The Germans were an important source to white immigration in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, in North America. In the eighteenth century the Germans emigrated from the southwest region, particularly the Palatinate, Württemberg, and Baden. There were also immigrants from the German-speaking parts of Switzerland. The constant warfare, few economic opportunities and a desire for religious freedom drove many people across the Atlantic and to Pennsylvania. It was not unusual to migrate in several stages. Germans were transit-immigrants in Ireland, England and the Nederlands.

    Francis Daniel Pastorius brought with him the first Germans to America in 1683, but it was only a small group of Quaker immigrants. William Penn invited them to come and settle in Pennsylvania. Pastorius was an agent for an association of German Quakers. They wished to purchase land within Pennsylvania. In 1863 they did and the area was called Germantown. This town became later a part of Philadelphia. In 1690 the Palatine Prince converted to Catholicism, and he started a persecution of religious sects like Mennonites and Dunkers, in his attempt to convert them to Catholicism. Because of this persecution the German emigration became substantial (15).The first of the immigration waves was characterised by religious pietist sects like the Mennonites and Dunkers. In the 1720s a larger wave of immigrants of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches arrived, it may seem as they left for more economic than religious reasons. Soon other German groups like the Moravians and the Amish people arrived. The Amish People arrived in Delaware and Lancaster County. Dunkers also settled in Lancaster County or in Berkshire County. Pennsylvania was known as a colony with religious tolerant inhabitants. Such conditions may have attracted a lot of those who had experienced persecution in Europe.

    Between 1683 and 1760 the number of German-speaking immigrants may have been close to one hundred thousand; and according to the 1790 census, the Germans were more than twenty five percent of Pennsylvania’s population. In the 1790 the Germans outnumbered the People of English and Welsh nationalities in several counties; this situation made some of the English inhabitants fear for the survival of their language and culture. The assimilation of the German groups varied. The "Pennsylvania Dutch " (from German Deutsch, or Deitsch, "German") had large settlements in Berks County. They were easily assimilated with the other "Americans" some of them even changed their names from Holz to Wood and Zimmerman to Carpenter. Even if some of the Germans where assimilated others still preserved their culture. There were a lot of Germans newspapers, Germans schools, special German dishes, German books and German art in Pennsylvania. Even if the Germans seemed to settle in areas of a consisting German population, they were still assimilated (16). A lot of Germans had learned to speak English especially in the urban and near-urban areas.

    The largest part of the German population was farmers. Their farming skills were good so their crops were satisfactory and the fields were not exhausted like in the South. Philadelphia was the financial capital in North America from the early days until the1850s, then it lost the position to New York. In Philadelphia one third of the population was German. They were also important in the financial institutions and commerce.

    The German immigrants in the nineteenth century settled in the already existing German communities but they went further into the country and settled in Ohio. In the states where the first Germans settled people have still today some German customs and celebration.