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Chronicling America
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Newspaper Die Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung (Saint Paul, M.T. [Minn.]) 1855-1858

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About Die Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung (Saint Paul, M.T. [Minn.]) 1855-1858

Die Minnesota deutsche Zeitung (the Minnesota German Newspaper) began weekly publication in St. Paul, Minnesota Territory, on November 19, 1855, two and a half years before Minnesota’s statehood. As Minnesota’s first German-language newspaper, Zeitung had an audience of German immigrants who began pouring into the territory following the extension of the US Preemption Act to Minnesota in 1854 and the creation in the mid-1850s of a combined river-rail transportation route to Minnesota from the east coast via Chicago.

Editor and publisher Friedrich Orthwein, previously of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, established Die Minnesota deutsche Zeitung as an independent Democratic newspaper, with seven prominent local Democrats investing one hundred dollars each in the enterprise. However, soon after the Zeitung began, Orthwein solicited a group of local German Republicans, including F.A. Renz, to buy out the Democratic investors, and the papertransferred its allegiance to the Republican Party around January 1856.

Orthwein ran afoul of his investors later that same year, leading them to take possession of the newspaper in November 1856 and suspend publication. The Zeitung came under the control of Charles D. Gilfillan, chairman of the Minnesota Republican Central Committee, and it reappeared in print on January 20, 1957, with Charles Carree as editor. Hermann Du Brisson was editor by February 1858, followed by Charles Passavant.During this period, the Zeitung appeared on Saturdays, and the four-page, seven-column weekly covered local, national, and international news of interest to German immigrants.

Visiting Minnesota in 1858 to promote his quarterly, Die Fackel (the Torch), the freethinker Samuel Gottlieb Ludvigh impressed St. Paul Republicans, who asked him to take over as Zeitung‘s editor and publisher. Ludvigh assumed control of the Zeitung around May of 1858 and published it until July that same year, when he changed its name to Minnesota Staats-Zeitung (Minnesota State Newspaper) to mirror nationally renowned German-language newspapers of the same name in New York and Illinois. Minnesota Staats-Zeitung continued in publication until 1877.

Provided By: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Die Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung (Saint Paul, M.T. [Minn.]) 1855-1858

Dates of Publication

  • 1855-1858

Created / Published

  • Saint Paul, M.T. [Minn.] : Charles Carre

Headings

  • -  Germans--Minnesota--Newspapers
  • -  Saint Paul (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Ramsey County (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Germans
  • -  Minnesota--Ramsey County
  • -  Minnesota
  • -  Minnesota--Saint Paul
  • -  United States--Minnesota--Ramsey--Saint Paul

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began Nov. 19, 1855; ceased in July 1858.
  • -  Publication suspended Nov. 1856-Jan. 1857.
  • -  Available on microfilm from the Minnesota Historical Society.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  In German.
  • -  Description based on: Jahrg. 2., Nr. 28 (1. Aug. 1857).
  • -  Minnesota Staats-Zeitung (Saint Paul, Minn. : 1858) 2372-8647 (DLC)sn 84031595 (OCoLC)1713829

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn90059395

OCLC Number

  • 1639309

ISSN Number

  • 2835-2068

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Die Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung Saint Paul, M.T. Minn. -1858. (Saint Paul, MN), Jan. 1 1855. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn90059395/.

APA citation style:

(1855, January 1) Die Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung Saint Paul, M.T. Minn. -1858. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn90059395/.

MLA citation style:

Die Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung Saint Paul, M.T. Minn. -1858. (Saint Paul, MN) 1 Jan. 1855. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn90059395/.