Berliner Journal
The Berliner Journal was a German-language weekly-newspaper published in Berlin, Canada, from 1859 to 1918. The newspaper was founded by the German immigrants and John Motz, who operated the paper together through most of its existence until their sons – William John Motz, Herman Rittinger and John Adam Rittinger – took over the operation at the turn of the century.
German speakers made up a large segment of those immigrating to Canada in the 19th century, and demand for German-language publications in Upper Canada was high. When founded, the Berliner Journal was one of several German-language newspapers in Ontario. By 1908, competitors had either ceased publication or amalgamated into it, making the Journal one of only two German papers in Ontario and the most widely read in Canada. At its peak, circulation was around 5,000 with a readership spanning the country and extending into the northern United States.
The outbreak of the First World War led to rising anti-German sentiment in Canada. After Berlin changed its name to Kitchener in 1916, the newspaper was renamed the Ontario Journal in January 1917. A 1918 Order in Council prohibiting the use of "enemy languages" in Canadian publications led the Journal to publishing only in English beginning in October 1918 and then folding altogether that December.
Origins: 1859–1899
Founding and early years
from Michaelbach, Baden, and John Motz from, near Mühlhausen, founded the Berliner Journal in Berlin, Canada West, in 1859. German publications were in high demand, with Germans then the third-largest immigrant group in Canada after the English and French. As a weekly newspaper, the Journal began as one of several German-language newspapers in Canada West. By 1867, there were 18 German-language newspapers in Southwestern Ontario, and in any year between 1859 and 1908, Waterloo County usually had four German newspapers, and always between three and five.Soon after his arrival in Berlin in 1848, Rittinger worked in the mechanical department of Der Deutsche Canadier – a well-established German-language newspaper – being responsible for printing copies of the newspaper. When he and Motz decided they wanted to get into the newspaper business in 1859, they initially tried to negotiate for the purchase of the Canadier. After the owner refused to sell, Rittinger – who was now head of the mechanical department – left to found the Journal with Motz. Upon its founding, the Journal became involved in a bitter feud with the Canadier, with the Canadier mocking the Journal, suggesting it would not make it beyond one issue. Feuds between rival newspapers were common in nineteenth century Ontario, especially between direct competitors like the Journal and Canadier.
File:Berliner journal.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Several men and teenagers stand pose in-front of the printing office.|The printing office at 42 King Street West, ; from the left, Herman Rittinger, William John Motz, John Motz and stand second through fifth
The first issue of the Journal ran on 29 December 1859 and included four-pages on 26 × 20 inch paper. Rittinger acquired German types from Joseph Unzicker of nearby Hamilton by providing a promissory note against Unzicker's recently failed newspaper. The first issue was typeset at Rittinger's home in downtown Berlin using a handpress provided by the Berlin Chronicle, a local English newspaper. They delivered 600 copies of the first issue to both paying and prospective subscribers. For subsequent issues, the Chronicle provided the Journal with work space at their office. In the absence of copyright laws, the paper's content included columns reprinted verbatim from German sources – especially the German-American dailies Wechselblätter and Texas Vorwärts – as well as material translated from the English-Canadian press. Motz and Rittinger edited the translated pieces, removing content they thought sensationalist and which "the average German could only poorly digest". The paper was printed by hand and – with neither postal nor railway service yet available – delivered on horseback. Subscribers scattered across the countryside required the horse rider to swim across both the Grand and Conestogo Rivers. By 1863, the paper's circulation was around 1,000. The Canadier found it increasingly difficult to compete with the Journal and folded in January 1865. Following the closure, an article published in the Journal mocked its former competitor, framed as an obituary recounting a person's slow decline in health.
Professor Werner Entz writes that Rittinger and Motz entered the newspaper business less conscious of making a profit than of making an impact through their journalism. Both expressed their desire to be recognized as the best German newspaper in Canada and were quick to notice praise. A piece speaking favourably of the Journal published in the Deutsche Roman-Zeitung of Berlin, Prussia, was reprinted in its entirety in the Journal. Scholar Herbert Karl Kalbfleisch reflects that the quick success of the Journal reflected the strong combination of Rittinger's experience as a technical director and Motz's "facile pen". As the paper's editor, Motz believed it important for the press and social organizations to cooperate on shared causes, evidenced by the Journal pushing for German to be taught in Ontario schools and the promotion of German cultural events; in 1897, Motz, along with community leader George Rumpel, headed the committee in charge of the dedication of a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Berlin's Victoria Park. Following the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, Motz, along with community leader and future Waterloo North MP Hugo Kranz, founded a "German patriotic relief organization", which raised one thousand dollars towards "the wounded and widows and orphans of the German armies".
Early coverage
While Berlin's English language papers wrote about Canadian and municipal political news, the Journal focused primarily on foreign news along with working to cultivate local German culture. The newspaper covered events relating to Germany alongside German literary prose and poetry. From 1860 through 1914, the paper published German language lessons to generate further German pride, nearly two-thirds of which had been previously published in German-American newspapers. The paper discussed Canada–United States relations and provided news on the American Civil War. The editors made clear that the paper supported the Union, speaking favourably of Abraham Lincoln and German Americans Carl Schurz, Franz Sigel and Louis Blenker.Like most German-American and German-Canadian newspapers, the Journal coverage of Germany was sympathetic and supportive of their various war efforts, something apparent in the newspaper's early reporting of the Danish-Prussian and Austro-Prussian Wars. News of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and German unification in 1870–71 dominated the paper's coverage; readers desperate to know about the conclusion of battles travelled "many miles on foot, or by vehicle, to procure their copy of the Journal at the press." Historian Barbara Lorenzkowski writes that, by covering the homeland's military victories and subsequent celebrations of peace, the Journal " its readers into a festive space that transcended national boundaries", allowing German immigrants in North America to " the very rituals celebrated by the 'German brethren' in the Fatherland".
Most Berliners had immigrated to Canada before the Völkisch movement arose in the late 19th century, leading to a community generally less infatuated with German nationalism than those who immigrated after the 1870s. The Journal still had occasional fits of nationalism, seen in editorials suggesting that German victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War was due in part to cultural and moral superiority, and that a French victory in the war would have led to disastrous consequences for German-Canadians. Lorenzkowski writes that these claims were generally exceptions. Over time, the Journal moved towards spurning German nationalism more than other local German papers. As anti-liberal trends expanded in Germany in the end of the 19th century, Motz critiqued the German government's actions, especially the lack of both parliamentary rights and freedom of speech.
Rittinger, a member of the Lutheran Church, and Motz, a devout Roman Catholic, were tolerant of each other's religions. In an 1859 editorial, Motz called for religious tolerance and freedom, writing he intended to keep the Journal out of religious matters. He further explained he intended the newspaper to be neutral in discussion of politics, though slightly leaning towards the Reform Party. In other pieces, he encouraged the paper's readers to be politically active and provided instructions on how to become a British subject so that they may vote. Despite his promise to be generally neutral in political discussions, the paper reliably supported the policies of the Reform Party's successor, the Liberal Party. Conservatives in Berlin opposed the Journal for its liberal slant and formed competing papers, such as the Freie Presse and the Deutsche Zeitung in 1891. Zeitung's editorials complained of "English nativism in Canada" and sought to promote German ways, while the Journal instead focused on more pressing German-Canadian issues. Historian Kenneth McLaughlin suggests Zeitung, which folded in 1899, was too narrowly German to maintain itself in Ontario. From 1875 to 1893, the Journal circulation increased from 1,620 to around 2,200, expanding to eight pages on 21½ × 15½ inch paper.
Expansion: 1899–1915
Transfer to sons
Rittinger died in 1897, and, in 1899, Motz left the Berliner Journal to become the honorary sheriff of Waterloo County. Their sons took over the newspaper that year; William John Motz served as local editor and Herman Rittinger as the technical publisher-director. In 1904, another of Friedrich Rittinger's sons, John Adam Rittinger, became the newspaper's editor-in-chief after the Journal acquired the paper he owned and operated, Die Ontario Glocke of nearby Walkerton, Ontario.John Adam Rittinger was born 16 February 1855 in Berlin, Canada West. After graduating from St. Jerome's College in 1873, Rittinger learned the printing trade at his father's shop and apprenticed for newspapers in Guelph, Toronto, Buffalo, New York and Chicago. In December 1875, he and the Pennsylvania German Aaron Eby acquired the Walkerton Glocke in Walkerton, Ontario. Their partnership dissolved in 1878 over political disagreements, with Rittinger becoming the sole owner and editor, renaming it Die Ontario Glocke in 1882. Readers knew him affectionally as the "Glockemann", or the "Bell Ringer". On 1 July 1904, the Berliner Journal acquired the Glocke and made Rittinger its new editor-in-chief.
William John Motz also attended St. Jerome's College, graduating in 1889. He studied classics and philosophy under St. Jerome's founder, Friar Louis Funcken, whom Kalbfleisch describes as "a priest of great erudition and exceptional pedagogical ability." Motz subsequently obtained a BA in political science at the University of Toronto and an MA at St. Francis Xavier College in New York. After returning to St. Jerome's and teaching for three years, he left for the Journal editorship in January 1899. In the years that followed, he occasionally returned to St. Jerome's to provide guest lectures on journalism.
Both Motz and Rittinger's views as espoused in the Journal were heavily influenced by their education under Funcken, promoting the use of the German language, civic duty and continuing to criticize the anti-liberal trends in Germany and Prussia. In a 1911 letter, Julius Funcken, brother of Louis and, though he lived in Holland, an avid reader of the Journal, wrote, "we believe we are not mistaken when we see Louis' views in the trends of the paper." The sons focused the Journal more heavily on local and national Canadian coverage than on Germany. Their approach to political coverage was also more neutral than John Motz's had been before them, only using the editorial columns to make political arguments. Letters to the editor written in the Pennsylvania-German dialect rather than traditional High German became more common.