Dakota Freie Presse

Dakota Freie Presse (Dakota Free Press) was a German language newspaper printed in Yankton, Dakota Territory (now S.D.) and circulated in the Dakotas and other states as well as Canada and Europe from 1874-1954 ^[1]. The newspaper was non-denominational and neutral in politics. The focus of the paper was on Germans from Russia, i.e. German settlers in Russian colonies around Black Sea (and to a lesser degree along the Volga) and subsequent settlers in the Dakotas in the USA.

The DFP was a weekly paper published first in German and later in German and English.

The Dakota Freie Presse was the recognized organ of the Russian-Germans in America and perhaps in the whole world. As such, it offered largely the private correspondence of its readers. Although these write-ups were superficial and rather insignificant as far as content is concerned, below the surface they had great importance because the identity and cohesion of the ethnic Germans who emigrated from Russia was thereby maintained for nearly fifty years.^[2]

History

The Dakota Freie Presse was founded in April 1874 and went out of print on February 24, 1954 ^[3]. It was founded and first edited by Bernhard Quinke.

Johann Christian Wenzlaff took the paper over in 1885 or 1886 and acquired a building lot on Broadway, erecting a brick building to house the printing establishment and editorial room.

From its new base of operations in New Ulm, the DFP, following the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, operated its own relief program for the hungry children of Germany. Editor F. W. Sallet personally sought funds and materials which he shipped to Osterode, East Prussia, where the entire program was administered by the editor's older brother, Daniel Gottfried Sallet, the father of Dr. Richard Sallet who would one day succeed F. W. Sallet in the editor's chair.

Schmidt was listed in the editorial block of the DFP only until September 16, 1942. From March 11 to September 16, 1942, the names of L. Luedtke, A. Hochscheid, and Frau Grete (obviously a pen name) resided in Milwaukee and was responsible for the section, Für Hausfrau, Gattin, und Mutter (for the housekeeper, wife, and mother). After September 16, 1942, only John Brendel was consistently associated with the editorship in Bismarck until Joseph Gaeckle came into the picture for the first time on August 4, 1948.

Circulation

Initially it had a very low and only local circulation (295 copies in 1875, 1200 in 1880, 2170 in 1890, and 3400 in 1900), and not until after the F. W. Sallet years commenced did the paper take on its transregional nature and a skyrocketing circulation (7,500 in 1905, 9,500 in 1910, and nearly 14,000 by 1920).

In 1924, the DFP became the first paper published in the United States to be allowed re-entry into the Soviet Union.

DFP merged with the Dakota Rundschau in late 1932 or early 1933. However the Rundschau itself derived from three previous mergers, involving a) the Eureka Rundschau, a Black Sea German paper owned and published by Gustav Mauser and Otto H. Froh, which was located in Eureka, South Dakota and which began publishing in Eureka on June 3, 1915, b) the Bismarck Nordlicht which began publishing on February 1, 1885, and c) the Mandan Volkszeitung, the initial publication date of which is unknown.

When the DFP disappeared as a visible organ in 1954, it did not entirely cease publication, for it was consolidated with the America Herold Zeitung.

Editors/Owners

1874-1875 Bernhard Quinke

1875-1876 Judge Charles F. Rossteuscher

1876-1885 Gustav A. Wetter

1885 or 1886 Johann Christian Wenzlaff

1886 or 1887-1892 Salomon Wenzlaff (Johann Christian Wenzlaff's son)

1892-1901 Saloman Wenzlaff and Mr. Krause

1901-1903 Krause, Ellerman, Kositzky, and Lusk

1903-1932 Friedrich Wilhelm Sallet

1906-1908 Gustav Kositzky Ellerman

1931-1933 Richard Sallet (FW Sallet's nephew) F.W. Sallet's three sons

1930s-1940s Emil Leicht, President; Frederick E. Leicht (Emil's son), Secretary and Treasurer, editors: John Brendel, Dr. H.E. Fritsch, and, for a time, Felix Schmidt

1954 Joseph Gaeckle

See also

• Der Staats Anzeiger

References

1. ^ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022146/
2. ^ Der Auslanddeutsche 8, a bimonthly publication of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (founded in 1917 and known until 1945 as the Deutsches Ausland-Institut) in Stuttgart, Germany, stated in 1920:
3. ^ F. W. Sallet and the Dakota Freie Presse Rippley, La Vern J. "F. W. Sallet and the Dakota Freie Presse." North Dakota History, 1992, 2-20.