For years we heard from friends and teachers what a pity it was that so much was shown on TV about other culture groups such as the Irish-Americans and the African-Americans. Why was nothing available about the Germans? And our teacher friends complained about the shortage of materials about the German-Americans. They told us that, if materials were available, they would use them in the classroom, but they did not have the time to produce materials themselves.

In March of 2008, with little fanfare, South Carolina ETV and the Goethe-Institut released the English-language version of the Germans in America a four-part television series shown on PBS and now available on DVD.

Germans in America recounts the story of German immigrants to the United States, using gripping stories about naive settlers and successful farmers, about devout free-thinkers and political refugees, about the heyday of the German-language press in America, and about the founders of industrial dynasties in the new homeland.

Public television has been broadcasting the series in selected areas throughout the United States. This great series is well worth the effort to be shown on many more PBS stations. In terms of promotion, if it has not yet been shown in your area, you might check with your local PBS station to see if they know about the series and are willing to schedule it. It helps to get friends and acquaintances to write letters and postcards, requesting a showing and demonstrating support.

For more information about the Germans in America series, visit http://www.germansinamerica.org.  Program details for the US offering are available at the NETA link, http://www.netaonline.org.  Public television programmers should contact Polly Kosko of South Carolina ETV at kosko@scetv.org.

An educational version of The Germans in America series is available on DVDs in both German and English for showing at home or in clubs and organizations. Each program may be purchased online as a single DVD or as part of the series from the ETV Store in South Carolina at www.etvstore.org.

Teaching materials in English were produced for Social Studies teachers by Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP), of the Goethe-Institut, Washington. The lessons in each series can be used independently or collectively as a unit of study. They can be downloaded from the website (http://www.goethe.de/) as pdf files.

TOP offers workshops introducing the Germans in America series together with other new teaching materials to teams of Socials Studies and German teachers. They arrive on location with boxes full of great handouts and new materials for the teachers. For information on these workshops contact Wood Powell at the Goethe-Institut in Washington at wpowell@washington.goethe.org.