Saturday, September 18, 1999
Tracking Cincinnati's German heritage
1802: David Ziegler, an immigrant from Heidelberg and a veteran of the American Revolution, becomes Cincinnati's first mayor.
1810s: The first German societies form, and German social life emerges, including the first beer garden.
1824: Cincinnati's first private German language school opens in the German Lutheran Reformed Church.
1826: The first German weekly newspaper, Die Ohio Chronik,begins publishing.
1836: The Volksblatt, the first German daily newspaper in Cincinnati, begins publishing.
1840: The first German language public school opens in the Third German Protestant Church. Others soon follow.
1848: Refugees of the 1848 German revolution form the Cincinnati Central Turners. Their philosophy: “A sound mind is a sound body.”
1849: Cincinnati, renowned for its German singing societies, holds its first saengerfest with choruses from all over the Midwest.
1855: Prussian-born landscape gardener Adolph Strauch becomes superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery and initiates a comprehensive landscaping plan.
1860s: 23 percent of the city's population is of German stock. During the Civil War, four of seven regiments from Cincinnati are German.
1867: On New Year's Day, German-American architect John A. Roebling's suspension bridge linking Cincinnati and Covington formally opens.
1871: The Tyler Davidson Fountain, cast in Munich by Ferdinand von Miller, is dedicated.
1870s: Andreas Erkenbrecher becomes a driving force in the creation of the Cincinnati Zoo.
1875: Reuben Springer donates $125,000, to be matched by the city, to erect Music Hall.
1880s: German-Americans bolster the economic and industrial base of the city in areas such as brewing, banking and baking.
1890: 58 percent of the city's population of 197,000 is of German stock.
1917: Two German-American newspapers have a combined daily circulation of 112,000.
1917: The United States enters World War I, and a wave of anti-German sentiment sweeps the country.
1918: A city ordinance requires streets with German names be changed. German Street, for instance, becomes English Street.
1918: German language books are removed from libraries, German language is no longer taught in schools.
1918: One-third of Cincinnati's German newspapers, journals and periodicals stop publishing, including Volksblatt.
1918: City schools German bilingual program canceled; German teachers are dismissed from public schools.
1919: A statewide law prohibits German language instruction in schools below eighth grade. (The law was declared unconstitutional in 1923.)
1919-1932: The prohibition era results in the closure of a dozen breweries.
1941: The United States enters World War II.
1950s: Thousands of Germans from Eastern Europe emigrate to Cincinnati.
1971: Germania Society pioneers the first Oktoberfest in Cincinnati.
1974: Cincinnati Public Schools reintroduces the German language at Fairview German Language School.
1976: The first downtown Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati is held.
1989: Cincinnati establishes a sister city program with Munich.
1995: At the request of the German-American Citizens League, informational signs listing 12 streets' former German names are installed on 12 roadways.
Sources: Don Heinrich Tolzmann; Enquirer research.
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