German-American Day, 2013

Proclamation 9035 of October 4, 2013

German-American Day, 2013

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Since the first German settlers joined the Jamestown
colony in 1608, German Americans have helped shape our
identity--the small band of families who left the banks
of the Rhine to found Germantown, Pennsylvania; the
men, women, and children who fled the tyranny of
fascism; the multitudes who sailed across the Atlantic
to seek liberty and opportunity on our shores. On
German-American Day, we celebrate the vibrant threads
of German heritage woven into our national fabric.

Over the centuries, German Americans have participated
in every sector of our society. They have helped steer
our Nation's journey--as artists and scientists, as
journalists who tested the limits of a free press, as
titans of industry, and as workers who turned the gears
of industrial revolution. Today, nearly one in four
Americans can trace their ancestry to Germany, and all
of us are inheritors to the values and traditions
handed down through generations of German Americans.

As close partners in the global community, the United
States and Germany work side-by-side to advance our
common interests and common ideals: freer societies,
cleaner skies, peoples empowered to choose their own
destinies, greater prosperity for our two nations and
for the world. Today, as we celebrate the contributions
of German Americans across a wide breadth of history,
let us renew the bonds of friendship between our two
peoples.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim October 6, 2013, as
German-American Day. I encourage all Americans to learn
more about the history of German Americans and reflect
on the many contributions they have made to our Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord two
thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
eighth.