German language newspapers in the United States

Illinois Staats-Zeitung's 1871 building in Chicago , one of the largest German language newspapers.
1874 building of the St. Louis Westliche Post, one of the largest of the German newspapers

In the period from the 1830s until the First World War there were dozens of German language newspapers in the United States.

Although the first German immigrants had arrived by 1700, most German-language newspapers flourished during the era of mass immigration from Germany that began in the 1820s.[1]

Germans were the first non-English speakers to publish newspapers in the U.S., and by 1890, there were over 1,000 German language newspapers being published in the United States.[1]

The first German language paper was Die Philadelphische Zeitung, published by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia beginning in 1732; it failed after a year.[1] In 1739, Christopher Sauer established Der Hoch-Deutsche Pennsylvanische Geschicht-Schreiber, later known as Die Germantauner Zeitung.[2] It was one of the most influential pre-Revolutionary weekly newspapers in the colonies.[2] By 1802, Pennsylvanian Germans published newspapers not only in Philadelphia, but also in Lancaster, Reading, Easton, Harrisburg, York, and Norristown.[1] The oldest German Catholic newspaper, the Cincinnati Archdiocese's Der Wahrheitsfreund, began publishing in 1837.[3][4] By 1881, it was one of five German papers in the Cincinnati market.[5]

The newspapers were hit by two rounds of closure due to sudden drops in advertising revenue. As the U.S. entered World War I, many advertisers stopped placing advertisements in German newspapers. Later, with the onset of Prohibition in 1920, the remaining newspapers faded as immigrants aged and died.[1]

Local and regional newspapers by state

Illinois

Iowa

Maryland

Missouri

New York

North Dakota

Ohio

Pennsylvania

South Dakota

Washington DC

Wisconsin

National newspapers

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Grohsgal, Leah Weinry. "Chronicling America's Historic German Newspapers and the Growth of the American Ethnic Press". neh.gov. National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  2. 1 2 "A History of Pennsylvania Newspapers". libraries.psu.edu. The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  3. ↑ McCann, Mary Agnes (1920). "The Most Reverend John Baptist Purcell, D.D., Archbishop of Cincinnati (1800-1883)". The Catholic Historical Review. American Catholic Historical Association. 6: 183. ISSN 0008-8080. JSTOR 25011687.
  4. ↑ Clark, S. J. (1912). Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume 2. The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 12.
  5. ↑ "A Word About the Enquirer". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 39 (293). October 20, 1881. p. 4. (subscription required (help)).

External links

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