The colourful procession of folk-dance groups, brass bands and rifle associations, was led along Fifth Avenue by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
His Hamburg counterpart, Ole von Beust, was a guest of honour at the parade and former US supermodel Carol Alt, who has German ancestry, was grand marshall.
Around 22 brass bands and other groups numbering some 1,000 members had travelled from Germany, many of them from Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg states.
Several US-German associations from both the US and Canada also took part.
German beer was served from an authentic wooden keg, brought over specially from Munich, at the closing festival in Central Park.
The parade is named after the Prussian officer Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-1793), who fought alongside the Americans against the British in the War of Independence.
One in four Americans is believed to have German ancestry, making them the largest ethnic group in the US.
