Stern Des Westlichen Ohio = Star of Western Ohio (New Bremen, O. [Ohio])
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,240 issues from 1885 to 1923, published in Minster, Ohio, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Stern des Westlichen Ohio was a German-language newspaper serving the large German American population of New Bremen in Auglaize County, Ohio, from 1874 to 1923. Issued weekly, it covered a variety of local, national, and international news. Per the History of Auglaize County by William J. McMurray, the Stern was established in 1874 by J. V. Schiffer in the adjacent (and similarly German) town of Minster. It was briefly owned by several members of the Hemstegger family before being sold in 1879 to Theodore Purpus, who moved the business to New Bremen, making it that town’s first known newspaper. He sold it in May 1900 to Fridolin T. Purpus and Emil G. Conradi, who also bought the English-language New Bremen Sun in April 1903. The two newspapers were henceforth printed on the same presses, a fact that helped both remain economically viable.
New Bremen was founded by German immigrants in 1833 along the planned route of the Miami and Erie Canal, and the population was predominantly German speaking through the early twentieth century. As a result, the Stern was New Bremen’s leading newspaper, while the English-language Sun was somewhat secondary. On May 1, 1903, the Sun’s previous publisher wrote that his paper couldn’t compete with the Stern because “This community is in reality too small to support two newspapers, and . . . the English-speaking people are far in the minority.” Change was on the horizon, however.
A pivotal moment for the Stern came in April 1917, when…
- Genres
- Westerns, News
- Published in
- Minster, Ohio, 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