{{Short description|German-American journalist}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = Ottendorfer1.jpg | birth_place = [[Zwittau]], [[Moravia]] | birth_date = {{Birth date|1826|02|26}} | death_place = [[New York City]], [[United States]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1900|12|15|1826|02|26}} | organization = | occupation = Journalist, editor | office = Member of the [[New York City Board of Aldermen]] | term_start = January 1873 | term_end = April 1874 | office2 = Member of the [[Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York]] | term_start2 = April 14, 1870 | term_end2 = 1873 | alma_mater = [[University of Vienna]]<br>[[Charles University|University of Prague]] | signature = Ottendorfer signature.png }}
'''Valentin Oswald Ottendorfer''' (26 February 1826 – 15 December 1900) was an [[America]]n [[journalist]] associated with the development of the [[German language|German-language]] ''[[New Yorker Staats-Zeitung]]'' into a major newspaper. He served a term as a member of the [[New York City Board of Aldermen]] and as a member of the [[Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York]]. He also served three times as an elector of the [[United States Electoral College]]. In addition to his political and journalistic pursuits, Ottendorfer was a notable philanthropist in both Europe and the United States. Today, he is best remembered as the donor whose contribution founded the [[Ottendorfer Public Library and Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital|Ottendorfer Public Library]] in [[Manhattan]], which bears his name.
==Education== Ottendorfer was the son of a manufacturer, the youngest of six children. He was sent to live with a married sister in [[Brno|Brunn]]. There he studied the [[classics]] in the [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]]. At the age of 20, he left to study jurisprudence at the [[University of Vienna]], and then transferred to the [[German Charles-Ferdinand University|University of Prague]] to learn the [[Czech language]].
==Revolutionary== {{see also|Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas}} In 1848, he returned to Vienna, intending to finish his studies in [[Padua]], which at that time was in the possession of [[Austria]]. However, the upheavals at that time enlisted his sympathies. Ottendorfer joined the Von der Tann volunteer corps, and briefly served in the [[First Schleswig War|first Schleswig-Holstein War]]. On returning to Vienna during the [[Vienna Rebellion]], he found the revolutionaries in control of the government, and joined the mobile guard as a 1st [[lieutenant]]. During the storming of the city by government forces in October, he was in the [[battalion]] that was commanded by [[Robert Blum]].
Many of his fellow revolutionaries were captured or killed. He managed to escape. He was concealed by a friendly porter in a bookstore until the excitement subsided, and then fled to the [[Bohemia]]n frontier, and from there to [[Saxony]]. He subsequently became involved in the [[revolutions of 1848 in Germany|1849 uprisings]] in [[May Uprising in Dresden|Saxony]] and [[History of Baden|Baden]], after the failure of which, he fled to [[Switzerland]]. He briefly considered giving himself up to the government in Vienna, but was informed that would cost him his life, and so went to the [[United States]].
==Journalism== [[File:Oswald-Ottendorfer-cigarette-card.jpg|thumb|left|Ottendorfer on a [[cigarette card]]]] On his arrival in [[New York City]], he knew [[Latin language|Latin]], [[classical Greek language|Greek]], [[Hebrew]] and several [[Slavic languages]], but no [[English language|English]], and for two or three months after his arrival, he was able to earn no more than a bare subsistence. Then he found employment in the counting room of the ''Staats-Zeitung''. After the death of its proprietor, [[Jacob Uhl]], in 1852, the management of the paper devolved to his widow, and the services of Ottendorfer became gradually more important. He became editor in 1858 and wed Jacob Uhl's widow, [[Anna Ottendorfer|Anna Uhl]], in 1859.
The year of his marriage, he returned to [[Europe]], but avoided [[Austria]], though he was assured he would not be bothered there. In 1866, he did visit [[Austria]].
He was editor and publisher of the ''Staats-Zeitung'' from 1859 to 1900; his wife was business manager until her death in 1884.<ref name="anb">{{Cite ANB|title=Ottendorfer, Oswald|volume=16|pages=842–843|author=James M. Bergquist |id=1601242}}</ref> As the German-born population of New York City increased, his journal, in which he endeavored to reflect the sentiments of [[German-American]]s, became one of the most widely circulated and influential in New York.
==Politics== Ottendorfer adhered to the principles of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], but joined no political organization, and maintained an independent position. He was an advocate of [[civil service]] reform, and active in promoting improvements in the [[Public school (government funded)|public school]] system. He supported [[Stephen Douglas]] in 1860; he was a "Union Democrat" opposed to [[Fernando Wood]]'s "Peace Democrats" who were [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] sympathizers.<ref name="anb"/> From 1872 to 1874 he was an [[alderman]], and in 1874 a candidate for [[Mayor of New York City]]. Several times he was a [[Electoral College (United States)|presidential elector]], including in [[1868 United States presidential election in New York|1868]],<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jY80AQAAMAAJ|title=Proceedings of the New York Electoral College, Held at the Capital in the City of Albany, on the First Day of December, 1868|publisher=The Argus Company|year=1868|location=Albany, N.Y.|pages=22|language=en}}</ref> [[1876 United States presidential election in New York|1876]],<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xRNQAAAAYAAJ|title=Proceedings of the Electoral College of the State of New York: Held at the Capitol in the City of Albany, December 5th & 6th, 1876|publisher=The Argus Company|year=1877|location=Albany, N.Y.|pages=6|language=en}}</ref> and [[1884 United States presidential election in New York|1884]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=College|first=New York (State) Electoral|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-FHAQAAMAAJ|title=Proceedings of the Electoral College of the State of New York|publisher=Weed, Parsons & Company|year=1884|location=Albany, N.Y.|pages=5|language=en}}</ref>
==Philanthropy== Besides other charitable gifts, Ottendorfer gave $300,000 to build and endow an educational institution in his native town in [[Austria]]. On [[Long Island, New York]], he founded a home for aged and indigent men, and established the [[Ottendorfer Public Library|Ottendorfer Free Library]] (now the Ottendorfer Branch of the [[New York Public Library]] system which it joined in the 1890s<ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/510383386 NYC - East Village: New York Public Library, Ottendorfer Branch] at flickr.com</ref>) on Second Avenue, New York City, at an original cost of $50,000, which was augmented by annual gifts. His wife, [[Anna Ottendorfer]], was also a noted philanthropist.
==Later years== In later life, Ottendorfer retired from active journalism on account of failing health, and spent most of his time in Europe.
==See also== *[[6-15-99 Club]]
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Ottendorfer, Oswald|year=1900}} *{{Cite DAB|title=Ottendorfer, Oswald|author=Edwin H. Zeydel|volume=VII, Part 2|pages=107|year=1962}} *{{Cite book|title=Printers' ink|year=1899|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O_E1AAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA120|page=120|volume=28-29}}
==External links== {{commons category|Oswald Ottendorfer}} {{Wikisource|Public Letter to Oswald Ottendorfer}} *[http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?410348 Portrait of Oswald Ottendorfer] (from the [[New York Public Library]] Digital Gallery) *[http://www.muzeum.svitavy.cz/stale-exp/ottendorfer-library/valentin-oswald-ottendorfer/216-2/ Biography] at Muzeum Svitavy *{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Ottendorfer, Oswald|year=1905 |short=x}} *{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Ottendorfer, Oswald|year=1920 |short=x}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ottendorfer, Oswald}} [[Category:1826 births]] [[Category:1900 deaths]] [[Category:People from Svitavy]] [[Category:Emigrants from the Austrian Empire to the United States]] [[Category:Forty-Eighters]] [[Category:19th-century American newspaper editors]] [[Category:German revolutionaries]] [[Category:American male journalists]] [[Category:19th-century American male writers]] [[Category:19th-century American philanthropists]] [[Category:1868 United States presidential electors]] [[Category:1876 United States presidential electors]] [[Category:1884 United States presidential electors]]