German-Language 1776 Declaration Goes on Display in Berlin for US 250th Anniversary

Q: Beyond German, in what other languages was America's Declaration first printed for its diverse colonists?

Beyond English, the only language clearly documented in the immediate first printings for colonists was German. The German translation appeared within days of the Declaration’s adoption in July 1776, aimed at the large German-speaking population in Pennsylvania and other colonies. Printers including Steiner and Cist, and separately Henrich Miller in the *Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote*, produced early German versions so colonists who did not read English could understand the break with Britain. The material provided does not show comparable first-wave printed editions for colonists in other languages such as Dutch, French, Spanish, or Yiddish. French is mentioned in some historical contexts as a spoken translation for Indigenous audiences, and Yiddish appears in connection with a private letter, but neither is evidence of an early printed colonial edition of the Declaration itself. So, based on the available evidence, German was the principal and apparently the only other language in which the Declaration was first printed for America’s linguistically diverse colonists.

Q: How was 'pursuit of happiness' first translated for German colonists in 1776?

It is not established in the provided reporting and source material how “pursuit of happiness” was rendered in the 1776 German translation for colonists. What is clear is that German-language versions of the Declaration were printed in Pennsylvania within days of July 4, 1776, notably by Steiner and Cist and in Henrich Miller’s *Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote*, to reach tens of thousands of German-speaking colonists who did not read English. But the available material about the Berlin exhibition and related historical background does not quote the specific German wording of that phrase. So the most accurate answer is that the exact 1776 German translation of “pursuit of happiness” is not provided in the cited news report or the accompanying research material. To answer it definitively, one would need to consult the surviving German broadside itself at the German Historical Museum or the other surviving copy at Gettysburg College, or a scholarly transcription of the 1776 text.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 26

One of only 2 surviving German-language copies of the 1776 Declaration of Independence has gone on display at Berlin’s German Historical Museum ahead of the U.S. 250th anniversary.
About 100,000 German speakers lived in the 13 colonies in 1776, prompting Congress to have the Declaration quickly printed in German so non-English speakers could read public postings.
The broadside used a gothic typeface for readability and highlights the role of German-speaking immigrants in early America, from economic migrants to religious minorities such as Mennonites and Amish.
The museum bought the document in 1993 for more than 1 million German marks—about $550,000 today—as reunified Germany cast it as a symbol of shared U.S.-German democratic values after the Berlin Wall’s fall.