COMMUNITY
Milwaukee is a community where history comes to life. From its obscure beginnings as an Indian settlement and its hopeful days as a booming Great Lakes port, Milwaukee has emerged as a stronghold of industries and immigrants, displaying bold experiments in municipal government, and a gradual immersion in national and global affairs.

By the early 20th century, Milwaukee had developed a national reputation based on three related hallmarks: Germanism, Socialism and beer. Today all three have faded in importance, but, as another century begins, the Milwaukee Idea retains a thoroughly distinctive sense of place. Choice and circumstance have combined to produce a unique community, one whose character reflects influences as diverse as Harley-Davidson and Pabst Blue Ribbon, Golda Meir and Father Groppi, the German revolutionaries of 1848 and the Milwaukee Braves of 1957.

Time Line

1674 to 1840
Native Milwaukeeans
The French
The Founders

1840 to 1865
The Bridge War
A City Joined
The Germans
BEER
Wheat

1865 to 1900
Growth
Steel & Iron
Workers vs. Owners
The Poles

1900 to 1920
Socialist Era Begins
Mayor Dan Hoan
WWI Anti-Germanism

1920 to 1950
Prohibition
The Depression
"Best Governed City in the U.S."
World War II

1950 to 2003
Growing Pains
Civil Rights
Urban Renewel
Braves & Brewers
 

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