THE KAISER (short version) [PowerPoint presentation]
Channel: TRACESpuren
Date: 2019-12-11

Kickin’ the ‘Krauts': Anti-German Hysteria in the American Heartland during World War I” explores among others

- the vast size and extensive scope of the pre-war German-American community in the Midwest (40-60% in places)

- historical tensions between Anglo (i.e., East and later West Coast) elites and “those Krauts out on the prairies”

- the “flip” that occurred in April 1917 when the US entered the war; anti-German sentiment became “salonfähig” (German for “socially acceptable”) and exploded overnight with, for some, literally deadly consequences

- the US government’s efforts to thwart German-American power, influence and institutions on the home front; and

- the hidden connections between wartime anti-German sentiment and subsequent enactment of Prohibition in 1920.

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