Introduction

German migration to post-war Britain differed from pre-First World War patterns in two key respects: Migrants were widely dispersed throughout the country, and did not establish ethnically orientated associations. In comparison, in 1911 more than half the 53,324 Germans lived in and around London.2 Their economic backgrounds ranged from wealthy bankers and traders, to craftsmen and white-collar workers, general labourers and finally the poor in London’s East End. They organised themselves according to their social and financial circumstances in exclusive clubs with economic, political, cultural, social and sporting aims, in associations of craftsmen, and in philanthropic organisations that tried to reduce the misery of their fellow countrymen.3 A German hospital, an old people’s home and an orphanage, together with schools and churches in many British cities were visible expressions of the richer Germans’ activities.