“Gut Heil”: Dayton Turner’s Preservation during the First World War

Good greetings, or Gut Heil!, was a common greeting made by German-Americans in Dayton. These German-Americans and the lives of millions of Americans on April the sixth, 1917 were forever altered because of the United States’ decision to join the war effort. As the United States entered the First World War, domestically the population felt emboldened to aid in the war effort in every way possible. The First World War brought unprecedented hysteria towards German-Americans for fear of treason and espionage upon the war effort. Eventually even legislation was passed 1 to halt anyone in the United States from interfering with the American war effort. With the true war happening thousands of miles from the United States, the war front for many citizens was actually the home front.2 In an effort to support the war effort and to create a unified patriotic nation, many Americans turned to their fellow citizens and began to question their loyalty that culminated in an anti-German hysteria. This hysteria was unprecedented from anything ever experienced within the United States. Radical displays of hysteria began to occur throughout the nation, including book burnings throughout the United States, including in Ohio, the lynching of Robert Prager, beatings, adoption of laws that restrict German language and immense pressure to abandon cultural practices associated with Germany or German-Americans.