Strangers in a Strange War: German Soldiers in the American Revolution

About Strangers in a Strange War: German Soldiers in the American Revolution

What role did Germans play in the American Revolutionary War? Author and historian Dr. Friederike Baer shares her groundbreaking insights.

What role did Germans play in the American Revolutionary War? Author and historian Dr. Friederike Baer shares her groundbreaking insights into Britain's war against American independence, told from the perspective of the thousands of German soldiers that were hired by Britain in its war against the American rebels. Collectively known as Hessians, the men and accompanying civilians, including hundreds of women and children, spent extended periods of time in locations as dispersed and varied as Canada in the north and West Florida in the south. In this presentation, Friederike Baer highlights key experiences of these individuals drawn into a war on a distant continent against a people who had done them no harm, and she examines how their presence and actions left a lasting imprint on the story of America, an influence still felt 250 years later.

This event is presented by the German Consulate General New York together with the Goethe-Institut New York.

Please note that seating for the event is on a first come, first served basis.

About the Speaker: Friederike Baer is an award-winning author and Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University. Originally from Germany, she holds a Ph.D. in early American history from Brown University. She is the author of The Trial of Frederick Eberle: Language, Patriotism and Citizenship in Philadelphia’s German Community, 1790-1830, which was awarded the St. Paul, Biglerville Prize in American Lutheran History, and Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, which was honored with the American Roundtable of Philadelphia Annual Book Award, Inaugural American Battlefield Trust Prize for History Honorable Mention, and Society of the Cincinnati Prize. Dr. Baer served as a historical advisor and interviewee for The American Revolution, a documentary film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt.