Germanna

Archaeological site in Virginia, United States

Germanna was a German settlement in the Colony of Virginia, settled in two waves, first in 1714 and then in 1717. Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood encouraged the immigration by advertising in Germany for miners to move to Virginia and establish a mining industry in the colony.

The name "Germanna," selected by Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood, reflected both the German immigrants who sailed across the Atlantic to Virginia and the British Queen, Anne, who was in power at the time of the first settlement at Germanna. Though she died only months after the Germans arrived, her name continues to be a part of the area.

As part of a series of land grants awarded to settlers to create a buffer against the French, the Privy Council granted Spotswood in the newly created Spotsylvania County in 1720, of which the Germanna tract was the first, while he was Lieutenant Governor and actual executive head of the Virginia government. He served in this capacity between 1710 and 1722 and, in 1716, he carried out his famous Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition and promoted many reforms and improvements. Spotswood was replaced as the lieutenant governor by Hugh Drysdale some time in 1722. Historians suggest his removal may have been the result of years of disharmony between himself and the council, as well as when he accepted such a large amount of land, that he showed a disregard for the Crown policy which held that no single person or family could claim more than a thousand acres of Virginia land. Spotswood established a colony of German immigrants on the Germanna tract in 1714, partly for frontier defense but mainly to operate his newly developed ironworks. Germanna was the seat of Spotsylvania County from 1720 to 1732. Spotswood erected a palatial home and, after the Germans moved away to Germantown, continued the ironworks with slave labor. In his later years he served as Deputy Postmaster General for the Colonies. The Germanna Colonies consist primarily of the First Colony of forty two persons from the Siegerland area in Germany brought to Virginia to work for Spotswood in 1714, and the Second Colony of twenty families from the Palatinate, Baden and Württemberg area of Germany brought in 1717, but also include other German families who joined the first two colonies at later dates. Although many Germanna families later migrated southward and westward from Piedmont Virginia, genealogical evidence shows that many of the families intermarried for generations, producing a rich genealogical heritage. The site of the first settlement, Fort Germanna, is located in present day Orange County along the banks of the Rapidan River, with subsequent settlements of Germans being established on sites in present day Culpeper and Spotsylvania counties. Many Germanna families played roles in important events in early American history such as the American Revolution and migration west to Kentucky and beyond.

The site of Fort Germanna is mostly open fields with intervening thickets of second growth timber. The Fort Germanna site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The Foundation maintains a research library, a memorial garden, and plans interpretive walking trails to various historic and archaeological sites. In addition, the Foundation publishes histories and genealogical books, a newsletter, offers educational programs at an Annual Historical Conference and Reunion and to the community, and offers group travel to Germany geared to the origin of the Germanna families.