All For Gardening
Japanese Garden

How GERMAN is WASHINGTON D.C.? Discovering America's German Roots | Feli from Germany



How German is the US? 🇩🇪🇺🇸 In collaboration with the German-American Heritage Foundation and the German Embassy, I’m on a mission to discover the German roots of different places all over the country. After my trip to Chicago last year (link below), I got to visit Washington D.C. this time and was blown when I found out how big of an influence German immigrants had on the American capital! Come along as I learn about the role that Germans played in the construction of the US Capitol Building, how a German military officer saved the American army during the Revolutionary War, and how German immigrants were involved in the death of President Abraham Lincoln! 😊
👉Use this link for a discount on the book “How German Ingenuity Inspired America: More Fun, More Beauty, More Freedom”▸https://bit.ly/3BY4Er2
👉 Visit ▸https://gahmusa.org for more information about the German-American Heritage Foundation and ▸https://www.germany.info/us-en/embassy-consulates/embassy-washington for information about the German Embassy Washington.

Related Videos:
How GERMAN is CHICAGO? Discovering America’s German Roots ▸https://youtu.be/JpJW7ywUpas
German Heritage in the USA ▸https://youtu.be/Dfws1vTnyMQ
————————-
0:00 Where are the German roots of DC?
1:30 US Capitol Building
5:22 Saint Mary Catholic Church
8:55 German Community Today
9:52 DC’s “Little Germany”
12:16 German Immigrant Experience & Assimilation
14:55 Unique Opportunities in Washington
17:15 Influential Germans
20:20 Baron von Steuben
23:08 Anti-German Sentiment
26:30 German-American Friendship Garden
29:36 German-American Heritage Museum
33:02 Crystal City Internment Camp
35:30 German Architecture
37:25 Petersen House
41:56 Thanks for discovering Washington’s German roots with me!
————————-
Get your Bavarian beer mug or Servus t-shirt ▸https://felifromgermany.com/
Check out my PODCAST (with Josh)▸ https://www.youtube.com/understandingtrainstation or https://linktr.ee/Understandingtrainstation

FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook▸https://www.facebook.com/felifromgermany (Feli from Germany) Support me on Patreon▸ https://www.patreon.com/felifromgermany Instagram▸@felifromgermany▸https://www.instagram.com/felifromgermany Buy me a coffee▸https://www.ko-fi.com/felifromgermany
▸Mailing address:
PO Box 19521
Cincinnati, OH 45219
USA
————————-
ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I’m 28, and I’m a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master’s degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other topics I come across in my everyday life in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE 🙂
————————-
MY FILMING EQUIPMENT
Camera: https://amzn.to/3mSp0Lf*
MAIN LENS (Sigma 18-35mm F1.8): https://amzn.to/31IjdgU*
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens: https://amzn.to/2AT9R3J*
Tripod: https://amzn.to/2LXpb5t*
Remote: https://amzn.to/2oe3Hsd*
Lighting: https://amzn.to/3EWV86O*
Back Light: https://amzn.to/3gJD8QL
H1 Zoom Recorder (audio): https://amzn.to/33gKWDf*
Lav Microphone: https://amzn.to/2VobCPP*

GoPro Vlogging Setup:
GoPro: https://amzn.to/2OycAav*
Case: https://amzn.to/2IzIzmY*
Tripod: https://amzn.to/2os3DoB*
Microphone: https://amzn.to/31ZR6Y5*
Mic Adapter: https://amzn.to/2AUq1K3*
Mount: https://amzn.to/33oDciL*

*These links are Affiliate links. If you buy the product through that link, I’ll receive a small provision while the price for you stays the same! Thanks for your support! 🙂
————————-
Music by ARTMAN MUSIC http://www.artman-music.de/ based on a theme by http://www.twinmusicom.org/ (CC BY 4.0)

48 Comments

  1. Feli from Germany

    Did you know these things bout Washington DC? 🙂 If not, which part did you find the most interesting? 🧐
    https://bit.ly/3BY4Er2 👈Use this link for a discount on the book "How German Ingenuity Inspired America: More Fun, More Beauty, More Freedom"

  4. Jesse Oaks

    I have German heritage on both sides of my family. It was Waltrip (Waldtripp) on my Dad's side and Utterback (Otterbruch) on my Mother's side. There are a lot of German people in this part of the midwest. I believe both families were from Bavaria.

  7. Ron Eichstaedt

    Seriously, Feli- Thank you!
    While I have always been proud of my German heritage and knew some of the history (for example, I've known many family St. Nicholas Night and Christmas traditions came from Germany), it is only after coming across your videos a couple of years ago that I really got serious about it. Obviously I've been entertained by your postings, but these more serious cultural pieces have been very important.
    I've recently been tracing family history, which is difficult when it comes to where exactly someone was from, since places had similar names and of course "Germany" itself did not yet exist. I've found that my G-G-Grandfather came over to Milwaukee in 1861, but I've had trouble finding his father's birthplace (around 1832).
    This fall my Dad beat his second different cancer. Because of all the challenges various family members have fought through, I've had shirts made for everyone this Christmas saying "Eichstädt Unverwüstlich": an older spelling of our name, and the German word for 'resilient' or 'unbreakable' (I hope).
    And thanks to one of your earlier postings, I know exactly how to pronounce the "v" and "w" 🙂
    Again, thank you for making me more German.
    Fröhliche Weihnachten!

  9. christopher shrank

    Thanks for this video. And welcome to DC from a Michigander living in N. Virginia. Also, have you made it to Frankenmuth, Michigan?

  14. Anna Patrikeevna

    The Germans are a warlike people. now, unfortunately, all German men have become gay. this is because they had group sex while intoxicated. now the country's government has introduced migrants for German women. German men now only go to their favorite gay pride parade, fight there drunk and at the same time engage in sexual perversions

  16. Trifler

    If it was built on swamp land, what were the mosquitos like when Washington, D.C. was a young city? 🙂

  17. Tom Frazier

    I grew up with Spanish flavored American Catholicism. Elsewhere in California, other central European '48ers showed up, some going into viticulture to today. Japan sent some of the famous cherry trees on the Mall. Here in Hawaii "About 70 Europeans" were interned with about 1550 Americans of Japanese ancestry during WWII. Mass incarceration of AJAs would have wrecked the economy here, as the 2d generation was halfway off the Plantation and almost dominated the skilled labor hete.

  18. Lukas Nentwich

    Grüße aus Karlsruhe (bzw. aus der Nähe davon), das mit dem Grundriss wurde uns damals in der Grundschule schon beigebracht.
    Darauf sind wir in der Region immer noch ein Stück stolz drauf 😀

  19. Moneygrabber Codswollop

    Frohe Weihnachten für Ihnen und Ihre Familie, Feli! Vielleicht Sie sind in Deutschland für Weihnachten, also es ist schon den Tag 😂

    It’s very likely I screwed something up 😂😂 I’m so rusty 😅

  22. Merv

    Great video. I would love to see you do some other cities that were heavily influenced by the German immigrants.

  23. Charles Grant-Skiba

    "Fun fact". The first printed Bible in the Western Hemisphere was also in German (Christoph Saur – 1743). English-language Bibles (and not only) were imported from Europe. However, because the Germans were the core of the first printing houses in the USA (they had the know-how and equipment), they decided to print in German (probably imitating the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in 1454). At the time it was an event of historic importance, today it is completely forgotten, although it was an significant part of US history. Greetings to Feli from Australia.

  24. gothen mosph

    The idea of Washington having 20-30k people at it's height at one point is amazing to me. I live in a relatively small city of 25k people in the middle of the US. It's just so little.

  25. gothen mosph

    I grew up (90s-00s) in Illinois. My family was Lutheran and I went to Lutheran schools. We had German classes in grade school (Lutheran school) and it was so funny looking back on it, because it's not a very useful languages for 99.9% of Americans. But it was just a heritage thing I suppose. I honestly don't remember much from it. I can counnt to 100 in German, say some phrases and that is about it. But there are names from German families all across my church in stained glass from the 1800s and 1990s whom I guess donated to the church/school for updates and expansions.

  30. The Man 🌍f The World

    The largest ancestory group is British…english irish scottish and welsh.The motherland of usa is BRITAIN.This blog is misleading propaganda off the scale.USA dna is 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 Many British Americans just self identify as 'Americans' when their ancestory actually is from the British Isles also.
    Eight out of the ten most common names in US are of British origin.FACT.!!!

  31. dale smith

    Thank you for this great video. I'm proud to hear that the guy who did the frescoes in the capital building came from the same state that my great-grandfather came.

  32. Ward Krause

    As always: professional, enlightening, and well-prepared! So glad I watched and thanks to Feli and Ben I learned so much.

  33. gts3004

    Regarding the anti-German sentiment during ww1, in April 1917 Woodrow Wilson established the CPI (Committee on Public Information) for the purpose of manipulating public opinion in support of the war. The so called ‘father of American propaganda’ , Edward Bernays was a CPI member, Zionist jew , and nephew of Sigmund Freud. CPI portrayed the American war effort as a war ‘to make the world safe for democracy’ while simultaneously spreading hateful propaganda directed against Germany and the Kaiser . To counter the lies of the Allied propagandists , 93 of germanys leading scientists, scholars and artists signed their names to “The Manifesto of the 93” . One of the signatories was the Nobel Prize winning physicist who discovered “X-rays” Wilhelm Roentgen. The manifesto read in part, “As representatives of German Science and Art, we hereby protest to the civilized world against the lies and calumnies with which our enemies are endeavoring to stain the honor of Germany in her hard struggle for existence – IN A STRUGGLE THAT HAS BEEN FORCED ON HER….. IT IS NOT TRUE THAT GERMANY IS GUILTY OF HAVING CAUSED THIS WAR. Neither the people, nor the government, nor the Kaiser wanted war. … IT IS NOT TRUE THAT WE TRESPASSED IN NEUTRAL BELGIUM. It has been proven that France and England had resolved on such a trespass, and it has likewise been proved that Belgium had agreed to their doing so. It would have been suicide on our part not to have preempted this… It is not true that our troops treated Louvain brutally. Furious inhabitants having treacherously fallen upon them in their quarters, our troops with aching hearts were obliged to fire a part of the town, as punishment. The greatest part of Louvain has been preserved.
    It is not true that our warfare pays no respects to international laws. It knows no undisciplined cruelty . But in the east, the earth is saturated with the blood of women and children unmercifully butchered by the wild Russian troops, and in the west, dumdum bullets mutilate the breasts of our soldiers …..
    It is not true that the combat against our so-called militarism is not a combat against our civilization, AS OUR ENEMIES HYPOCRITICALLY PRETEND IT IS. Were it not for German militarism , German civilization would long since have been extirpated…
    We cannot wrest the poisonous weapon-the lie- out of the hands of our enemies. All we can do is proclaim to the entire world, that our enemies are giving false witness against us….
    Have faith in us! Believe that we shall carry on this war to the end as a civilized nation to whom the legacy of a Goethe, a Beethoven , and a Kant, is just as sacred as its own hearths and homes.”

  35. Vcafr0

    Us technology is german technology. The scientist who built the atomic bomb was an American of german descendant. Why is the us so advanced was because they kidnapped a bunch of german scientists after ww2 and brought them over to build missiles.

  43. Hope Evans

    Benjamin Franklin proposed making English the official language of the new country because of the number of German speakers.

  44. knunne1

    Thank you for the wonderful adventure in Washington DC. I am a 63 year old man born in America to German Immigrants, I have always been proud of my German heritage but I must say that my pride has grown after watching you video. Thank you!

  46. Wende

    Merry Christmas to all of you and yours.
    I love this. As I come from Germans myself, some names here I've heard mentioned in my family. I'm only 90 mins from DC, I see a history day trip in my not so distant future, not to mention German Market. Thank you for putting all this info together.

  48. Tom S

    Love the documentary style. Excellent work! Thanks for putting this together.

Write A Comment

Pin