View source for German Canadians

{{Short description|Canadian ethnic group}}
{{About|Canadians of German ancestry|the newspaper whose name translates as ''The German Canadian''|Der Deutsche Canadier}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = German Canadians<br>Germano-Canadiens
| native_name      = Deutschkanadier, Deutsch-Kanadier
| native_name_lang = de
| pop              = '''3,322,405'''<ref name="population2016"/><br />'''9.6%''' of the total Canadian population
| popplace         = [[Western Canada]], [[Ontario]] ([[Waterloo Region]]), [[Atlantic Canada]], [[Quebec]] 
| languages        = [[Canadian English|English]]{{•}} [[Canadian French|French]]{{•}} [[German language|German]]
| religions        = [[Protestantism]]{{•}} [[Catholicism]] {{•}} [[Judaism]]<ref>{{cite web|url= https://museeholocauste.ca/en/resources-training/enemy-aliens-canada/|title= "Enemy Aliens" in Canada - Montreal Holocaust Museum}}</ref>
| image            = German Canadians by census division.svg
| image_caption    = <div style="text-align: center>German Canadians as percent of population by census division (2021)</div>
| related          = Other [[Germans]], [[Austrian Canadians]], [[Swiss Canadians]], [[Luxembourgish Canadians]], [[Latvian Canadians]]
}}

'''German Canadians''' ({{langx|de|Deutschkanadier}} or {{lang|de|Deutsch-Kanadier}}, {{IPA|de|ˈdɔʏtʃkaˌnaːdi̯ɐ|pron}}) are [[Canadians|Canadian]] citizens of [[Germans|German]] ancestry or Germans who emigrated to and reside in Canada. According to the [[2016 Canadian census|2016 census]], there are 3,322,405 Canadians with full or partial German ancestry. Some immigrants came from what is today [[Germany]], while larger numbers came from German settlements in [[History of German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe|Eastern Europe]] and [[History of Germans in Russia, Ukraine and the Soviet Union|Imperial Russia]]; others came from parts of the [[German Confederation]], [[Austria-Hungary]] and [[Switzerland]].

==History==
{{Historical populations
| title = German Canadian<br>Population History
| type = Canada
| footnote = ''Source: [[Statistics Canada]]''<br /><ref name="population1871to1971">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=1999-07-29   |title=Historical statistics of Canada, section A: Population and migration - ARCHIVED |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/11-516-X |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>{{rp|17}}<ref name="population1901to1961">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2013-04-03 |title=1961 Census of Canada : population : vol. I - part 2 = 1961 Recensement du Canada : population : vol. I - partie 2. Ethnic groups. |url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.831160/publication.html |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>{{rp|3}}<ref name="population1921to1971">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2013-04-03 |title=1971 Census of Canada : population : vol. I - part 3 = Recensement du Canada 1971 : population : vol. I - partie 3. Ethnic groups. |url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.834326/publication.html |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>{{rp|1}}<ref name="population1981">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2013-04-03 |title=1981 Census of Canada : volume 1 - national series : population = Recensement du Canada de 1981 : volume 1 - série nationale : population. Ethnic origin. |url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.837638/publication.html |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>{{rp|22}}<ref name="population1986">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2013-04-03 |title=Census Canada 1986 Profile of ethnic groups |url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.676331/publication.html |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>{{rp|97}}<ref name="population1986B">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2013-04-03 |title= 1986 Census of Canada: Ethnic Diversity In Canada. |url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.576036/publication.html |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>{{rp|45}}<ref name="population1991">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2013-04-03 |title= 1991 Census: The nation. Ethnic origin. |url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.676069/publication.html |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>{{rp|60}}<ref name="population1996">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2019-06-04 |title= Data tables, 1996 Census Population by Ethnic Origin (188) and Sex (3), Showing Single and Multiple Responses (3), for Canada, Provinces, Territories and Census Metropolitan Areas, 1996 Census (20% Sample Data) |url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/English/census96/data/tables/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=1&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=1&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=5216&PRID=0&PTYPE=89103&S=0&SHOWALL=No&SUB=0&Temporal=2006&THEME=9&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref><ref name="population2001">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2013-12-23 
|title= Ethnic Origin (232), Sex (3) and Single and Multiple Responses (3) for Population, for Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2001 Census - 20% Sample Data |url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/English/census01/products/standard/themes/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=1&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=1&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=62911&PRID=0&PTYPE=55440&S=0&SHOWALL=No&SUB=0&Temporal=2006&THEME=44&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref><ref name="population2006">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2020-05-01 
|title= Ethnic Origin (247), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data |url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=1&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=1&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=92333&PRID=0&PTYPE=88971&S=0&SHOWALL=No&SUB=0&Temporal=2006&THEME=80&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref><ref name="population2011">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2019-01-23 
|title= Ethnic Origin (264), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3), Generation Status (4), Age Groups (10) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2011 National Household Survey |url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/dp-pd/dt-td/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=0&PID=105396&PRID=0&PTYPE=105277&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2013&THEME=95&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref><ref name="population2016">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2019-06-17 
|title= Ethnic Origin (279), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3), Generation Status (4), Age (12) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2016 Census - 25% Sample Data |url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/dt-td/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=110528&PRID=10&PTYPE=109445&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2017&THEME=120&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref><br>{{smaller|''Note1: 1981 Canadian census did not include multiple ethnic origin responses, thus population is an undercount.''<br>''Note2: 1996-present census populations are undercounts, due to the creation of the "Canadian" ethnic origin category.''}}
|1871|202991
|1881|254319
|1901|310501
|1911|403417
|1921|294635
|1931|473544
|1941|464682
|1951|619995
|1961|1049599
|1971|1317200
|1981|1142365
|1986|2467055
|1991|2793780
|1996|2757140
|2001|2742765
|2006|3179425
|2011|3203330
|2016|3322405
}}
===Historiography of Germans in Canada===

In [[German language|modern German]], the [[endonym]] {{wikt-lang|de|deutsch|Deutsch}} is used in reference to the German language and people. Before the modern era and especially the [[unification of Germany]], "Germany" and "Germans" were ambiguous terms which could at times encompass peoples and territories not only in the modern state of Germany, but also modern-day [[Poland]], the [[Czech Republic]], [[Switzerland]], [[Austria]], [[France]], the [[Netherlands]], and even [[Russia]] and [[Ukraine]]. For example, in the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Latin]] term {{lang|la|[[Theodiscus]]}} was used to refer to [[West Germanic languages]] in general, and in English, "Dutch" was sometimes used as a shorthand for any broadly Germanic people. Early Anglophone historians and contemporary travellers in Canada rarely mentioned the ethnic identity, primary language, or place of origin of early settlers at all,{{sfn|Reaman|1986|p=xvii}} and even later historians in the 19th and 20th centuries were prone to using ambiguous terms such as "Pennsylvania Dutch". This term is sometimes described as a "misnomer" for Germans,<ref name=crhp-dutch-church /> but in its usage by English colonial authorities, "Dutch" was often an umbrella term which included people whose Germanic ancestry was in regions as widely separated as [[Switzerland]], the [[Palatinate (region)|Palatinate]] (and broader [[Rhineland]]), and [[Holland]].{{sfn|Reaman|1986|p=xviii}}

===Early history===

[[File:Little Ducth Church.jpg|thumbnail|[[Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church]] - oldest German church in Canada (1756), Halifax, Nova Scotia]]

A few Germans came to [[New France]] when France colonized the area, but large-scale migration from Germany began only under British rule, when Governor [[Edward Cornwallis]] established [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]] in 1749. Known as the [[Foreign Protestants]], the continental Protestants were encouraged to migrate to Nova Scotia between 1750 and 1752 to counterbalance the large number of Catholic [[Acadians]]. Family surnames, [[Lutheran]] churches, and village names along the [[South Shore (Nova Scotia)|South Shore]] of Nova Scotia retain their German heritage, such as [[Lunenburg, Nova Scotia|Lunenburg]]. The first German church in Canada, the [[Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church]] in Halifax, is on land which was set aside for the German-speaking community in 1756. The church was designated a [[National Historic Sites of Canada|National Historic Site of Canada]] in 1997.<ref name=crhp-dutch-church>{{CRHP|12462|Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church National Historic Site of Canada|17 April 2021}}</ref>

====Loyalist migration====
{{See also|United Empire Loyalist}}

In the late 18th century, British colonies in North America were significantly affected by the outbreak and subsequent loss of the [[American Revolutionary War]]. At the time, [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] and its overseas empire were ruled by the German-descended King [[George III]], who was also the [[Prince-Elector of Hanover]], a state in what is now northwestern Germany. Thousands of soldiers fighting for the British were members of regiments hired from various small German states. These soldiers were collectively known as "[[Hessian (soldiers)|Hessians]]", since many of them came from [[Hesse]]. Following the defeat of British forces, about 2,200 of them settled in Canada once their terms of service had expired or they had been released from American captivity. For example, a group from the Brunswick Regiment settled southwest of [[Montreal]] and south of [[Quebec City]].{{sfn|Lehmann|1986|p=371}} In this, they formed part of a larger population movement composed of several waves of migration northward from the newly-founded [[United States]] to [[Upper Canada|Upper]] and [[Lower Canada]]. In traditional Canadian historiography, these migrants are often grouped together under the broad label of [[United Empire Loyalists]], obscuring particular ethnic and religious identities,{{sfn|Reaman|1986|p=xviii}} as well as their exact motivations for migrating to Canada.

Another broad grouping of migrants were [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|religious nonconformists]], such as [[Quaker]]s, [[Mennonite]]s, and "[[Schwarzenau Brethren|Dunkers]]", who preferred British rule for religious reasons. These groups were formed on the basis of belief rather than ethnicity, but a number had their origin in Germany or in ethnic German communities in places such as [[Pennsylvania]]. These people are sometimes referred to by the Anglicized term "[[Pennsylvania Dutch]]", which derives from the endonym {{lang|pdc|Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch}}.<ref name="historicplaces.ca">{{cite web|url=http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=3297|title=HistoricPlaces.ca - HistoricPlaces.ca|website=Historicplaces.ca|access-date=19 August 2017}}</ref> This term has led to their confusion with modern-day [[Dutch people]]. For this reason, some historiographers such as George Elmore Reaman use the term "Pennsylvania German", in order to distinguish them from migrants originating in Holland.{{sfn|Reaman|1986|p=xviii}} Another complicating factor in assigning definite ethnic identities or origins to many migrants is that a number spent sometimes as long as several generations living in intermediary places such as Pennsylvania, [[New York (state)|New York]], Holland, or England, despite an ultimate origin in Germany. One example is the [[Irish Palatines]], who originated in the Palatinate (today a part of Germany) but had been settled for a time in Ireland by [[The Crown|the British Crown]].

[[Image:PioneerTower-plaque.jpg|right|thumb|The Waterloo Pioneer Tower honours the Mennonite Germans who helped populate Waterloo County.]]

The largest group fleeing the United States was the [[Mennonites]]. Many of their families' ancestors had been from southern Germany or Switzerland. In the early 1800s, they began to move to what is now southwestern Ontario and settled around the [[Grand River (Ontario)|Grand River]], especially in [[Berlin, Ontario]] (now [[Kitchener, Ontario|Kitchener]]) and in the northern part of what later became [[Waterloo County, Ontario]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.waterlooregionmuseum.com/collections-and-research/place-names-in-waterloo-region/waterloo-township/ |title=Waterloo Township |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2013 |website=Waterloo Region Museum Research |publisher=Region of Waterloo |access-date=13 March 2017 |archive-date=27 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227143026/http://www.waterlooregionmuseum.com/collections-and-research/place-names-in-waterloo-region/waterloo-township/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The same geographic area also attracted new German migrants from Europe, roughly 50,000 between the 1830 and 1860.{{sfn|Bassler|2013}}{{sfn|Lehmann|1986}} Research indicates that there was no apparent conflict between the Germans from Europe and those who came from Pennsylvania.<ref name="pre-1914">
{{cite web |url=http://waterlooregionww1.uwaterloo.ca/category/pre-1914/ |title=Religion in Waterloo North (Pre 1911) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |website=Waterloo Region |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref>

===Late 19th and early 20th centuries===
By 1871, nearly {{percent|55}} of the population of Waterloo County had German origins.{{sfn|Bloomfield|Foster|Forgay|1993|p=xiii}} Especially in Berlin, German was the dominant language spoken. Research indicates that there was no apparent conflict between the Germans from Europe and those who came from Pennsylvania.<ref name="pre-1914"/>

The German Protestants developed the Lutheran Church along Canadian lines. In Waterloo County, Ontario, with large German elements that arrived after 1850, the Lutheran churches played major roles in the religious, cultural and social life of the community. After 1914 English became the preferred language for sermons and publications. Absent a seminary, the churches trained their own ministers, but there was a doctrinal schism in the 1860s. While the anglophone Protestants promoted the [[Social Gospel]] and prohibition, the Lutherans stood apart.{{sfn|Heick|1964}}

In [[Montreal]], immigrants and Canadians of German-descent founded the [[German Society of Montreal]] in April 1835. The secular organization's purpose was to bring together the German community in the city and act as a unified voice, help sick and needy members of the community, and maintain customs and traditions.{{sfn|Gürttler|1985|p=108}} The Society is still active and celebrated its 180th anniversary in 2015.

[[File:German immigrants, Quebec City, Canada, 1911.jpg|thumb|A family of German immigrants to [[Quebec City]] in 1911.]]
[[Western Canada]] started to attract in 1896 and draw large numbers of other German immigrants, mostly from [[Eastern Europe]]. [[Plautdietsch]]-speaking [[Russian Mennonites]] of Dutch-Prussian ancestry were especially prominent since they were persecuted by the [[Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality|Tsarist regime]] in Russia. The farmers were used to the harsh conditions of farming in southern Imperial Russia (now [[Ukraine]]) and so were some of the most successful in adapting to the [[Canadian Prairies]]. Their increase accelerated in the 1920s, when the United States imposed quotas on Central and Eastern European immigration. Soon, Canada imposed its own limits, however, and prevented most of those trying to flee the [[Third Reich]] from moving to Canada. Many of the Mennonites settled in the areas of [[Winnipeg]] and [[Steinbach, Manitoba|Steinbach]], and the area just north of [[Saskatoon]].{{sfn|Lehmann|1986|pp=186–194, 198–204}}

By the early 1900s, the northern part of [[Waterloo County]], Ontario exhibited a strong German culture, and people of German origin made up a third of the population in 1911. Lutherans were the primary religious group. There were then nearly three times as many Lutherans as Mennonites. The latter, who had moved here from Pennsylvania in the first half of the 1800s, resided primarily in the rural areas and small communities.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://waterlooregionww1.uwaterloo.ca/category/pre-1914/ |title=Waterloo Region Pre-1914 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |website=Waterloo Region WWI |publisher=University of Waterloo |access-date=20 March 2017}}</ref>

===First World War===

Before and during World War I, there was some [[anti-German sentiment]] in the Waterloo County area and some cultural sanctions on the community, primarily in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener).<ref name="historicplaces.ca"/> Mennonites in the area were pacifist and so would not enlist. Immigrants from Germany found it morally difficult to fight against a country that was a significant part of their heritage.<ref>{{cite news |last=D'Amato |first=Louisa |date=28 June 2014 |title=First World War ripped away Canada's 'age of innocence' |url=https://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news-story/4605027-first-world-war-ripped-away-canada-s-age-of-innocence-/ |work=Kitchener Post, Waterloo Region Record |location=Kitchener |access-date=14 March 2017 |archive-date=15 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315023707/https://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news-story/4605027-first-world-war-ripped-away-canada-s-age-of-innocence-/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Low enlistment rates fueled anti-Germany sentiment that precipitated the [[Berlin to Kitchener name change]] in 1916. The city was renamed after [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]], famously pictured on the "[[Lord Kitchener Wants You]]" recruiting posters.

Several streets in Toronto that had previously been named for Liszt, Humboldt, Schiller, Bismarck, etc. were changed to names with strong British associations, such as Balmoral. There were anti-German riots in [[Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria]] and in [[Calgary]] during the first years of the war.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

News reports from [[Waterloo County, Ontario]], indicate "A Lutheran minister was pulled out of his house... he was dragged through the streets. German clubs were ransacked through the course of the war. It was just a really nasty time period."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/kitchener-ontario-berlin-name-change-100-years-tom-reitz-berry-vrbanovic-1.3744212|title=Kitchener mayor notes 100th year of name change|website=Cbc.ca|access-date=19 August 2017}}</ref> A document in the Archives of Canada makes the following comment: "Although ludicrous to modern eyes, the whole issue of a name for Berlin highlights the effects that fear, hatred and nationalism can have upon a society in the face of war."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-3300-e.html|title=ARCHIVED - Did You Know That… - ARCHIVED - Canada and the First World War - Library and Archives Canada|date=30 June 2016|website=Collectionscamnada.gc.ca|access-date=19 August 2017|url-status=deviated|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630163552/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-3300-e.html#d|archive-date=30 June 2016}}</ref>

Across Canada, internment camps opened in 1915 and 8,579 "enemy aliens" were held there until the end of the war. Many were German-speaking immigrants from Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Ukraine. Only 3,138 were classed as prisoners of war; the rest were civilians.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/enemy-aliens/anti-german-sentiment |title=Anti-German Sentiment |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |website=Canadian War Museum |publisher=Government of Canada |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/first-world-war-internment-camps-a-dark-chapter-in-canadian-history/ |title=First World War internment camps a dark chapter in Canadian history |last=Tahirali |first=Jesse |date=3 August 2014 |website=CTV News |publisher=Bell Media |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref>

===Second World War and later===
{{See also|German evacuation from Central and Eastern Europe}}

The [[Second World War]] saw a renewal of anti-German sentiment in Canada. Under the ''[[War Measures Act]]'', some 26 [[prisoner-of-war camp]]s opened and interned those who had been born in [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]], and particularly in [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] if they were deemed to be "enemy aliens". For Germans, that applied especially to single males who had some association with the [[National Unity Party (Canada)|Nazi Party of Canada]]. No compensation was paid to them after the war.<ref>
{{cite web |url=https://cdnhistorybits.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/internment-in-canada-ww1-vs-ww2/ |title=INTERNMENT IN CANADA: WW1 VS WW2 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=23 February 2016 |website=ALL ABOUT CANADIAN HISTORY |access-date=21 March 2017}}</ref> In Ontario, the largest internment centre for German Canadians was at [[Camp Petawawa]], which housed 750 who had been born in Germany and Austria.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.petawawaheritagevillage.com/history/canadian-internment-camps |title=Canadian Internment Camps |last=MacKinnon |first=Dianne |date=16 August 2011 |website=Renfrew County Museums |access-date=21 March 2017 |archive-date=22 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322112140/http://www.petawawaheritagevillage.com/history/canadian-internment-camps |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Between 1945 and 1994, some 400,000 German-speaking immigrants arrived in Canada;{{sfn|Bassler|2013}} approximately 270,000 of these arrived by the early 1960s.{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=134}} Around a third of postwar German immigrants were from various parts of Eastern Europe and formerly German or German-ruled territories which fell outside of the boundaries of the two postwar German states.{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=135}} Migration followed a sponsorship system predominantly led by churches, leading to an influx of German immigrants to existing German neighbourhoods in cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg, as well as rural townships in the Prairies.{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=136}} Alexander Freund remarks that "[f]or postwar Canadians [...] the great influx of German-speaking immigrants after the war posed, at least potentially, a personal confrontation with the recent past that could be difficult to navigate."{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=130}} There were also tensions between Germans and other European immigrants, some of whom had suffered under German occupation in Europe.{{sfn|Freund|2006|pp=131, 149}} Postwar Canadians "did not distinguish between Germans and Nazis",{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=139}} and this perspective was bolstered by decades of American [[war film]]s which portrayed Germans in an unsympathetic light.{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=139}} Pressure increased on Germans to assimilate.{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=141}} German-Canadians began to create advocacy organizations to promote their interests, such as the Trans-Canada Alliance for German Canadians, which was founded in 1951 by social democrats but was soon taken over by right-wing elements of the German community.{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=142}} In addition, the Canadian Baltic Immigrant Aid Society was founded in 1948 to provide information and aid to [[Baltic Germans]] immigrating to Canada.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Canadian Baltic Immigrant Aid Society, Edmonton Branch |url=https://albertaonrecord.ca/canadian-baltic-immigrant-aid-society-edmonton-branch |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241030041654/https://albertaonrecord.ca/canadian-baltic-immigrant-aid-society-edmonton-branch |archive-date=2024-10-30 |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=Alberta on Record}}</ref>

Going into the 1960s, Canadian nationalism and ethnic politics revolved increasingly around the Anglophone-Francophone divide,{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=139}} leaving little place for other groups, including the Germans.{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=145}} As the war became more distant, the Canadian national narrative, guided by historians, journalists, and veterans' organizations, was formed with the exclusion of German or other inter-cultural perspectives on the war,{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=154}} emphasizing instead themes of heroism and sacrifice by Canadian soldiers.{{sfn|Freund|2006|pp=150, 154}} Some German-Canadians "withdrew into a 'culture of grievance.'"{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=153}} As time went on, Canadian perspectives broadened around controversial Allied actions such as the [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|bombing of Dresden]], which some German-Canadians found encouraging.{{sfn|Freund|2006|p=147}}

== Demography ==
{{Too many charts|section|date=February 2023}}
{{image frame
|content={{Graph:Chart
|height=333
|width=666
|xAxisTitle=Year
|yAxisMin=0
|yAxisMax=6644810<!-- Max is based on double ethnic German population as per latest census data (2016). -->
|xGrid=
|yAxisTitle=Population (millions)
|yGrid=
|y1Title=Canada
|type=line
|showSymbols=
|x=1871, 1881, 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931, 1941, 1951, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016
|y1=202991, 254319, 310501, 403417, 294635, 473544, 464682, 619995, 1049599, 1317200, 1142365, 2467055, 2793780, 2757140, 2742765, 3179425, 3203330, 3322405
|colors=red,lightblue,pink,blue,lightgreen,orange}}
|caption=Canadians of German descent total population (1871−2016)<br>{{smaller|''Note1: 1981 Canadian census did not include multiple ethnic origin responses, thus population is an undercount.''<br>''Note2: 1996-present census populations are undercounts, due to the creation of the "Canadian" ethnic origin category.''}}
|border=no
}}
{{image frame
|content={{Graph:Chart
|height=333
|width=666
|xAxisTitle=Year
|yAxisMin=0
|yAxisMax=19.282<!-- Max is based on double ethnic German percentage as per latest census data (2016). -->
|xGrid=
|yAxisTitle=Percentage
|yGrid=
|y1Title=Canada
|type=line
|showSymbols=
|x=1871, 1881, 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931, 1941, 1951, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016
|y1=5.823, 5.88, 5.781, 5.598, 3.353, 4.563, 4.038, 4.426, 5.755, 6.107, 4.743, 9.86, 10.35, 9.665, 9.254, 10.177, 9.751, 9.641
|colors=red,lightblue,pink,blue,lightgreen,orange}}
|caption=Canadians of German descent percentage of the total population (1871−2016)<br>{{smaller|''Note1: 1981 Canadian census did not include multiple ethnic origin responses, thus population is an undercount.''<br>''Note2: 1996-present census populations are undercounts, due to the creation of the "Canadian" ethnic origin category.''}}
|border=no
}}
=== Population ===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ German Canadian Population History<br>1871−2016
|-
!Year
!Population
!% of total population
|-
|1871<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}
| align="right" |202,991
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 202991 | 3485761 | 3 }}
|-
|1881<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}
| align="right" |254,319
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 254319 | 4324810 | 3 }}
|-
|1901<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}<ref name="population1901to1961"/>{{rp|3}}
| align="right" |310,501
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 310501 | 5371315 | 3 }}
|-
|1911<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}<ref name="population1901to1961"/>{{rp|3}}
| align="right" |403,417
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 403417 | 7206643 | 3 }}
|-
|1921<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}<ref name="population1901to1961"/>{{rp|3}}<ref name="population1921to1971"/>{{rp|1}}
| align="right" |294,635
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 294635 | 8787949 | 3 }}
|-
|1931<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}<ref name="population1901to1961"/>{{rp|3}}<ref name="population1921to1971"/>{{rp|1}}
| align="right" |473,544
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 473544 | 10376786 | 3 }}
|-
|1941<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}<ref name="population1901to1961"/>{{rp|3}}<ref name="population1921to1971"/>{{rp|1}}
| align="right" |464,682
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 464682 | 11506655 | 3 }}
|-
|1951<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}<ref name="population1901to1961"/>{{rp|3}}<ref name="population1921to1971"/>{{rp|1}}
| align="right" |619,995
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 619995 | 14009429 | 3 }}
|-
|1961<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}<ref name="population1901to1961"/>{{rp|3}}<ref name="population1921to1971"/>{{rp|1}}
| align="right" |1,049,599
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 1049599 | 18238247 | 3 }}
|-
|1971<br><ref name="population1871to1971"/>{{rp|17}}<ref name="population1921to1971"/>{{rp|1}}
| align="right" |1,317,200
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 1317200 | 21568310 | 3 }}
|-
|1981<br><ref name="population1981"/>{{rp|22}}
| align="right" |1,142,365
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 1142365 | 24083495 | 3 }}
|-
|1986<br><ref name="population1986"/>{{rp|97}}<ref name="population1986B"/>{{rp|45}}
| align="right" |2,467,055
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 2467055 | 25022010 | 3 }}
|-
|1991<br><ref name="population1991"/>{{rp|60}}
| align="right" |2,793,780
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 2793780 | 26994045 | 3 }}
|-
|1996<br><ref name="population1996"/>
| align="right" |2,757,140
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 2757140 | 28528125 | 3 }}
|-
|2001<br><ref name="population2001"/>
| align="right" |2,742,765
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 2742765 | 29639035 | 3 }} 
|-
|2006<br><ref name="population2006"/>
| align="right" |3,179,425
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 3179425 | 31241030 | 3 }}
|-
|2011<br><ref name="population2011"/>
| align="right" |3,203,330
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 3203330 | 32852325 | 3 }} 
|-
|2016<br><ref name="population2016"/>
| align="right" |3,322,405
| align="right" |{{Percentage | 3322405 | 34460065 | 3 }}
|}

===Religion===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ German Canadian demography by religion
! rowspan="2" |Religious group
! colspan="2" |2021<ref name="religion2021">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2023-05-10 |title= Religion by ethnic or cultural origins: Canada, provinces and territories and census metropolitan areas with parts |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv.action?pid=9810034101 |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>{{efn|name=R2021|Religious breakdown proportions based on "German" ethnic or cultural origin response on the [[2021 Canadian census|2021 census]].<ref name="religion2021"/>}}
! colspan="2" |2001<ref name="religion2001">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=2013-12-23 |title= 2001 Census Topic-based tabulations Selected Demographic and Cultural Characteristics (105), Selected Ethnic Groups (100), Age Groups (6), Sex (3) and Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) for Population, for Canada, Provinces, Territories and Census Metropolitan Areas, 2001 Census - 20% Sample Data |url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/English/census01/products/standard/themes/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=68635&PRID=0&PTYPE=55430,53293,55440,55496,71090&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2001&THEME=44&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |access-date=2025-09-21 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>{{efn|name=R2001|Religious breakdown proportions based on "German" ethnic or cultural origin response on the [[2001 Canadian census|2001 census]].<ref name="religion2001"/>}}
|-
![[Population|{{abbr|Pop.|Population}}]]
!{{Abbr|%|percentage}}
!{{abbr|Pop.|Population}}
!{{Abbr|%|percentage}}
|-
| [[Christianity]]
| 1,586,875
| {{Percentage | 1586875 | 2955700 | 2 }}
| 2,165,890
| {{Percentage | 2165890 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Islam]]
| 3,825
| {{Percentage | 3825 | 2955700 | 2 }}
| 2,095
| {{Percentage | 2095 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Irreligion]]
| 1,317,895
| {{Percentage | 1317895 | 2955700 | 2 }}
| 553,435
| {{Percentage | 553435 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Judaism]]
| 12,745
| {{Percentage | 12745 | 2955700 | 2 }}
| 8,070
| {{Percentage | 8070 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Buddhism]]
| 5,095
| {{Percentage | 5095 | 2955700 | 2 }}
| 3,880
| {{Percentage | 3880 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Hinduism]]
| 740
| {{Percentage | 740 | 2955700 | 2 }}
| 400
| {{Percentage | 665 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous spirituality]]
| 1,960
| {{Percentage | 1960 | 2955700 | 2 }}
| 2,335
| {{Percentage | 2335 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Sikhism]]
| 380
| {{Percentage | 380 | 2955700 | 2 }}
| 390
| {{Percentage | 390 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Major religious groups|Other]]
| 26,170
| {{Percentage | 26170 | 2955700 | 2 }}
| 6,275
| {{Percentage | 6275 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|-
! Total German Canadian population
! 2,955,700
! {{Percentage | 2955700 | 2955700 | 2 }}
! 2,742,765
! {{Percentage | 2742765 | 2742765 | 2 }}
|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ German Canadian demography by Christian sects
! rowspan="2" |Religious group
! colspan="2" |2021<ref name="religion2021"/>{{efn|name=R2021}}
! colspan="2" |2001<ref name="religion2001"/>{{efn|name=R2001}}
|-
![[Population|{{abbr|Pop.|Population}}]]
!{{Abbr|%|percentage}}
!{{abbr|Pop.|Population}}
!{{Abbr|%|percentage}}
|-
| [[Catholic]]
| 563,015
| {{Percentage | 563015 | 1586875 | 2 }}
| 692,180
| {{Percentage | 692180 | 2165890 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox]]
| 11,165
| {{Percentage | 11165 | 1586875 | 2 }}
| 8,830
| {{Percentage | 8830 | 2165890 | 2 }}
|-
| [[Protestant]]
| 726,095
| {{Percentage | 726095 | 1586875 | 2 }}
| 1,353,660
| {{Percentage | 1353660 | 2165890 | 2 }}
|-
| Other Christian
| 286,600
| {{Percentage | 286600 | 1586875 | 2 }}
| 111,220
| {{Percentage | 111220 | 2165890 | 2 }}
|-
! Total German canadian christian population
! 1,586,875
! {{Percentage | 1586875 | 1586875 | 2 }}
! 2,165,890
! {{Percentage | 2165890 | 2165890 | 2 }}
|}

== Geographical distribution ==
=== Provinces & territories ===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ German Canadians by [[Provinces and territories of Canada|province and territory]] (2001−2016)
! rowspan="2" |[[Provinces and territories of Canada|Province/Territory]]
! colspan="2" |2016<ref name="population2016"/>
! colspan="2" |2011<ref name="population2011"/>
! colspan="2" |2006<ref name="population2006"/>
! colspan="2" |2001<ref name="population2001"/>
|-
![[Population|{{abbr|Pop.|Population}}]]
!{{Abbr|%|percentage}}
!{{abbr|Pop.|Population}}
!{{Abbr|%|percentage}}
!{{abbr|Pop.|Population}}
!{{Abbr|%|percentage}}
!{{abbr|Pop.|Population}}
!{{Abbr|%|percentage}}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Ontario.svg|20px]] [[Ontario]]
| 1,189,670
| {{Percentage | 1189670 | 13242160 | 2 }}
| 1,154,550
| {{Percentage | 1154550 | 12651790 | 2 }}
| 1,144,560
| {{Percentage | 1144560 | 12028895 | 2 }}
| 965,510
| {{Percentage | 965510 | 11285545 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Alberta.svg|20px]] [[Alberta]]
| 712,955
| {{Percentage | 712955 | 3978150 | 2 }}
| 683,830
| {{Percentage | 683830 | 3567975 | 2 }}
| 679,700
| {{Percentage | 679700 | 3256355 | 2 }}
| 576,350
| {{Percentage | 576350 | 2941150 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of British Columbia.svg|20px]] [[British Columbia]]
| 603,265
| {{Percentage | 603265 | 4560240 | 2 }}
| 567,670
| {{Percentage | 567670 | 4324455 | 2 }}
| 561,570
| {{Percentage | 561570 | 4074385 | 2 }}
| 500,675
| {{Percentage | 500675 | 3868875 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Saskatchewan.svg|20px]] [[Saskatchewan]]
| 296,385
| {{Percentage | 296385 | 1070560 | 2 }}
| 288,790
| {{Percentage | 288790 | 1008760 | 2 }}
| 286,045
| {{Percentage | 286045 | 953850 | 2 }}
| 275,060
| {{Percentage | 275060 | 963150 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Manitoba.svg|20px]] [[Manitoba]]
| 220,735
| {{Percentage | 220735 | 1240700 | 2 }}
| 218,490
| {{Percentage | 218490 | 1174345 | 2 }}
| 216,755
| {{Percentage | 216755 | 1133515 | 2 }}
| 200,370
| {{Percentage | 200370 | 1103695 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Quebec.svg|20px]] [[Quebec]]
| 142,230
| {{Percentage | 142230 | 7965450 | 2 }}
| 132,945
| {{Percentage | 132945 | 7732520 | 2 }}
| 131,795
| {{Percentage | 131795 | 7435905 | 2 }}
| 88,700
| {{Percentage | 88700 | 7125580 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Nova Scotia.svg|20px]] [[Nova Scotia]]
| 97,550
| {{Percentage | 97550 | 908340 | 2 }}
| 97,605
| {{Percentage | 97605 | 906170 | 2 }}
| 101,865
| {{Percentage | 101865 | 903090 | 2 }}
| 89,460
| {{Percentage | 89460 | 897565 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of New Brunswick.svg|20px]] [[New Brunswick]]
| 34,205
| {{Percentage | 34205 | 730710 | 2 }}
| 34,870
| {{Percentage | 34870 | 735835 | 2 }}
| 33,830
| {{Percentage | 33830 | 719650 | 2 }}
| 27,490
| {{Percentage | 27490 | 719710 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Newfoundland and Labrador.svg|20px]] [[Newfoundland and Labrador]]
| 8,620
| {{Percentage | 8620 | 512250 | 2 }}
| 8,190
| {{Percentage | 8190 | 507265 | 2 }}
| 7,390
| {{Percentage | 7390 | 500610 | 2 }}
| 6,275
| {{Percentage | 6275 | 508075 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Prince Edward Island.svg|20px]] [[Prince Edward Island]]
| 7,060
| {{Percentage | 7060 | 139685 | 2 }}
| 7,160
| {{Percentage | 7160 | 137375 | 2 }}
| 7,050
| {{Percentage | 7050 | 134205 | 2 }}
| 5,400
| {{Percentage | 5400 | 133385 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Yukon.svg|20px]] [[Yukon]]
| 5,575
| {{Percentage | 5575 | 35110 | 2 }}
| 5,210
| {{Percentage | 5210 | 33320 | 2 }}
| 4,835
| {{Percentage | 4835 | 30195 | 2 }}
| 4,085
| {{Percentage | 4085 | 28525 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of the Northwest Territories.svg|20px]] [[Northwest Territories]]
| 3,410
| {{Percentage | 3410 | 41135 | 2 }}
| 3,375
| {{Percentage | 3375 | 40800 | 2 }}
| 3,495
| {{Percentage | 3495 | 41055 | 2 }}
| 3,005
| {{Percentage | 3005 | 37105 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Nunavut.svg|20px]] [[Nunavut]]
| 745
| {{Percentage | 745 | 35580 | 2 }}
| 640
| {{Percentage | 640 | 31695 | 2 }}
| 550
| {{Percentage | 550 | 29325 | 2 }}
| 395
| {{Percentage | 395 | 26665 | 2 }}
|-
|[[File:Flag of Canada.svg|20px]] '''Canada'''
| '''3,322,405'''
| '''{{Percentage | 3322405 | 34460065 | 2 }}'''
| '''3,203,330'''
| '''{{Percentage | 3203330 | 32852320 | 2 }}'''
| '''3,179,425'''
| '''{{Percentage | 3179425 | 31241030 | 2 }}'''
| '''2,742,765'''
| '''{{Percentage | 2742765 | 29639035 | 2 }}'''
|}

==== Prairies ====
[[File:Canada ethnic origin map 2021.png|thumb|250px|People who have self-identified as having German ancestors are the plurality in many parts of the [[Prairie provinces]] (areas coloured in grey)]]
There are several German ethnic-bloc settlements in the [[Canadian Prairies]] in western Canada. Over a quarter of people in Saskatchewan are German-Canadians. German bloc settlements include the areas around Strasbourg, Bulyea, Leader, Burstall, Fox Valley, Eatonia, St. Walburg, Paradise Hill, Loon Lake, Goodsoil, Pierceland, Meadow Lake, Edenwold, Windthorst, Lemberg, Qu'appelle, Neudorf, Grayson, Langenburg, Kerrobert, Unity, Luseland, Macklin, Humboldt, Watson, Cudworth, Lampman, Midale, Tribune, Consul, Rockglen, Shaunavon and Swift Current.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

In Saskatchewan the German settlers came directly from Russia, or, after 1914 from the Dakotas.{{sfn|Lehmann|1986}} They came not as large groups but as part of a chain of family members, where the first immigrants would find suitable locations and send for the others. They formed compact German-speaking communities built around their Catholic or Lutheran churches, and continuing old-world customs. They were farmers who grew wheat and sugar beets.{{sfn|Clark|Isern|2010}} Arrivals from Russia, [[Bukovina]], and Romanian [[Dobruja]] established their villages in a 40-mile-wide tract east of Regina.{{sfn|Giesinger|1984}} The Germans operated parochial schools primarily to maintain their religious faith; often they offered only an hour of German language instruction a week, but they always had extensive coverage of religion. Most German Catholic children by 1910 attended schools taught entirely in English.{{sfn|White|1994}} From 1900 to 1930, German Catholics generally voted for the Liberal ticket (rather than the Provincial Rights and Conservative tickets), seeing Liberals as more willing to protect religious minorities. Occasionally they voted for Conservatives or independent candidates who offered greater support for public funding of parochial schools.{{sfn|White|1997}} Nazi Germany made a systematic effort to proselytize among Saskatchewan's Germans in the 1930s. Fewer than 1% endorsed their message, but some did migrate back to Germany before anti-Nazi sentiment became overwhelming in 1939.{{sfn|Wagner|1978}}

==Culture==
===Music===

The choral tradition is historically very prominent within German music in Canada. In the latter part of the 19th century, ''[[Turnvereine]]'' (Turner clubs) were active in both Canada and the United States, and were associated with communities of German continental immigrants in urban centres such as [[Cincinnati, Ohio]]; [[Buffalo, New York]]; and [[Erie, Pennsylvania]].{{sfn|Kallmann|Kemp|2006}} The ''[[Sängerfest]]'' ("singer festival", plural {{lang|de|Sängerfeste}}) movement, which began in Germany at the start of the 19th century, spread to the United States by the 1840s, and to Canada by 1862, when the first major {{lang|de|Sängerfest}} was held in [[Berlin, Ontario|Berlin]], [[Canada West]] (later [[Kitchener, Ontario]]) from August 6 to 9.{{sfn|Kallmann|Kemp|2006}} This followed the format of a typical Turner event by also including theatrical and athletic events, as well as band concerts.{{sfn|Kallmann|Kemp|2006}} Another festival was held the following year in the nearby community of Waterloo, which had an audience of 2000 people.{{sfn|Kallmann|Kemp|2006}} It was followed in 1866 by an even larger event, organized by the German Club of Hamilton, which had 5000 attendees and featured choirs from both Ontario and the United States.{{sfn|Kallmann|Kemp|2006}}

The continued success of these events led to the founding of the {{lang|de|Deutsch-kanadischer Sängerbund}} (German-Canadian Choir Federation) in Hamilton in 1873 and the Canadian Choir Federation in Berlin in 1893.{{sfn|Kallmann|Kemp|2006}} Major song and music festivals were held by German communities throughout Ontario in Toronto, Hamilton, Waterloo, Bowmanville, [[Guelph, Ontario|Guelph]], [[Sarnia]], Port Elgin, Bridgeport, Elmira, and, most often out of all of these, in Berlin.{{sfn|Kallmann|Kemp|2006}} Three of the most spectacular {{lang|de|Sängerfeste}} were organized by Berlin's Concordia Club; one 1879 festival which was organized by the club attracted 12,000 visitors.{{sfn|Kallmann|Kemp|2006}} Anti-German sentiment, which arose during the First World War, led to an interruption in the {{lang|de|Sängerfeste}}, along with other German cultural institutions, and attempts to re-establish the tradition during the mid-20th century postwar period were largely unsuccessful due to social changes. The last significant {{lang|de|Sängerfest}} in Canada were held in the 1980s.{{sfn|Kallmann|Kemp|2006}}

===Folklore===

The [[antiquarian]], archaeologist, and [[folklorist]] [[William J. Wintemberg]] produced a number of works on folklore in Ontario during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including communities whose traditions and beliefs were based in the Pennsylvania German cultural milieu. With widespread social change in the 20th century, these traditional beliefs began to decline, though some persisted in reduced form. These communities were deeply religious, but also commonly had spiritual beliefs described by George Elmore Reaman as "mystic".{{sfn|Reaman|1986|p=191}} Their folkloric traditions included [[proverb]]s, rituals, and beliefs about the weather, [[luck]], health and health problems, wild and domestic animals, crops, certain herbs and other plants believed to have special properties, [[witch]]es and [[witchcraft]], blessings, and particular times of the year, such as specific holidays. The moon and its phases were also important to them,{{sfn|Wintemberg|1899|p=48}} as well as the signs of the [[Zodiac]].{{sfn|Reaman|1986|p=195}} They had a complex set of beliefs around thunder and lightning and their cause and avoidance, as well as particular beliefs around fires caused by lightning.{{sfn|Wintemberg|1899|p=46}} The [[Celt (tool)|celt]] had some prominence as a cultural object, and was called the {{lang|de|gewitter-stein}} ("lightning stone") or {{lang|de|donder-keidel}} ("thunder wedge"); it was associated with the splitting of trees by lightning.{{sfn|Wintemberg|1899|p=46}} People who were regarded as witches and [[witch doctor]]s both existed in these communities. Accounts of witches sometimes associate them with [[curse]]s.{{sfn|Wintemberg|1899|p=50}} Accounts of witch doctors often associate them with charms, or healing of both people and livestock.{{sfn|Wintemberg|1899|p=50}}{{sfn|Reaman|1986|p=192}} The famous [[hex sign]]s painted on barns in Pennsylvania were historically absent from German barns in Ontario, as barns were usually unpainted.{{sfn|Reaman|1986|p=192}} There was, however, a strong belief in rituals and objects associated with both good and bad luck; good luck is associated with charms and symbols such as the [[sign of the cross]],{{sfn|Wintemberg|1899|p=45}} the [[four-leaf clover]], and the finding of a [[horseshoe]].{{sfn|Reaman|1986|p=192}}

==Notable people==
{{main list|List of German Canadians}}

==Education==
There are two German international schools in Canada:
* [[Alexander von Humboldt Schule Montréal]]
* [[German International School Toronto]]
There are also [https://www.retsd.mb.ca/Programs/Curriculum/LanguagePrograms/Pages/default.aspx#/= bilingual German-English K-12 schools] in Winnipeg, Manitoba: 
* Donwood Elementary School (K–5)
* Princess Margaret School (K–5)
* Chief Peguis Junior High (6–8)
* River East Collegiate (9–12)
* [https://www.westgatemennonite.ca/westgate/courses/german/ Westgate Mennonite Collegiate (6-12)]

==See also==
{{Portal|Germany|Canada}}
* [[Foreign Protestants]]
* [[German Americans]]
* [[Hessian (soldiers)]]
* [[German inventors and discoverers]]
* [[German Mills, Ontario]]
* German Canadian Club Hansa
* [[Waterloo County, Ontario]]
* ''[[Berliner Journal]]''
* [[List of German language newspapers of Ontario]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Bassler |first=Gerhard P. |title=German Canadians |date=30 July 2013 |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/german-canadians |access-date=16 April 2021}}
* {{cite book |last1=Bloomfield |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Foster |first2=Linda |last3=Forgay |first3=Jane|title=Waterloo County to 1972: an annotated bibliography of regional history |date=1993 |publisher=Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation |location=Waterloo |isbn=9780969693604 |url=https://archive.org/details/waterloocountyto00bloo}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=Jessica |last2=Isern |first2=Thomas D. |title=Germans from Russia in Saskatchewan: An Oral History |journal=American Review of Canadian Studies |date=Spring 2010 |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=71–85 |doi=10.1080/02722010903536946|s2cid=143085107 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Freund |first=Alexander |title=Troubling Memories in Nation-building: World War II Memories and Germans' Inter-ethnic Encounters in Canada after 1945 |date=2006 |journal=Histoire Sociale / Social History |issn=0018-2257 |volume=39 |number=77 |pages=129–155 |url=https://hssh.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/hssh/article/download/4214/3412}}
* {{cite journal |last=Giesinger |first=Adam |title=The Germans from Russia Who Pioneered in Saskatchewan |journal=Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia |date=Summer 1984 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=1–14}}
* {{cite book |last=Gürttler |first=Karin R. |title=Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft zu Montreal (1835–1985) |year=1985 |publisher=German Society of Montreal |location=Montreal, QC |language=de |isbn=2-9800421-0-2 |oclc=29291580}}
* {{cite journal |last=Heick |first=Wilfrid H. |title=Becoming an Indigenous Church: The Lutheran Church in Waterloo County, Ontario |date=December 1964 |journal=Ontario History |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=249–260}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Kallmann |first1=Helmut |last2=Kemp |first2=Walter P. |title=Sängerfeste |date=7 February 2006 |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sangerfeste-emc |access-date=21 April 2021}}
* {{cite book |last=Lehmann |first=Heinz |editor-last=Bassler |editor-first=Gerhard P. |translator-last=Bassler |translator-first=Gerhard P. |title=The German Canadians 1750–1937: Immigration, Settlement & Culture |date=1986 |publisher=Jesperson Press |isbn=978-1-55081-308-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Reaman |first=George Elmore |title=The Trail of the Black Walnut |year=1986|orig-date=1957 |edition=revised |location=Toronto |publisher=McClelland and Stewart |isbn=0-7710-7351-8}}
* {{cite journal |last=Wagner |first=Jonathan F. |title=The Deutscher Bund Canada in Saskatchewan |journal=Saskatchewan History |date=May 1978 |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=41–50}}
* {{cite journal |last=White |first=Clinton O. |title=Pre-World War I Saskatchewan German Catholic thought concerning the perpetuation of their language and religion |journal=Canadian Ethnic Studies |date=1994 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=15–30}}
* {{cite journal |last=White |first=Clinton O. |title=The Politics of Elementary Schools in a German-American Roman Catholic Settlement in Canada's Province of Saskatchewan, 1903–1925 |journal=Great Plains Research |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |date=September 1997 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=251–272 |issn=1052-5165}}
* {{cite journal |last=Wintemberg |first=W. J. |title=Items of German-Canadian Folk-Lore |journal=[[Journal of American Folklore]] |publisher=[[American Folklore Society]] |year=1899 |volume=12 |number=44 |pages=45–50 |doi=10.2307/533769 |jstor=533769}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Further|Kitchener, Ontario#Further reading}}

{{refbegin|indent=yes}}
* Adam, Thomas, ed. ''Germany and the America: Culture, Politics and History'' (3 vol 2006)
* Bassler, Gerhard P. "The Enemy Alien Experience in Newfoundland 1914-1918." ''Canadian Ethnic Studies= Etudes Ethniques au Canada'' 20.3 (1988): 42+.
* Bassler, Gerhard P. ''The German Canadian Mosaic Today and Yesterday. Identities, Roots, and Heritage'' (Ottawa: German-Canadian Congress, 1991).
* {{cite journal |last=Bausenhart |first=Werner A. |title=The Ontario German Language Press and Its Suppression by Order-in-Council in 1918 |journal=Canadian Ethnic Studies |date=1972 |volume=4 |issue=1–2 |pages=35–48 |issn=0008-3496}}
* {{cite book |last=Bausenhart |first=Werner |title=German Immigration and Assimilation in Ontario, 1783–1918 |date=1989 |publisher=Legas |location=New York |isbn=0-921252-10-2}}
* Becker, Anthony. "The Germans in Western Canada, A Vanishing People." ''Bulletin of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association'' (1975). [http://www.cchahistory.ca/journal/CCHA1975/Becker.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171120020555/http://www.cchahistory.ca/journal/CCHA1975/Becker.pdf |date=2017-11-20 }}
* Betcherman, Lita-Rose. ''The Swastika and the Maple Leaf. Fascist Movements in Canada in the Thirties'' (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1975).
* Entz, Werner. "The Suppression of the German Language Press in September 1918 (with special reference to the secular German language press in western Canada)." ''Canadian Ethnic Studies'' 8.2 (1976): 56-70.
* Fair, Ross. "'Theirs was a deeper purpose': The Pennsylvania Germans of Ontario and the Craft of the Homemaking Myth." ''Canadian Historical Review'' 87#4 (December 2006)
* {{cite book |last=Fair |first=Ross |date=2012 |editor-last=Freund |editor-first=Alexander |title=Beyond the Nation?: Immigrants' Local Lives in Transnational Cultures |chapter=Chapter 4: Model Farmers, Dubious Citizens: Reconsidering the Pennsylvania Germans of Upper Canada, 1786–1834 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |pages=79–106 |doi=10.3138/9781442694866|isbn=9781442694866 }}
* Foster, Lois, and Anne Seitz. "Official attitudes to Germans during World War II: some Australian and Canadian comparisons." ''Ethnic and Racial Studies'' 14.4 (1991): 474–492.
* Grams, Grant W. ''Coming Home to the Third Reich: Return Migration of German Nationals from the United States and Canada, 1933-1941'' (McFarland, 2021). [https://books.google.com/books?id=QJdDEAAAQBAJ&dq=return&pg=PP1 online]
* Grams, Grant W. "The Deportation of German Nationals from Canada, 1919 to 1939." ''Journal of International Migration and Integration/Revue de l'integration et de la migration internationale'' 11 (2010): 219-237. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12134-010-0131-y online]

* {{cite book |last=Heald |first=Carolyn A. |title=The Irish Palatines In Ontario: Religion, Ethnicity, and Rural Migration |edition=2nd |date=2009 |location=[[Milton, Ontario]] |publisher=Global Heritage Press |isbn=978-1-897446-37-9 |oclc=430037634}}
* {{cite book |last=Kalbfleisch |first=Herbert Karl |title=The History of the Pioneer German Language Press of Ontario, 1835–1918. |date=1968 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Toronto |isbn=978-1-4875-8906-6}}
* Keyserlingk, Robert H. "The Canadian Government's Attitude Towards Germans and German Canadians in World War Two." ''Canadian ethnic studies= Études ethniques au Canada'' 16.1 (1984): 16+.
* Keyserlingk, Robert H. 'Agents within the Gates': The Search for Nazi Subversives in Canada during World War II" ''Canadian Historical Review'' 66#2 (1985)
* {{cite book |last=Lorenzkowski |first=Barbara |editor-last=Freund |editor-first=Alexander |chapter=Germania in Canada – Nation and Ethnicity at the German Peace Jubilees of 1871 |pages=107–136 |title=Beyond the Nation?: Immigrants' Local Lives in Transnational Cultures |date=2012 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |doi=10.3138/9781442694866|isbn=9781442694866 }}
* McLaughlin, K. M. ''The Germans in Canada'' (Canadian Historical Association, 1985).
* Magocsi, Paul, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples'' (1999) extensive coverage
* {{in lang|fr}} Meune, Manuel. ''Les Allemands du Québec: Parcours et discours d'une communauté méconnue''. Montréal: Méridien, 2003. {{ISBN|2-89415293-0}}.
* {{cite journal |last=Milnes |first=Humphrey |date=January{{endash}}March 1954 |title=German Folklore in Ontario |journal=Journal of American Folklore |publisher=American Folklore Society |volume=67 |number=263 |pages=35–43 |doi=10.2307/536806|jstor=536806 }}
* {{cite thesis |last=Robinson |first=Curtis B. |date=2019 |title=Ethnic Elites, Propaganda, Recruiting and Intelligence in German-Canadian Ontario, 1914–1918 |type=PhD thesis |publisher=[[Memorial University of Newfoundland]] |location=St. John's |url=https://research.library.mun.ca/13804/1/thesis.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130175744/https://research.library.mun.ca/13804/1/thesis.pdf |archive-date=30 November 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=21 April 2021 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Sauer |first=Angelika E. |title=The Unbounded German Nation: Dr. Otto Hahn and German Emigration to Canada in the 1870s and 1880s |journal=Canadian Ethnic Studies |volume=39 |number=1–2 |date=2007 |pages=129–144|doi=10.1353/ces.0.0005 |s2cid=145534168 |doi-access=free |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/78/article/254219/pdf }}
* {{cite journal |last=Tötösy de Zepetnek |first=Steven |title=Early German-Canadian Ethnic Minority Writing |journal=Canadian Ethnic Studies |date=1995 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=99–122 |issn=0008-3496}}
* {{cite book |last=Wagner |first=Jonathan |title=A History of Migration from Germany to Canada 1850–1939 |date=2005 |publisher=[[University of British Columbia Press]] |isbn=9780774812153}}
* {{cite book |last=Wilhelmy |first=Jean-Pierre |title=Les Mercenaires allemands au Québec, 1776–1783 |date=2009 |publisher=Septentrion |language=fr |isbn=978-2-89664-554-1}}
* Wagner, Jonathan. ''A History of Migration from Germany to Canada, 1850-1939'' (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006).
* Wagner, Jonathan. ''The Deutsche Zeitung für Canada: A Nazi Newspaper in Winnipeg'' in ''Manitoba Historical Society Transactions'', Series 3, Number 33, 1976-77 [http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/transactions/3/deutschezeitung.shtm online]
* Wagner, Jonathan. “The Deutscher Bund Canada, 1934-9.” ''Canadian Historical Review'' 58#2 (June 1977).
* Wieden, Fritz. ''The Trans-Canada Alliance of German Canadians, A Study in Culture'' ( Windsor: Tolle Lege Enterprises (1985).

===Historiography===
* Antor, Heinz ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=CEocfbvIMMMC&dq=German%20Canadians&pg=PP1 Refractions of Germany in Canadian literature and culture]'' (Walter de Gruyter, 2003).

* Bassler, Gerhard P. "Silent or silenced co-founders of Canada? Reflections on the history of German Canadians." ''Canadian Ethnic Studies= Etudes Ethniques au Canada'' 22.1 (1990): 38+.
* Maxwell, Alexander, and Sacha E. Davis. "Germanness beyond Germany: collective identity in German diaspora communities." ''German Studies Review'' 39.1 (2016): 1-15.
* {{cite journal |last=Waters |first=Tony |title=Towards a Theory of Ethnic Identity and Migration: The Formation of Ethnic Enclaves by Migrant Germans in Russia and North America |journal=[[International Migration Review]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |date=Summer 1995 |volume=29 |number=2 |pages=515–544 |doi=10.1177/019791839502900208 |jstor=2546792|s2cid=147415727 }}
* Worsfold, Elliot. "Cast Down, But Not Forsaken: The Second World War Experience and Memory of German-Canadian Lutherans in Southwestern Ontario." ''Ontario History'' 106.1 (2014): 57-76.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Canadians of German descent}}
*[https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1s8qioxBkLEQIkrHLBEuVWv4Ya0M&msa=0&ll=46.195042,-93.515625&spn=45.289724,74.707031 German Clubs, Communities and Businesses in Canada and USA]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110521100411/http://www.ualberta.ca/~german/PAA/German-speakingcommunitiesinAlberta.htm University of Alberta's History of Germans in Alberta]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120504020748/http://multiculturalcanada.ca/ Multicultural Canada website] including German books and periodicals and digitized issues of the ''[[Berliner Journal]]'', 1880–1916
*[http://brantford.library.on.ca/genealogy/pdfs/historyofoursgerman.pdf History of Ours: the German People] A history of Germans in Brantford, Ontario.
*[http://www.hansahaus.ca German Canadian Club "Hansa Haus" in Mississauga, Ontario] German-Canadian Cultural Centre in the GTA
*[https://germancanadianassociation.ca German Canadian Association of Nova Scotia] Nonprofit organization in Nova Scotia that promotes German Canadian heritage and cultures
*[http://www.gccmb.ca German Canadian Congress]

{{People of Canada}}
{{German diaspora}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Canadian people of German descent| ]]
[[Category:European diaspora in Canada|German]]
[[Category:German diaspora in Canada| ]]
[[Category:German diaspora by country|Canada]]