Customer Reviews

German Milwaukee (Images of America) (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing))

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is very good for beginners who are interested in our local German-American history, but for me it was just more of the same old information with old pictures from the Milwaukee County Historical Society that we have seen printed over and over again. What I would have liked to have learned more about in this book is a chapter on the subject of displaced Germans from former parts of Germany that were lost to Russia and Poland, as well as all of the ethnic Germans groups that were expelled from the many areas of Eastern Europe. Those people/refugees flooded the City of Milwaukee during the 1950's. For some reason no one goes into depth on this particular subject and it's too bad because their stories are absolutely fascinating. These displaced people actually pumped new life into the existing German Community and contributed in so many ways to the cultural and economic life of the city and yet their story continues to go untold in these books. Below I have included a list of the groups of people that settled in Milwaukee after the WW2 and arrived in large numbers during the mid 1950's. Their story would make an important book that could stand on it's own. I hope the next book about German Milwaukee that is published contains more on this topic. Also strangely enough, the Author didn't include any mention of certain extremely vibrant and really impactful German cultural organizations that still exist in the city today. I find it odd that who ever she interviewed or relied on for information during the course of her research for this book didn't direct her to some of these other and more dominant organizations that are loaded with historical photos and other important information. In my opinion the reader will have to purchase other books as well,such as Bert Lachner's Heimat North America, Milwaukee Wisconsin Heimat in the Heartland and German Milwaukee It's history, It's recipes by Paradis and Brumder to really gain a better understanding of the Germans in Milwaukee then and now. etc. etc. believe it or not, I still like the book and would recommend it as a good read.

Forgotten German speaking groups of people who settled in Milwaukee after 1945.

The Donauschwaben of Yugoslavia, Banat and Sathmar
The People of Schlesien.
The People of Oberschlesier
The People of Weichsel-Warthe.
The WestPreussen.
The OstPreussen.
The Litauendeutschen.
The Bessarabiendeutsche.
The Dobrudschadeutschen.
The Volga Germans from Russia.
The Germans from Ungarn.
The Pommersche Germans.
The Danziger Germans.
The Buchenlanddeutschen.
The Carpathian Germans.
The Baltic Germans.
The Transylvania Saxons.
The Sudentendeutsche.