page_title: Kitchener, Ontario
section_title: German heritage
hierarchical_section_title: Kitchener, Ontario / History / German heritage
context_page_description: Kitchener is a city in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario. Located approximately 100 km west of Toronto, Kitchener is the regional seat. Kitchener was called Berlin until 1916; it was designated the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916.
  The City of Kitchener covers an area of 136.86 square kilometres and had a population of 233,222 at the time of the 2016 Census. The Kitchener metropolitan area, which includes the smaller, neighbouring cities of Waterloo to the north and Cambridge to the south, has 523,894 people, making it the tenth largest Census Metropolitan Area in Canada and the fourth largest CMA in Ontario.
  Kitchener and Waterloo are considered "twin cities" which are often referred to jointly as "Kitchener–Waterloo", although they have separate municipal governments. Including Cambridge, the three cities are known as "the Tri-Cities". All are part of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, which was created in 1973, when it replaced Waterloo County, which had been created in 1853.
context_section_description: Of the cities that are now part of Waterloo Region, Berlin, now Kitchener, has the strongest German heritage because of the high levels of settlement in this area by German speaking immigrants.
  While those from Pennsylvania were the most numerous until about 1840, a few Germans from Europe began arriving in as 1819, including Fredrick Gaukel, a hotel keeper, being one of the firsts. He would build what later became the Walper House in Berlin. Two streets in present-day Kitchener, Frederick and Gaukel streets, are named after him. Other German-speaking immigrants from Europe arrived during the 1830s to 1850s, bringing with them their language, religion and cultural traditions. The German community became industrial and political leaders, and created a German-Canadian society unlike any other found in Canada at the time. They established German public schools and German language churches.
  Both the immigrants from Germany and the Mennonites from Pennsylvania spoke German, though with different dialects such as Low German or the incorrectly called Pennsylvania Dutch, actually Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch (German, not modern Dutch). (This dialect is different from Standard German with a simplified grammatical structure, some differences in vocabulary and pronunciation and a greater influence of English.) The combination of various types of German-speaking groups was a notable factor in the history of Waterloo County. The two groups spoke similar dialects and were able to understand each other quite easily and there was no apparent conflict between the Germans from Europe and those who came from Pennsylvania.
  Some sources estimate that roughly 50,000 Germans directly from Europe settled in and around Waterloo County, between the 1830s and 1850s. Unlike the predominantly Mennonite settlers from Pennsylvania, the majority of Germans from Europe were of other denominations: most in the first groups were Catholic and those who arrived later were primarily Lutheran.
  In 1862, German-speaking groups held the Sängerfest, or "Singer Festival" concert event in Berlin that attracted an estimated 10,000 people and continued for several years. Eleven years later, 
  the more than 2000 Germans in Berlin, Ontario, started a new event, Friedensfest, commemorating Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian war. This annual celebration continued until the start of World War I. In 1897, they raised funds to erect a large monument, with a bronze bust of Kaiser Wilhelm 1, in Victoria Park. The monument was destroyed by townspeople just after the start of World War I. A statue of Queen Victoria was erected in the park in 1911.
  By 1871, Berlin, Ontario, was a bilingual town with German being the dominant language spoken. More than one visitor commented on the necessity of speaking German in Berlin.
  Immigration from continental Germany slowed by 1880. First and second-generation descendants now comprised most of the local German population, and while they were proud of their German roots, most considered themselves loyal British subjects. The 1911 Census indicates that of the 15,196 residents in Berlin, Ontario, about 70% were identified as ethnic German but only 8.3% had been born in Germany. By the beginning of the First World War in 1914, Berlin and Waterloo County were still considered to be predominantly German by people across Canada. This would prove to have a profound impact on local citizens during the war years. During the first few months of the war, services and activities at Lutheran churches in Waterloo County continued. As anti-German sentiment increased throughout Waterloo County, many of the churches decided to stop holding services in German.
  The Governor General of Canada, the Duke of Connaught, while visiting Berlin, Ontario, in May 1914, discussed the importance of Canadians of German ethnicity (regardless of their origin) in a speech: "It is of great interest to me that many of the citizens of Berlin are of German descent. I well know the admirable qualities – the thoroughness, the tenacity, and the loyalty of the great Teutonic Race, to 
caption: The Pioneer Tower still stands today.
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