This study applies the community model to examine German life in Winnipeg from its beginnings to the end of World War I. Emphasis is on the organizational and territorial dimensions of the community, with stress on residential patterns and the growth of local German institutions. These are examined with reference to the network of influences affecting their development. In the study Dr Grenke finds the church the centre of this community whose terminus was to be rural settlement on the prairies of Western Canada. This church influence constricted secular organization and institutional life, while political parties exercized control over the German language press.