The first permanent German settlement in what became the United States was Germantown, Pennsylvania, founded near Philadelphia on the 6th of October 1683. This small community of Quaker and Lutheran families arrived seeking religious freedom after facing persecution in their homeland.
Over 176000 U.S. soldiers were born in Germany during the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Major General Franz Sigel was the highest-ranking German officer in the Union Army with many German immigrants claiming to enlist to fight mit Sigel.
Hutterites fled persecution for their religious beliefs and came to the United States between 1874 and 1779 because they sought a place where they could continue a lifestyle similar to that of their ancestors. Today Hutterites mostly reside in Montana the Dakotas and Minnesota and the western provinces of Canada.
According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the United States which is approximately 12% of the population. This represents a decrease from a 2009 US Census Bureau table that reported 50.7 million Americans identified as having German roots.
As of 2020 the distribution of German Americans across the 50 states and DC shows that states with the highest proportions tend to be those of the upper Midwest including Iowa Minnesota Nebraska Wisconsin and the Dakotas all at over 30%. German was the top reported ancestry in 23 states and it was one of the top five reported ancestries in every state except Maine and Rhode Island.