Heimat in the Heartland: The Significance of an Ethnic Newspaper

by Mattew Lindaman

On the evening of 31 December 1881, Luepke H»ndling tucked a modest stack of freshly printed newspapers under his arm, walking toward the post office in Dubuque, Iowa. Officially known as the Ostfriesische Nachrichten (East Frisian News), the newspaper was sent out after the holiday season had drawn to a conclusion. The launching of yet another ethnic newspaper was certainly not uncommon for the era. The German-American population alone supported hundreds of newspapers in the German language. H»ndling's new enterprise, however, was neither religious nor labor oriented, thus distinguishing itself from the scope of dozens of other ethnic newspapers. Moreover, his paper focused on neither national events, nor coverage of one specific locality. Instead, his was the twin goal of joining dozens of growing East Frisian communities spread out across the prairie in an open discourse, not only amongst themselves, but also with the old homeland. By the turn of the century, the Ostfriesische Nachrichten found a welcome place in thousands of East Frisian homes†both in the Midwest and abroad. Analysis of the Ostfriesische Nachrichten reveals that the newspaper played an enabling factor in chain migration, while also holding the widespread rural communities together. By linking the isolated communities and inviting the East Frisian immigrants to participate in an open discourse, the paper allowed readers to reify old traditions while negotiating the new American culture. As a result, the Ostfriesische Nachrichten helped create and preserve a more specific East Frisian-American identity and not a more generalized German identity.