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136-504: In modern German , the endonym 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 ,

272-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it

408-402: A second language , and 75–100   million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220   million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90   million people, or 16% of

544-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become

680-877: A 'culture of grievance.'" As time went on, Canadian perspectives broadened around controversial Allied actions such as the bombing of Dresden , which some German-Canadians found encouraging. 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. In Saskatchewan

816-514: A 40-mile-wide tract east of Regina. 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. From 1900 to 1930, German Catholics generally voted for the Liberal ticket (rather than

952-633: A Calvinistic firm affirmation of eternal security became the National Fellowship of Brethren Churches, since renamed Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches (FGBC). It is commonly called the Grace Brethren Church, and is headquartered in Winona Lake, Indiana . In 1992, because of doctrinal disagreements within the FGBC (primarily related to the connection between water baptism and church membership),

1088-699: A cultural object, and was called the gewitter-stein ("lightning stone") or donder-keidel ("thunder wedge"); it was associated with the splitting of trees by lightning. People who were regarded as witches and witch doctors both existed in these communities. Accounts of witches sometimes associate them with curses . Accounts of witch doctors often associate them with charms, or healing of both people and livestock. The famous hex signs painted on barns in Pennsylvania were historically absent from German barns in Ontario, as barns were usually unpainted. There was, however,

1224-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from

1360-514: A mechanism for unifying the interpretation and application of Biblical teachings. There are several religious groups named Brethren that are not related to the Schwarzenau Brethren movement. The Moravian Brethren, Hutterian Brethren and Swiss Brethren are not related to the Schwarzenau Brethren, except as inspirational examples. The Plymouth Brethren arose in England and Ireland early in

1496-659: A mill and started a textile-manufacturing workshop in an effort to make the community economically self-sufficient. The Eckerlins and Mack left Ephrata in September to establish Mahanaim ( Dunkard's Bottom, Virginia ) on the New River in western Virginia. In 1814 the Society was incorporated as the Seventh Day Baptists or Seventh Day German Baptist Church. Several branches were established, some of which still exist. A group called

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1632-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained

1768-738: 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 Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch . 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. Another complicating factor in assigning definite ethnic identities or origins to many migrants

1904-590: A personal confrontation with the recent past that could be difficult to navigate." There were also tensions between Germans and other European immigrants, some of whom had suffered under German occupation in Europe. Postwar Canadians "did not distinguish between Germans and Nazis", and this perspective was bolstered by decades of American war films which portrayed Germans in an unsympathetic light. Pressure increased on Germans to assimilate. German-Canadians began to create advocacy organizations to promote their interests, such as

2040-679: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In

2176-643: A printer by trade, printed a Bible in German, the first published in a European language in North America. Many members of the Schwarzenau Brethren came from the Southwest of Germany, the same region where the Pennsylvania German dialect originated. Because they settled in Pennsylvania among other Germans, who mainly came from the Palatinate and adjacent regions, they took part in the dialect leveling , that

2312-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it

2448-572: 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 , the four-leaf clover , and the finding of a horseshoe . There are two German international schools in Canada: There are also bilingual German-English K-12 schools in Winnipeg, Manitoba: German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )

2584-511: A variant of universal salvation that foretold that after the judgment and harsh punishment described in the New Testament, God's love would one day restore all souls to God. Brethren typically kept this teaching to themselves, and it was largely abandoned by the late nineteenth century. They were among the first to take Christian universalism to America when they emigrated there. The church leaders are ministers, teachers, and deacons, though

2720-688: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and

2856-644: Is a group within the Latter Day Saint movement and is not related to the Schwarzenau Brethren. Schwarzenau Brethren (German Baptists), an Anabaptist tradition, are not to be confused with non-Anabaptist groups such as Primitive , Separate , Southern , Particular , who are categorized as Baptists . Although both Anabaptists and Baptists agree on rudimentary doctrines such as believer's baptism and separation of church and state, they would have conflicting views in other areas, such as non-resistance , separation from worldly entertainment, literal interpretation of

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2992-580: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as

3128-547: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German

3264-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic

3400-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German

3536-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25   million speak it as

3672-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in

3808-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as

3944-476: Is heard within their doors. The law of kindness is in their mouths; no sourness or moroseness, disgraces their religion; and whatsoever they believe their Savior commands, they practice without requiring or regarding what others do. The beliefs of the Schwarzenau Brethren include triple or trine immersion baptism , which provides that the candidate kneel in water and be immersed, face first, three times in

4080-493: 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 . The Sängerfest ("singer festival", plural Sängerfeste ) movement, which began in Germany at

4216-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are

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4352-473: Is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania . While celibate, the community also welcomed believing families; they lived nearby and participated in joint worship. The monastic features and celibacy were gradually abandoned after the American Revolution. In 1745, brothers Samuel, Israel and Gabriel Eckerlin protested against Beissel's leadership after Beissel condemned them for having planted an orchard, built

4488-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and

4624-587: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as

4760-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German

4896-519: Is placed on exegesis of the Bible. Several of the groups maintain a larger "Doctrinal Statement" or treatise, but only for the purpose of clarifying their Biblical position. Most Brethren groups maintain that the Bible is the sole authority and will revise their statement of faith if they perceive any difference between it and sound Biblical doctrine. Some of the Old Order groups incorporate church authority as

5032-567: Is still active and celebrated its 180th anniversary in 2015. 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 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

5168-617: Is that a number spent sometimes as long as several generations living in intermediary places such as Pennsylvania, 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 British Crown . The largest group fleeing the United States was

5304-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c.  1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period

5440-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish

5576-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers

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5712-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to

5848-572: The War Measures Act , some 26 prisoner-of-war camps opened and interned those who had been born in Germany , Italy , and particularly in Japan if they were deemed to be "enemy aliens". For Germans, that applied especially to single males who had some association with the Nazi Party of Canada . No compensation was paid to them after the war. In Ontario, the largest internment centre for German Canadians

5984-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as

6120-528: The American Revolution , as different groups sought their own ways. The first separatists became the Seventh Day Dunkers, whose distinctive principle was that they believed that Saturday was true Sabbath . They were founded by German immigrant Johann Conrad Beissel (1690–1768). In 1732, Beissel led establishment of a semi-monastic community with a convent and a monastery at Ephrata in what

6256-609: The Berlin to Kitchener name change in 1916. The city was renamed after 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 and in Calgary during

6392-541: The Church of God or "New Dunkers" withdrew in 1848. They disbanded in August 1962. The Old Order Schwarzenau Brethren opposed 19th-century Brethren adoption of innovations in the United States such as revival meetings, Sunday Schools, and foreign missionary work. Stressing church discipline, Annual Meeting authority, and the preservation of the "ancient order" of church ordinances, worship, and simple unfashionable dress, they formed

6528-596: The Conservative Grace Brethren Churches, International (CGBCI) was formed. It has no centralized headquarters at this time. The paradigmatic conservative Schwarzenau Brethren denomination remains the Dunkard Brethren Church , in that they have preserved the distinctives of plain dress and headcovering while widely using modern conveniences. The Dunkard Brethren Church withdrew from the Church of

6664-592: The Dunkard Brethren Church and the Old Brethren Church ) who preserve traditional theological distinctives while allowing for the usage of modern conveniences, and mainline groups (such as the Church of the Brethren and the Brethren Church ) who are assimilated into popular culture and society. In German-speaking Europe , the Brethren became known as Neue Täufer ( New Baptists ) , in distinction from

6800-522: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share

6936-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language

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7072-455: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout

7208-554: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in

7344-433: 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 , especially in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener ) and in the northern part of what later became Waterloo County, Ontario . The same geographic area also attracted new German migrants from Europe, roughly 50,000 between

7480-467: The Netherlands , and even Russia and Ukraine . For example, in the Middle Ages , the Latin term 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, and even later historians in

7616-401: The Old German Baptist Brethren (OGBB) in 1881. In 1882 the Progressives, who stressed outreach evangelism and objected to plain, distinctive dress and strong Annual Meeting authority, formed The Brethren Church , at the time of H. R. Holsinger. The largest body continued as German Baptist Brethren until 1908, when they adopted the title Church of the Brethren . Both the Brethren Church and

7752-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c.  765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in

7888-622: The Roman Catholic , Lutheran and Reformed churches were taking extreme liberties with the true, pure message of Christianity as revealed in the New Testament. As they began to have the New Testament available in German and read it for themselves, they rejected the established state church liturgies and sacraments, including infant baptism and Eucharistic practices in favor of following plain New Testament practices. The founding Brethren were broadly influenced by Radical Pietism understandings of an invisible church of awakened Christians who would fellowship together in purity and love, reaching out to

8024-405: The South Shore of Nova Scotia retain their German heritage, such as 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 Site of Canada in 1997. In the late 18th century, British colonies in North America were significantly affected by

8160-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung

8296-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit.   ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this

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8432-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and   Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German

8568-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from

8704-462: The 17th and 18th centuries. German Baptist Brethren emerged in some German-speaking states in western and southwestern parts of the Holy Roman Empire as a result of the Radical Pietist revival movement of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, where people began to read and study their Bibles on their own- rather than just being told what to believe and do. Hopeful of the imminent return of Christ and desiring to follow Jesus in their daily life,

8840-446: The 1830 and 1860. Research indicates that there was no apparent conflict between the Germans from Europe and those who came from Pennsylvania. By 1871, nearly 55% of the population of Waterloo County had German origins. 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. The German Protestants developed

8976-445: The 1860s. While the anglophone Protestants promoted the Social Gospel and prohibition, the Lutherans stood apart. 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. The Society

9112-412: The 1923 Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. Variations on the Card were used by both the Old German Baptist Brethren and the Church of the Brethren. This is an early version that was widely circulated: Be it known unto all men, The 1923 version, influenced by both increasing formalism and by the Fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the 1910s differed in both tone and content: This version

9248-627: The 1980s. 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". Their folkloric traditions included proverbs , rituals, and beliefs about

9384-457: 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, 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 (and broader Rhineland ), and Holland . A few Germans came to New France when France colonized

9520-423: The 19th century. The United Brethren originated in 18th-century Pennsylvania with William Otterbein and Martin Boehm. The River Brethren movement adopted the view of trine immersion and most other Anabaptist beliefs and practices from the Schwarzenau Brethren. Today, the Old Order River Brethren are very similar to the Old Brethren —both being part of the Anabaptist tradition. The Apostolic United Brethren

9656-425: The Anglophone-Francophone divide, leaving little place for other groups, including the Germans. 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, emphasizing instead themes of heroism and sacrifice by Canadian soldiers. Some German-Canadians "withdrew into

9792-838: The Brethren World Assembly: Church of the Brethren , Conservative Grace Brethren Churches, International , Dunkard Brethren Church , Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches , Old German Baptist Brethren , and The Brethren Church . The first Assembly was held in Pennsylvania in 1992. They met at Elizabethtown College and celebrated the 250th anniversary of the first known Brethren Annual Meeting in 1742. That first meeting gathered near Conestoga in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania . The second Assembly met in 1998 at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia . The third Assembly

9928-483: The Brethren in 1926 because of what some believed was a gradual drift away from apostolic standards. In 2019, after years of disagreement over New Testament standards of personal morality, some conservative congregations who were leaving the Church of the Brethren chose to form a new denomination called the Covenant Brethren Church. This fellowship has member congregations in Africa and Guatemala as well as

10064-766: The Brethren to take refuge in Friesland , the Netherlands. In 1719 Peter Becker brought a group to Pennsylvania . In 1720 forty Brethren families settled in Surhuisterveen in Friesland. They settled among the Mennonites and remained there until 1729, when all but a handful emigrated to America, in three separate groups from 1719 to 1733. Peter Becker organized the first American congregation at Germantown, Pennsylvania , on December 25, 1723. In 1743 Christoph Sauer, an early pastor and

10200-565: The Christian salutation, do not oppose war, and do not formally adhere to plain dress or modesty. Only the Conservative Grace Brethren Churches have retained a published use of the motto, "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible". In the progressive and liberal Church of the Brethren, significant emphasis is placed on social action issues. In the Brethren (Ashland) and Grace Brethren groups, significant emphasis

10336-435: The Church of the Brethren would be considered as mainline Schwarzaneu Brethren fellowships today. The Dunkard Brethren Church , a conservative Schwarzenau Brethren denomination, maintains traditional theological beliefs and practices (such as plain dress and headcovering), while widely using modern conveniences. It was formed when conservative Schwarzenau Brethren withdrew from the Church of the Brethren in 1926 and established

10472-903: The Dunkard Brethren Church. As such, the Dunkard Brethren Church would fall in between Old Order Brethren (such as the Old Brethren German Baptist ) and mainline Brethren denominations (such as The Brethren Church ). In 1913 and 1915 the Old Brethren , centered in Salida, California , Dayton, Ohio and Camden, Indiana , withdrew from the Old German Baptist Brethren (OGBB). In 1921, the Old Order German Baptist Brethren , centered in Dayton, Ohio broke with

10608-714: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In

10744-684: The English Baptist groups with whom they had no formal ties. In the United States , they became popularly known as "Dunkers", "Dunkard Brethren", or "Tunkers", terms that stem from the German verb tunken ( Pennsylvania German : dunke ), ' to dip, to immerse ' . The Schwarzenau Brethren were first organized in 1708 under the leadership of Alexander Mack (1679–1735) in the Schwarzenau , Wittgenstein community of modern-day Bad Berleburg , North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany . They believed that

10880-667: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of

11016-475: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of

11152-552: The German settlers came directly from Russia, or, after 1914 from the Dakotas. 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. Arrivals from Russia, Bukovina , and Romanian Dobruja established their villages in

11288-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c.  1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of

11424-675: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by

11560-646: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are

11696-789: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German

11832-509: 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

11968-507: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c.  thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c.  1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy

12104-564: The OGBB. Attempts in 1929–1930 to reunite the Old Brethren and OGBB were unsuccessful. The Old Brethren subsequently divided into two groups, the Old Order of which took the name of Old Brethren German Baptists and was centered in Camden, Indiana and Missouri. After 1996, a small conservative group calling themselves The German Baptist Brethren split from the OGBB. The most recent split came in 2009, with

12240-560: 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. 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. The choral tradition

12376-605: The Scripture as their only guide, in matters both of faith and practice...such Christians I have never seen as they are: so averse are they to all sin, and to many things that other Christians esteem lawful, that they not only refuse to swear, go to war, etc. but are so afraid of doing any thing contrary to the commands of Christ, that no temptation would prevail upon them ever to sue any person at law, for either name, character, estate, or any debt, be it ever so just. They are industrious, sober, temperate, kind, charitable people; envying not

12512-552: 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. In addition, the Canadian Baltic Immigrant Aid Society was founded in 1948 to provide information and aid to Baltic Germans immigrating to Canada. Going into the 1960s, Canadian nationalism and ethnic politics revolved increasingly around

12648-527: The US states of Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Unlike the Dunkard Brethren Church that formed in 1926, the Covenant Brethren Church encourages but does not universally practice traditional Brethren distinctives such as the veiling or nonresistance (nonparticipation in the military). Other associated churches which associate with the term German Baptist include: As of 2003, six Brethren bodies meet together in

12784-464: The Word, baptize, assist deacons in anointing, solemnize marriages, and officiate at communion. Deacons serve the church by reading Scripture, leading in song and prayer, arranging for visitation to members or their families during illness or crisis, and often function in the capacity of stewards. The first schism from the general body of German Baptist Brethren occurred in 1728. There were more divisions after

12920-467: 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

13056-582: The binding standard for congregational practices. Founding and early Schwarzenau Brethren were also in fellowship with other Anabaptists such as the Mennonites and the River Brethren , and influenced by their writings. As with many other Anabaptist traditions, the Schwarzenau Brethren are divided into Old Order groups (such as the Old Brethren German Baptist ) who practice a lifestyle without certain elements of modern technology, Conservative groups (such as

13192-404: The broad label of United Empire Loyalists , obscuring particular ethnic and religious identities, as well as their exact motivations for migrating to Canada. Another broad grouping of migrants were religious nonconformists , such as Quakers , Mennonites , and " Dunkers ", who preferred British rule for religious reasons. These groups were formed on the basis of belief rather than ethnicity, but

13328-593: 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 . 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 and Lower Canada . In traditional Canadian historiography, these migrants are often grouped together under

13464-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with

13600-452: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in

13736-462: 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. Before and during World War I, there

13872-507: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of

14008-439: The effects that fear, hatred and nationalism can have upon a society in the face of war." 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. The Second World War saw a renewal of anti-German sentiment in Canada. Under

14144-523: The establishment of the Old German Baptist Brethren, New Conference , parishioners who left the OGBB. In 1939 the "Progressive" Brethren Church experienced another schism. Those seeking an open position to the issue of eternal security maintained the name Brethren Church , with headquarters in Ashland, Ohio (the traditional Anabaptist doctrine has been conditional security ). Those supporting

14280-473: The first years of the war. 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." 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

14416-399: The founding Brethren abandoned State churches and officially formed a new church in 1708. They thereby attempted to translate the New Testament idea of brotherly love into concrete congregational ordinances for all the members. The Brethren rejected some Radical Pietists’ focus on emotionalism and direct revelation, and emphasized early ("Apostolic" or "primitive") New Testament Christianity as

14552-449: The great, nor despising the mean, they read much, they sing and pray much, they are constant attendants upon the worship of God, their dwelling houses are all houses of prayer. They walk in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless both in public and private. They bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. No noise of rudeness, shameless mirth, loud vain laughter

14688-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,

14824-474: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of

14960-624: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Schwarzenau Brethren Defunct groups The Schwarzenau Brethren , the German Baptist Brethren , Dunkers , Dunkard Brethren , Tunkers , or sometimes simply called the German Baptists , are an Anabaptist group that dissented from Roman Catholic , Lutheran and Reformed European state churches during

15096-539: The lost and hurting in Jesus' name and working together as equal brethren while awaiting Christ's return. A notable influence was Ernst Christopher Hochmann von Hochenau, a traveling Pietist minister. While living in Schriesheim , his home town, Mack invited Hochmann to come and minister there. Like others who influenced the Brethren, Hochmann considered the pure church to be spiritual, and did not believe that an organized church

15232-620: The most spectacular Sängerfeste were organized by Berlin's Concordia Club; one 1879 festival which was organized by the club attracted 12,000 visitors. Anti-German sentiment, which arose during the First World War, led to an interruption in the 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 Sängerfeste in Canada were held in

15368-486: 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 , and the area just north of Saskatoon . By

15504-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted

15640-660: The name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit ; the New Testament as the infallible guide in spiritual matters; communion service celebrated in the evening, accompanied by the love feast ; the ceremony of the washing of feet ; the salutation of the holy kiss ; prayer and anointing with oil over the sick; and nonresistance . See also The Brethren Card . Some of the early Schwarzenau Brethren believed in universal restoration ,

15776-405: The name of these servant positions may differ slightly in the various branches. The official role of elder, while no longer recognized in many congregations, was formerly the most respected position in the church and performed the overseeing function that other churches may call Bishop. Ministers and deacons are elected by the members of the congregation in which they hold membership. Ministers preach

15912-630: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from

16048-733: The outbreak and subsequent loss of the American Revolutionary War . At the time, 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 " Hessians ", since many of them came from Hesse . Following

16184-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation

16320-467: The start of the 19th century, spread to the United States by the 1840s, and to Canada by 1862, when the first major Sängerfest was held in Berlin , Canada West (later Kitchener, Ontario ) from August 6 to 9. This followed the format of a typical Turner event by also including theatrical and athletic events, as well as band concerts. Another festival was held the following year in the nearby community of Waterloo, which had an audience of 2000 people. It

16456-541: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,

16592-496: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in

16728-472: The two postwar German states. 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. Alexander Freund remarks that "[f]or postwar Canadians [...] the great influx of German-speaking immigrants after the war posed, at least potentially,

16864-581: The weather, luck , health and health problems, wild and domestic animals, crops, certain herbs and other plants believed to have special properties, witches and witchcraft , blessings, and particular times of the year, such as specific holidays. The moon and its phases were also important to them, as well as the signs of the Zodiac . 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. The celt had some prominence as

17000-543: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during

17136-524: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching

17272-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of

17408-530: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially

17544-399: Was at Camp Petawawa , which housed 750 who had been born in Germany and Austria. Between 1945 and 1994, some 400,000 German-speaking immigrants arrived in Canada; approximately 270,000 of these arrived by the early 1960s. 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

17680-485: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which

17816-912: 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. The continued success of these events led to the founding of the Deutsch-kanadischer Sängerbund (German-Canadian Choir Federation) in Hamilton in 1873 and the Canadian Choir Federation in Berlin in 1893. Major song and music festivals were held by German communities throughout Ontario in Toronto, Hamilton, Waterloo, Bowmanville, Guelph , Sarnia , Port Elgin, Bridgeport, Elmira, and, most often out of all of these, in Berlin. Three of

17952-464: Was held by Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana , in 2003. The Assembly represents some 600,000 members around the world. Brethren are noncreedal, but have summarized their beliefs in a variety of ways for the purpose of evangelical outreach. One such statement, developed and distributed during the late nineteenth century was the Brethren's Card . A later version was endorsed for general distribution by

18088-482: Was necessary. By 1708, the date of the first Brethren baptisms, Mack had rejected this position in favor of forming a separate church with visible rules and ordinances—including threefold baptism of repentant adults by immersion, a Love Feast (that combined communion with feetwashing and an evening meal), anointing, and church discipline according to Matthew 18 culminating in use of the "ban" against members who fall into sin and refuse to repent. Religious persecution drove

18224-463: Was officially circulated by the Church of the Brethren in its publications until the middle part of the twentieth century, and it continues to be issued through the efforts of Brethren Revival Fellowship. The teachings of some other groups are similar to this, but can differ widely in emphasis and scope. For example, the Grace Brethren are varied on the requirement of trine immersion, do not practice

18360-466: Was some anti-German sentiment in the Waterloo County area and some cultural sanctions on the community, primarily in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener). 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. Low enlistment rates fueled anti-Germany sentiment that precipitated

18496-604: Was the cradle of Pennsylvania German. Their language therefore was or soon became what today is called Pennsylvania Dutch or sometimes Pennsylvania German. In 1782 the Brethren forbade slaveholding by its members. In 1871 these Brethren adopted the title German Baptist Brethren at their Annual Meeting. The group continued to expand and from Pennsylvania, they migrated chiefly westward. By 1908 they were most numerous in Pennsylvania , Maryland , Virginia , Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Iowa , Missouri , Nebraska , Kansas , North Dakota Arkansas , and California . [Brethren] take

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