A new documentary explores how early German immigrants helped shape Missouri

After they first began arriving in Missouri in the 1830s, German immigrants helped shape the state's culture in myriad ways, as detailed in the book “Explore Missouri's German Heritage” and the documentary it inspired.
The first wave of German immigrants came to Missouri in the mid-1830s. Within just a few years, the German population in the Show-Me State, and St. Louis in particular, increased exponentially.

“People in what we now call Germany — but at that particular time, the early 19th century, were a collection of duchies, municipalities, sometimes Free Cities — were being pushed out by rapid industrialization,” said W. Arthur Mehrhoff, author of “Explore Missouri's German Heritage.”