Claim: a proposal to make german the official language of the united states of america was defeated in congress by one vote. status: false. origins: legend has it that in 1795 a bill to establish. Urban legend: german almost became the official language of the us long before i ever came to the us, i heard the story of how, a long long time ago, the us voted on an official language. in events packed with drama, opinions were split between english and german.. German language newspapers have a long tradition in the united states. a german newspaper, the "pennsylvanischer staatsbote" was the first to report and publish the declaration of independence. signed in philadelphia on july 4, 1776, the "staatsbote" printed a german version on july 5..
Was german almost the official language of the u.s.? the u. s. house of representatives to publish federal laws in german as well as english "for the accommodation of such german citizens of the united states, as do not understand the english language." the inaccurate muhlenberg vote was referenced in the 1847 book, history and. A popular urban legend called the muhlenberg legend claims that german was almost made an official language of the united states but lost by one vote. in reality, it was a request by a group of german immigrants to have an official translation of laws into german.. In 18th century usa, one vote was enough to ensure that english, not german, was made the official language. true or myth? music: "hot swing" by kevin macleod.
