German-American Day, 1995

Proclamation 6834 of October 6, 1995

German-American Day, 1995

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Since the earliest days of the settlement of North
America, immigrants from Germany have enriched our
Nation with their industry, culture, and participation
in public life. Over a quarter of all Americans can
trace their ancestry back to German roots, but more
important than numbers are the motives that led so many
Germans to make a new beginning across the Atlantic.
America's unparalleled freedoms and opportunities drew
the first German immigrants to our shores and have long
inspired the tremendous contributions that German
Americans have made to our heritage.

In 1681, William Penn invited German Pietists from the
Rhine valley to settle in the Quaker colony he had
founded, and these Germans were among the first of many
who would immigrate to America in search of religious
freedom. This Nation also welcomed Germans in search of
civic liberty, and their idealism strengthened what was
best in their adopted country. As publisher of the New
York Weekly Journal in the 1700s, Johann Peter Zenger
became one of the founders of the free press. Carl
Schurz, a political dissident and close ally of Abraham
Lincoln, served as a Union General during the Civil
War, fighting to end the oppression of slavery. And
German names figured prominently in the social and
labor reform movements of the 19th and early 20th
centuries.

In the course of 300 years of German emigration to this
great land, German Americans have attained prominence
in all areas of our national life. Like Baron von
Steuben in Revolutionary times and General Eisenhower
in World War II, many Americans of German descent have
served in our military with honor and distinction. In
the sciences, Albert Michelson and Hans Bethe
immeasurably increased our understanding of the
universe. The painters Albert Bierstadt and modernist
Josef Albers have enhanced our artistic traditions, and
composers such as Oscar Hammerstein have added their
important influences to American music.

Yet even these many distinguished names cannot begin to
summarize all the gifts that German Americans have
brought to our Nation's history. While parts of the
Midwest, Pennsylvania, and Texas still proudly bear the
stamp of the large German populations of the last
century, it is their widespread assimilation and far-
reaching activities that have earned German Americans a
distinguished reputation in all regions of the United
States and in all walks of life.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim October 6, 1995, as German-
American Day. I encourage Americans everywhere to
recognize and celebrate the contributions that millions
of people of German ancestry have made to our Nation's
liberty, democracy, and prosperity.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and ninety-five, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and twentieth.