A Summary History of German Freethought in Missouri
(This page is under construction) I make no claim that all the Germans who came to Missouri were Freethinkers; certainly the majority were Lutherans and Catholics. However, it is impossible to ignore the key influential German-Americans who were indeed Freethinkers, and the impact that they made. We, as a society, have apparently swept them under the carpet, because of their nontraditional religious views.
The Revolution of 1848
No discussion of the influx of Freethinkers to the U.S. can begin without first mentioning the Revolution of 1848.
Early in the 1800's, governments in the German States became increasingly more restrictive, and in Prussian-held lands downright reactionary. Some Germans elected to come to the United States to escape repressive laws and to seek the personal freedoms unavailable to them in their homeland. Of those that remained, middle class Europeans, mainly from the German States, Hungary, and other nations, sought to oppose the religious and political tyranny of the ruling classes. A violent revolt was staged in 1848, but it was unsuccessful.
After the failure of the revolution of 1848, many German liberals either fled the country, were expelled, or emigrated voluntarily during the following decade. Most of them found political asylum and a new homeland in the United States. Cities like St. Louis and Cincinnati almost doubled in size due to the influx of these "foreigners." In the decade between 1850 and 1860, the immigrants had to suffer considerably at the hands of "Nativists"
When the American Civil War became unavoidable in 1861, the vast majority of the German immigrants joined the Union effort. Led by the 1848 revolutionists, they enrolled in what they perceived to be their "Zweiter Freiheitskampf," their second fight for liberty. From the beginning, these Germans knew they were fighting not only for the preservation of the Union and democracy, but also for human rights: for the liberation of the slaves- and for themselves.
More on the Revolution of 1848
Germans coming to Missouri
The hardships of immigration and relocation.St. Louis
At the middle of the nineteenth century, fully one third of the population living in St. Louis had been born in Germany. These German-Americans were also responsible for a third of the construction in St. Louis. There were two German language daily newspapers, the Anzeiger des Westens, and the Westliche Post-- both liberal, continually attacking slavery and religious oppression. The Westliche Post, which survived until 1939, also produced a magazine, the Mississippi Blaetter. There were also many weekly and monthly German language publications-- all anti-slavery and advocating personal freedom.
One of the major conflicts between the German population and the City was the fact that Sunday was traditionally a day in which Germans went to the theatre, held parties, drank and amused themselves with various entertainments. In response to this, city officials-- citing oppresive religiously-based blue laws-- used the police to forcibly close German theatres and pubs. The most notible of these actions was the closing of Heinrich Bornstein's Theatre on Market Street on April 14, 1861. The Germans of course resisted these actions, carrying on business as usual, and wrote harshly about them in their newspapers.
The Civil War
Franz Sigel
Franz Sigel was a revolutionary in Southwest Germany who participated in violent uprisings against the aristocracy in the German Revolution of 1848. He achieved almost legendary fame. After the failure of the 1848 Civil War, he fled along with his compatriots to the United States, and eventually settled in St. Louis. At the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War he was chosen by President Lincoln to be a brigadier general in the Union Army, partly because of his previous experience, but also to assure German-American support for the Union. Sigel had written extensively on small-unit tactics for German-American militia units.
Franz Sigel
Franz SigelThere is a statue of Major General Franz Sigel, mounted on his horse, in St. Louis' Forest Park.
The Turner Society
The St. Louis Turner Society was a social athletic club that also served as training for military encounters. They had several large meeting halls/gymnasiums in St. Louis, some of which still stand today. In addition to the gymnastics, young men were trained in shooting, bayoneting and hand-to-hand combat. The demonstrations and riots in the mid-1850's by "Nativists" against German immigrants in the streets of St. Louis had convinced the German ethnic community that they needed a method of common defense. Thus, following the advice of Franz Sigel, German-American militias were formed. Sigel himself partook in instructing the volunteers.When civil war was declared, thousands of German-Americans enlisted from Turner halls. In all, approximately 150,000 German-born Americans enlisted into the Union army in the early stages of the Civil War.
The Turner Rifles
Here is a general page about the Turner SocietiesThe Stoppage of Slave Trade by Missouri Germans
Influential leaders of the St. Louis German culture had warned city officials that another slave auction would not be tolerated. Despite this warning, the slave auction went ahead as planned. The St. Louis German militia disrupted the sale of slaves on the steps of the St. Louis City Courthouse, (presently situated across from the Arch) marching down the road bearing rifles, and breaking up the auction through threat and intimidation. That was to be the last sale of human beings in St. Louis.The Securing of the Arsenal by Missouri Germans
The St. Louis German militia prevented the pro-South forces of Missouri from taking the St. Louis arsenal.When the war had begun on April 12, 1861, the German militia companies in St. Louis immediately disbanded to avoid coming under the orders of the pro-Confederate Governor Jackson. But upon President Lincoln's call for volunteers, they promptly reformed as Volunteer Companies. By May 8th, some 4,000 men in 4 regiments had been enlisted in St. Louis, almost entirely German in composition. These troops were used by Union Captain Nathaniel Lyon to seize secessionist Camp Jackson in early May, and to block Governor Jackson's efforts to declare Missouri for the Confederacy. It is primarily because of the St. Louis German volunteers, raised practically overnight, that Captain Lyon was able to move so swiftly and effectively to preserve Missouri for the Union.
Other German volunteer companies were raised equally swiftly and enthusiastically from other parts of Missouri, including Hermann, Washington, and Jefferson City. These additional troops added greatly to the strength that Captain Lyon and other Union officers could utilize to block Confederate efforts to seize key points, railroads, and arsenals of weapons and ammunition in the early months of 1861. The speed and enthusiasm with which the Missouri Germans responded to the President's call to arms is an indisputable argument for the breadth and depth of their feeling on the slavery issue.
Other Free-thinking influential Germans of St. Louis in the 1800's: Carl Schurtz, Joseph Pulitzer, Emil Preetorius, Carl Danzer, Heinrich Bornstein, Karl Ludwig Bernays, Theodor Olshausen, Henry Brokmeyer.
The Naked Truth monument, dedicated to Schurtz, Preetorius and Danzer, sits at the Compton Hill Resevoir in St. Louis. This statue was moved from its original location because some citizens complained that it was "obscene"... that may have also had something to do with anti-German sentiment in the first half of the 20th Century.
The Freie Gemeinde
The "Free Community" was founded in 1850 in St. Louis. Some of the original founders of Freie Gemeinde were intellectuals who were fleeing from the failed Revolution of 1848, which took place in Germany and other European countries. These immigrants were known as "48er's". In 1950, members participated in the 100th anniversary celebration of the Freie Gemeinde as well as attended several national conventions held in other cities in the Midwest. The society had it's own spacious facility in North St. Louis (now a community center) located at Dodier Street and Florissant Avenue, which housed libraries and meeting halls. The main focus of the society was promoting Freethought.The Rationalist Society of St. Louis (RSSL)
This society of Rationalists was formed in 1948. Of the more than thirty people in attendance at the first meeting, many were also members of the German Freethought society Freie Gemeinde. A dozen or so members were actively involved in holding the Rationalist Society together during its first few years. The Rationalist Society is still in existence today, making it the oldest autonomous Freethought organization in the United States. The membership of the Rationalist Society is larger now than ever before. They have their own meeting hall in south St. Louis, and have sponsored several national meetings of Freethinkers. The Society has published a monthly newsletter continuously since its founding in 1948. Their website is www.listen.to/rationalism.Hermann
The area where Hermann lies today was chosen by the German Settlement Society of Philadelphia for its resemblance to the Rhine Valley of Germany, being full of hills and rivers. The area proved beneficial to farming, brewing and especially wine making. In the first few decades after its founding in 1837, Freethought was alive and well in Hermann MO, and persisted strongly at least until the cholera epidemic of 1854.
Strehly and Muehl, and 'Licht Freund'
Charles Strehly, and his brother in law Eduard Muehl, were publishers of German language newspapers: Licht Freund and the Hermanner Volksblatt. These newspapers, published in Hermann, had a wide circulation well outside of Hermann, and were considered to be the most passionate advocates of emancipation in Missouri, and were also labeled "anti-clerical" for their nontraditional views on religion.In the summer of 1854, a cholera epidemic swept through Hermann. From June 1 to July 19, seventy people died. Among the victims were Eduard Muehl, and his five year old daughter, Rosa.
Photo of Muehl's Grave [1] 233k
Photo of Muehl's Grave [2] 250k
Photo of the Hermann Cemetery 210k
Photo of the Strehly House
Deutschheim, the Strehly House Historical Site
Lithograph of Hermann circa 1850
The Union of Free Men
This was an organization in Hermann with 51 charter members, among them Eduard Muehl, Charles Strehly, and Wilhelm Krech. Their gatherings usually opened up with a men's choir, directed by Krech. Their first meeting contained the following line by Muehl: "Discard every blind faith, openly and fearlessly confess acquired opinions and principles." The membership fee was 10 cents per week. Within the constitution of the Union was a call for "a fight for freedom, truth and justice in American politics", and "the instruction of its members and Hermann's youth in reason, and in morality for our times."The Union of Free Men considered the bible a human document, "a book in which things of beauty, truth and goodness existed side by side with superstitions, contradictions and immorality." They also routinely denounced what they labeled the "reactionary religious policies" of local churches. The Union even formed it's own Sunday School, so that "children could learn to improve their reasoning and logical thinking as a bulwark against superstition."
Titles of some of the lectures of the Union of Free Men include:
The Inevitable Contradiction of Opinion about Things We Cannot Know
Contradictions in Religious Opinion
The Existence of Freedom
The Inalienable Rights of Man
Samuel and Saul: A Parallel to Gregory VII and Henry IV
House of David: The False Genealogy of Christ and its Basis
Beliefs vs. Knowledge
Concerning Miracles
Concerning Baptism and the Superstitions in the Teaching of the Church Regarding its Use
The Ethics of the Bible
Christianity and Paganism
The Crass Superstition which the Church Maintains in its Teaching about the Last Supper
Belief and PrejudiceAside from a few historical references, very little (if any) Freethought can be observed in Hermann today. We certainly would like to see the Union of Free Men resurrected.
Other Areas
Augusta
Born in Germany in 1799, Friedrich Munch attended the Hessian State University as a divinity student. He joined the liberal immigration to the United States in the 1820's and settled in rural Missouri. He was an active political writer, advocating public education, the right of individual conscience, and religious freedom. He became embroiled in several extended controversies with orthodox immigrant churches, especially the Lutherans. He published "Treatise on Religion and Christianity" in 1847, in which he proposed a set of principles which included no role for miraculous or supernatural phenomena, accepting the "higher criticism" of the bible, and urging the primacy of reason in regard to religious beliefs. He became very involved in the struggle against slavery, and his life was threatened several times. But he refused to alter his principles. He wrote freelance for German language newspapers across the state, advocating abolition. Upon a time he was elected to the Missouri Senate, where he served a distinguished career.
In addition to his political and intellectual writings, Munch wrote the first book on American grape varieties. With his brother, he founded the Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta, which still produces award-winning wines to this day.
A portion of the Fundamental Articles of German Rationalism
by Friedrich Munch-History, though it shows innumerable errors of human reason, on the whole discloses a progress of our race in developing the inborn light.
-There have been historical events more eminently calculated for the advancement of truth and enlightenment; the Mosaic institution was such a one, yet imperfect and adapted to the state of intellectual culture at the time.
-Our holy books are to be interpreted according to the same rules applied to other remnants of antiquity.
-All conceptions of supernatural events and performances are to be attributed to a deficiency of clear-sightedness in the observer, narrator, and believer, in taking the extraordinary for the miraculous.
-All men have a right, and it is their duty, to think for themselves, and to live accordingly to their own candid convictions; there ought to be no compulsion in religious matters, no hatred, no denunciation, not even violent disputes; truth must eventually triumph by its intrinsic superiority and strength."At least one half of the Americans around us profess the so-called big church; i.e., they belong to no denomination, do not participate in religious practices, and esteem anyone to the degree of his righteousness and diligence..." Friedrich Munch, August 1, 1851 printed in the Deutsche Schnellpost
