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WWI American

Immigrant Poetry

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GERMANY AND AMERICA

George Seibel

In German forests Liberty was born —

There Armin overthrew the boast of Rome;

There Truth and Beauty found another home

When from the holy soil of Hellas torn;

There was the badge of Courage humbly worn,

There Faith hath reared aloft her proudest dome,

While Song rose radiant from her fountains,

Hypocrisy fell blasted by her scorn.


America, thou art the heir of all

The toil and dream, the glory and the song;

Her sons have died for thee in many wars —

And canst thou like a stranger see her fall,

Or lend a hand in that eternal wrong

To blot his blazing splendor from the stars?


George Seibel


Seibel, George. “Germany and America.” In Aus ruhmreicher Zeit: Deutsch-amerikanische Dichtungen aus dem ersten Jahre des Weltkrieges, compiled by Irving T. Sanders, 44. New York: F. C. Stechert, 1915.

Seibel, George. “Germany and America.” In Aus ruhmreicher Zeit: Deutsch-amerikanische Dichtungen aus dem ersten Jahre des Weltkrieges, compiled by Irving T. Sanders, 44. New York: F. C. Stechert, 1915.

WWI American

Immigrant Poetry

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Armin

Arminius (18/17 BC—21 AD), chieftain of the Cherusci who led an alliance of Germanic tribes to defeat three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. This decisive victory prevented the Romanization of the Germanic peoples.


“Arminius.” In The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, edited by M. C. Howatson. Oxford University Press, 2011. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199548545.001.0001/acref-9780199548545-e-0336.

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Hellas

Greek name for Greece.

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Her sons have died for thee

This stanza recalls not only German immigrants’ participation in wars such as the American Revolution and the Civil War but also the ethnic culture Germans created in the United States. In 1910, 2.3 million German immigrants and nearly 6 million descendants of Germans lived in the United States.


Connolly-Smith, Peter. Translating America: An Immigrant Press Visualizes American Popular Culture 1895-1918. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 2004, 1.


“Germans in America: Chronology.” European Reading Room, Library of Congress. Accessed May 16, 2021. https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/imde/germchro.html.