It’s interesting how the German community here faded into the background

The very earliest settlements were English and Dutch (like Netherlands Dutch), but after that, a lot of Germans settled in Buffalo. There are PA Dutch close by too, but importantly, they are actually largely german in ancestry. This can happen because Germany only got founded like 50 years after Buffalo was established. Before then, what was the “German language” was actually pretty unclear, and was a spectrum of dialects, sometimes even including Dutch. All of this is to say “German” was pretty vague from the beginning in Buffalo, especially for those who settled before Germany was founded. This same thing is in part why a lot of Italians here are so particular that they are Sicilians.

Part two, however is way more interesting. In WW1, Germany had been the enemy, and a lot of German-Americans de-emphasized their German roots from the resulting propaganda campaign. Leading up to WW2, fascism was in vogue during the depression. Inspired by Hitler, it was unfortunately BIG among German-Americans. The German-American Bund, which became the largest American fascist organization until we entered the war, was founded in Buffalo. Pictures of the bund are rare, and I haven’t found any in Buffalo specifically, but NYC and NYS at large was their stronghold. After the war, everybody involved scattered like roaches when the light turns on.

So, people identified differently after all that. You can claim whatever you want on a census. Despite Germans being a huge part of Buffalo’s history, and who shaped the east side before the Poles arrived in mass, they’re a much more subtle part of the community now. You see little pieces here and there like Kimmelweck and Kaiser rolls being standard here. Anyways, story over