German was a dominate language. At one time, nearly 1/3 of people in the US spoke it fluently. Germans were shamed from speaking it after WW1 and WW2 made the numbers dwindle even further. If it hadn't been for the wars, the US would most likely have most official documents in English, German and Spanish and German would probably be on the passports as well (currently US passports contain English, French and Spanish)