[1] It is perhaps surprising that given the wide ethnic and
religious pluralism that have long been characteristic of the
United States, that there have not been more incidents of tension
and conflict between different groups of Americans. Certainly
there have been such incidents, often in times of war or national
upheaval, and some of these occurrences have been very significant
-- one should neither ignore or underestimate them. On the
other hand, to this point a degree of good sense and civic
responsibility has helped cooler heads prevail over the superheated
emotions of others, and it is on this dynamic that our national
equilibrium depends. It is good to study the incidents of
religious and ethnic tension, if only to learn from them; one
occurrence of such tension was between nativist Americans and
American Lutherans (especially German-Americans) on the home front
during World War I. Patriotism and suspicion of outsiders,
along with Lutheran peculiarities, caused several years of unrest
and tension, especially in the Midwest during the "War to end all
Wars."
[2] By the second decade of the twentieth century, a second wave
of Lutheran immigration was firmly entrenched in America. The
first wave of Lutherans arrived before the American Revolution and
was thoroughly assimilated into American culture by the early
twentieth century. A larger, second wave of Lutheran
immigrants came between 1840 and 1910, and by this time had
established a hyphenated, dual-lingual, immigrant culture in the
United States. These Lutheran immigrants divided into ethnic
denominations of Scandinavians and Germans, which came to be an
important part of communal life in the American Middle West, from
Ohio to Missouri to the Dakotas. Their energies were still
generally directed to internal developments and controversies,
focused on building Lutheran institutions and identities.
Although there were the beginnings of merger activity, and although
many Lutheran groups had cooperated in festivities marking the
400th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation in 1917, they were
still an often fractious bunch.
[3] German-American Lutherans were divided into a number of
different denominations. Some nineteenth-century German
immigrants found a home among the colonial Lutheran denominations,
the General Council and the General Synod. More often they
developed their own organizations, including the Missouri Synod,
the Ohio Synod, the Buffalo Synod, the Iowa Synod, and the
Wisconsin Synod, which, despite their "state" names were really
national church organizations. These groups related
historically with each other, though they were often divided by
bitter theological and ecclesiastical feuding. The Missouri
Synod, especially, was a large national church with congregations
all across the United States.
[4] Traditionally, Lutheran theology and practice have led to a
degree of separation between church and state, with the idea that
both "realms" were endowed by God with distinctive and unique
missions. The typical picture of Lutheran social thought
suggests that the two spheres of life were complimentary, but that
interference between the two ought to be minimized (although in
reality it has never been that clear.) In the crucible of
American religious and political life, Lutherans had to learn how
to balance Church and State in new-found ways, but they often found
the religious freedom and plurality of American life to be both
exhilarating and threatening. Many of these
Nineteenth-century immigrant Lutherans had a wary engagement with
American civil life, and many of the German-American Lutheran
denominations had extensive parochial school systems in order to
ensure the maintenance of this degree of separation.
[5] However, these immigrant Lutherans were hardly disconnected
from what was going on in American society, culture, politics, and
religion. They had a vital interest in their new country, and
were not shy about expressing their opinions on issues that they
found important. With the advent of the First World War in
1914, many Lutherans ("American," German and Scandinavian alike)
were willing to state their opinions about the war publicly, which
they did in an extensive immigrant and religious press. Generally
they were as supportive of Germany (as the land of Luther) as they
were suspicious of England. One historian comments:
Most German Lutherans . . .
hoped for a German victory of which they were quite confident in
the early days of the war. Occasionally, a synod even
prayed publicly for Germany, as did the Wartburg Synod (of the
General Synod) in 1914. After the prayer it sang "Deutschland
über Alles" and "Die Wacht am Rhein.[1]
England was seen by many as being economically and militarily
aggressive toward Germany, and as the cause of the war itself.
[6] Above all they were great advocates of American neutrality
and in the period from 1914 to 1917 they were often critical (as
were the German-Americans in general) of what they saw as the
pseudo-neutrality of the American government, which seemed to them
to be heavily biased toward the British cause. Many American
Lutherans, not just German-Americans, were strong advocates for
American neutrality and strict isolation from the European
war. In this they were not alone, but when America did
enter the war in 1917, their strenuous criticism of the government,
and sympathies for their German co-religionists were remembered
against them.
[7] Americans in general tended to have a mixed view of these
German-American Lutheran immigrants. On the one hand, they
were white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, and in this period of racial
theories and fears of non-Protestant immigration, this counted for
much. On the other hand, to outsiders these German-American
denominations looked clannish, ill-adapted to the American
environment, and with their foreign-language schools and worship
services, unwilling to assimilate. The conservative
Midwestern German Lutherans denominations especially were isolated
because they refused any form of religious fellowship without
complete doctrinal agreement, something they rarely achieved with
each other, let alone with English-speaking outsiders. Americans
also distrusted German religiosity because of the association of
Germany with liberal and radical theological ideas. One historian
has noted:
The fact that biblical
criticism was imported from Germany and became a kind of status
symbol among some scholars was later to hurt the cause when
anti-Germanism developed before and during World War I. In
any case, long before that Germany had held a reputation for
destructive radicalism.[2]
[8] Because of the nature of the German state church system,
with the Emperor as titular head, German-American Lutherans were
thought in some quarters to be loyal to the Kaiser, and agents of
his state. The irony of all this is that many of these
conservative Midwestern German-American Lutherans had left Germany
precisely because of their opposition to the state church and
growing theological liberalism in that country.
[9] Once the US entered the war in 1917, on the side of Britain
and France, a wave of nationalism and patriotism swept across the
country, and many German-Americans were instantly suspect.
There were, of course, some German-Americans who had openly
supported Germany before 1917, some of them quite strongly, and
their words came back to haunt them. But many German-American
Lutherans had not openly expressed their feelings one way or the
other, and were also caught up by this wave of national
sentiment. In such a wave of feeling, anything foreign,
especially anything German, was instantly suspect. German
culture and art were denounced, the German language was suspect,
and many German-Americans were viewed as traitors, and some of them
were verbally and even physically attacked. Editors,
politicians, and ordinary citizens all participated in the campaign
on the home front against anything German.
[10] Though there were some instances of mob violence, the most
problematic attacks came in print and in legislation. Many
American editors and commentators were outspoken in their suspicion
of German-Americans and their loyalty. There was a popular
crusade in the press against the "enemy at home," which soon
captured the popular imagination. One historian noted:
Determination to rid America
of everything German led to the burning of German books by
libraries, changing of German names on streets and menus, banning
of German papers from newsstands, refusal of musical groups to
perform works of German composers, and the boycotting of German
artists. [3]
Some of these actions were downright silly, such as the renaming
of sauerkraut as "Liberty Cabbage," but the general atmosphere,
especially in the Midwestern states, was much more ominous.
[11] The actions that were of greatest concern to immigrant German
Lutherans were those official actions that were aimed at the
regulation or suppression of the German language, and the attempts
to control church officials. In fifteen states laws were
proposed that in some form prohibited the teaching of the German
language, or the use of German in public, including instruction and
worship; in several states, most notably Iowa, these provisions
became law. Nebraska passed an act in 1918 that preachers and
teachers be examined and licensed by the state, an action directly
aimed at German Lutheran institutions. Although the Supreme
Court eventually found these laws to be an unconstitutional
violation of the separation between church and state, at the time
they only contributed to a climate of fear and intimidation.
[12] There were incidents of violence and coercion.
Hundreds of parochial schools and some church buildings were
attacked and closed, and some were desecrated or burned.
Individual German Lutheran leaders were challenged and attacked by
local editors, politicians, and citizen, for their past support of
Germany, or for their perceived failures to fully support the war
effort. A few leaders were physically attacked or threatened,
but many more were intimidated by the example of what happened to
these others. In a number of areas and states so-called
"Councils of Defense" were formed to "defend" the home front from
perceived enemies from within. These Councils were the focus
of much of this anti-foreign, anti-immigrant attitude.
[13] German-American Lutherans did not take these attacks
without response. Many of them firmly proclaimed their
loyalty to the United State and its cause, and protested the
attacks upon them. One Lutheran editor wrote in
1918,
. . . only by plainly
asserting that we are with our Government and against Germany shall
we overcome such doubts concerning our 'loyalty' in the war-time
sense . . . [4]
These attempts to deflect criticism and to shore up their
patriotic credentials were hampered by the habits of isolation and
separatism that prevailed in many of these denominations; language
differences and a fear of "unionism" (ecumenical cooperation
without doctrinal agreement) kept many of these Lutherans separate
from each other, let alone from their "English" neighbors.
The major way that these immigrants could show their loyalty was
through charitable and financial contributions to the war effort,
and the record shows that they did this enthusiastically. A
historian of the Missouri Synod proudly relates:
The loyalty of the members
of the Missouri Synod to its government was manifested externally
by the purchase of more than $94,000,000 of Liberty Bonds and
Stamps and by liberal contributions to the Red Cross.
[5]
This might blunt the criticisms of German-American Lutherans,
but not completely eliminate the hostility and suspicions from
other quarters in America.
[14] Other Lutherans in America had mixed feelings about this
situation. Many Lutherans, not just the German-Americans, had
shared initial support for Germany, suspicion of England, and anger
at the sham neutrality of the American government.
Scandinavian-American Lutherans, who still employed their immigrant
languages and were often equally isolated from "English" society,
were often lumped together with the German-Americans in the popular
imagination. This led to internal Lutheran tensions; as one
historian related:
The Scandinavian-American
Lutherans, heavily concentrated in the Upper Midwest, often
alongside German-speaking Lutherans, shared the general antipathy
toward the latter. This was most noticeable among lay people
who resented being considered just another brand of Germans, and
thus guilty by ethnic association.[6]
Scandinavian-American Lutherans, perhaps in a defensive mode,
also supported the American war and relief efforts with great
enthusiasm. Some Lutheran voices were raised in support
of their denominational colleagues. Swedish-American Lutheran
writer George Stephenson protested a confusion in popular
imagination when he wrote in 1916,
Now it is one thing to be a
German sympathizer, and another thing to be a Lutheran, and I
believe those who have identified the two have done the Lutherans a
great injustice. . . [7]
Whether in support of fellow Lutherans, or a desire not to be
too closely related to Germany, American Lutherans sought to
distance themselves from their German co-religionists.
[15] Beyond these defensive reactions, however, the domestic
controversies during World War I pushed Lutherans in some new
directions, and sped up changes already occurring within these
immigrant denominations. First and foremost, these
controversies accelerated the language transition within these
groups, as they moved away from the use of immigrant languages in
their worship, instruction, and denominational business. This
is something that the younger generations had been urging since the
turn of the century, but the war (and the cessation of immigration
during the 1920s) made this transition an inevitable, if painful,
reality. American Lutherans wanted to show that they, too,
belonged, and the use of English was an important symbol of their
transition.
[16] The challenges of wartime also pushed these often clannish
Lutherans together in new and sometimes uncomfortable ways.
If their boys were going off to the military to fight, they needed
to cooperate to provide for a Lutheran presence to minister to the
soldiers and sailors. As one historian observed,
Anti-Lutheran propaganda in
many states caused Lutherans to draw closer together in order to
ward off charges of disloyalty. The war itself, by
confronting the churches with immense challenges for spiritual and
physical ministries beyond the abilities of any one synod, gave
further impetus to the centripetal movement. [8]
This initially was manifested in the formation in 1918 of the
National Lutheran Council, a pan-Lutheran organization to
coordinate the social welfare and civic activities of American
Lutherans. As Fred Meuser pointed out,
Some of the first joint
meetings of Lutherans across the broad synodical spectrum came from
areas where councils of defense plagued Lutheran freedoms.
For example, a protest meeting against the Nebraska Council of
Defense produced a statement signed by representatives of the
General Synod, General Council, Missouri, Augustana, and Ohio
Synods, the Norwegian Lutheran Church, and the two Danish Lutheran
bodies.[9]
In some cases, these forms of cooperation led to closer
relations within denominations, and may have even been a
contributing factor to the merger that formed The American Lutheran
Church (1930-60), which brought together the Ohio, Buffalo, and
Iowa synods (though not the Missouri and Wisconsin synods).
[17] The events of 1917 and 1918 demonstrate both the
vulnerability and the resiliency of these immigrant Lutherans in
the United States. Because of their isolation and some of
their cultural and political stances, they became an easy target
for some patriotic and nationalistic sentiments that arose because
of the entry of America into World War I. Some immigrant
Lutherans, especially conservative German-American Lutherans in the
Midwest, suffered as a result of these sentiments, and were
unfairly treated. Yet these incidents did not permanently
scar these denominations, and in turn they may have accelerated a
degree of assimilation and made this process a bit easier. No
doubt the wartime attitudes of some Americans were hurtful to these
immigrants, but there was a political and judicial process that
did, in the end, vindicate the immigrant groups. In some
cases, the tensions even pushed forward a greater degree of civic
engagement and synodical co-operation than had been previously the
case, and nudged many American Lutherans into a greater degree of
engagement with the social, cultural, and religious world around
them in America.
© February 2005
Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE)
Volume 5, Issue 2
[1] Fred W. Meuser, "Facing the
Twentieth Century," in E. Clifford Nelson, ed., The Lutherans in
North America Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975, p. 396.
[2] Martin E. Marty, Modern American
Religion: Volume 1, The Irony of It All, 1893-1919 Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1986, p. 38.
[3] E. Clifford Nelson, Lutheranism in
North America, 1914-1970 Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House,
1972, p. 5.
[4] E. Clifford Nelson, Lutheranism in
North America, 1914-1970 Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House,
1972, p. 5.
[5] E. Clifford Nelson, Lutheranism in
North America, 1914-1970 Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House,
1972, p. 5.
[6] E. Clifford Nelson, Lutheranism in
North America, 1914-1970 Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House,
1972, p. 5.
[7] Fred Meuser, The Formation of the
American Lutheran Church Columbus OH: Wartburg Press, 1958, p.
137.
[8] Fred Meuser, The Formation of the
American Lutheran Church Columbus OH: Wartburg Press, 1958, p.
137.
[9] "Facing the Twentieth Century," p.
399.