About Our Club

The Germania Verein is a club for people who are interested in maintaining the German culture, customs, language and music. The Germania Verein was founded in the year 1856, by a group of German immigrants who lived in and around the city of San Jose, California. Learn about our history here.

Over the years, the Germania Verein was a meeting place for established immigrants and especially the newcomers. Here, the young and old immigrant found a bit of what he had left behind; here he could meet new friends or even find a partner and life companion. We know of an active German community during the eighteen hundreds with dances, concerts, theater plays, parades and outings.

Just as in the development of the United States of America, the German immigrants played a major role in the development of the city of San José and the county of Santa Clara. The first mayor of San José was a German by the name of Aldoph Pfister, who also started the first public library in San Jose. Many present street signs remind us of early Germania members that made a name for themselves in this city.

In the early days, the Germania Verein leased some rooms on Santa Clara Street, opposite the Opera House, which were open to members as reading and meeting rooms. On the last Sunday of each month, special festivities took place to which each member was entitled to invite a certain number of guests.

In the year of 1923, the Germania Verein acquired its present Club House at 261 North on 2nd Street and has held this property until the present time. A special thanks goes to those few dedicated members who were able to keep alive the Germania Verein during the first and second world war. Over the last 50 years, the membership has gone up and down, but today, at the turn of the new millennium, the Verein can proudly present about 300 members.

The visitor of this web page can see the many activities that have given the Germania Verein its strong and supporting membership and a good name as an ethnic group in the multi-cultural city of San José, California.