Welcome to Tricentennial Foundation / German American Charities
The Tricentennial Foundation was founded in 1982 to restore and extend our dynamic German-American heritage, presence and image in our country, the United States.The Germans who came to America in serach of freedom and opportunity helped to increase our prosperity, enrich our culture, strengthen our government, and extend our liberty.Colonial immigrants from Germany were admired for work ethic, thrift, neat and prosperous farms, and craftsmanship. The very diversity of German religious groups promoted religious tolerance in America.German Americans contributed substantially to our education and culture. They changed our understanding of nature’s most fundamental rules, and our literature would be diminished without German and German American writers like Kurt Vonnegut. Even the kindergarten is a German word absorbed into the American language. We enjoy the musical artistry inspired by successive generations of artists; Marlene Dietrich, Ernst Lang, and Babe Ruth enriched popular entertainment and sports.
“Operation Paper-clip” How we got to the moon is the story of German space pioneers, like Hermann Oberth, Arthur Rudolph, Wenher von Braun and many others who took us into space.German Americans have contributed to the defense of American democracy and freedom from colonial days, when Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Inspector General of the American army during the War of Independence, who was a former Prussian captain and adjutant of Frederick the Great, was able to blend Prussian discipline with the backwoods fighting tactics into the Continental Army. Many German Americans have been faithful public servants, like Carl Schurz who forged love for Germany and loyalty to his America into the wonderful integrity of a great personality.Outstanding German American entrepreneurs and engineers include George Westinghouse, Frederick Weyerhaeuser, John Jacob Astor, Adolphus Busch, Ottmar Mergenthaler, The Roeblings, Charles P. Steinmetz, and so on. These are only some of the many distinctive contributions to our nation we acknowledge through the celebration of the Tricentennial Germans in America.
Our Mission
- The Tricentennial Foundation is promoting German Heritage awareness in the US.
- We help Germans who are in need of support.
- The Foundation also helps in “Erbschaftsangelegenheiten”, or Probate.