Columbia (Washington, D.C.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
266 issues from 1863 to 1869, published in Washington, District Of Columbia, digitised for Chronicling America.
In 1859, a 25-year-old German immigrant, Werner Koch (1834-1911) founded the weekly Washingtoner Intelligenzblatt. Koch was born in the town of Alsfeld in Hesse, Germany. He apprenticed at the Ehrenclau publishing company where he learned newspaper printing, editing, composing, and distribution. In 1853, he visited Washington, DC for the first time where he found temporary work as a printer for Der National Demokrat. Despite a growing number of German American immigrants in the Washington region, many German American newspapers were short-lived. Koch eventually lost his job when Der National Demokrat folded and found temporary work in the maritime industry. By 1856, Koch saved enough money to return to Washington and open a cigar shop, but his passion was in newspapers. In 1857, Koch became a printer for Das Auge. A year later, he acquired his own print shop on the corner of 7th Street and Louisiana Avenue where he would begin publication of the Washingtoner Intelligenzblatt.
On the second page of the April 2, 1859 newspaper issue of the Washingtoner Intelligenzblatt, under the headline “Unser Standpunkt” (“Our Viewpoint”), Koch described the newspaper’s policy as independent and impartial in its coverage of politics and social events, but centered on the promotion of Germans in Washington. In addition, the newspaper opposed any attempt to undermine the United States.
In October 1860, Koch combined Washingtoner Intelligenzblatt with Die Metropole, a weekly newspaper…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Washington, District Of Columbia, United States
- Language
- German
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress