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Christ Evangelical Church Germantown Wisconsin - Sept 2013 02Photo: Shawn Conrad · CC BY-SA 3.0
–Not graded
History · Germantown

17% of Germantown’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1904 on and the census since 1930.

0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Shawn Conrad · CC BY-SA 3.0

What stands out about Germantown’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Germantown are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19044 editions of the USGS map, 1904 to 1994. Watch Germantown change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Germantown’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Germantown’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Germantown on the map, 1904 to 1994

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Germantown. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Germantown on the 1904 USGS mapGermantown on the 1959 USGS mapGermantown on the 1971 USGS mapGermantown on the 1994 USGS map1904West Bend sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Germantown.

The story

How Germantown came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Germantown.

Read it all →

The land that became Germantown was originally inhabited by members of the Potawatomi tribe. The Potawatomi surrendered the land that became Germantown to the United States Federal Government in 1833 through the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, which (after being ratified in 1835) required them to leave Wisconsin by 1838. While many Native people moved west of the Mississippi River to Kansas, some chose to remain or return after temporarily settling in the west, and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by squatting on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by White settlers. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Potawatomi who evaded forced removal gathered in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where many worked in the timber industry and formed the Forest County Potawatomi Communit…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Germantown, 1845 to 1904

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1845Born hereJohn F. Schwalbach is born here
  3. 1878Born hereHenry V. Schwalbach is born here
  4. 20th century
  5. 1904On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Germantown, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Germantown, WI, USA2009Germantown, WI, USAGermantown Wisconsin 20090124 15762009Germantown Wisconsin 20090124 1576
People over time

Germantown, census by census

05,00010,00015,00020,0001940196019802000202020,917

Grew from 255 people in 1930 to 20,917 in 2020, more than tenfold.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Germantown’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Germantown

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Henry V. SchwalbachAmerican politician · b. 1878
J
John F. SchwalbachAmerican politician · b. 1845
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Richfield1 historic placeBJackson2 historic placesA−

Questions about Germantown’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikidata (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.