At the center of the early German community in Maryland was their church.  The church was the meeting place, not only to practice your faith, but to maintain your culture.  The church was the center of many of our ancestors' social lives.  Many of the early churches provided the immigrants with the service in their native tongue.  As you will see many of these churches maintained a German service and later added English services.  Estimates put early populations as one third Catholic and two thirds Protestant, primarily Lutheran and Reformed.  Zion Church in the City of Baltimore continues to offer a German service each Sunday morning.

 

In 1929 there were 22 churches in and around Baltimore where the services was done wholly or in part, in German.