German Haitians

The earliest known German settlement in Saint-Domingue was in Bombardopolis, south of the Môle-Saint-Nicolas. About a thousand Germans came to Bombardopolis, at French bequest, in the eighteenth century and managed to make a living growing coffee. That first wave of Germans, having been allowed to settle in one of the least fertile part of Haiti left the island for Guyana, and Louisiana. A second group of German soldiers who came with the French Leclerc expedition, switch side, fought with the Haitians, and were granted Haitian citizenship by Dessalines, along with all Germans and Poles. These Germans were granted responsibility for maintaining the powder and bullets for Dessalines’ Haitian troops. Contrary to the Poles, who settled in the town of Casal, no trace of these Germans is known.

Starting in the mid 1800 Germans started to settle and instigate commercial relations with Haïti. Germany having no colonies and not being active in the slave trade found a country open to foreign trade, with limited competition from other nations. The German community was more willing to integrate into Haitian society than any other group of Caucasian. Some Germans married into Haiti's most prominent families. This enabled them to bypass the constitutional prohibition against foreigners owning land. In 1910, Haitian Germans controlled 80% of Haiti's International Commerce. Though German Haitians only numbered about 200, they wielded a disproportionate amount of economic power. For example, they owned and operated utilities in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien but also controlled the Port-au-Prince main wharf.

When the US invaded Haiti in 1915, they promptly jailed and confiscated all Germans and their possessions. This was one of their primary goals. During the First World War (1914-1918), when the US entered the war, Germans still in Haïti were jailed in Fort Nationale under US soldiers guard. Pictures and literary archives. At the end of the First World War most Germans left Haïti, never to return due to the hostility of the American occupying force. The Germans who stayed were the one who had created family ties on the island. The US never returned the confiscated German belongings. In 1940 during the Second World War, when Haïti declared war on Germany, again all German properties were confiscated, the Haitians later passed a law to return them to their rightful owner. Haitian/Germans who kept their German citizenship were imprisoned. In 1942 these German war prisoners were sent to the US, at American request, as guarantee for the US prisoners held in Germany. Only in 1946, when Dumarsais Estimé became president, did Haïti allow these German prisoners in jail at that time on Ellis island NY, to return to Haiti. It has been reported that the German/Haitian prisoners were offered American citizenship but rejected this, preferring to be sent back to Haïti.

• Werner Jaegerhuber, famous composer
• Joe Gaetjens, soccer player for the United States national team in the 1950 FIFA World Cup

The 1915 United States occupation of Haiti

• Titus, Rubens F. (Rene Preval Haiti Archives Online)
• Northeastern University Thesis Archive (An Article Entitled: Haiti Net Foreign Relations)