What ethnicity is Kohler?

The ethnicity of the name Kohler is German, with Austrian roots in the case of the founding family. Kohler is an occupational surname derived from the Middle High German word Köhler, which means charcoal burner or charcoal maker, someone who produced charcoal by burning wood slowly in a kiln. This was a common occupation in medieval Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, so the surname is widespread in German-speaking regions. The founder of Kohler Co., John Michael Kohler, was born in 1844 in Schnepfau, Austria, near the German border, to a German-speaking family. He immigrated to the United States as a child with his family in the early 1850s and settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, before moving to Wisconsin. So his ethnicity was German-Austrian. Today, the surname Kohler is found most commonly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and among descendants of German immigrants in the United States, particularly in the Midwest. The Kohler family itself identifies as German-American. In the United States, Kohler is often perceived as an American brand, but its linguistic and ethnic origin is Germanic. The spelling with an h is typical of southern German and Austrian dialects, while variations like Koehler, Köhler, and Kohler all share the same meaning and ethnic origin.