German American press

DEFINITION: German-language newspapers catering to German immigrants

SIGNIFICANCE: As German immigrants reached the United States (US) and began settling in the country's interior, the German American press catered to their need for news and information, providing stories about their adopted homeland while keeping in touch with Germany. The German American press became one of the largest and most powerful ethnic presses in the country, aiding German politicians at both state and national levels.

Ethnic presses in the US were a major force in American journalism during the nineteenth century, when mass European immigration brought millions of non-English speakers into the US. The German-language press was one of the most influential of the ethnic presses. The first German newspaper in the British colonies was published by Benjamin Franklin in 1732. However, his Philadelphische Zeitung lasted only a few months, and other German language dailies had similarly short life spans. In 1735, John Peter Zenger was publishing the New York Weekly, a German American paper, when he was charged with libel. His trial expanded freedom of the press by making it more difficult for government officials to sue for libel.

Meanwhile, developments in Europe invigorated the German American press as political turmoil accelerated German emigration. The revolutions of 1848 and subsequent government crackdowns drove millions of central Europeans from the continent. As German émigrés arrived in North America, they found newspapers such as the New York Staats-Zeitung, a major daily established in 1834, already flourishing and ready to cater to German speakers hungry for news about their adopted homeland.

A Growing Presence

As new German immigrants settled throughout the US, their daily newspapers followed. By the 1850s, Cincinnati alone had four German-language newspapers, and St. Louis had three. The most influential of these papers were St. Louis’s Anzeiger des Westens, or Western Informant, and the Cincinnati Volksblatt. Both papers supported the abolitionist movement and the Republican Party, which formed during the mid-1850s. In Illinois, the Staats Zeitung was the official Republican voice in the German community, and it gained prominence during the 1860 presidential campaign.

As the circulation of German-language papers topped one hundred thousand in cities such as Chicago and New York, German American politicians used the papers as campaigning tools. Carl Schurz, a German-born Republican who became a political reformer and secretary of the interior for President Rutherford B. Hayes, used his part ownership in the St. Louis Westliche Post to promote his own political career. German-language newspapers also closely followed the military exploits of German American generals, such as Franz Sigel. With their large readerships and captive audiences of German immigrants who were not yet familiar with English, the papers became a force in politics. They were courted by politicians eager to communicate with their German constituents.

The German American press also aided the rise of major newspaper magnates, who used ethnic newspapers to expand their overall readership. For example, Joseph Pulitzer published the St. Louis Westliche Post along with his St. Louis Post-Dispatch, providing a gateway as German immigrants adopted English and switched their loyalty to English-language newspapers.

Decline of the Press

European turmoil during the 1870s and 1880s drove more Germans to immigrate to North America, increasing demand for German-language papers. New York City alone had more than a half-dozen such papers, while many rural communities with German settlers had their own German papers. However, as German immigration waned, and second and third-generation German Americans adopted English, the German papers saw their readership decline. Rural papers were the first to shut down. During the early years of the twentieth century, mergers left most large cities with only one or two German-language dailies each.

American entry into World War I in 1917 proved to be the end of the German American press’s influence in American politics. Much of the fall of the papers may be attributed to the German entrepreneur George Viereck, who established a pro-German newspaper called The Fatherland in August 1914, at the time the war was starting in Europe. The circulation of the paper grew rapidly as German Americans sought news about the course of the war. Viereck used his newspaper as a propaganda machine for the German government, receiving reports from the German Information Service. His paper defended the German government against charges of war crimes and brutality against civilians. It also attacked British influence in American foreign policy, taking particular aim at the Wilson administration when it tilted in favor of the Allies. Many German newspapers supported the candidacy of Charles Evans Hughes during the 1916 presidential election, believing that he was less likely than President Woodrow Wilson to lead the US into the war against Germany. Wilson would not forget their endorsements of Hughes after he won the November 1916 presidential election and took the country into the war the following April.

In 1918, Wilson signed the Trading with the Enemy Act, which regulated all trade with Germany and its allies. Such trade included news reports passed on to the German-language press. Onerous regulations were imposed, requiring costly record keeping by the newspapers, as they were forced to record all their contacts with the German government.

Such regulations weakened the German language press, while growing distrust of the loyalty of German speakers led to the demise of half of the German newspapers during the early 1920s. The end of large-scale German immigration and the general economic downturn of the Great Depression reduced the circulation of German newspapers, leaving only a few in the largest American cities, such as New York. In the twenty-first century, the US maintains a German-language media presence to meet the needs of the over five million Americans who would continue to speak and read the German language. Newspapers, magazines, newsletters, radio and television programs, and online content continue to cater to the German-speaking community. Examples of German American newspapers that continue to be published in the 2020s include Neue Presse USA from California, the Florida Sun in Florida, New Yorker Staats-Zeitung in New York, Amerika Woche in Pennsylvania, and Hiwwe wie Driwwe, which is written in the Pennsylvania German dialect.

Bibliography

"About Us." Florida Sun Magazine, www.floridasunmagazine.com/das-magazin/wir-ueber-uns/about. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

Fleming, Thomas. The Illusion of Victory. New York: Basic Books, 2003.

Grohsgal, Leah Weinryb. "Chronicling America's Historic German Newspapers and the Growth of the American Ethnic Press." National Endowment for the Humanities, 2 July 2014, www.neh.gov/divisions/preservation/featured-project/chronicling-americas-historic-german-newspapers-and-the-grow. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

Gross, Ruth. Traveling Between Worlds. College Station: Texas A&M Press, 2006.

Heinrich-Tolzmann, Don. The German American Experience. Amherst, N.Y.: Humanity Books, 2000.

Keller, Phyllis. States of Belonging. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979.

Library of Congress. "Research Guides: The Germans in America: German-American Newspapers." Library of Congress Research Guides, 30 Apr. 2024, guides.loc.gov/germans-in-america/german-american-newspapers. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

Miller, Sally, editor. The Ethnic Press in the United States. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987.