The first Germans in what is today the Nation’s Capital settled during colonial times in Georgetown, the Province of Maryland. The Old Stone House at 3051 M Street, N.W., was built by the German immigrant couple Christopher and Rachel Lehmann in 1766. It is the oldest building in the Nation’s Capital and the only pre-Revolutionary structure still standing today.

The Lutheran Church at Wisconsin Avenue and Volta Place, N.W., which was completed in 1769 in the form of a log structure, is the oldest German church in what later became the Nation’s Capital; it is the second oldest religious congregation in what is today Washington, D.C. The bell of the original church may be seen in front of the present building, which dates from 1914. In the 19th Century, many German merchants maintained businesses along M Street in Georgetown.

The Healy Building, the original building of Georgetown University at 37th and O Streets, N.W., was built beginning in 1877 by the German-American architects John L. Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz.

The bronze gates at the west entrance to the Episcopal Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul (Washington National Cathedral) at Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenues were designed by Ulrich Henn; two new stained-glass windows are by Hans Kaiser.

Established shortly after World War II, the Concord Club above the Old Europe restaurant at 2434 Wisconsin Avenue is the only remaining German clubhouse in Washington, D.C. Walter Camp, Sr., was instrumental in obtaining this building for the Concord Club. It is also the meeting site of the Association of German-American Societies of Greater Washington, D.C. (AGAS), Washington Sängerbund, the Schuhplattler- und Gebirgstrachtenverein "Washingtonia" and Schlaraffia Washingtonia. Earlier, the center for German Americans had been the Sängerbund Club House at 314 C Street, N.W. (1894–1930) and Arcadia Hall at 3134-14th Street, N.W. (14th and Park Road) (1935–42).

White House Area

In 1768, the German immigrant Jakob Funck laid out lots along the Potomac River for a town he called Hamburg. Most of the lot owners were fellow Germans. It was staked out between what is today 18th Street, N.W., on the east, 23rd Street on the west, Constitution Avenue on the south and H Street on the north. Funck set aside a lot for a German Lutheran and a German Reformed church. In 1833, the Concordia German Evangelical Lutheran Church (today Die Vereinigte Kirche/The United Church) was established in Hamburg. In the 1835, this congregation completed a church on 20th and G Streets, N.W., on one of the sites reserved by Funck for this purpose. John Philip Sousa (1854–1932), whose mother was from Bavaria, was baptized here. The current building was begun in 1889. Members of this congregation founded three prominent German-American institutions still functioning today: The Washington Sängerbund, the German Orphan Home (today a foundation) and Prospect Hill Cemetery. This cemetery was established in 1858 at 2201 North Capitol Street, N.E., by the German Evangelical Church Society of the Concordia Church; it contains the burial sites of many prominent German-American families. Just east of this German-Protestant cemetery is the German Catholic cemetery St. Mary’s; it was founded in 1869 at 2121 Lincoln Road, N.E.

Low-relief bronze panels of the German scientists Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–94) and Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) are on the face of the National Academy of Sciences Building at 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. A memorial to Albert Einstein is located at the corner of Constitution Avenue and 22nd Street.

Since 1988, the German-American Friendship Garden on the National Mall at 16th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., commemorates the enduring German-American contributions to our nation and the continuing friendship between the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. This Garden at the foot of the Washington Monument was designed by Wolfgang Oehme.

Inside the Washington Monument are stones donated by German-American organizations and carved with their names.

The Steuben Statue at the northwest corner of Lafayette Park, which is just north of the White House, was dedicated on 7 December 1910 by President Howard Taft. Designed by Albert Jägers, it depicts Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730–94) as he surveys troop maneuvers at Valley Forge.

The German Hall was erected in 1846 by the German Benevolent Society on the west side of 11th Street, a short distance north of F Street, N.W. In the fall of 1846, a procession of two or three hundred members of the German Benevolent Society, headed by the German Band, passed through the streets of Washington to the new Hall, where they attended the exercise of dedication. The German Hall was located at 606 11th Street, N.W.

Dupont Circle Area

The Christian Heurich Mansion at 1307 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W., just south of Dupont Circle, was built for the German-American beer brewer Christian Heurich in 1894. It was constructed and decorated by German-American craftsmen; outstanding is the woodwork by August Grass and the metalwork by Amandus Joerss. This mansion houses today The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. The Heurich Brewery stood where the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts stands today.

The Anderson House Museum at 2118 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., houses the Society of the Cincinnati and an exhibit on Major General von Steuben, who presided over the first meeting of the Society.

Row Houses on Q Street, between 17th and 18th Streets, N.W. These homes lining both sides of most of this block were built between 1889 and 1892 by Thomas F. Schneider; they typify the dominance of German-Americans in the building trades in 19th-century Washington, D.C.

Built between 1871 and 1872, The Charles Sumner School and Museum at 17th and M Streets, N.W., was designed by Adolf Cluß/Cluss as the first school for African-American children in the District of Columbia. Cluss (1825–1905), who was the first to design multi-room schools in Washington, D.C., also built the international-prize winning Franklin School at 13th and K Streets, N.W., in 1868 with Josef Wildrich von Kammerhüber. Cluss built altogether ten schools; they won him high honors at World Expositions in Vienna, Philadelphia, Paris and New Orleans.

The Dr. Samuel Hahnemann statue and memorial, east side of Scott Circle, near 16th and Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., was designed by Charles Henry Niehaus and erected in 1900. The words Die Milde Macht Ist Gross (gentle power is great) are carved on the memorial of this German physician who founded homeopathic medicine.

In front of Luther Place Memorial Church at 1226 Vermont Avenue, N.W. (Thomas Circle) stands a statue of Martin Luther, a replica of the one in Worms, Germany.

Seventh Street Area

The 400 to 800 blocks of 7th Street, N.W., (D through I Streets) were occupied by many German-American businesses, especially Jewish ones. At 450-7th Street (near E) and extending to 8th Street was the Lansburgh Department Store; on 7th Street between E and F was the original Hecht Company Department Store.

At 600 F Street (near 6th and F) stands the OBA (Oriental Building Association) Federal Savings & Loan Association that was founded in 1861 as a "German" bank; designed by Albert Goehner. It is now the oldest savings and loan association in the nation. (Goehner also designed the landmark-designated building at 423–425 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.)

The west side of the 700 block of 7th Street (between G and H) is one of the last remaining late 19th century commercial streetscapes in Washington, D.C. These modest three- or four-story structures bear witness to the importance of German-American (especially Jewish German) businessmen in Washington’s commercial development. Their trades varied from furniture to leather goods to groceries.

The east side of the 800 block of 7th Street (between H and I) also contains buildings once occupied by German-American businesses. Note especially the building at 819–827 7th Street that was designed by Julius Germuiller who was born in this neighborhood and became a prominent craftsman-builder active throughout Washington. (Germuiller’s buildings are also in the 1000 block of 7th Street and on 3rd Street near H.)

The Lillian and Albert Small Museum of Jewish History at 701 3rd Street, N.W., was dedicated in 1876 as the Adas Israel Synagogue, a Jewish German house of worship. (The building was moved to this site from a nearby location.) The Adas Israel Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, were many early Jewish German-Americans are buried, is located in Anacostia at 1400 Alabama Avenue, S.E. The Hebrew Congregation of Washington, D.C., the first German congregation, had its synagogue at 8th and I Streets, N.W., now a church.

St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church was established in 1846 at 5th and H Streets, N.W., as the first Roman Catholic church in the Nation’s Capital. The first pastor was Rev. Mathias Alig, who was born in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The present building dates from 1890. Prayers in German may be seen carved on stone plaques in the vestibule.

Calvary Baptist Church, at 8th and F Streets, N.W., was completed in 1866 by the German immigrant architect Adolf Cluss.

The Masonic Temple at 9th and F Streets, N.W., which was often used for German festivities, was built by Cluss between 1868 and 1870.

The Peterson House, known as The House Were Lincoln Died, is located on 10th Street across from Ford’s Theater. Peterson, a tailor, was German as were two of his boarders, Henry and Julius Ulke, who were said to have assisted the doctors who attended the President. Julius Ulke was a portrait artist whose painting of Cluss’ wife Rosa is now in the possession of the Smithsonian Institution.

Mercantile Savings Bank at 10th Street and G Place, N.W., was designed by the German architect Julius Wenig (1872–1940).

Sculptures of two horses restrained by men in front of the Federal Trade Commission at 6th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., were designed by Michael Lantz ca. 1938. The stonecutter was Jakob Schwalb, president of the Washington Sängerbund from 1936 to 1937 and 1946 to 1951.

Smithsonian Institution

The interior of the U.S. Patent Office building was remodeled ca. 1879 by Cluss and Schulze after a fire. Located between 7th and 9th Streets and F and G Streets, N.W., it houses today the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery.

The Arts and Industries Building (originally the U.S. National Museum) at 900 Jefferson Drive was completed by Cluss and Schulze in 1879.

The original Smithsonian building, known as The Castle, was rebuilt and remodeled by Cluss and Schulze in 1884 after a fire.

Other buildings by Cluss along the National Mall that are no longer standing today are the U.S. Army Medical Museum (on its site is the Hirschhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden), the U.S. Department of Agriculture Headquarters (it stood along Jefferson Drive near the present USDA Headquarters) and Central Market (on its site is the National Archives). As the Engineering Member of the District of Columbia Board of Public Works, Cluss inaugurated a comprehensive plan for grading, paving and ornamenting streets, installing sewerage and laying out parks. He constructed a tunnel from Capitol Hill to the Potomac wide enough for a bus to drive through to put Tiber Creek underground after it had become an open sewer.

The first newspaper in the German language in the District of Columbia was published by P. A. Sage and Company at 7th Street and Louisiana Avenue. This site is today near 7th and Independence Avenue, SW, the vicinity of the Air and Space Musem. The weekly National Zeitung was distributed for three years from about June 1843 to July 1846.

Capitol Hill

The dome of the U.S. Capitol was designed by the German immigrant August Gottlieb Schönborn (1827–1902). The bronze doors of the Capitol were cast in Munich, Germany. In the Statuary Hall stands the statue of Major General John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746–1807), who fought in the American Revolutionary War and served in the U.S. Senate. Emanuel Leutze’s painting Westward Ho is on the landing of the west stairway and Albert Bierstadt’s paintings The Discovery of the Hudson and the Landing at Monterey are in the House lobby.

Constructed between 1888 and 1897, the original structure of the Library of Congress, the Jefferson Building at Independence Avenue and First Street, S.E., was designed by John L. Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz. Vaults throughout the Great Hall are covered by mosaics installed by German Americans. The national and state shields in the eight stained-glass windows above the Main Reading Room were created by Hermann Schladermundt; other mosaic panels are by Frederick Dielman.

The Lutheran Church of the Reformation at 212 East Capitol Street, N.E., was organized in 1869 and combined in 1939 with the old St. John’s German Lutheran Church of southwest Washington, D.C.

The German-American Building Association had its headquarters at 3rd Street and Independence Avenue, S.E. The name is still carved in stone over the entrance.

Eastern Market, an operating farmers’ market at 7th Street and North Carolina Avenue, S.E., on Capitol Hill, was built in 1873 by Adolf Cluss.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church was built by a German congregation in 1868 at 313 2nd Street, N.E., two blocks north of the U.S. Supreme Court. In the vestibule are plaques commemorating the first German and Swiss-German pastors—Bernardine Florence Wiget, S.J., Johann Baptiste Kanzleiter, S.J., John P. M. Schleuter, SJ., and Valentine Florence Schmitt.

The U.S. Government Printing Office building at the corner of North Capitol and G Streets, N.W., was built by Cluss in 1896.

Other Locations

Caldwell Hall, the original building of The Catholic University of America, was designed by Cluss. This Romanesque stone structure on Harewood Road near Michigan Avenue and 4th Street, N.E., was built in 1888.

The National Zoological Park at Connecticut Avenue and Hawthorne Street, N.W., features the sculpture The Giant Anteater by E. F. Springweiler (1938) at the Small Mammals Building and Wrestling Bears by Heinz Warneke (1935) at the main restaurant.

Dedicated in 1985, The German-American Tricentennial Alcove in the Holly-Magnolia area of the National Arboretum at 3501 New York Avenue, N.E., contains a replica of the bench favored by Friedrich Schinkel, the great 19th century architect of Berlin.

Part of the Washington Arsenal, today Fort Lesley J. McNair, in southwest Washington, D.C., was remodeled in 1869 by Cluss.

A building still in use today at the Washington Navy Yard in southeast Washington was built by Cluss.

Knobloch Hall on the grounds of the German Orphan Home in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, is used by the Washington Sängerbund as the site of its concerts and Oktoberfeste and as the site of the Heimatabende of the Schuhplattler- und Gebirgstrachtenverein "Washingtonia."

Sculptures by Adolph A. Weinman (1870–1952)

Sculpture showing The Drafting of the Declaration of Independence on the pediment of the Jefferson Memorial (1943).

Sculpture depicting Destiny on the north pediment of the National Archives (1935).

Sculpture of three allegorical figures and other relief sculptures at the Old Post Office Building, 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. (1934).

Oscar S. Strauss Memorial Fountain, 14th Street between Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues (1947).

Sphinxes in front of Scottish Rite Freemason’s Temple at 16th and S Streets, N.W.

Note: Most of the material in this article was taken from A German-American Sites Tour of Washington, D.C., by Nancy Pierce (1991). The help of Eda Offutt and Jean Crabill is also greatly appreciated.

ByGary Carl Grassl HOME