In 1845, Robert B. Hoeffgen, a printer, published the first German language newspaper, The Chicago People's Friend, with Franz A. Hoffmann as editor. In 1847, Hoeffgen sold the paper to a Swiss by the name of Walburger, for the surprising price of $700.

After that, Hoeffgen proceeded to establish the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, which appeared for the first time in 1851 as a daily newspaper, gradually gaining importance in the life of the Germans. Its first editor was a German physician, Dr. Karl Holmuth. Gottfried Kinkel was active on this paper, as well as Lorenz Breutano, the "Dictator of Badensia." A fight between Breutano and Hesing developed. The latter, at that time being the sheriff of Chicago, secured for the group the recognition of the German Republican party. Finally Hesing won and appointed the well-known journalist 2Hermann Raster as managing editor and William Rapp as assistant editor. Up to the death of Raster, the Staats-Zeitung played a leading role not only in Chicago, but also in Illinois. With Raster gone, political mistakes undermined its foundation, let alone the Frie Presse which came out twice a week in addition to its Sunday issue, Daheim.

To cope with the labor movement, the Vorbote was founded and then the, Arbeiter Zeitung, with a Sunday edition, Die Fackel. Those papers, however, suffered a great deal from dissension among their founders.

In 1888, Fritz Gloganer and Wilhelm Kaufmann founded the Abendpost and Sonntagspost, which after Gloganer's death passed over to the Abendpost Company, headed by Paul F. Mueller.

The First German Municipal Officers

The Indians driven off and the Illinois-Michigan canal started, the city 3began to grow and soon it had a city council, the first German among the city fathers was a blacksmith and wagon builder, Clemens C. Strose. To all appearances, he administered his office to the satisfaction of all his fellow-citizens. Nothing is on record to indicate the contrary.

Then a pause must have followed, unless the chronicles and documents were either destroyed or defective, because only in the year 1843 there appear German names in the city administration again.

The farmer Joseph Marbach and the shoe-maker Karl Ganter were sitting in the city council. Karl Wesenkraft was chief of police and the hat maker Anton Gehler, country treasurer. Karl Sauer, a Suabian by birth, later moved to New Strassburg, in today's township of Bloom, so named after Robert Blum, who was executed by order of Prince Windischgratz.

The Period of the Forty-Eighters

In the following years a great influx from Germany took place. Many of them settled in New York and on the Atlantic coast, but a large number, after great privations, found their way to Chicago, because at that time traveling was not as comfortable as it is today.

The period could be described as the birth of the German group in Chicago, because it was at this time that the immigrants, after getting settled, went forcefully upon the task of developing their racial unity. In this period took place the founding of the renowned Turner societies, the singing societies, and the many nationalistic societies that later played such a prominent part in the city development. Naturally, friction occurred and a strong opposition was rampant among the immigrants against Mayor Levi B. Boone, who sold himself to the hypocrites. Through this action, they succeeded in saving Sunday for themselves, a day in which the Mayor desired the people to observe in a puritan manner. In the meantime,the Staats-Zeitung grew stronger and a number of Germans became influential in the Republican 5party, which at that time was making great progress. It was then that the Chicago Turner Society became a political factor and the German immigrants interested themselves in politics and turned the scale for the first time (1857) during the election of a Mayor. The candidate was not a German, but a thorough American, the giant John Wentworth, who pleased the Germans so well because he was not a hypocrite, but showed a frank disposition and was also very honest.

Then a lull appears in the chronicles. The Civil War threw its shadows ahead. Two years before the ourbreak of the Civil War, all the Germans united in a festival that stands out in the Annals of Chicago; namely, the celebration of the birthday of the famous poet Fredrich von Schiller.

The Civil War

When nothing but arms could settle the differences between the North and 6the South, the Germans were the first to join the colors. The Chicago Turner cadets and the Turner sharpshooters can claim the glory of having been the first in the field. Many of them did not even take time in getting ready for their marching off; they became soldiers as they were. The 24th and 82nd regiments consisted predominantly of Germans.