members of the German community established organizations which catered to their athletic, intellectual, and social needs. This community life was called Vereinsleben, from the German words for club/association (Verein) and life (Leben). Fitting homes were needed for the clubs. Thus, several structures central to the Vereinsleben of the liberal German community were constructed. The buildings were built to be recognized as the homes of these clubs and to provide all the necessary facilities. This thesis examines the history of the community as well as the individual clubs and uses the buildings as documents in that process. / Department of Architecture

In the 1850s, many of Indiana's native-born Protestant population perceived the traditions and customs of German immigrants, specifically those concerning drinking alcoholic beverages and beer, as a threat to their "American way of life." They believed that the Germans' public drinking habits and behavior were the source of social problems causing instability and disorder prevalent in many of their communities. Although these problems were caused by Indiana's rapid industrialization and urbanization, older-stock Hoosiers blamed them on the readily identifiable immigrants. During the 1850s, temperance advocates in Indiana sought to force the German immigrants to conform to native-born Anglo-American culture to solve these problems of societal order and control. The temperance movement in Indiana was a fight to impose American cultural values on immigrants. Though temperance was a powerful social and political force in Indiana in the 1850s, it could not alter the tight-knit German Catholic community of Dubois County.The numerical strength of the German community and their strong opposition to assimilation hindered the temperance movement in Dubois County. The prominent role of the local Catholic Church and the Germans' common ethnic and cultural identity were two main factors in keeping temperance out of the county. Other significant factors were the permanent nature of the Germanimmigrants' settlement, the rural isolation of the county, the domination of the local Democratic party, and the prominence of beer in the German-Americans' culture.This study is historically important for several reasons. First, the reaction of this specific community to the antebellum temperance campaign provides a more complete understanding of how German immigrants in Indiana and the Midwest dealt with the problems of assimilation. Second, by focusing on a rural area, the German reaction to the issues of assimilation and temperance can be identified and examined independent of the urban problems of industrialization, overcrowding, and unemployment. Finally, it also constitutes the only known interpretation of the Indiana temperance movement from the perspective of those it most affected: the immigrants themselves. / Department of History

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Expressions of German-American culture in Indianapolis reached a high point in the first decade of the twentieth century. Social clubs such as the Socialer Turnverein and the Maennerchor enriched the city’s cultural life through musical performances and athletic classes and provided a social outlet for their members. During this decade, these clubs played a large role in organizing two national festivals held in Indianapolis: a Turnfest (gymnastics festival) in 1905 and a Saengerfest (singing festival) in 1908. Examining the planning and implementation of the Turnfest and Saengerfest sheds light on how club leaders responded to their social and political environment at the beginning of the twentieth century, how the respective clubs’ members conceived of their ethnic and club identities, and how they represented these identities in the festivals.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In 1901, three German American candidates ran for the office of mayor in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The winner, Henry Berghoff, had emigrated from Germany as a teenager. This thesis examines the election discourse in the partisan press for signs of ethnic tension. The first chapter places Fort Wayne in historical context of German immigration and Indiana history. The second and third chapters investigate the editorial pages for evidence of ethnic tension. I also reference a few articles of an editorial nature outside of the editorial pages. The second chapter provides background information about the election and examines indications of the candidates’ ethnicity and references to the German language papers. The third chapter considers the editorial comment about Germany, the intertwining of ethnicity and the issues, and ethnic name-calling. In order to identify underlying bias for or against Germany and to better understand the context of the references to German ethnicity, the fourth chapter explores the portrayal of Germany in the Fort Wayne papers.