Jacob Sternberger (1822-1889) () was a grandson to Mayor of Kaaden

Jakob Marzel Sternberger Jakob Marzel Sternberger (1750–1822) was the first mayor of the town of Kadaň, Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usual ...

and an immigrant to the U.S. on whose correspondence is based one of the projects of the

Max Kade Institute Dr. h.c. Max Kade (13 October 1882, Steinbach near Schwäbisch Hall, Württemberg, Germany – 15 July 1967, Davos, Switzerland) was an emigrant from Germany to New York City who became successful in the pharmaceutical industry. Kade was committed ...

on German immigration in America. Jakob Sternberger came from a prominent family in Kaaden, Bohemia. He studied at the

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, where he was involved in the revolutionary movement spreading across the German states. Fleeing political persecution after the

Revolutions of 1848 The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

, Jakob emigrated to America in 1850, journeyed across the country, and eventually settled in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. The Max Kade Institute has in its collection a cache of about two hundred letters of Jakob Sternberger's correspondence. The scores of letters in the Sternberger file indicate that several of Jakob's friends and family eventually joined him in his new home. For example, his brother Kajetan sent his 8-year-old son

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "courage" or "ready, prepared" related to Old High German "to risk, ventu ...

, who was born out of wedlock, to join Jakob on the farm. The Sternberger Collection, which contains quite a few letters from several generations, provides a wealth of historically, socially, linguistically, and even politically relevant information. The collection contains a great deal of information on

German immigrants in the United States German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

References

German-American Forty-Eighters German Bohemian people American people of German Bohemian descent People from Kadaň Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown {{Czech-bio-stub