German Newspapers of Clinton County

Iowa German-Language Newspapers in Existence Five or More Years compiled by Barbara F.H. Allen Reference Librarian and Bibliographer Rod Library University of Northern Iowa September 2007 The table below lists the German-language newspapers that were published in Iowa for five years or longer. Many of them came into existence in the 1870s and 1880s, following peaks of German immigration to the United States, and ceased publication during or shortly after World War I, in large part due to a proclamation by Iowa Governor William L. Harding in May of 1918 stating that English was to be the only language used in public (including in schools and churches).

City	Name	Freq.	Dates	Other Names / Notes	Avail.
Clinton	Anzeiger	sw	1898-1918?	Clinton Anzeiger	no
Clinton	Iowa Volks Zeitung	w	1875-1926?	Iowa Volkszeitung	yes
Lyons	Clinton County Wochenblatt	w	1884-1890?		no

d – daily; m – montly; sm – semi-monthly; w – weekly; bw – bi-weekly; sw – semi-weekly; cont. – continues/continued

Avail. – yes, indicates there are current holdings (mostly on microfilm) of more than a few issues; most of the holdings are at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Iowa City and Des Moines (check online catalog); public and/or college libraries and historical societies in the cities that the newspapers were published in usually also have microfilm holdings of their paper(s); also check OCLC WorldCat for additional holdings (including some holdings in other states)

Avail. – no, indicates there are no current holdings other than perhaps one issue or a few scattered issues; most of these holdings of individual issues are at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachussetts

The newspapers listed above do not include religiously affiliated papers. Two of the most noteworthy religious newspapers were published in Dubuque, the Luxemburger Gazette (1871- 1918) and Die Iowa (1875-1892, cont. as Katholischer Westen, 1893-1918). Both papers were Catholic.

The information provided in the table above is based on listings in the following two sources:

Arndt, Karl J. R., and May E. Olson. The German Language Press of the Americas / Die deutschsprachige Presse der Amerikas. 3rd rev. ed. 3 vols. Munich: Verlag Dokumentation Saur KG, 1976. Vol. 1. 130-151.

Iowa Pilot Project of the Organization of American Historians—Library of Congress United States Newspaper Project. A Bibliography of Iowa Newspapers, 1836-1976. [Iowa City]: Iowa State Historical Department / Division of the State Historical Society, 1979.