August Siemering

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August Siemering (born February 8, 1830 in Brandenburg , † September 19, 1883 in San Antonio (Texas) ) was a German-American writer , journalist and newspaper publisher . He is considered the father of the Texan press.

family

He married on June 12, 1859 in Gillespie County Clara Schütze (born August 14, 1843; † May 12, 1935), the daughter of the immigrant Ludwig Schütze, a teacher there. The couple had two sons and six daughters.

Life

As a liberal and free thinker , Siemering emigrated to Texas as one of the so-called Forty-Eighters after the March Revolution of 1848 , where he arrived in 1851. The first ten years he was a teacher at the school of Sisterdale , a settlement of the Latin Settlement and first teacher at the new school in Fredericksburg, Texas . The latter was opened in 1856 by the Mainz Aristocracy Association . In Sisterdale he belonged to the group around Ernst Kapp , Ottmar von Behr , Julius Froebel and Edgar von Westphalen . Siemering sympathized with the Republicans and campaigned against slavery - especially committed at the "State Song Festival" of 1854 in San Antonio.

On April 12, 1854, at the age of 24, he applied for citizenship in Gillespie County, which he was granted three years later on March 18, 1857. In 1861 he joined as a First Lieutenant in the Army of the Confederate one. On May 7, 1862, he was accepted as a second lieutenant in Taylor's Battalion of the 1st Texas Cavalry . On May 4, 1864 he left there "because of myopia and weak constitution". Apparently he could only see two or three steps at night, which is why he was offered a post in the office.

Of 12 August 1865 to 18 August 1866 was Siemering Chief Justice at the County Court ( District Court ) of Bexar County . In 1865, Siemering also founded the German-language weekly newspaper San Antonio Free Press for Texas , which was to develop into the leading Republican newspaper in the southern states and which still exists today as San Antonio Express-News . Outstanding were his comments and Sunday observations , which today are counted among the classics of German-American literature. He also worked with the San Antonio Express and wrote articles for other newspapers. He also wrote a few short stories and articles that should make his new home Texas known in Germany. In old age he had begun to compile a summary of his Texan studies and observations, but this work remained unfinished.

Siemering was a man of strict conviction, active and competent, was regarded as a political leader and held several public offices. Since he was a staunch Republican in the Democratic South and his writings were mostly written in German, he was greatly underestimated in terms of his work and his personality.

bibliography

  • San Antonio Free Press for Texas , Weekly, San Antonio, Texas 1863.
  • The Hermit of the Cavern; a novel of the early sixties abounding in dramatic situations , Naylor Printings, San Antonio (Texas) 1932.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Some sources cite the year 1828 as the year of birth, but his gravestone in Section C of the City Cemetery of San Antonio shows the year 1830. The naturalization application from 1854 also expressly identifies him as only 24 years old.
  2. ^ 1st Texas Cavalry Regiment CSA, regular role of Company E, Stucken's German Company. This special unit of German-born cavalrymen was set up on May 7, 1862 in Gillespie County and was under the command of the Belgian Captain Francois van der Stucken (1830-1929).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Siemering, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American writer, journalist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Brandenburg , Prussia
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1883
Place of death San Antonio , Texas