The Sterling Beobachter

Lindsay Young
Challand Middle School, Sterling

"Good news travels fast," and from 1878 until 1912, a German-language newspaper in Sterling, Illinois, carried good, and sometimes bad news, to the German population in northwestern Illinois. The Sterling Beobachter (Observer) became an important communication link, not only among German immigrants who settled in Whiteside and surrounding counties, but also with families and friends throughout the U.S. and Europe.

By 1870 the foreign-born population of Illinois numbered 515,198. Of these, 203,000 were German immigrants, and 8,890 were Swiss of Germanic descent. In 1877 the estimated population of Sterling was 7,500. Although the exact number of local German citizens in Sterling township at the time is not known, there were enough to form a German Catholic church and school, a German Lutheran church, and an Evangelical church. The nearby townships of Jordan, Hopkins, and Geneseo also had German churches.

Old World customs and traditions were also established in the community. A popular group called the Germania Mannerchor was organized in 1869. By 1877 this group had its own building equipped with a stage. The membership of the Mannerchor was then more than one hundred, composed of many of the best German citizens of Sterling. There was also a group known as the Sterling Turnverein. In 1873 this organization was established as an athletic or gymnastic club. With a membership of more than eighty in 1877, this group also consisted of people of German descent.

Newspapers were of great importance in the 1870s, because they advertised goods and services and shared community news from Dixon in the east to the Mississippi River in the west. Two Sterling newspapers at the time included the Sterling Standard and the Sterling Gazette. With support of the German population, the Sterling Beobachter was established on February 9, 1878. Carl Strack, a well-known resident of the area, was the first publisher of this newspaper. The Sterling Beobachter was proudly advertised in a city directory as the only German newspaper published in Whiteside County and five adjoining counties.

The Sterling Beobachter was an eight-page weekly published each Friday. Politically, it was a Democrat newspaper with a wide local circulation. It was often sent to other parts of the United States and to Germany, where many relatives of local citizens lived. A yearly subscription to this paper cost $2 in Sterling and $2.50 for those living in Germany. There are no issues of the Sterling Beobachter known to exist today. The paper contained world and local news as well as notices of church, organizational, and social events of particular interest to German subscribers.

Advertising was an important function of this newspaper. A city directory described the paper as "a valuable advertising medium, both for the German and English-speaking merchants and manufacturers." This sort of information was a valuable resource to those new to the area in search of work, entertainment, and various products.

Carl Strack published the paper for four years, selling it to Henry Mathey in 1881. Two years later it was purchased by Louis Oltmanns. Oltmanns was born in Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1865. When he came to Sterling, he worked in a dry good store until he decided to shift to newspaper work. Under the guidance of Louis Oltmanns, the Sterling Beobachter was published for thirty-four years. In 1912 the newspaper was sold to the Clinton Anzeiger. Louis Oltmanns died on November 6, 1912, just six months after he sold the paper.

Immigrants who settled in northwestern Illinois communicated in their native languages at church, civic, and everyday functions. As a German language newspaper, the Sterling Beobachter, provided the German population with the keys to unlock the door to goods, services, and work opportunities in the area. Maybe someday a copy of this historic, ethnic newspaper will be found in an attic, or in an old trunk, providing the community of Sterling with a valuable historical artifact from the past.-[From Charles Bent and Robert L. Wilson, History of Whiteside County; W. W. Davis, History of Whiteside County, Vol. 1; Holland's Sterling and Rock Falls Directory 1875-1876; Sterling and Rock Falls, Illinois, Illustrated; "Germans Form a Turnverein," Sterling Daily Gazette Centennial Edition, June 1934; "L. Oltmanns is Dead," Sterling Evening Gazette, Nov. 6, 1912; "Churches of the Twin Cities," Sterling Daily Standard, Illustrated, Sept. 20, 1910; Theodore Calvin Pease, The Story of Illinois; 'The Sterling Beobachter," The Sterling Standard, Illustrated, Dec. 17, 1897.]

56 ILLINOIS HISTORY/APRIL 1997