Herman Ridder
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Herman Ridder (* 5. March 1851 in New York City , New York ; † 1. November 1915 ) was an American newspaper publisher and editor of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung in German.
Life
Herman Ridder was the son of Herman and Gertrude Maria (Tiemann) Ridder, who emigrated to America from Westphalia and lived in the Lower East Side of New York. Herman's school education ended at the age of 11 and he was forced to work as an errand boy. At 13 he started at Tradesmen's Fire Insurance Company, where he quit his job after 14 years as a successful salesman.
Services
In 1878 he founded the Katholische Volksblatt , a weekly newspaper for German Catholics in America. In 1886 he felt the need to continue this paper in English as Catholic News . The success of this newspaper made him one of the most influential lay people in his church.
According to The Official Catholic Directory of 1911, there were 321 Catholic magazines printed in the United States. Of these, 2/3 - or 201 - were printed in English, 51 in German, 24 in French, 24 in Polish, 7 in Czech, 5 in Italian, 2 in Slovenian, 2 in Hungarian, 2 in Dutch, 1 in Croatian, 1 in Spanish and 1 in an Indian dialect. Of these, 13 were published daily, 115 weekly, 128 monthly, 29 quarterly, 2 twice a week, 5 every six months, 4 every six months, 9 twice a month and 16 annually. Of the daily newspapers 7 were French, 4 Polish, 2 German and one Bohemian. None was in English. Around 550 Catholic newspapers were launched from 1809 to 1911, but only five of them survived the first half of the 20th century.
This field of activity soon became too narrow for Ridder and he left the newspaper to his brother Henry Ridder.
On April 6, 1880, he married C. Amend, who gave birth to five sons.
In 1892 he founded Ridder Publications in New York with his brother .
In 1890 he became manager of the New York State Newspaper , of which he had acquired 10% of the shares. In 1906 the Otterndorfs sold him the newspaper because their only son Edward would rather take care of his farm. In 1907 he became president and successor to Oswald Ottendorfer as editor of the Staats .
From now on, Ridder played an important role in the journalistic, social and political life of New York. Politically he was a democrat. He supported Grover Cleveland in the presidential campaign as leader of the German-American group and in 1895 he organized the German-American Reform Union (GRU) as part of the anti-Tammany campaign. His opposition to Tammany Hall never waned.
In 1898 he became treasurer of the Democratic Committee and served as such during William Jennings Bryan's last presidential campaign . In the 1912 election campaign, he was an elector for the Democrats and received the highest number of votes for a Democrat. He was the only editor of an ethnic newspaper ever to receive this honor.
From 1900 to 1915, Ridder was one of the most capable directors of the Associated Press , and he was one of the first members. From 1907 to 19o9 he was their treasurer.
From 1907 to 1911 he was President of the American Newspaper Publisher's Association , one of the most senior positions in newspaper publishing in the United States. His services were especially valuable given his aggressive leadership style. In a 1911 study of the newspaper press situation in the United States and Canada, which even threatened the continued existence of the press, he showed great courage and determination.
His civic interests were broad and he freely gave his strength and time to philanthropic and public endeavors. In 1909 he organized the 300th birthday of New York and the discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson, as well as the 100th anniversary of the commissioning of Robert Fulton's steamer SS Clermont . According to Mayor George B. McClellan , without Ridder, the anniversary celebrations would never have taken place and "never have led to such a triumphant ending". In gratitude for arranging the Hudson-Fulton anniversary celebrations, both Herman Ridder, President, and Heny W. Sackett, Secretary, received a gold medal designed by Cheater Beach and executed by Tiffany & Co.
But storm clouds also came in. The progressive movement, popular among the still politically dominant Anglo-Americans, was against a pluralistic America. She wanted to eradicate the use of non-English languages in the country and was particularly offended by the American-born but German-speaking residents like Herman Ridder and his family, who approved of the prohibition imposed and pursued foreign policy through a biased attitude towards Britain . The Staats was the proud symbol of the local opposition.
The Staats , as a visible expression of this attitude, was boycotted by advertisers and newsagents. Numerous, eager agents from the various agencies who vied with each other also made the daily newspaper business difficult.
The newspaper was vilified, especially after the outbreak of World War I , as the Ridders fought British war guilt and atrocity propaganda. They rallied in support for the victims of the war in Central Europe. That was legal and perfectly reasonable partisanship. However, it annoyed those Americans who believed that Germany was an evil empire and that it was un-American to side with the "Huns". That earned Ridder an indictment from the Federal Police - a predecessor of the FBI - for the allegedly pro-German campaign he had waged in his newspaper. The Ridders were only saved by the sudden end of the war and their ties to the powerful New York City Democrats and the Catholic Church.
After Hermann Ridder's sudden death in November 1915, the Staats-Zeitung was continued by his sons Bernard H. Ridder and Victor F. Ridder. The brother Joseph E. Ridder was chairman of Ridder Publications, Inc .
International Typesetting Machine Company
In 1911 the patents for the Linotype typesetting machine , an invention of Ottmar Mergenthaler , expired. Hermann Ridder, along with other people, raised $ 4,000,000 in capital and founded the International Typesetting Machine Company . He was joined by a number of former Linotype engineers, convinced they could make an improved machine, such as Wilbur Scudder, Soper, Bertram and Thomas Simmons Homans, the latter was the chief designer at Linotype, which has over 51 patents for improvements can be attributed. Another 300 specialists were contracted this year. In 1912, the International Typesetting Machine Company bought a machine shop that was in the old Bush Terminal Building in Brooklyn. In late 1912, the company expanded the site to 80,000 square feet and employed approximately. 750 people. The first machine was installed on the New York Journal of Commerce at a cost of $ 2150. In 1916 the machine shop was sold to a syndicate for $ 1,650,000 and renamed the "Intertype Corporation". In 1917 the company brought three models onto the market.
source
- Ridder, Herman - Page 599 in: Dictionary of American biography. Vol. 15. Edited by Dumas Malone. Publisher: C. Scribner's Sons New York, 1943.
Works
- Herman Ridder: Hyphenations. A collections of Articles on the World War of 1914 which have appeared from Time to Time in the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung. Publisher: Printed by Max Schmetterling New York, 1915.
literature
- Testimonials of appreciation to Herman Ridder, acting president and Henry W. Sackett, secretary of the Hudson-Fulton celebration commission, March, 1910 Publisher: The De Vinne press, New York, 1910.
Web links
- Herman Ridder Junior High School , Boston Road and East 173rd Street, New York
- Hermann Ridder Junior High School in Museum of the City of New York
- HERMAN RIDDER, EDITOR, IS DEAD; Staats-Zeitung Publisher Expires Suddenly from Arterial Sclerosis at His Home . HIS LAST WISH FOR PEACE Collapses Soon After Discussing War with His Son; - Prominent in Political and Civic Life. The New York Times, November 2, 1915.
- Catholic New York City , page 53, by Richard Panchyk. Publisher: Arcadia Publishing, 2009 ISBN 978-0-7385-6551-4 .
- INTERTYPE in Melbourne Museum of Printing
Individual evidence
- ↑ Catholic News will cease publication - Teledo Blade June 20, 1981
- ^ Periodical Literature (The United States) In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company
- ↑ Northwest Publications ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Harvard Business School Historical Collection
- ^ History of the American Newspaper Publishers Association Summery page on jstor
- ↑ obverse of Gold Medals Presented to Hermann Ridder and Henry W. Sackett
- ^ Reverse of the Gold Medal
- ↑ Homan's patent US 830436 A for Linotype-machine
- ↑ MERGENTHALER LINOTYPE CO. v. INTERNATIONAL TYPESETTING MACH. CO. et aL ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. November 9, 1916.
- ^ NEW TYPE MACHINE CO .; Intertype Corporation to Take Over the International. - The New York Times, January 26, 1916
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ridder, Herman |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American newspaper publisher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 5, 1851 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City , New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 1, 1915 |
| Place of death | New York City , New York |