As an immigrant migrating to a foreign country, one is destined to face many obstacles that could hinder one's prosperity. For German Americans in the mid-1800s, barriers of language, politics, trust, customs, and alcohol led these peoples to experience nearly a century of heartbreak. Efforts to ban alcohol in the United States had a significant impact on German Americans economically and socially. German culture was directly attacked and business owners were left with few or no economic alternatives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay From the early to late 19th century, immigrants from around the world flocked to the United States. No country of origin was then more represented than Germany. It is estimated that more than 5.5 million non-English speaking German immigrants arrived in the United States, many of whom were middle-class merchants with very few last names. The German-American population grew so large that the first non-English newspapers ever published in the United States were in the German language. German Americans have created an identity for themselves. An identity made up of language, culture and beer. The latter being a staple of the German diet. With these three basic products, we could measure their level of “Germanness”. As German Americans continued to arrive in the United States, they brought with them their unique brewing practices from all over Germany. German breweries have become increasingly common in the eastern states of the United States. New York City at one point had as many as 75 unique breweries in the 1870s, an astonishing number for the time. What made German beer so popular was the way it was made. (Welskopp, Thomas 1919). German Lager was fizzier and lighter than any other beer at the time. With this, both men and women could drink larger quantities at a faster rate. Beer is a part of life for German-Americans. Men drank it to show that they were men, and women drank it as well, as it was often much more hygienic than local water sources. Eight out of ten German-American households brewed their own beer in one way or another, and through the sale of this alcohol they were able to feed their families, making up for the lack of education, possessions and l inability to speak the national language. Meanwhile, towards the end of the 19th century, a growing movement took hold among the American population. Men and women closed their local bar tabs and banded together for a new resolution. These individuals chased alcohol out of their lives and their influence quickly spread throughout the United States. In the mid-19th century, the first rumors in favor of prohibition began. These movements were driven by many married women who believed their male counterparts were spending too much money and time on alcohol consumption. This sparked the first American concerns about alcohol in the country's history. These women achieved their first success in the early 1870s, founding an organization later known as the Women's Christian Temperance Union. With the use of Ohio's Adair Law, which made any place making a profit from the sale of alcohol responsible for the actions of its consumers. This union has become effective by raising awareness of the effects.