[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 40 (Monday, October 9, 1995)]
[Pages 1785-1786]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6834--German- American Day, 1995

October 6, 1995

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Since the earliest days of the settlement of North America, 
immigrants from Germany have enriched our Nation with their industry, 
culture, and participation in public life. Over a quarter of all 
Americans can trace their ancestry back to German roots, but more 
important than numbers are the motives that led so many Germans to make 
a new beginning across the Atlantic. America's unparalleled freedoms and 
opportunities drew the first German immigrants to our shores and have 
long inspired the tremendous contributions that German Americans have 
made to our heritage.
    In 1681, William Penn invited German Pietists from the Rhine valley 
to settle in the Quaker colony he had founded, and these Germans were 
among the first of many who would immigrate to America in search of 
religious freedom. This Nation also welcomed Germans in search of civic 
liberty, and their idealism strengthened what was best in their adopted 
country. As publisher of the New York Weekly Journal in the 1700s, 
Johann Peter Zenger became one of the founders of the free press. Carl 
Schurz, a political dissident and close ally of Abraham Lincoln, served 
as a Union General during the Civil War, fighting to end the oppression 
of slav- 

[[Page 1786]]

ery. And German names figured prominently in the social and labor reform 
movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
    In the course of 300 years of German emigration to this great land, 
German Americans have attained prominence in all areas of our national 
life. Like Baron von Steuben in Revolutionary times and General 
Eisenhower in World War II, many Americans of German descent have served 
in our military with honor and distinction. In the sciences, Albert 
Michelson and Hans Bethe immeasurably increased our understanding of the 
universe. The painters Albert Bierstadt and modernist Josef Albers have 
enhanced our artistic traditions, and composers such as Oscar 
Hammerstein have added their important influences to American music.
    Yet even these many distinguished names cannot begin to summarize 
all the gifts that German Americans have brought to our Nation's 
history. While parts of the Midwest, Pennsylvania, and Texas still 
proudly bear the stamp of the large German populations of the last 
century, it is their widespread assimilation and far-reaching activities 
that have earned German Americans a distinguished reputation in all 
regions of the United States and in all walks of life.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 
6, 1995, as German-American Day. I encourage Americans everywhere to 
recognize and celebrate the contributions that millions of people of 
German ancestry have made to our Nation's liberty, democracy, and 
prosperity.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of 
October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twentieth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 2:55 p.m., October 10, 
1995]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
October 12.