I just had another look at the ethnic groups and it just looks like ethnic groups from more humble beginnings get involved in OC and I guess the Germans are not from humble beginnings or economically challenged.
of those who came here were of humble beginnings and economically challenged, not counting wasp elites.
italians, germans, poles, swedes, brits, welsh, scots, russians, slovacks, irish, jews, greeks, the chinese etc...
out of all these groups, only 2 are still operating and relevant crime-wise: the italians and the chinese.
I don't consider the russians because the
real deal of russians gangsters only started to get here in the 1970s/1980s and had very little to share with those who emigrated generations earlier...
so what does this tell us? that money and large manpower play an important role but a big chunk of it is some sort of ethnic tradition.
1 - italians had a structured and historically-relevant criminal subculture
before immigrating overseas, more so than most other western/easter european groups.
attrition works better without a defined structure enriched by strict rankings and ritualistic ceremonies that were forged through history.
eventhough germany did have its own semi-organized underworld, the "Ringvereine" ("ring clubs"), there were never as widely spread as the mafia was in italy.
2 - aside from WW2 anti-italian campaigns and overall discrimination, italians were never lawfully forced to assimilate, unlike what happened to germans starting with WW1 paranoia and germanphobia resulting in the mandatory closure of their schools, newspapers, social clubs, political parties, unions forcing them to assimilate at a faster rate compared to other ethnicities.
hence why german last-names were the ones most commonly americanized literally erasing an entire cultural lineage;
3 - during that same period quotas were implemented to prevent the immigration of possible german spies; even the immigration "reform" of 1928 (passed to favor norther european immigrants over southern ones) was then temporary frozen due to WW2;
4 - lastly and most importantly, by the time some germans started to fully organized (around the 1920s) they were out-numbered and so squished by the italian and irish competition who were already formed and well-integrated forcing germans to either back out or assimilate working for them as enforcers.
they were left with the crumbs and
only in irrelevant small locales out in the sticks.
to sum it all up: you had to rule chicago or nyc to rule american crime . . . iowa? not so much
germans got to that game too late to fully organize and become a lasting entity, especially in large, wealth-generating cities.
