The ''Volksblatt und Freiheits-Freund'' was the leading German-language newspaper in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, during its publication from 1901 to 1942. It was formed from the merger of two predecessors, the ''Freiheits-Freund'' and ''Pittsburger Volksblatt''.

Predecessors

''Freiheits-Freund''

The ''Freiheits-Freund'' ("Freedom's Friend") was founded as a weekly newspaper in 1834 by Henry Ruby, with Victor Scriba as editor, in

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania Chambersburg is a borough in and the county seat of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Franklin County, in the South Central Pennsylvania, South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Gre ...

. Scriba relocated it from there to Pittsburgh in 1837 after buying out Ruby. Content of the paper included news from Europe and the United States, local news, and a literary (

feuilleton A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of , the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle ...

) section. By 1850, the ''Freiheits-Freund'' was a daily paper owned by cousins Louis Neeb and William Neeb, who had been employed by the paper since its early days. The Neebs brought increased attention to business and commercial news. Because of its strong opposition to slavery, the paper aligned itself with the Republican Party when that party first organized.

''Volksblatt''

Karl Friedrich Bauer and Sigismund Löw, Forty-Eighters who fled the German states after the failed

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 ...

, founded the ''Pittsburger Volksblatt'' ("People's Paper") in 1859. Bauer left the editorial office of the ''Freiheits-Freund'' and found a partner in Löw'','' a civic-minded engineer and delegate to the first national Republican Party convention held in Pittsburgh in 1856. Bauer remained owner of the ''Volksblatt'' until 1885, when he left to join the ''

Milwaukee Herold The ''Milwaukee Herold'' was a German language daily newspaper, originally published by William Werner Coleman (1835–1888) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin beginning in 1860. It had a weekly edition for some time, which in 1918 was merged with the weekly ...

''. With the support of Pittsburgh businessman Max Schamberg, American consul to Austria, the ''Volksblatt'' was acquired by the brothers Isaac E. and Louis Hirsch and associates, under whose leadership the paper gained an increasing share of the market formerly dominated by the ''Freiheits-Freund''.

Merged publication

The ''Freiheits-Freund'' and ''Volksblatt'' served the German-speaking population of Pittsburgh until, in February 1901, the consolidation of the two papers and the founding of the Neeb-Hirsch Publishing Company took place. Thereafter, the papers were published as one under the title ''Volksblatt und Freiheits-Freund''. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the paper successfully withstood a swell of anti-German sentiment that caused many other German-American papers to succumb to circulation and advertising losses. Its survival has been credited to its pro-American reputation and major urban location. Before the U.S. entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the paper took a denunciatory stance toward the

German American Bund The German American Bund, or the German American Federation (, ''Amerikadeutscher Volksbund'', AV), was a German-American Nazi organization which was established in 1936 as a successor to the Friends of New Germany (FONG, FDND in German) and ...

, a pro-

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

organization in the United States. By this time, the paper was facing a scarcity of local German speakers, and in 1942, amid another unfavorable wartime cultural climate, the paper folded.

References

External links

*Digitized issues at Google News Archive: **''Freiheits-Freund''
1835–18701860–18651871–1901
**''Volksblatt''
1859–19001871–1878
**''Volksblatt und Freiheits-Freund''
1901–1940
{{Authority control Newspapers established in 1901 Defunct newspapers published in Pittsburgh German-American history German-American culture in Pittsburgh 1901 establishments in Pennsylvania German-language newspapers published in Pennsylvania