About Pennsylvanische Staats zeitung. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1843-1887
Harrisburg, Pa. (1843-1887)

Pennsylvanische Staats Zeitung

The Pennsylvanische Staats Zeitung was a weekly Democratic German-language newspaper in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, active from May 3, 1843 until September 14, 1916.  With the exception of a three-year period from 1866 to1868, when production moved to Lancaster, the newspaper was based in Harrisburg.  In 1887, the Pennsylvanische Staats Zeitung absorbed the Dauphin County Journal to form the Pennsylvanische Staats-Zeitung und Dauphin County Journal. Circulation statistics are not available before 1870, when the number stood at 2,430; but subscriptions peaked in 1890 at 4,167.  Thereafter, they dropped to 2,000 by 1915, a year before publication ended.

This central Pennsylvania newspaper reflected the Democratic political sympathies of its German constituents.  Directly under the newspaper banner were the words of Thomas Jefferson in German: “I have sworn on God’s altar eternal enmity against every form of tyranny over the human spirit.”  The newspaper was originally edited and published by Edwin Wilson Hűtter and Jacob Baab.  The latter, a printer who resided in Harrisburg and Lancaster, published a German edition of the Journal of the House of Representatives in the late 1820s.  In the second half of the 19 century (probably immediately after the Civil War), the Pennsylvanische Staats Zeitung was acquired by Johann Georg Ripper and edited by William Strobel, who succeeded as editor and publisher from 1882 to1884.  The newspaper was owned by Ernst Krest in 1885-86, before being purchased by Frederick W. Liesmann, who published the weekly until its demise.

Notices of sheriff and public sales were common features in early issues of the newspaper.  For example, an October 4, 1843 issue advertised a public sale of the property of a deceased farmer named David Detweiler whose147-acre farm was put up for sale by the “Waisen” Court of Dauphin County.  A regular feature of the Staats Zeitung throughout its existence was poetry--usually reflective in nature.  For example, a verse of Hermann Nagel in the June 28, 1866 issue was called “Weighing Myself.” Another poem from June 4, 1874, was titled the “Contented One.”   A column called “Fevilleton” debuted in the 1870s, designed for general readers.  The April 6, 1876 column continued a serial novel entitled Hard Hearts, told by Walter Bogel.

The most common stories carried by the Pennsylvanische Staats Zeitung dealt with politics on the local, state, and national levels.  The newspaper also regularly reported European news items.  The October 4, 1843 issue described the unsuccessful bid of Pennsylvania Congressman James Buchanan for the Democratic presidential nomination.  Considerably more space in the Staats Zeitung was devoted to state and local elections, promoting Democratic candidates for the Canal Commission and Dauphin County Commission.  After the Civil War, the issues and the candidates changed.  The June 28, 1866 issue caustically described President Andrew Johnson as a “true enemy of the Country.”  For its editors, the Republicans were “fanatics and new Jacobins,” who were about to begin an era of terror and tyranny.

Advertisements carried by the Pennsylvanische Staats Zeitung are typical of central Pennsylvania newspapers of the period.  An April 6, 1876 ad invited shoppers to “see the immense number of boots, shoes and slippers” available at Georg Reily’s shoe store.  A treatment that appeared regularly in the newspaper was Dr. Koenig’s “Hamburg Drops,” the German remedy.  

The Pennsylvanische Staats Zeitung continued to publish until the fall of 1916, when it succumbed to the anti-German sentiments pervading the United States prior to its entry into the First World War.

Provided by: Penn State University Libraries; University Park, PA