The Columbus Germans

German Columbus celebrates the lives and work of the German immigrants who made their homes and their livelihoods in a tight-knit, cohesive neighborhood in the Old South End of Columbus, Ohio. Natives of Germany arrived in the capital city as early as its founding in 1812, but it was only after 1830, when new transportation routes from the east facilitated travel, that a major wave of German immigration began. By the 1850s, the area just south of downtown Columbus had a distinct flavor, with school lessons and church services conducted entirely in German and with several newspapers printed in the German language to serve the community. Merchants, business owners, and brewers, the hard-working Germans were the largest immigrant group in the city, totaling a third of the population through the end of the 19th century. Later, a shift in public opinion against immigrants and anti-German sentiment arising from World War I resulted in a rapid assimilation of Germans into the general population. Today, some of the Old South End survives in historic areas such as the Brewery District and German Village.