Demography

The same debates that take place today over Latino immigrants and the Spanish language once centered around the German communities, which had their own newspapers, schools and theaters. At the peak of German migration to the United States 1.8 million came between 1880 and 1893, according to Klaus Bade, a professor at the University of Osnabrück and founder of the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies.

To put that in perspective, that came at a time when the population of the United States was only around 50 million, or one-sixth of what it is today.

[From As German as America - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog]