Germans in Louisville

Discover the German influence on the Derby City in this collection of historical essays.

The first German immigrants arrived in Louisville nearly two hundred years ago. By 1850, they represented nearly twenty percent of the population, and they influenced every aspect of daily life, from politics to fine art. In 1861, Moses Levy opened the famed Levy Brothers department store. Kunz’s “The Dutchman” Restaurant was established as a wholesale liquor establishment in 1892 and then became a delicatessen and, finally, a restaurant in 1941. Carl Christian Brenner, an emigrant from Lauterecken, Bavaria, gained notoriety as the most important Kentucky landscape artist of the nineteenth century. C. Robert and Victoria A. Ullrich edit a collection of historical essays about German immigrants and their fascinating past in the Derby City.