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Fritz Anneke

Copy print of a ferrotype of Fritz Anneke. View the original source document: WHI 76133

b. Dortmund, Westphalia, Prussia, 1818
d. Chicago, Illinois, December, 1872

Fritz Anneke was a soldier, journalist and a German revolutionary. Anneke was born in Dortmund, Westphalia, Prussia in 1818. A discharged refugee Prussian artillery officer, he migrated to the United States and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his wife, Mathilde Franziska Anneke in 1849.

Journalism

With other '48ers, he established Wisconsin's first Turnverein and the People's Literary Society. In 1852, he left Wisconsin, and from 1852 to 1859 served as editor or correspondent for various reform newspapers across the United States. From 1859 to 1861 he was correspondent in Europe covering the Italian Revolution.

Union Army

Returning to Wisconsin in 1861, he served as an artillery officer in the Union army. Charges of insubordination and desertion soon frustrated his service, and after imprisonment and trial he was discharged from the army in 1863. He then lived principally in St. Louis and contributed to Midwestern and German newspapers.

In 1870 he moved to Chicago where he was agent for the German-American Society — Deutsche Cesellschaft — until his death on December 8, 1872

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[Sources: W. Hense-Jensen, Wis. Deutsch-Amerikaner (2 vols., Milwaukee, 1900-1902); C. Schurz, Reminiscences of C. Schurz (3 vols., New York, 1907-1908); Chicago Tribune, Dec. 9, 1872; F. and M. F. Anneke Papers; WPA field notes. Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]