Editing Anti-German sentiment (section)

==== Late 19th-early 20th centuries ====
There was some anti-German sentiment in Germanic communities, including Berlin, Ontario ([[Kitchener, Ontario]]) in [[Waterloo County, Ontario]], before the [[First World War]] and some cultural sanctions.<ref name="historicplaces.ca">{{cite web |title=HistoricPlaces.ca – HistoricPlaces.ca |url=http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=3297 |website=www.historicplaces.ca}}</ref> There were anti-German riots in [[Victoria, British Columbia]], and [[Calgary]], [[Alberta]], in the first years of the war.{{citation needed|date = October 2018}}

It was this anti-German sentiment that precipitated the [[Berlin to Kitchener name change]] in 1916. The city was named after [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]], famously pictured on the "[[Lord Kitchener Wants You]]" recruiting posters. Several streets in Toronto that had previously been named for Liszt, Humboldt, Schiller, Bismarck, etc., were changed to names with strong British associations, such as Balmoral.{{citation needed|date = October 2018}}

The Governor General of Canada, the [[Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn|Duke of Connaught]], while visiting Berlin, Ontario, in May 1914, had discussed the importance of [[German Canadians|Canadians of German ethnicity]] (regardless of their origin) in a speech: "It is of great interest to me that many of the citizens of Berlin are of German descent. I well know the admirable qualities – the thoroughness, the tenacity, and the loyalty of the great Teutonic Race, to which I am so closely related. I am sure that these inherited qualities will go far in the making of good Canadians and loyal citizens of the British Empire".<ref>"City on Edge: Berlin Becomes Kitchener in 1916" Exhibit at Waterloo Region Museum, on display 2016.</ref>

Some immigrants from Germany who considered themselves Canadians but were not yet citizens, were detained in internment camps during the War.<ref>{{cite web |date=1 March 2012 |title=Internment Camps in Canada during the First and Second World Wars |url=https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/politics-government/Pages/thematic-guides-internment-camps.aspx#b4 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709193317/http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/politics-government/Pages/thematic-guides-internment-camps.aspx#b4 |archive-date=9 July 2019 |access-date=19 March 2019 |publisher=Government of Canada |quote=Some German citizens living in Canada were arrested and detained in internment camps. Because Canada also served as a place of detention for German prisoners of war on behalf of the British, they formed a large proportion of the internees.}}</ref> In fact, by 1919 most of the population of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Elmira in [[Waterloo County, Ontario]], were Canadian.<ref>
{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |title=Waterloo Region 1911 |url=http://waterlooregionww1.uwaterloo.ca/tag/1911/ |access-date=20 March 2017 |website=Waterloo Region WWI |publisher=University of Waterloo}}</ref>

The German-speaking [[Amish]] and Mennonites were [[Christian pacifist]]s so they could not enlist and the few who had immigrated from Germany (not born in Canada) could not morally fight against a country that was a significant part of their heritage.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mennonites and conscription – Wartime Canada |url=http://wartimecanada.ca/document/world-war-i/conscription/mennonites-and-conscription |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315085646/http://wartimecanada.ca/document/world-war-i/conscription/mennonites-and-conscription |archive-date=15 March 2017 |access-date=21 March 2017 |website=wartimecanada.ca}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=D'Amato |first=Louisa |date=28 June 2014 |title=First World War ripped away Canada's 'age of innocence' |url=https://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news-story/4605027-first-world-war-ripped-away-canada-s-age-of-innocence-/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315023707/https://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news-story/4605027-first-world-war-ripped-away-canada-s-age-of-innocence-/ |archive-date=15 March 2017 |access-date=14 March 2017 |work=Kitchener Post, Waterloo Region Record |location=Kitchener}}</ref>

News reports during the war years indicate that "A Lutheran minister was pulled out of his house ... he was dragged through the streets. German clubs were ransacked through the course of the war. It was just a really nasty time period."<ref>{{cite web |title=Kitchener mayor notes 100th year of name change – CBC News |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/kitchener-ontario-berlin-name-change-100-years-tom-reitz-berry-vrbanovic-1.3744212}}</ref> Someone stole the bust of Kaiser [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]] from Victoria Park and dumped it into a lake;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lunn |first1=Janet |title=The Story of Canada |last2=Moore |first2=Christopher |publisher=[[Lerner Publishing Group|Lerner Publishing Limited]] |year=1992 |isbn=1-895555-88-4 |location=[[Toronto]] |page=226}}</ref> soldiers vandalized German stores. History professor Mark Humphries summarized the situation:

{{blockquote|Before the war, most people in Ontario probably didn't give the German community a second thought. But it's important to remember that Canada was a society in transition – the country had absorbed massive numbers of immigrants between 1896 and the First World War, proportionately more than at any other time in our history. So there were these latent fears about foreigners ... It becomes very easy to stoke these racist, nativist fires and convince people there really is a threat. War propaganda is top-down driven, but it's effective because it re-enforces tendencies that already exist.<ref>{{cite news|title=One hundred years after disappearing, Berlin (Ontario) shows signs of revival|date=26 August 2016|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/enduring-spirit-the-rejuvenation-of-berlin-ontario/article31576065/
|work=Globe and Mail|access-date=19 March 2019|quote=The declaration of war marked the beginning of vicious, violent antagonism on an international scale, and Berliners became collateral damage through a simple seismic shift of global alliances.}}</ref>}}

A document in the Archives of Canada makes the following comment: "Although ludicrous to modern eyes, the whole issue of a name for Berlin highlights the effects that fear, hatred and nationalism can have upon a society in the face of war."<ref>{{cite web |date=30 June 2016 |title=Did You Know That... – Canada and the First World War – Library and Archives Canada |url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-3300-e.html#d |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630163552/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-3300-e.html#d |archive-date=30 June 2016}}</ref>
[[File:Waterloo oktoberfest.jpg|thumb|upright|The Oktoberfest Timeteller, a traditional display in Waterloo]]

Internment camps across Canada opened in 1915 and 8,579 "enemy aliens" were held there until the end of the war; many were German speaking immigrants from [[Austria-Hungary]], Germany, and Ukraine. Only 3,138 were classed as prisoners of war; the rest were civilians.<ref>
{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |title=Anti-German Sentiment |url=http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/enemy-aliens/anti-german-sentiment |access-date=21 March 2017 |website=Canadian War Museum |publisher=Government of Canada}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web |last=Tahirali |first=Jesse |date=3 August 2014 |title=First World War internment camps a dark chapter in Canadian history |url=http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/first-world-war-internment-camps-a-dark-chapter-in-canadian-history-1.1945156 |access-date=21 March 2017 |website=CTV News |publisher=Bell Media}}</ref>

Built in 1926, the [[Waterloo Pioneer Memorial Tower]] in rural Kitchener, Ontario, commemorates the settlement by the [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] (actually ''Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch'' or ''German''){{sfn|Elliot|1988|p=105}} of the [[Grand River (Ontario)|Grand River]] area in the 1800s in what later became [[Waterloo County, Ontario]].<ref name="historicplaces.ca" />