German immigrants came to San Francisco, Sacramento and Marysville, urban northern California, seeking a better life than they had in the Germanic states of central Europe. Some came directly from Germany but some made an intermediate stop during their journey in Europe or the United States. In all three cities, they created an ethnic community where they practiced the social, economic and cultural traditions from their homeland,including Vereinswesen (associational life) and Gemutlichkeit (celebration of the joy of life), led by their ethnically based association, the Turnverein. They interacted with the main steam Anglo-Americans through associations and celebratory events to create political stability and economic success, and they influenced the native-born to adopt some of the German traditions to create a Californian culture unique to the West. Rather than assimilate, they created a dual identity of German-Californian to adapt to their new home This study rediscovers the active German communities in the three urban Californian cities neglected in earlier histories of the gold rush
