Tales of the French, Spanish and Italians coming to South Louisiana are commonplace, but Germans played an important part in the formation of New Orleans as well, including developing some of its most treasured cornerstones. We tend to think of the Germans and their beer and bratwursts only around Oktoberfest time, but they’ve been here since the days of Bienville.
German map of the French Quarter in 1764 (Historic New Orleans Collection)
The story of German settlers in and around New Orleans goes back to John Law and his Mississippi Company. A group of colonists set sail on a French warship converted to transport duties, the Portefaix. They landed in Biloxi in 1720, just at the time Law’s company and a plan for an economic monopoly in French colonies collapsed. An ethnic German from Swedish Pomerania (present-day Estonia), Karl D’Arensbourg, assumed the leadership of these Germans and led them from Biloxi to just north of New Orleans, along the Mississippi River in present-day St. Charles and St. John parishes.
D’Arensbourg’s settlement quickly moved from sustenance farming to a surplus economy, supplying the French settlements downriver with crops, eventually timber and finished goods. The German community continued to grow, and by the 1820s, Germans were migrating from upriver to New Orleans proper. Records show the establishment of the first German-speaking Evangelical congregation in 1826. This church, originally located on Clio Street, between St. Charles Avenue and Carondelet Street, is now the First Trinity Evangelical United Church of Christ, located on N. Murat Street. The Germans continued to migrate from the rural settlements to the city, and the first Catholic community formed in the 1840s in the Irish Channel. The Germans were the dominant portion of the Irish Channel’s “Redemptorist Parish” throughout the mid-nineteenth century. Their first church, the original St. Mary’s Assumption, was constructed in 1844 on the corner of Constance and Josephine. In 1857, that original wood-frame church was dismantled, and the massive church that stands on that corner was built.
St. Mary's Assumption Church in the Irish Channel (photo by Edward Branley)
This growing community in the city naturally attracted new German immigrants, as did the groups of German-speaking Jews who made their way to New Orleans. Those who were not already skilled workers, artisans, and craftsmen quickly learned and developed into useful laborers. The German community not only had its own religious congregations by the time of the Civil War, but social and civil organizations a well, such as Germania Lodge #46, F.&A.M., and Kosmos Lodge #171, instituted after the war.
Germania Lodge #46, Free and Accepted Masons, located on Bienville Street in Mid City (courtesy The Lost Word)
German-owned businesses grew rapidly during reconstruction in all areas of commerce, such as hotels (The Grunewald), restaurants (Kolbs), banks and investment houses catering to the German community (Isidore Newman’s firm was one of these), breweries (Fabacher), retail/dry goods (Schwarz, Maison Blanche, Schwegmann’s), and many others. One of the most-visible German-owned businesses was started by Fritz Jahncke. Jahncke’s company provided the concrete that originally paved many of New Orleans’ streets, and created many of its enduring monuments such as Lee Circle. Another classic mix of New Orleans culture is the Leidenheimer Bakery. This German bakery is one of the leading producers of New Orleans French bread!
Truck owned by Fritz Jahncke's concrete company (courtesy WYES)
Like in other parts of the country, the German community in New Orleans experienced some backlash with the outbreak of World War I. While this backlash was nowhere near what Japanese-Americans in Hawaii and in California experienced thirty years later, a number of businesses with “overtly-German” names changed them. Thus, the Grunewald Hotel on Canal Street became The Roosevelt. Berlin Street in Uptown became General Pershing Street. The Fabachers began selling “JAX Beer,” named after Andrew Jackson. The Germans in New Orleans came through both as did all Americans, and continue to be a vital part of the city’s growth and future.
Edward Branley is the author of Maison Blanche Department Stores, New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line, and Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, books in Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series. He is a partner in Yatmedia LLC, and is @Yatpundit on Twitter.
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