German American journalism

German American journalism includes newspapers, magazines, and the newer media, with coverage of the reporters, editors, commentators, producers and other key personnel. The German Americans were thoroughly assimilated by the 1920s, and German language publications one by one closed down for lack of readers.

Pennsylvania was the population, religious, cultural, and intellectual center of German America. While few Germans lived in Philadelphia itself, it was a convenient center for publications. Benjamin Franklin tried and failed to set up the German language newspaper.The first publisher was Christopher Sower (also spelled Sauer or Saur) (1693-1758) who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1724 and began publishing German language books, Bibles, and religious pamphlets in 1738. In 1739 he started a monthly paper, Der Hoch-Deutsch Pennsylvanische Geschichts-Schreiber ("High German Pennsylvania Annalist"), later named Pennsylvanische Berichte ("Pennsylvania reports") and Die Germantauner Zeitung. It was one of the most influential pre-Revolutionary newspapers in the colonies. Sower emphasized news and controversy regarding the numerous Pennsylvania Dutch religious sects; he angered the large Lutheran community by regular by ridiculing its formalism.

The son Christopher Sower II (1721-1784) took over the business and as a leader of the German Baptist Brethren ("Dunker") sect opposed slavery and promoted pacifism. However, during the American Revolution he enthusiastically supported the Loyalist cause. His son Christopher Sower III (1754-1799) became editor and ridiculed the Patriots as "slaves of Congress and the scum of the population which were turning society upside down so that a shoemaker had become a general and a fisherman an admiral." The circulation was largely limited to soldiers, and when the war ended the father was reduced to poverty and the son went into exile and set up a German newspaper in New Brunswick, Canada.

Most of the German press in colonial Pennsylvania supported the Patriot cause in the American Revolution. The most important figure was editor John Henry Miller, an immigrant from Germany. He published a German translation of the Declaration of Independence (1776) in his newspaper Philadelphische Staatsbote. Miller often wrote about Swiss history and myth, such as the William Tell legend, to provide a context for patriot support in the conflict with Britain.

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