Anzeiger des Westens
Encyclopedia
The Anzeiger des Westens (literally "Gazette
of the West") was the first German-language
newspaper
in St. Louis, Missouri
, and, along with the Westliche Post
and the Illinois Staats-Zeitung
, one of the three most successful German-language papers in the United States Midwest serving the German-American population with news and culture. In the 1840's, it is thought to have been the newspaper with the largest circulation of any newspaper in any language in Missouri.
William Weber became editor early in 1836. He had been a German student. His republican
sympathies and involvement in the Polish uprising of 1830
had made him an exile after imprisonment in Leipzig
. His first employment in St. Louis had been as a librarian
at the Mercantile Library
.
Weber was a vigorous young writer, and soon drew about him the leading German minds of the city and vicinity: George Engelmann
, Gustave Koerner, Fred. Muench and others of such stamp contributed to its columns. Opposition to slavery
was an early theme. From 1842 to 1846 the paper was issued triweekly, and in the latter year as a daily. In 1844 Arthur Olshausen secured an interest, and three years later became sole proprietor.
In 1850, Henry Boernstein
succeeded Weber as editor, and very soon became proprietor and publisher.
Boernstein was for years a conspicuous figure in St. Louis. In Austria
n Poland
he had studied medicine, served as a soldier, written editorials for newspapers, composed plays, and been a stage manager and actor. In Paris
he hailed with delight the fall of Louis Philippe
, but when Napoleon III came into power he fled the country, and was next heard from in Highland, Illinois
.
In 1851, Carl Daenzer
was employed by Boernstein as editor. Daenzer had drifted into St. Louis as a general writer. He had been a member of the Frankfurt Parliament
, and had made himself obnoxious to the German government with efforts to bring about German unity by force of arms. For his rebellious course, he was condemned to ten years imprisonment with a heavy fine. He escaped to Switzerland
, and thence to the United States
.
.
When the Know Nothing sentiment culminated in violence, the Anzeiger was the first object of attack. At the city election of 1853
, it was charged that the German-Americans had taken control of the First Ward polls at Soulard Market
, and were preventing the Whigs
from voting. At that time, the Germans were classed as Benton
Democrats. The report was brought up town that Mitchell had been mobbed and that Mayor Kennett
, candidate for re-election, had been hissed.
Bob O'Blennis, the gambler, and Ned Buntline
, the story writer, assembled 5,000 men and marched down to Soulard Market. Pistol shots were fired. Stones were thrown. The crowd from up-town fired into the market house. A shot from Neumeyer's Tavern, on Seventh Street and Park Avenue, killed Joseph Stevens of the St. Louis Fire Company. The Americans charged the tavern, gutted it and burned it. They got two six-pounder cannons and located them on a Park Avenue corner to rake the streets to the south but did not fire. One party of 1500 people started for the office of the Anzeiger to clean it out, but met the militia and turned back.
This trouble wore itself out in a day. It was the curtain raiser for the election tragedy of August 1854. Antagonism toward foreigners had become intense. Foreign-born American citizens offering to vote were challenged and called on to show their papers and then declared to be disqualified.
Boernstein turned the entire conduct and responsibility of the Anzeiger over to Daenzer, whose name was put over the editorial columns, and who continued to edit the paper until 1857. Differences of various kinds arising between Boernstein and Daenzer, the latter withdrew, and, with the aid of friends, started the Westliche Post
which was a vigorous competitor with the Anzeiger for several decades.
Charles L. Bernays became editor of the Anzeiger after Daenzer's departure. Boernstein had been connected with Bernays in literary ways in Germany and France, and Bernays had preceded him to Highland, Illinois
.
When Daenzer returned to St. Louis in 1862 after having left for Europe in 1860, he found that the Anzeiger had gone out of business, likely due to Boernstein's having joined the army in the Civil War. He resuscitated the old concern under the name of the Neue Anzeiger des Westens, for the publication of which a company was incorporated, including William Palm, Charles Speck and others. After a time, the word "Neue" (new) was dropped. Although in the main supporting Democratic
measures, the Anzeiger can hardly be said to have been an "organ" of that party, its chief quality being complete independence. During the agitation of the money question, it was always a strong advocate of the gold standard
. After 1894, Daenzer had an able assistant in Carl Albrecht, a clear and forceful writer, particularly upon Europe
an and economic
topics.
On June 1, 1898, the Westliche Post
and Anzeiger des Westens were consolidated, the local Tribune having previously been absorbed by the Anzeiger. Emil Preetorius
of the Westliche Post and Daenzer both retired. Under the consolidation both papers, the Morning Westliche Post and the Evening Anzeiger, were issued by the German-American Press Association, the stockholders being Emil Preetorius, Carl Daenzer, Edwin C. Kehr, Charles Nagel and Paul F. Coste, John Schroers, business manager. The Sunday issue was called The Mississippi Blaetter or "Leaves". The Post remained Republican
in politics, and the Anzeiger independent. Edward L. Preetorius was prominent in the management, and the editorial corps included Carl Albrecht.
Gazette
A gazette is a public journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.In English- and French-speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name Gazette since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers bear the name The Gazette.Gazette is a loanword from the...
of the West") was the first German-language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, and, along with the Westliche Post
Westliche Post
Westliche Post was a German-American daily newspaper published in St. Louis, Missouri. The Westliche Post was Republican in politics. Carl Schurz was a part owner for a time, and served as a U.S. Senator from Missouri for a portion of that time.-History:The Westliche Post was established...
and the Illinois Staats-Zeitung
Illinois Staats-Zeitung
Illinois Staats-Zeitung was a German-language newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. The newspaper was founded in April 1848 as a weekly, and became a daily in 1851. The newspaper had as its main ambition to maintain the use of the German language. Along with the Westliche Post and Anzeiger des...
, one of the three most successful German-language papers in the United States Midwest serving the German-American population with news and culture. In the 1840's, it is thought to have been the newspaper with the largest circulation of any newspaper in any language in Missouri.
Early years
The Anzeiger was founded by Christian Bimpage. Its first issue appeared October 31, 1835, and at first it was issued as a weekly.William Weber became editor early in 1836. He had been a German student. His republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
sympathies and involvement in the Polish uprising of 1830
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
had made him an exile after imprisonment in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. His first employment in St. Louis had been as a librarian
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
at the Mercantile Library
St. Louis Mercantile Library
The St. Louis Mercantile Library, founded in 1846 in St. Louis, Missouri, was originally established as a subscription library, and is the oldest extant library west of the Mississippi River. Since 1998 the library has been housed at the University of Missouri-St. Louis...
.
Weber was a vigorous young writer, and soon drew about him the leading German minds of the city and vicinity: George Engelmann
George Engelmann
George Engelmann, also known as Georg Engelmann, was a German-American botanist. He was instrumental in describing the flora of the west of North America, then very poorly-known; he was particularly active in the Rocky Mountains and northern Mexico.-Origins:George Engelmann was born in Frankfurt...
, Gustave Koerner, Fred. Muench and others of such stamp contributed to its columns. Opposition to slavery
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
was an early theme. From 1842 to 1846 the paper was issued triweekly, and in the latter year as a daily. In 1844 Arthur Olshausen secured an interest, and three years later became sole proprietor.
In 1850, Henry Boernstein
Henry Boernstein
Henry Boernstein [in Europe, Heinrich Börnstein] for many years published the Anzeiger des Westens in St. Louis, Missouri, the oldest German newspaper west of the Mississippi River...
succeeded Weber as editor, and very soon became proprietor and publisher.
Boernstein was for years a conspicuous figure in St. Louis. In Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
he had studied medicine, served as a soldier, written editorials for newspapers, composed plays, and been a stage manager and actor. In Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
he hailed with delight the fall of Louis Philippe
Louis Philippe
Louis Philippe may refer to:*Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, last King of France*Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, called King Louis Philippe II by some factions*Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans*Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans...
, but when Napoleon III came into power he fled the country, and was next heard from in Highland, Illinois
Highland, Illinois
Highland is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 9,433 at the 2010 census. Highland began as a Swiss settlement and derived its name from later German immigrants.Highland is a sister city of Sursee in Switzerland....
.
In 1851, Carl Daenzer
Carl Daenzer
Carl Daenzer [In Germany, Karl] founded the Westliche Post and was a long-time editor of the Anzeiger des Westens, two noted German-language newspapers in St. Louis, Missouri...
was employed by Boernstein as editor. Daenzer had drifted into St. Louis as a general writer. He had been a member of the Frankfurt Parliament
Frankfurt Parliament
The Frankfurt Assembly was the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany. Session was held from May 18, 1848 to May 31, 1849 in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt am Main...
, and had made himself obnoxious to the German government with efforts to bring about German unity by force of arms. For his rebellious course, he was condemned to ten years imprisonment with a heavy fine. He escaped to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and thence to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Native American Party
Educated German-Americans rallied around the paper to fight the Native American Party (or "Know Nothing" party as they became known) which was becoming strong in St. Louis. "Know Nothingism" found stimulus in the fact that in three months of one year in the late 1840's 529 steamboats had landed at the St. Louis levee, bringing 30,000 immigrants to settle west of the MississippiMississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
.
When the Know Nothing sentiment culminated in violence, the Anzeiger was the first object of attack. At the city election of 1853
John How
John How was the fourteenth mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, serving from 1844 to 1846 and 1856 to 1857.- References :* at Find A Grave.-External links:* at the St. Louis Public Library: St. Louis Mayors website....
, it was charged that the German-Americans had taken control of the First Ward polls at Soulard Market
Soulard, St. Louis
Soulard is a historic French neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri. It is named after Antoine Soulard, who first began to develop the land...
, and were preventing the Whigs
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
from voting. At that time, the Germans were classed as Benton
Thomas Hart Benton (senator)
Thomas Hart Benton , nicknamed "Old Bullion", was a U.S. Senator from Missouri and a staunch advocate of westward expansion of the United States. He served in the Senate from 1821 to 1851, becoming the first member of that body to serve five terms...
Democrats. The report was brought up town that Mitchell had been mobbed and that Mayor Kennett
Luther Martin Kennett
Luther Martin Kennett was a U.S. Representative from Missouri.Born in Falmouth, Kentucky, Kennett attended private schools.Deputy county clerk of Pendleton County in 1822 and 1823 and of Campbell County, Kentucky, in 1824....
, candidate for re-election, had been hissed.
Bob O'Blennis, the gambler, and Ned Buntline
Ned Buntline
Ned Buntline , was a pseudonym of Edward Zane Carroll Judson , an American publisher, journalist, writer and publicist best known for his dime novels and the Colt Buntline Special he is alleged to have commissioned from Colt's Manufacturing Company.-Naval and military experience:Edward Judson was...
, the story writer, assembled 5,000 men and marched down to Soulard Market. Pistol shots were fired. Stones were thrown. The crowd from up-town fired into the market house. A shot from Neumeyer's Tavern, on Seventh Street and Park Avenue, killed Joseph Stevens of the St. Louis Fire Company. The Americans charged the tavern, gutted it and burned it. They got two six-pounder cannons and located them on a Park Avenue corner to rake the streets to the south but did not fire. One party of 1500 people started for the office of the Anzeiger to clean it out, but met the militia and turned back.
This trouble wore itself out in a day. It was the curtain raiser for the election tragedy of August 1854. Antagonism toward foreigners had become intense. Foreign-born American citizens offering to vote were challenged and called on to show their papers and then declared to be disqualified.
Later years
Boernstein was wont to squeeze the maximum of labor for the minimum of pay out of his employees at the Anzeiger. He not only undertook to rule the then rising abolitionist movement, but he had a number of other irons in the fire. He wrote a sensational novel first serialized in the gazette called The Mysteries of St. Louis that was strongly critical of Jesuits and Catholics (a large presence in St. Louis since French colonial days), and he undertook the management of a German-language theater. As a political boss, with his arrogance and dictatorial spirit, he quickly got into disrepute among his partisans. His influence waned and subscriptions began to fall off.Boernstein turned the entire conduct and responsibility of the Anzeiger over to Daenzer, whose name was put over the editorial columns, and who continued to edit the paper until 1857. Differences of various kinds arising between Boernstein and Daenzer, the latter withdrew, and, with the aid of friends, started the Westliche Post
Westliche Post
Westliche Post was a German-American daily newspaper published in St. Louis, Missouri. The Westliche Post was Republican in politics. Carl Schurz was a part owner for a time, and served as a U.S. Senator from Missouri for a portion of that time.-History:The Westliche Post was established...
which was a vigorous competitor with the Anzeiger for several decades.
Charles L. Bernays became editor of the Anzeiger after Daenzer's departure. Boernstein had been connected with Bernays in literary ways in Germany and France, and Bernays had preceded him to Highland, Illinois
Highland, Illinois
Highland is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 9,433 at the 2010 census. Highland began as a Swiss settlement and derived its name from later German immigrants.Highland is a sister city of Sursee in Switzerland....
.
When Daenzer returned to St. Louis in 1862 after having left for Europe in 1860, he found that the Anzeiger had gone out of business, likely due to Boernstein's having joined the army in the Civil War. He resuscitated the old concern under the name of the Neue Anzeiger des Westens, for the publication of which a company was incorporated, including William Palm, Charles Speck and others. After a time, the word "Neue" (new) was dropped. Although in the main supporting Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
measures, the Anzeiger can hardly be said to have been an "organ" of that party, its chief quality being complete independence. During the agitation of the money question, it was always a strong advocate of the gold standard
Gold standard
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...
. After 1894, Daenzer had an able assistant in Carl Albrecht, a clear and forceful writer, particularly upon Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an and economic
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
topics.
On June 1, 1898, the Westliche Post
Westliche Post
Westliche Post was a German-American daily newspaper published in St. Louis, Missouri. The Westliche Post was Republican in politics. Carl Schurz was a part owner for a time, and served as a U.S. Senator from Missouri for a portion of that time.-History:The Westliche Post was established...
and Anzeiger des Westens were consolidated, the local Tribune having previously been absorbed by the Anzeiger. Emil Preetorius
Emil Preetorius
Emil Preetorius was a 19th-century St. Louis journalist. He and Carl Daenzer were the “Nestors” of the German American press in the second half of the 19th century.-Biography:...
of the Westliche Post and Daenzer both retired. Under the consolidation both papers, the Morning Westliche Post and the Evening Anzeiger, were issued by the German-American Press Association, the stockholders being Emil Preetorius, Carl Daenzer, Edwin C. Kehr, Charles Nagel and Paul F. Coste, John Schroers, business manager. The Sunday issue was called The Mississippi Blaetter or "Leaves". The Post remained Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
in politics, and the Anzeiger independent. Edward L. Preetorius was prominent in the management, and the editorial corps included Carl Albrecht.
See also
- New Yorker Staats-Zeitung The East-coast German newspaper founded just the year before
- Missouri RhinelandMissouri RhinelandThe Missouri Rhineland is a geographical area of Missouri that extends from west of St. Louis to slightly east of Jefferson City, located mostly in the Missouri River Valley on both sides of the river...
the local winemaking area and settlement movement that supported the city