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About Milwaukee
During the 19th century immigrants from more than 30 European countries flocked to Milwaukee, bringing with them their skills, arts and cuisines. Germans were the largest group; as the decades passed their gemütlichkeit (hospitality) assumed Italian, Polish, Scandinavian, Irish and other national overtones.
Milwaukee's watery surroundings, while a boon to its eventual development as a river port, posed a few problems during its early years. A fierce rivalry developed over the question of payment for the Milwaukee River bridges that connected the two villages of Juneautown and Kilbourntown. The Great Bridge War was settled by the legislature in 1845, but not before both factions angrily had torn down every bridge and the residents of Juneautown had trained a loaded cannon on Kilbourntown.
The new city of Milwaukee witnessed the arrival of the Forty-eighters, refugees from unsuccessful revolutionary movements against German monarchies in 1848. This intellectual minority launched the city into new cultural and political directions, endowing the city with theaters, music societies, athletic clubs and Freethinker groups. They also established a reform tradition that later gave rise to Milwaukee's distinctive brand of socialism.
During the last half of the 19th century, the reference to Milwaukee as the German Athens was hardly an exaggeration. Only the Polish and Irish populations came close in number. English was almost never heard in some neighborhoods, especially on the northwest side. By the late 1870s Milwaukee had six daily newspapers published in German.
Public schools zealously enforced their requirement that German be taught from kindergarten on. Ever-popular were family picnics at such open-air beer gardens as the Schlitz Palm Garden. By the end of the century, however, German cultural allegiances had begun to fade. The decision of the Stadt Theater, pride of Milwaukee's German culture, to alternate plays in German and English was an indisputable sign of changing times.
In reality Milwaukee's northern European heritage never disappeared. Its influence survived, despite such setbacks as World War I's repressive effect on the German community and Prohibition's nearly fatal blow to the city's brewing industry. The period following World War II brought massive development.
Milwaukee is the state's largest city, its primary commercial and manufacturing center and one of its busiest ports, as well as a major grain market. Called the "machine shop of America," Milwaukee ranks among the nation's principal industrial cities and is a leader in the production of equipment for the generation and distribution of electrical power. Factories also manufacture motorcycles, mining machinery and combustion engines.
But what really has made Milwaukee famous is beer. Though other industries have dethroned the king since 1889, the brewing industry remains synonymous with the city. Besides the ubiquitous smell of malt in the air, associations with brewing are everywhere. Wealthy brewers and other industrialists built lavish houses, some of which have been converted to public museums. One of the nation's largest breweries has its headquarters in Milwaukee.
Although modern steel and glass high rises occupy much of the downtown area, Milwaukee's European heritage is evident in the design of some of the city's noteworthy buildings and residences. The blue-domed Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, a magnificent example of Byzantine architecture at 9400 W. Congress St., came from the drawing board of Frank Lloyd Wright. While the interior of the church is not open for tours, the exterior is more than worth a drive from any part of the city.
City Hall and Pabst Theater, both built in the 1890s in the Flemish Renaissance style, have been preserved carefully. Residents also embrace the return of a few old German cafes and beer gardens, where zither music is played and sauerbraten is served with the suds.
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