Der Deutsche Canadier
OCLC number 1119075046 | |
Der Deutsche Canadier (English: The German Canadian; originally Der Deutsche Canadier und Neuigkeitsbote, English: The German Canadian and News Messenger) was a German-language weekly newspaper published in Berlin, Canada West (now Kitchener, Ontario), from 1841 to 1865. The Canadier was founded in January 1841 by Heinrich "Henry" Eby, son of Berlin's founder Benjamin Eby. It was among Upper Canada's first German-language newspapers and was the only one published in British North America from September 1841 through January 1848, during which time it was widely read across Canada.
In the 1840s,
Across its twenty-four year history, the newspaper went through numerous owners and editors. The instability which characterized its management left it unable to easily cope with competition. In 1859, the head of the Canadier's mechanical department, Friedrich Rittinger , abruptly left the newspaper to found the competing Berliner Journal. The Canadier folded in January 1865, with attempted revivals in the late 1860s failing quickly.
Background
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Waterloo Township in Upper Canada was primarily made up of Mennonites from Pennsylvania.[1] With an influx of European immigrants to Upper Canada beginning in the 1820s,[1] the presence of this German-speaking population attracted German settlers.[2][a] As the third-largest immigrant group to Canada in the nineteenth century after the English and French, German publications were in high demand.[4] The publications faced numerous obstacles to their success, including a short supply of German printers and typesetters. As well, most news items needed to be translated into German from English, a labour-intensive process, especially when dealing with more technical subjects.[5]
Canada Museum und Allgemeine Zeitung
In 1835, Heinrich Wilhelm Peterson[b] established Canada Museum und Allgemeine Zeitung in the hamlet of Berlin, Waterloo Township.[2] As Upper Canada's first German-language weekly newspaper,[2] the publication predated Berlin's first English newspaper by 18 years.[6] Peterson was born in Quakenbrück, Duchy of Oldenburg, on 27 May 1793, and his parents migrated to Baltimore, Maryland, when he was two years old.[2] Arriving in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in March 1803, he operated several German publications in Pennsylvania in the 1810s and 1820s before moving to Berlin in 1832.[7] Wanting to start another newspaper, but finding himself with little available capital, he relied on help from around 140 friends, 51 of whom became shareholders in the newspaper.[8] After a printing press was transported from Pennsylvania to Berlin via oxen,[9] he printed, published and edited the first issue of Museum, appearing on 27 August 1835.[10] His first apprentice, Heinrich Eby, the son of bishop and Berlin-founder Benjamin Eby, assisted in the production, printing a poem by the German poet Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart.[11]
The presence of the Museum in Berlin helped to emphasize the town's status as the centre of Upper Canada's German population.[9] The newspaper ran pieces advocating for Berlin to be the township's "district town",[9] while subscribers hoped it would help to preserve their language and traditional values.[12] Peterson became increasingly active in the community, leaving him with less time to sustain the publication of the Museum. He sold the German part of his printing business to Heinrich Eby, who had by that time been apprenticing under Peterson as a printer for four years.[13] The final issue of the Museum ran on 18 December 1840, with Peterson recommending Eby and Enslin's new German language newspaper, Der Deutsche Canadier, to all Museum subscribers.[14]
History
Heinrich Eby founded Der Deutsche Canadier und Neuigkeitsbote (The German Canadian and News Messenger)
Elias Eby sold the Canadier to Dougall McDougall in May 1857, who owned the newspaper until its final issue on 19 January 1865.[27] With frequent changes in ownership and many different editors, the paper experienced consistent instability in its management, with disputes between publisher and editor common. The most significant shock to the Canadier came when the head of its mechanical department, Friedrich Rittinger , left in 1859 to found the competing Berliner Journal with John Motz.[28] Entering into a prolonged feud with the Journal, the management of the Canadier found it too difficult to cope against the better run Journal.[29]
Following the Canadier's dissolution, William Moyer in the neighbouring village of Waterloo attempted to revive the newspaper by founding the Deutscher Canadier und Allgemeiner Anzeiger in November 1867. The attempt lasted less than two years, dissolving in October 1869. Another local, Wilhelm Raich, founded a Deutscher Canadier in September 1869 in opposition to Moyer's newspaper, but Raich's publication folded in January 1870.[30]
Content
Format and style
The format of the Canadier was nearly identical to that of its predecessor, the Museum.
In its written vocabulary, the newspaper occasionally used words from the local Pennsylvania German language,[24] including "Flauer" (flour) and "Klertsche" (clergy), amongst others.[33] Advertisements were mostly in German, but English ones appeared on occasion. Scholar Herbert Karl Kalbfleisch writes the newspaper was stylistically weak, which "offended the taste of some readers", though most did not complain.[33]
Coverage
In the 1840s,
Though his father was a
Despite its focus on Europe, the Canadier covered Canadian political content, especially regarding its political and public institutions.
As recent German immigrants were mostly made up of artisans rather than farmers, the readers of the Canadier demanded poetry and prose content,[34] pushing the paper to maintain "a high literary tone".[35] After Edward Lindemann became editor in October 1853, the amount of literary content greatly expanded,[43] including several of Lindemann's short stories.[46] Kalbfleisch writes that Lindemann "raised the quality of the Canadier appreciably and improved its literary tone".[20] After publishing a serial story from January through February 1854 – "Die Tochter der Riccarees, Lebensbilder aus Louisiana" by Friedrich Gerstäcker – the newspaper published at least one prose story instalment with each issue until it folded in January 1865.[47]
See also
- List of German language newspapers of Ontario
- List of early Canadian newspapers
- List of defunct newspapers of Canada
Notes
- ^ a b Before the unification of Germany in 1871, the use of "German" did not refer to a single nation state. Those who immigrated to Canada before the unification understood that their family had left an area of what became the German nation state or from an area that shared its culture and language.[3]
- anglicized his named as Henry William Peterson.[2]
- ^ The newspaper changed names to Der Deutsche Canadier (The German Canadian)[15] at an unspecified date.[5]
- ^ The editors of the Canadier include:[23]
- Christian Enslin (January 1841 to January 1850)
- Johann Jakob Ernst (January 1850 to June 1853)
- F. B. J. Schwarz (June to October 1853)
- Edward Lindemann (October 1853 to April 1856)
- Friedrich Keller (April to June 1856)
- H. Th. Legler (July 1856 to 23 June 1858)
- Dougall McDougall (23 June 1858 to 19 January 1865)
References
Citations
- ^ a b English & McLaughlin 1983, p. 9.
- ^ a b c d e Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 18.
- ^ Bloomfield 1995, p. 214.
- ^ Löchte 2008, p. 107.
- ^ a b Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 30.
- ^ McKegney 1991, p. 8.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 19.
- ^ a b c English & McLaughlin 1983, p. 12.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 18, 20.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 22, 24.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 20.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 24.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 24, 116n3.
- ^ a b Frisse 2005, p. 855.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Uttley 1975, p. 70.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 29.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 28, 30.
- ^ a b Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 31.
- ^ Leibbrandt 1980, p. 147.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 23, 31.
- ^ a b Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 31–32.
- ^ a b c Tiessen 2004, p. 369.
- ^ English & McLaughlin 1983, pp. 36–37.
- ^ McKegney 1991, p. 12.
- ^ a b Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 32.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 40.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 32–33, 40.
- ^ a b c Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 33.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 31, 34.
- ^ a b Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 39.
- ^ a b c d e f Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 34.
- ^ a b English & McLaughlin 1983, p. 22.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 44.
- ^ English & McLaughlin 1983, p. 32.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 34–36.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 36.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 23.
- ^ Hayes 1997, p. 16.
- ^ a b Leibbrandt 1980, p. 148.
- ^ a b c Hayes 1997, p. 83.
- ^ a b c Kalbfleisch 1961, pp. 79–80, quoted in Hayes 1997, p. 259n2.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, pp. 31, 38.
- ^ Kalbfleisch 1968, p. 38.
Sources
- Bloomfield, Elizabeth (1995). Waterloo Township Through Two Centuries. Kitchener: Waterloo Historical Society. ISBN 0-9699719-0-7.
- ISBN 0-88920-137-4.
- Frisse, Ulrich (2005). "Ontario, German-language press in". In Adam, Thomas (ed.). Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History. Vol. 3. Santa Barbara: ISBN 1-85109-633-7.
- Hayes, Geoffrey (1997). Waterloo County: An Illustrated History. Kitchener: Waterloo Historical Society. ISBN 0-9699719-1-5.
- Kalbfleisch, Herbert Karl (1961). "Among the Editors of Ontario German Newspapers". Canadian-German Folklore. 1: 78–85. ISSN 0576-5277.
- Kalbfleisch, Herbert Karl (1968). The History of the Pioneer German Language Press of Ontario, 1835–1918. Toronto: ISBN 978-0-8020-1579-2.
- Leibbrandt, Gottlieb (1980). Little Paradise: The Saga of the German Canadians of Waterloo County, Ontario 1800–1975. Translated by Weissenborn, G. K. Kitchener: Allprint Co. ISBN 0-919207-01-4.
- Löchte, Anne (2008). ""We dont want Kiser to rool in Ontario": Franco-Prussian War, German unification, and World War I as reflected in the Canadian Berliner Journal (1859–1918)". In Schulze, Mathias; Skidmore, James M.; John, David G.; Liebscher, Grit; Siebel-Achenbach, Sebastian (eds.). German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. 107–116. ISBN 978-1-55458-027-9.
- McKegney, Patricia P. (1991). The Kaiser's Bust: A Study of War-Time Propaganda in Berlin, Ontario, 1914–1918. Wellesley: University of Bamberg Press. ISBN 0-9695356-0-0.
- Tiessen, Hildi Froese (2004). "Reading and Publishing in Mennonite Communities". In ISBN 0-8020-8943-7.
- Uttley, W. V. (Ben) (1975) [1937]. Noonan, Gerald (ed.). A History of Kitchener, Ontario. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 0-88920-024-6.
Further reading
- Eadie, Tom (1985). "Enslin, Christian". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 8. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
- Kalbfleisch, Herbert Karl (1985). "Peterson, Heinrich Wilhelm". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 8. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
External links
- Der Deutsche Canadier in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Newspapers on Microfilm at the Kitchener Public Library
- Der Deutsche Canadier 1856–1864 copies (in German) digitized on the Canadian Research Knowledge Network
- Der Deutsche Canadier und Neuigkeitsbote entry on the University of Alberta's Canadian Minority Media Database