Germans
by Sylvia Reinthal
German settlers were part of the first large influx of immigrants to British Columbia in 1857. Most came from southwestern Germany and included shopkeepers, merchants, skilled artisans and craftspeople. They became part of the urban middle class, bringing with them much needed skills and trades, and became prominent in Vancouver’s social and political life. German clubs soon sprang up, the members preserving their heritage, language, music and cultural traditions.
There were significant numbers of German immigrants in the early 20th century. Many integrated into local society by marrying into the “old families.” German investment bankers and noblemen, barons and counts, entertained lavishly an era which came to an end because of the international economic crisis prior to World War I.
The war itself turned Germans overnight from much favored people into vilified enemies. German-Canadians no longer felt at ease speaking in their mother tongue; German language church services were halted and the federal government suppressed all German newspapers. The post-war census in 1921 showed a decline in British Columbia of nearly 40 per cent of people declaring their German origin, and in public they now spoke English.
During World War II attitudes toward German-Canadians were less hostile, even though all Germans entering Canada after 1922 had to register as enemy aliens. Most of those interned at the outbreak of the war were released as harmless by 1941. This time there were no bitter ethnic tensions, and as early as 1947 Germans were again admitted as immigrants, initially as “displaced persons” who had fled their homes in Eastern Germany.
Some 300,000 German immigrants arrived in the province between 1947 and 1967, many of them skilled tradespeople and most of them with a good education and the command of some school English. They easily merged into the mainstream, and became British Columbia’s second largest ethnic group after the British. Successful in business, professions and trades, they persevered and rarely suffered failure. In the post-war era many German-Canadians settled along Vancouver’s Fraser Street and in the West End, where they opened small businesses and ethnic restaurants along Robson Street which, at that time, was often called “Robsonstrasse.”
According to the 1991 census, 129,950 People of German descent resided in Greater Vancouver. They have German churches of the major denominations, German clubs for recreation and entertainment, German schools and German newspapers to keep the language alive and help adjust to the Canadian way of life. In the region the German community also maintains the German-Canadian Benevolent Society, which looks after several German-Canadian Intermediate Care Homes. Among the many organizations are the German-Canadian Congress, the German- Canadian Baltic Society, the German-Canadian Culture Society, the German-Canadian Business and Professional Association, the Trans-Canada Alliance of the German-Canadians, the Edelweiss Credit Union, the Kolping Society of Vancouver and the Goethe Institute. There is also a German Consulate in Vancouver.
Past and present there are many outstanding and colorful citizens of German origin in Greater Vancouver. The pioneer Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken arrived in 1850 from the Hannover area. For a long time he was the only medical doctor here and children called him affectionately “Doctor Heal My Skin.” He married Cecilia Douglas, the future governor’s daughter, entered politics and was one of the politicians who brought British Columbia into Confederation.
Agnes Watts, known as “the telethon angel,” was born in a small eastern German village near Bunzlau in 1889. She came alone to Victoria, just 19 years old, to work as a nanny. She was the first female employee when Scott Paper opened a mill in New Westminster, and stayed with them for 22 years “rolling toilet paper” and saving every penny. Her great wealth came from her frugality and smart investments in the stock market and real estate. She was one of the most generous patrons of the Variety Club, and gave more than $500,00 to children’s projects, for which she was given the Variety Club award by Prince Philip in London in 1987, which she picked up herself.
One of the most colorful and prominent German immigrants is Fritz Ziegler, who came to Vancouver with his parents when he was nine. In 1923 he entered the family chocolate business, the famous Ziegler Chocolates. During the war he was interned but was released after a few years on condition that he not reside in Vancouver. He settled in Fort Langley and, talented and practical as he was, built with his own hands a castle, “Schloss Klipphaus.” He lives there today, 93 years old at this writing, with wife Nancy, the great-granddaughter of Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell, and entertains people from all over the world.
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