Overview

Since World War II, there has been a growing desire for descendants of German immigrants to re-connect with the communities from which their ancestors came and to document and understand German contributions to their state and nation. An important case in point is the story of what has happened in the Osage County community of Loose Creek over the past generation. Totally disconnected from their ancestors in Germany until the mid-1980s, local historians and genealogists sought to reclaim their German roots and re-establish a connection with their German forbears. The result has been an exchange program between Osage County residents and German residents from the area of Meerbusch in the German Rhineland (one of nearly a dozen other active sister-city partnerships). This is the area from which many central Missouri Germans settled during the nineteenth century. One of the interesting outcomes of this re-connection has been the discovery of the persistence of German culture and traditions in Osage County, through architecture, language, religion, food, and other cultural traditions.
 

Historical Context

Ironically, the Cold War mended many of the ties torn by the two world wars. American GI’s were amazed to receive a warm welcome in shattered postwar Germany. This had begun even before the war ended, with the refugees from disrupted Europe finding refuge in the Americas. German-speaking pastors in Missouri were marshaled to deal with the prisoners of war that trains had brought into the state. Very soon after the arrival of an armed peace, families of German origin began making contact with their relatives at home, and every effort was made to ensure that the West Germans would not be blighted by a hostile occupation policy. The revival of appreciation for ethnic traditions in much of the United States helped to refresh memories of old cultural ties.

Germany’s economic and political revival under the tutelage of the West contrasted dramatically with exploited, impoverished East Germany under Soviet domination, soon making West Germany the leading economic power on the Continent. This position was only reinforced by the sudden collapse of the client states of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s. Since World War II, many German-Americans have come to appreciate their German origins and rediscover their heritage and culture. The German communities across Missouri have proven wrong the contention that the fate of all ethnics is to assimilate and vanish, rather than to find themselves blended into a complex and fruitful mosaic.