Story Highlights
- historical event: It is interesting that the capital of North Dakota is called Bismarck, after the famous German chancellor from the 19th century. As much as 46.9% of North Dakota's population is of German ancestry, as is 44.5% of South Dakota's.
On this day in 1889, North and South Dakota became U.S. States. It is interesting that these two states have the highest percentage of population of German origin in the USA. As much as 46.9% of North Dakota’s population is of German ancestry, as is 44.5% of South Dakota’s. This is also reflected in the culture and language of thee states. For example, the dialect spoken in the Dakotas has many German loan words. Thus, the most famous desert in South Dakota is called “Kuchen” (German word for cake).
It is interesting that the capital of North Dakota is called Bismarck, after the famous German chancellor from the 19th century. Bismarck is probably the man most responsible for the unification of Germany into a single state, which occurred in 1871. The city was named Bismarck precisely in the hope that it would attract German immigrants.
The Germans who had settled in North and South Dakota mostly emigrated from the area of what was once the Russian Empire, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Namely, a large number of Germans had settled in Eastern Europe back in the Middle Ages, most of them in urban areas. Once the Russians took control of these areas, they put pressure on the Germans, so that the latter emigrated to America in the hope of finding a better life and more political liberties.
