Americans in Germany

American Zone in Germany after 8 June 1947. Mainly today's state areas of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate were afftected, as well as city states Berlin (West Berlin) and Bremen.

Americans in Germany or American Germans (German US-amerikanische Deutsche or Amerikadeutsche[1]) refers to the US-American population in Germany and their German-born descendants. According to Destatis, 107,755 Americans lived in Germany in 2013.[2] At the same time, more than 40,000 militaries and 15,000 civilian employees of US citizenship are permanently in Germany.[3] By December 2013, the largest US American diasporas in Germany are Berlin with over 16,000 people, and the area around Darmstadt with about 13,000 people.[4]

Military backgrounds

A large portion of the American-German population has a military background. Great numbers of American soldiers stationed in Germany after WWII. The Occupation statute of 1949 set regulations for the post-war time within Allied-occupied Germany. Several American military installations were established during this time, with 38 facilities remaining by the end of 2014, mainly in Southern Germany. While there were still about 200,000 US soldiers in Germany in 1990 until Reunification, the number was constantly reduced to 42,450 in 2014.[5]

During World War II General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the American War Department enforced a strict non-fraternization policy regarding contact between U.S. military personnel and German citizens. After the war this prohibition was mitigated in several steps and finally abandoned in Austria and Germany in September 1945.[6] In the earliest stages of the Allied occupation U.S. soldiers were not allowed to pay maintenance for a child they admitted having fathered, since to do so was considered as "aiding the enemy". Marriages between white U.S. soldiers and German women were not permitted until December 1946.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Barack Obama gilt als Favorit der Amerika-Deutschen, Westdeutsche Zeitung, 4 November 2012
  2. ↑ "Foreign population in Germany in 2013". Destatis Federal Statistical Office of Germany, 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "158 700 US citizens vote for their President". Märkische Online Zeitung. 30 October 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  4. ↑ Europe Online Magazine, 25 June 2014
  5. ↑ Bundestag
  6. ↑ Varns, Nicola (December 2005). "It Started With a Kiss. Happy and tragic German-American love stories after World War II.". The Atlantic Times.
  7. ↑ Biddiscombe, Perry (2001). "Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement In The U.S. Occupation Zones Of Germany And Austria, 1945-1948". Journal of Social History 34 (3): 611–647. JSTOR 3789820.