[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 40 (Monday, October 10, 1994)]
[Pages 1946-1947]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6731--German-American Day, 1994

October 4, 1994

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    In a joyous celebration at Germany's Brandenburg Gate just 3 months 
ago, the United

[[Page 1947]]

States and Germany proudly welcomed and affirmed the new era of trans-
Atlantic cooperation between our nations. Together, our countries are 
working to support democratic and market reforms that promise greater 
prosperity and security for Europeans, as well as for their American 
friends and allies. And our citizens look forward to the future of this 
partnership with unprecedented optimism and confidence.
    For this important covenant, history has meaningful precedent. In 
the first days after the signing of America's Declaration of 
Independence in 1776, a prominent firm in Philadelphia translated and 
published the Declaration's text in German. That decision reflected the 
significant number of German-American colonists whose involvement in our 
struggle for freedom helped to fashion our democratic system. The 
Declaration's publication in German was intended to spread the word of 
independence to the courageous German colonists, who shared an abiding 
love of liberty--if not yet a language--with their English-speaking 
compatriots. The leaders of the revolution recognized the integral 
importance of the German population, and Germans were proud to play a 
central role in the birth of American democracy.
    Germans who already had settled in the colonies and others who came 
to fight in the War for Independence, such as Baron von Steuben, aided 
significantly in ensuring the American triumph. The translated version 
of the Declaration of Independence is a lasting symbol both of the depth 
of the American-German friendship and of Germans' extraordinary 
intellectual and material contributions to the birth of representative 
government in the United States. In the nearly 220 years since that 
great victory, generations of German Americans have remained active and 
invaluable participants in the American experiment. Today, more citizens 
of the United States can claim German ancestry than that of any other 
ethnic group. Inspired by two centuries of shared freedom, German 
Americans throughout the land are helping to lead our Nation toward a 
future as bright as our past--a future of growing understanding and 
certain peace.
    To honor today's stewards of the rich German-American heritage, the 
Congress, by Public Law 103-100, has designated October 6, 1994, as 
``German-American Day'' and has authorized and requested the President 
to issue a proclamation in observance of this day.

    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim October 6, 1994, as German-
American Day, in appreciation of the countless contributions that people 
of German descent have made to our Nation's liberty, democracy, and 
prosperity.

    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of 
October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
nineteenth.

                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 4:11 p.m., October 5, 
1994]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
7.