Heinrich Rattermann

Heinrich Armin (ius) Rattermann , as the pseudonym Hugo Reimmund (born October 14, 1832 in Ankum , Osnabrück district ; † January 5, 1923 in Cincinnati , Ohio , USA ) was a German-American insurance entrepreneur, historian , writer and editor of the German-language monthly Der Deutsche Pionier (1869–1887) and the quarterly German-American magazine .

Life

Rattermann came to Cincinnati with his parents in 1845 at the age of 13. When he had to look after his mother and sisters after the death of his father, he founded the German mutual insurance company in 1858 on Vine Street in the former German quarter Over-the-Rhine ( Über'm Rhein ) . The later, very representative company building is still today in Walnut Street, corner of 13th Street (later 12th Street). Rattermann had it built in 1877 according to the plans of the German architect Johann Bast (1812–1880) and decorated with sculptures by Leopold Fettweis (1848–1912), a German-born sculptor in Cincinnati. The statue of Germania gave the building its name, Germania Building , which is still valid today . When the USA entered World War I , the company was renamed Hamilton Mutual Insurance and still operates under this company name today.

As an autodidact , Rattermann became an influential citizen of the city and a nationally known author of 44 books, countless articles, and even a few operas. In 1869 he founded the monthly Der Deutsche Pionier , a German-language newspaper about German immigration with biographies of important Germans in the USA and organ of the German Pioneer Society of Cincinnati (Ohio) , and was its editor until 1887. This newspaper is still used today by historians and genealogists as an important reference work on the history of German immigration to the USA and German cultural history in America. Rattermann is considered the most important German-American writer of his time and was - and is still today among experts - known throughout America.

In 1895, Rattermann organized the first " German Day " in Cincinnati , in which 12,000 people spontaneously took part. The recently founded Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra designed part of the cultural program and the festival ended with a large fireworks display. The consequence of this successful event was the establishment of the German Day Society , which was supposed to organize the "Day of Germans" annually. Before that, the “Pastorius Festival” ( Pastorius Celebration ) had been held at irregular intervals since 1883 in honor of Franz Daniel Pastorius (1651–1719 / 1720) . Pastorius had founded Germantown (now a suburb of Philadelphia ) in Pennsylvania in 1683 , but it was only through Rattermann's initiative and the German Day Society that this “Day of the Germans” became an annual event. From political considerations of the company name was later changed to German-American Alliance , then American Citizens League and finally in German-American Citizens League ( German-American Citizens League changed). Today this citizens' league is the umbrella organization for around 20 German-American organizations in the greater Cincinnati area with around 25,000 members and coordinates, represents and promotes the interests of German-Americans and their culture. The league is the annual organizer of the “German Day” in June and annually supports the German-American Heritage Month in October (“Month of the German-American Heritage”).

Rattermann was a friend and biographer of the well-known German-American Gustav Körner (1809-1896).

bibliography

• North American birds in songs. For family and school use . Self-published, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1904.
• Collected selected works , self-published, Cincinnati (Ohio) 1906–1914
• Political sonnets from 1900 to 1912 , self-published, Cincinnati, Ohio 1912.

literature

• Heinrich von der Wall (ed.): Heinrich Armin Rattermann. Besides the fatherland, there is also a beautiful world. On the life and work of the German-American historian and author (1832–1923) . District Home Association Bersenbrück, Ankum-Bersenbrück 1989.
• Mary Edmund Spanheimer: Heinrich Armin Rattermann (1832-1923). German-American author, poet, and historian . Dissertation, Catholic University of America, Washington DC 1937. - Reprint: AMS Press, New York City 1970, ISBN 0404502296 .
• Mary Edmund Spanheimer: The German pioneer legacy. The life and work of Heinrich A. Rattermann . In: Don Heinrich Tolzmann (ed.): New German-American Studies . Volume 26, Verlag Peter Lang, Oxford [ua] 2004, ISBN 3-03910-179-X .
• Franz Flaskamp : Heinrich Armin Rattermann. A pioneer in German-American cultural history . In: Osnabrücker Mitteilungen . Volume 71, page 134, Association for History and Regional Studies of Osnabrück, 1963.
• Rainer Sell: The German Pioneer Association of Cincinnati, Heinrich Armin Rattermann and "The German Pioneer": A Nucleus of Nineteenth-Century German-America . In: Yearbook of the Society of German-American Studies . Volume 20, Cincinnati (Ohio) 1985.
• Julius Goebel: Rattermann, Heinrich Armin . In: German Biographical Yearbook . Volume 5, 1923.
• Donna-Christine Sell, Dennis F. Walle: Guide to the Heinrich A. Rattermann collection of German-American manuscripts , University of Illinois Library, Urbana-Champaign 1979 Internet Archive

Web links

• Literature by and about Heinrich Rattermann in the catalog of the German National Library