Burning Beethoven

Before World War I, the United States were home to a flourishing German culture. German-Americans were the biggest and most successful ethnic group all over the Midwest. But this culture was wiped out forever by a fury of an anti-German hysteria after America had entered the war. Overzealous American patriots renamed Sauerkraut "Liberty Cabbage", stoned dachshounds, and eradicated the German language from American schools, churches and newspapers. They changed the names of towns, burned books, destroyed libraries, threatened priests, forced German-Americans to buy war bonds and to kiss the star spangled banner. Vigilantes tarred and feathered and, in some cases hanged German-born immigrants falsely suspected of being spies. “Burning Beethoven” shines a light on that dark chapter of American history.