In York City history, most would say the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, which killed 141 people, mostly women. But by far the worst tragedy ever to take place in New York City was the now-forgotten 1904 General Slocum Telephone Number List paddle boat disaster, in which more than 1000 German people, mostly woman and children, perished in an accident that certainly could have been prevented. Starting in the 1840's, tens of thousands of Telephone Number List German immigrants began flooding the lower east side of Manhattan, which is now called Alphabet City, but what was then called the Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany. Just in the 1850's alone over 800,000 Germans came into America, and by 1855, New York Telephone Number List City had the third largest German population of any city in the world.
The German immigrants were different than the Irish immigrants who, due to the Irish potato famine in Ireland, were also emigrating to New York City at a fast pace during the middle part of the 19th century. Whereas the Irish were mostly Telephone Number List lower-class laborers, the Germans were better educated and possessed skills Telephone Number List that made them obtain a higher rung on the economic ladder than did the Irish. More than half the bakers in New York City Telephone Number List were of German descent, and most cabinet makers in New York City were either German, or of German descent. Germans were also very active in the construction business, which at the time was very profitable, because of all the large buildings being built in New York City Telephone Number List during the mid and late 1800's.
Joseph Wedemeyer, Oswald Ottendorfer and Friedrich Sorge were New York City German-Americans who were extremely active in the creation Telephone Number List and growth of trade unions. In New York City, German-American clubs, which were called Vereins, were highly involved in politics. Ottendorfer owned and edited the Staats-Zeitung, the largest German-American newspaper in town. He became such a force in politics, in 1861, he was instrumental, through Telephone Number List his German Democracy political club, in getting New York City Mayor Fernando Wood elected for his second term. In 1863, Ottendorfer propelled Telephone Number List another German, Godfrey Gunther, to succeed Wood as mayor.