German Song in America

All immigrants to America bring artistic traditions with them that both unify them as a group and contribute to the wider society. Historian Heike Bungert describes one example from the nineteenth century: German American choirs.

In Europe’s German-speaking states, Bungert writes, male choir organizations started popping up around 1810 and grew in number and prominence over the next half-century. Most were open to people of different social classes and focused on the idea of educating people and spreading middle-class values—though...