{{Short description|German-language newspaper of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States}}

{{Infobox newspaper | name = Volksblatt und Freiheits-Freund | image = | caption = | type = Daily German-language newspaper | founded = 1901 | ceased_publication = 1942 | language = German | headquarters = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania }}The '''''Volksblatt und Freiheits-Freund''''' was the leading German-language newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during its publication from 1901 to 1942. It was formed from the merger of two predecessors, the ''Freiheits-Freund'' and ''Pittsburger Volksblatt''.

==Predecessors== ===''Freiheits-Freund''=== The ''Freiheits-Freund'' ("Freedom's Friend") was founded as a weekly newspaper in 1834 by Henry Ruby, with Victor Scriba as editor, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.<ref name=Heinrici>{{cite book|last=Heinrici|first=Max|title=Das Buch der Deutschen in Amerika|language=de|year=1909|publisher=Walther's Buchdruckerei|location=Philadelphia|page=551|hdl=2027/uiuo.ark:/13960/t9z034j3c?urlappend=%3Bseq=565|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiuo.ark:/13960/t9z034j3c?urlappend=%3Bseq=565}}</ref> Scriba relocated it from there to Pittsburgh in 1837 after buying out Ruby.<ref name=Heinrici/> Content of the paper included news from Europe and the United States, local news, and a literary (feuilleton) section.<ref name=Kugemann>{{cite book|last=Kugemann|first=Monika A.|title=Between Cultures: Cultural and Social Integration of German Immigrants in Pittsburgh, 1843–1873|pages=231–232|year=2009|publisher=DOBU Verlag|location=Hamburg|isbn=978-3-934632-36-3}}</ref> By 1850, the ''Freiheits-Freund'' was a daily paper owned by cousins Louis Neeb and William Neeb, who had been employed by the paper since its early days.<ref name=Heinrici/> The Neebs brought increased attention to business and commercial news.<ref name=Kugemann/> Because of its strong opposition to slavery, the paper aligned itself with the Republican Party when that party first organized.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Dahlinger|first=Charles|journal=Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine|volume=3|issue=4|date=October 1920|title=Abraham Lincoln and the Birth of the Republican Party|page=156|url=https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/view/1227/}}</ref>

In 1860 the ''Freiheits-Freund'' merged with the ''Pittsburgher Courier,''<ref>{{Cite news |date=Oct 1, 1860 |title=An das Publikum |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=bF3sBmdg0HEC&dat=18601001&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |work=Freiheits Freund Und Pittsburger Courier |pages=2}}</ref> a newspaper founded in 1843 by John G. Backofen with a Democratic party orientation, which absorbed the Whig-supporting ''West Pennsylvania Staats Zeitung'' in 1854.<ref>{{Cite news |date=Apr 1, 1854 |title=A Union of German Newspapers |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=TNEldfgDb5MC&dat=18540401&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |work=Pittsburgh Gazette |pages=2}}</ref> Earlier Backofen had been a founder of ''Adler des Westens'' (''Eagle of the West'') in 1835.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schem |first=Alexander J. |date=1873 |title=Deutsch-amerikanisches Conversations-Lexikon |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Deutsch_amerikanisches_conversations_lex/hXhMAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=backofen+courier+pittsburgh+1843&pg=PA763&printsec=frontcover |page=763}}</ref>

===''Volksblatt''=== thumb|Masthead of the first issue of the Pittsburger Volksblatt Karl Friedrich Bauer and Sigismund Löw, Forty-Eighters who fled the German states after the failed revolutions of 1848, founded the ''Pittsburger Volksblatt'' ("People's Paper") in 1859. Bauer left the editorial office of the ''Freiheits-Freund'' and found a partner in Löw'','' a civic-minded engineer and delegate to the first national Republican Party convention held in Pittsburgh in 1856.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRRhAAAAIBAJ&q=volksblatt+pittsburgh |title=Pittsburger Volksblatt |date=Aug 8, 1859 |publisher=Pittsburger Volksblatt |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Logge|first=Thorsten|year=2014|title=Zur medialen Konstruktion des Nationalen: Die Schillerfeiern 1859 in Europa und Nordamerika|language=de|location=Göttingen|publisher=V&R unipress|page=298|isbn=978-3-8471-0237-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GR6YAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA298}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WRJYAAAAYAAJ&dq=sigismund+low+pittsburgh+republican+convention&pg=PA9 |title=Official Proceedings of the Republican Convention Convened in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the Twenty-second of February, 1856 |date=1856 |publisher=New York Republican Committee |pages=9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=Feb 5, 1898 |title=Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette - Google News Archive Search - THE DEATH ROLL Sigismund Low page 4 column 2 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=eJD0kABLposC&dat=18980205&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=news.google.com}}</ref> ''Courier''-founder John G. Backofen was part of the ownership group from 1861 to 1863.<ref>{{Cite news |date=15 Apr 1861 |title=Neue Firma |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=n2EMxG_msskC&dat=18610415&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |work=Pittsburger Volksblatt |pages=2}}</ref> Bauer remained an owner of the ''Volksblatt'' until 1885, when he left to join the ''Milwaukee Herold''. With the support of Pittsburgh businessman Max Schamberg, American consul to Austria, Bauer's interest in the ''Volksblatt'' was acquired by the brothers Isaac E. and Louis Hirsch and associates, under whose leadership the paper gained an increasing share of the market formerly dominated by the ''Freiheits-Freund''.<ref name=Heinrici/><ref>{{Cite news |date=5 July 1885 |title=The Pittsburg Volksblatt Sold |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092523/1885-07-05/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=01%2F01%2F1885&index=1&date2=12%2F31%2F1885&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&lccn=&words=Volksblatt&proxdistance=10&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=volksblatt&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1 |work=Wheeling Sunday Register |pages=1}}</ref>

==Merged publication== The ''Freiheits-Freund'' and ''Volksblatt'' served the German-speaking population of Pittsburgh until, in February 1901, the consolidation of the two papers and the founding of the Neeb-Hirsch Publishing Company took place. Thereafter, the papers were published as one under the title ''Volksblatt und Freiheits-Freund''.<ref name=Heinrici/>

During World War I, the paper successfully withstood a swell of anti-German sentiment that caused many other German-American papers to succumb to circulation and advertising losses. Its survival has been credited to its pro-American reputation and major urban location.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Waldenrath|first=Alexander|title=The German Language Newspress in Pennsylvania During World War I|journal=Pennsylvania History Magazine|volume=52|issue=1|date=January 1975|pages=40–41|url=https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/23833}}</ref>

Before the U.S. entered World War II, the paper took a denunciatory stance toward the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jenkins|first=Philip|title=Hoods and Shirts: The Extreme Right in Pennsylvania, 1925–1950|year=1997|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|page=302|isbn=0-8078-2316-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pTprAU4mJYoC&pg=PA302}}</ref> By this time, the paper was facing a scarcity of local German speakers, and in 1942, amid another unfavorable wartime cultural climate, the paper folded.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *Digitized issues at Google News Archive: **''Freiheits-Freund'': [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=7iKzEIWBYlQC 1835–1870], [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=bF3sBmdg0HEC 1860–1865], [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2hszv8GT5-sC 1871–1901] **''Volksblatt'': [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=n2EMxG_msskC 1859–1900], [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=xIQbs6uk08UC 1871–1878] **''Volksblatt und Freiheits-Freund'': [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ahKOoLCzQxcC 1901–1940]

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Category:Newspapers established in 1901 Category:Defunct newspapers published in Pittsburgh Category:German-American history Category:German-American culture in Pittsburgh Category:1901 establishments in Pennsylvania Category:German-language newspapers published in Pennsylvania