Dr. Monica Clyde – Building a Civil Society in San Francisco: the German Contribution, 1850 to World War I • January 26, 2014

German speakers were the second largest ethnic group to make their home in San Francisco and the Bay Area beginning with the Gold Rush. They came from separate political entities that became, in 1871, part of a united Germany. A number of these early German arrivals had left Germany as a result of the failed revolution of 1848.  They saw no future for themselves in Germany after the failure of the democratic movement. They tended to be highly educated professionals who brought their expertise and considerable leadership skills to their new country. Some of these immigrants became highly respected leaders of the German community in the city in which they made a new home. Who were those early German-speaking arrivals and what did they contribute to the emerging city by the Bay? How did they make a living in the early chaotic and often lawless city?  It is a compelling story that took a dramatic turn with the start of World War I.

Monica Clyde was born in Düsseldorf Germany and came to the United States at the age of sixteen. She has lived in the Bay Area since 1962 when she began in the doctoral program in German at the University of California. After receiving her PhD she taught German at numerous colleges in the Bay Area and was Director for Faculty Development at Saint Mary’s College before her retirement. She is co-author of the college level German textbook, Deutsch: Na klar!, which is widely used throughout the United States and Canada, as well as some countries abroad.

Monica is a member of the Institute for Historical Study, a group of scholars located mostly in the Bay Area. Her association with this group led to her researching the history of Germans coming to California at the time of the Gold Rush. Her article on the subject has just been published by the SF Museum and Historical Society magazine The Argonaut. She is currently President of the Board of Directors of the German School of the East Bay, a member of both the Excelsior German Center and the Gerlind Institute for Cultural Studies.

If you would like to view our archive video of the presentation, contact Dr. Marion Gerlind for access.