It has been shown that “the Germans” in urban Canada have demonstrated a considerable readiness to abandon their ancestral language and that immigrants from Germany feel “right at home” in Canada very quickly; many give up German as the language of the home and perceive themselves as German-Canadians, rather than as Germans, very soon after their arrival in Canada. Compared to some other ethnic groups, “the Germans” use their ancestral language less frequently in the second and third generations (where the language is lost, to all intents and purposes), and they restrict their use of German to the family and a circle of close friends. It is true that the attitudes towards the retention of German expressed by parents (especially recent immigrants who are still fluent in the language and have a relatively low level of education) with regard to the desirability for their children to learn and maintain German has been very strong, but this stated attitude has not necessarily been translated into practice in real life.

It has also been shown that German is alive and well among the Hutterites and conservative Mennonite and Amish groups in certain rural areas of the country, and will continue to flourish there.

But the effect of the drastic loss of German among the present generation of speakers of German in urban Canada, on the one hand, and the small number of future speakers of German being raised, above all in the cities, has already had profound effects (and will continue to do so) on the type of student taking German at the school and the university level. Enrolments in language schools and public schools have suffered serious declines over the last ten years; there do not seem to be enough children from German-speaking families to attend the bilingual schools; enrolments are shrinking dramatically in most church schools where they still exist. The demographic characteristics of the German ethnic group in Canada are changing radically. German – even with increased registrations by anglophone students – will be unlikely to retain its present share of second language registrations over the medium and long term unless there is an infusion of German mother tongue speakers by increased immigration, or unless there is a drastic change in the attitudes towards language maintenance – particularly by persons in the towns and cities of Canada, where the schools are located at which German is being taught.

German and German culture have become museum pieces to many immigrants, to be dusted off once in a while, but ignored for most of the year. Only on certain holidays and festival days do some of the “Germans” get together and talk and behave “like Germans,” get young girls to wear dirndls, engage in some schuhplattling, and consume copious amounts of German founds. At all other times, however, they take pains to show that they have been acculturated to the mainstream “Canadian way of life” and to Canadian social expectations. They have “submerged their identity” and have become an “invisible minority.”

One of the reasons for the lack of participation among the majority of young people of German origin surely is what has been referred to above as a “museum approach to German culture”: to cherish and preserve stereotypical aspects of German culture (folk dancing, folk singing, wearing folk costumes) while they are on the verge of extinction in Germany – aspects which, for better or worse, have little relevance in present-day German culture, at least to the young people who have grown up in Canada

Many immigrants, above all those who fled or were expelled from Eastern Europe, did not want to accept the changes which have occurred in the relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Socialist countries; many of them felt that they had been “sold out” and thought of the “real” Germany, as they knew it, as having ceased to exist in the 1970s. Thus the cultural perceptions of the older immigrants have become petrified in their memories.

The children, for psychological reasons (being “German” made them different, and adolescents do not want to be different from their peers), have resisted their parents’ attempts to get them to learn German, steadily undermining their parents’ determination and perseverance until they finally gave up. Of course, some parents never had the resolve to teach their children German in the home or the time and energy to drive their children to German school; it certainly was a great deal easier to become simply assimilated into the anglophone mainstream.

The fact that Canadians, and particularly western Canadians, tend to be suspicious of the “hyphenated Canadians” and the fact that they have considered foreign languages unnecessary frills (this attitude is definitely still prevalent regarding the teaching of second languages in high school and regarding the imposition of a second language requirement, for all students, for graduation from high school) have assuredly contributed to a weakening of the will power of the German-speaking immigrant to maintain his or her knowledge of language or culture.

German clubs and associations across the country will lose continue to lose more of their membership by death than new members can be added. With the disappearance of the German ethnic group, there will be commercial implications as well: there will be less need for German-speaking paediatricians, gynaecologists, doctors, real estate agents, lawyers, delicatessens, and so on.

This is not to say that German culture in Canada – i.e., popular culture – will disappear altogether: There will probably always be a German tent at the various heritage celebrations across the country where German sausages and sauerkraut will be consumed; anglophone connoisseurs will continue to buy their bread and pastry at German bakeries and will discover the delicious flavour of German prepared meats. Unfortunately, there will be no one in the beer tents, pastry shops, and delicatessens who will be able to speak and understand German.