St. Louis was an epicenter for German culture

 

The revolution that occurred in Germany in 1848 pushed many German immigrants into St. Louis. These Germans were politically liberal minded, as opposed to St. Louis’s original conservative population. Due to the large influx of German immigrants St. Louis took on many characteristics of a German city. Indeed Snider was an early organizer and exponent of the St. Louis Movement. This was a period of the influence of German philosophical thought The period 1861 to 1875. Also known as "The German Era of St. Louis (Bradley 2005).”

               St. Louis effectively became German during the late 1840s German language instruction was introduced into the public schools[1]. According to Snider “bilingual citizenship[2] was stoutly advocated.” A substantial number of German language bookstores existed, during this time, “in order to supply their patrons books and journals ordered from Berlin and Leipzig.” The Mercantile had, and still has various works by Nietzsche in both German and English.[3]

               It is no surprise that the German fought valiantly during the Civil war; after all many came over as refugees in 1848. When Snider reached St. Louis in 1864, “the great War was drawing to a  close, and therewith in proportion the Germans of St. Louis were rising in authority and also in self-assertion....German regiments from St. Louis and from Missouri had been in the thick of the fight all the way, and soon were returning home with a justifiable good opinion of themselves and of their services. Here, accordingly, the Teutonic spirit was mounting upward in lofty self-confidence compared to that of the other elements (Snider 1920).

               After the Civil War, in which we all had in some way participated, and Brokmeyer fought on the Union side, the group was understandably overwhelmed by the “grand historic appearance.” They asked “what does it all mean?” this “was quite the universal question.” After great philosophical though the group decided that “A great world historical deed had been done with enormous labor and outer panoramic pageantry.” But “What lay in it for us and for the future?” The group turned to the Logic, “the eternal principles, the pure essences as they are called.by” Hegel the groups “ philosophic authority.” The St. Louis Movement may be called a child of the period, of the buildung, an infant, but a legitimate birth of the time's spiritual struggle. “And this infant seemed to be sent by the time to a world-school for its discipline. St. Louis was at the center on American, the Gate way to the west, a citadel of French conservationism and a beacon for German liberalism. It was a west, south, east city. According to Snider the St. Louis Movement lasted twenty years (1865-1885).

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[1] German language instruction was valued as a staple of the public school curriculum until it was dropped in 1888 in an action that caused much consternation among St. Louisans at the time.

[2] During this time, Snider notes, "[a]s to public manners and amusements, the people turned German.

[3] The Mercantile's ownership of these volumes indicates that Nietszche's works were not only available but sought out and read by some St. Louisans during the decades of the 1880s and 1890s.