Recent from talks
Baltimore Wecker
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Baltimore Wecker
Der Baltimore Wecker was a daily paper published in the German language in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the object of violence in the civil unrest at Baltimore in April 1861 that produced the first bloodshed of the American Civil War.
Related titles for this paper were Täglicher Baltimore Wecker (“Daily Baltimore Wecker”), Wochenblatt des Baltimore Wecker (“Weekly Baltimore Wecker”), and Baltimore Wecker: Sonntags-Blatt (“Sunday Baltimore Wecker”).
Der Wecker ("The Alarm") was founded by Carl Heinrich Schnauffer in October, 1851. Its founder was before that time one of the editors of the Mannheimer Abendzeitung in the city of Mannheim in Baden, Germany, but by taking part in the German revolution of 1848–49 he was compelled to leave the country. He traveled first to Switzerland, and then sought asylum in England, before finally moving to Baltimore in May 1851.
One of the so-called "Forty-Eighters", Schnauffer was closely associated with the developing Turner movement, a broadly republican, German nationalist gymnastics and social organization. Specifically, at least at its origin, the Wecker was an organ of one of its radical branches, the Sozialistischer Turnverein (Socialist Gymnastic Association). At one point, the organization's official paper, the Turnzeitung, was even printed on the same Baltimore presses as the Wecker. The Wecker under the editorship of Schnauffer was sympathetic to the philosophy of expatriate German communist and fellow Forty-Eighter Wilhelm Weitling, although this was apparently a short-lived affiliation.
In its first years, the Wecker found itself one site in the intercontinental debates raging amongst the competing factions of the Communist League after its dissolution in 1852. In the pages of the Wecker Adolf Cluss, aligned with the faction supporting Karl Marx in the split, wrote editorials denouncing rival figures like Gottfried Kinkel, August Willich and Alexander Schimmelfennig. Schnauffer himself felt that the Kinkel-Willich faction's plan of raising money for a new German revolution was a waste of resources, arguing a revolution could not be imposed from without, and that the funds could be better spent on the direct aid of poor people.
In September 1854, Schnauffer died of typhoid fever. His widow, Elise W. Schnauffer, continued the publication without interruption, with another German Forty-Eighter, August Becker taking up editorship, apparently in tandem with the widow Schnauffer.
Der Wecker was one of only three Maryland newspapers (along with Turnzeitung and the Jewish Sinai) that advocated for the abolition of slavery, all printed in Baltimore, and all in German. From the outset indeed, the paper had supported this and the other principles of the Republican Party, and this continued to be the case as the 1850s proceeded. Under Becker, the paper supported the candidacy of John C. Frémont in the 1856 United States presidential election. Such was its influence in Republican circles that in "An Address to the Republicans of Maryland" from October 1856, the Wecker was listed as the primary point of contact for those wanting to obtain a copy of the Republican ticket. Such full-throated support of Republican politics was a rarity below the Mason-Dixon line in this period: an 1859 list of "Republican Newspapers Published in the Slave States" put Der Baltimore Wecker among only 16 total papers. This made the Wecker a target for anti-Republican sentiment, and not long after the 1856 election, its offices were attacked by men attempting to incite a riot, although they were prevented from causing serious damage.
In 1857, Wilhelm Rapp accepted the editorship, taking over from Becker. Two years later, in 1859, the Wecker came into the hands of Wilhelm Schnauffer, the younger brother of Carl Schnauffer, whose widow, Elise, he married in that year. Wilhelm would maintain a stake in the paper until his death in 1899. Around this time, he also added a weekly edition to the paper, which soon commanded a large circulation in the counties.
Hub AI
Baltimore Wecker AI simulator
(@Baltimore Wecker_simulator)
Baltimore Wecker
Der Baltimore Wecker was a daily paper published in the German language in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the object of violence in the civil unrest at Baltimore in April 1861 that produced the first bloodshed of the American Civil War.
Related titles for this paper were Täglicher Baltimore Wecker (“Daily Baltimore Wecker”), Wochenblatt des Baltimore Wecker (“Weekly Baltimore Wecker”), and Baltimore Wecker: Sonntags-Blatt (“Sunday Baltimore Wecker”).
Der Wecker ("The Alarm") was founded by Carl Heinrich Schnauffer in October, 1851. Its founder was before that time one of the editors of the Mannheimer Abendzeitung in the city of Mannheim in Baden, Germany, but by taking part in the German revolution of 1848–49 he was compelled to leave the country. He traveled first to Switzerland, and then sought asylum in England, before finally moving to Baltimore in May 1851.
One of the so-called "Forty-Eighters", Schnauffer was closely associated with the developing Turner movement, a broadly republican, German nationalist gymnastics and social organization. Specifically, at least at its origin, the Wecker was an organ of one of its radical branches, the Sozialistischer Turnverein (Socialist Gymnastic Association). At one point, the organization's official paper, the Turnzeitung, was even printed on the same Baltimore presses as the Wecker. The Wecker under the editorship of Schnauffer was sympathetic to the philosophy of expatriate German communist and fellow Forty-Eighter Wilhelm Weitling, although this was apparently a short-lived affiliation.
In its first years, the Wecker found itself one site in the intercontinental debates raging amongst the competing factions of the Communist League after its dissolution in 1852. In the pages of the Wecker Adolf Cluss, aligned with the faction supporting Karl Marx in the split, wrote editorials denouncing rival figures like Gottfried Kinkel, August Willich and Alexander Schimmelfennig. Schnauffer himself felt that the Kinkel-Willich faction's plan of raising money for a new German revolution was a waste of resources, arguing a revolution could not be imposed from without, and that the funds could be better spent on the direct aid of poor people.
In September 1854, Schnauffer died of typhoid fever. His widow, Elise W. Schnauffer, continued the publication without interruption, with another German Forty-Eighter, August Becker taking up editorship, apparently in tandem with the widow Schnauffer.
Der Wecker was one of only three Maryland newspapers (along with Turnzeitung and the Jewish Sinai) that advocated for the abolition of slavery, all printed in Baltimore, and all in German. From the outset indeed, the paper had supported this and the other principles of the Republican Party, and this continued to be the case as the 1850s proceeded. Under Becker, the paper supported the candidacy of John C. Frémont in the 1856 United States presidential election. Such was its influence in Republican circles that in "An Address to the Republicans of Maryland" from October 1856, the Wecker was listed as the primary point of contact for those wanting to obtain a copy of the Republican ticket. Such full-throated support of Republican politics was a rarity below the Mason-Dixon line in this period: an 1859 list of "Republican Newspapers Published in the Slave States" put Der Baltimore Wecker among only 16 total papers. This made the Wecker a target for anti-Republican sentiment, and not long after the 1856 election, its offices were attacked by men attempting to incite a riot, although they were prevented from causing serious damage.
In 1857, Wilhelm Rapp accepted the editorship, taking over from Becker. Two years later, in 1859, the Wecker came into the hands of Wilhelm Schnauffer, the younger brother of Carl Schnauffer, whose widow, Elise, he married in that year. Wilhelm would maintain a stake in the paper until his death in 1899. Around this time, he also added a weekly edition to the paper, which soon commanded a large circulation in the counties.
Recent media