Saturday, January 3, 2026

What can you expect to find in Milwaukee's German newspapers?


Besides the news stories about the horrific political assassination of Melissa Hortmann and her husband by a deranged christian nationalist self-styled preacher, Milwaukee's German-American papers might have had multiple obituaries, repeated death notices (some maybe with pending info), followed by the funeral details, fraternal notices, reporting about the funeral & burial event. Then there might be family thanks, and even later, more notices of thanks from the family, and very possibly possibly death anniversary notices in following years.

If this had been the 1860s and 1870s, you might've found an edition with this horrible news about a beloved public figure lined with heavy black borders, running vertically between the entire length of each column, as the newspaper draped itself in mourning.