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Oestreicher and Österreicher are German language surnames meaning "One from Austria" (German Österreich).

Etymology

Myth

It has been claimed^{[citation needed]} that Americans with the surname descend from immigrants who were given the name as they arrived at Ellis Island, New York City. Since some new arrivals did not have surnames, immigration officers or other officials often assigned them names based on their profession or place of origin. This idea has been debunked by the United States Department of Justice as untrue. They state that the name must have been applied at the country of origin by the ticket issuing agent or on the ship during the passage to America.

Another theory

It is possible that this name was taken by, or given to, settlers from the "Ost-Reich" (Eastern Empire - parts of the Hapsburg Empire and even Russia) who found refuge in Germany during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these settlers were Jewish.

People

• Karl Österreicher (1918 - 2000), Austrian diplomat (de)
• Rudolf Österreicher (1881 - 1966), Austrian writer (de)
• Johann Friedrich Oesterreicher (1771 - 1835), a Bishop of Eichstätt (de)
• Monsignor John (Johannes) Maria Oesterreicher (1904 - 1993), an Austrian Roman Catholic theologian
• Joseph Manes Österreicher (1756 - 1831), a Jewish Hungarian physician
• Richard_Oesterreicher (born 1932), Austrian musician (de)

Östreicher

• Carole Oestreicher, a member of the Luxembourg national korfball team
• Dan Oestreicher, baritone
• Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim, a Jewish American female human rights activist, the chairwoman of The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States

See also

• Österreich
• Estereicher
• Deutsch, Deutscher, Deutschmann

• Silvaner ("Österreicher")

References

This page or section lists people with the surname Österreicher, Oesterreicher, Östereicher, Oestereicher, Östreicher, Oestreicher, Estreicher, etc.. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.