Theodor Engelmann (journalist)

Theodor Erasmus Engelmann (born July 16, 1808 in Winnweiler , † March 17, 1889 in Belleville , St. Clair County , Illinois , USA) was a German-American lawyer , journalist , author and newspaper publisher .

family

Engelmann was the son of forester Friedrich Engelmann (1779-1854) and his wife Elisabeth Kipp (1781-1861). He married Johanna Kribben (1822-1896) in Belleville in 1845. The marriage had five children: Wilhelm (1847–1915), Bertha (1849–1896), Emilie (1851–1890), Anna Josephine (1853–1920) and Dora (died as a child). His younger sister Sophia (1815–1888) married the lawyer Gustav Körner (1809–1896) in 1836 . His cousin Georg Engelmann (1809-1884), a general practitioner and botanist, lived in neighboring St. Louis , Missouri . Another cousin was Theodor Erasmus Engelmann .

Life

After attending grammar school in Kreuznach and Koblenz, Engelmann studied law at the Universities of Heidelberg , Jena and Munich , where he worked for several fraternities , the old Heidelberg fraternity (1827), the Jena fraternity (1827), the Markomannia Munich fraternity (1828) and the Fraternity of Germania Munich (1829). After his participation in the Hambach Festival (1832) and the Frankfurt Wachensturm , he had to flee and, encouraged by letters from his relatives in Illinois, emigrated to the United States with his cousin, the businessman Carl David Weber (1814–1881). In absentia he was sentenced to five years at workhouse or a fine of 10,000  florins . The proceedings were discontinued in 1838.

Engelmann's travel companion also included his later brother-in-law Gustav Körner , the leader of the "Frankfurt Wachensturm". In August 1833 he arrived in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1835 he was one of the founders of the German newspaper Anzeiger des Westens . In 1836 he moved to the state of Illinois and moved to neighboring Belleville in St. Clair County . In 1836 he founded a German library with a few other German intellectuals (including Anton Schott and Gustav Körner), which later became the Belleville Public Library .

German newspapers were also part of their archives. Horrified by the Germans' incorrect perception of America, he and Körner (alias Charles Neyfeld) began to publish a multi-volume publication called Westland in 1837 . In 1840, due to the unexpected success, he founded the first German newspaper in the state of Illinois - Der Freiheitsbote für Illinois . However, the sheet only existed for five months. This was followed in 1844 by the German newspaper Belleville Beobachter , which was sympathetic to the Democrats , the first issue of which appeared on March 21 and for the time being the last issue on April 10, 1845.

When Engelmann became an officially appointed notary ( Deputy Circuit Clerk ) in Belleville, he sold the newspaper to his editor-in-chief Bartholomäus Hauck, who temporarily relocated the company headquarters to Quincy . After returning to Belleville, the paper appeared on January 11, 1849 under the new name Belleville Zeitung with Engelmann as editor. The Belleville Zeitung brought news and reports from Germany and the USA alike.

Engelmann withdrew from the newspaper business in 1851 and became a partner in the law firm of Freund Körner in 1852. From 1860 he devoted himself as a farmer to viticulture as well as the study and breeding of grapefruit . He died in Belleville and was buried in Walnut Hill Cemetery .

bibliography

• Gazette of the West , Newspaper, St. Louis, Missouri from 1835
• Westland , multi-volume publication, Belleville (Illinois) from 1837
• The Messenger of Freedom for Illinois , Newspaper, Belleville, Illinois 1840
• Belleville Observer or Belleville Newspaper , Belleville (Illinois) from 1844

swell

The detailed Engelmann family history with family tree and photos can be found under the signature Theodore Engelmann Reminiscences in the archive of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I Politicians, Part 1: A – E. Heidelberg 1996, pp. 257-258.
• Douglas Hale: Wanderers Between Two Worlds: German Rebels in the American West 1830-1860. Xlibris Corporation Publisher, 2005, ISBN 1413445926 .
• Gertrud Baecker and Friedrich Engelmann: The Electoral Palatinate families Engelmann and Hilgard. 1958 with a 1983 amendment, St. Clair County Historical Society, Belleville, Illinois.

Web links

• The Belleville Zeitung and Engelmann ( Memento of May 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive )