America's "Alien Enemies"
DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY IN 1918, thousands of German-born men and boys lined up at police stations and post offices around Wisconsin. They ranged from teenagers to elderly men. In June, women and girls repeated the process. They were following orders issued by President Woodrow Wilson and enforced by the attorney general of the United States. Under threat of imprisonment or deportation, they were required to register with the government as “alien enemies.” In all, approximately 45,000 German-born residents of Wisconsin reported to local authorities within the space of a few weeks.
“Alien enemy” registration during World War I was a national phenomenon. In every state, German-born residents who had not obtained their final citizenship papers were compelled to complete affidavits and carry their registration papers with them at all times. The program had a particularly significant impact in Wisconsin. The state had one of the largest German-born populations in the country. As of 1900, one-third of the state’s residents had been born in Germany or had parents who were born there. Of the one-half million German aliens nationwide who registered in 1918, nearly ten percent lived in Wisconsin.
Otto and Ida Grade were among the ten percent. They had arrived in Wisconsin along with thousands of other German immigrants in the years between 1848 and 1900. Like many who settled in the state, they were ethnic Germans from Pomerania in northern Germany. Otto had landed at Baltimore, Maryland, on July 13, 1868, with his family and 354 other passengers after sixty-seven days at sea. He was eight years old at the time. For Otto’s parents, the decision to take five children ranging in age from seven months to eleven years on such a dangerous voyage could not have been an easy one. Like many other immigrants, then and now, they were driven mostly by economic circumstances in their home country. The Grades were coming from Prussia, where industrialization, crop diseases, and overpopulation made future prospects uncertain enough to prompt the drastic step of an overseas voyage to a strange country.
Otto and his family were headed straight to Wisconsin, and they were not alone. The state had a strong reputation among Germans. New lands were still opening up, and the state’s climate and geography were similar to that of their homeland. In fact, the state government was actively encouraging immigrants to come. New arrivals were viewed as a source of labor, and they often brought money and skills with them. In 1867, Wisconsin created a government board to help stimulate immigration to the state. The Board of Immigration appointed county committees that canvassed recent immigrants and compiled lists of relatives and friends who were still in the old country. The board then mailed pamphlets directly to families in Germany and other European countries to encourage chain migration.
By 1900, Germans were the largest immigrant group in the state. Many were displaced farmers, but they were far from a homogeneous group. Some immigrants were from cities and had left for political or religious reasons. Others were fleeing mandatory military service. Some were Protestant and some Catholic. Once here, they tended to cluster in their own communities, with German-language newspapers, churches, and parochial schools.
Otto Grade spent the rest of his childhood on a farm in Oconto County. The family spoke German at home, but Otto and his siblings learned to speak English in the community. He labored on the farm, and as he reached adulthood he found work at a sawmill in Oconto. In 1884, he married Ida Pagel, who had also emigrated from Germany as a child. They bought forty acres of land near Ida’s parents in Brown County, where they
