German language newspapers in the United States

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.

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.

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

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.

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