Staats=Anzeiger Archive

Der Staats-Anzeiger (the State Gazette) was established in July 1906 at Rugby, a small country town in Pierce County, North Dakota. Motive for this venture came from some hundred German-Russian families, mostly from the Odessa region and the so-called Kuchurgan District in South Russia. Most were farmers who had settled south and west of Rugby.

Publishing a German-language newspaper was the idea of Anderson and Stager, two young men who published an English-language weekly, the Pierce County Tribune. Neither could speak or write the language, so they hired an editor, who also set type. The paper struggled for several weeks until the publishers were able to entice Frank Brandt to Rugby. Under Brandt, who soon became part-owner, circulation increased dramatically. A subscription to the newspaper was $1.50 per year in the United States and $2.00 per year in Russia. Soon the owners either purchased or at least made a payment on their first typesetting machine. The $3,000 typesetter was equipped with both German and English type and was very efficient.

By 1911, Stager had become ill and was forced to sell his stake so he could move to a different climate. Anderson overextended his credit, and a couple of young attorneys from Devils Lake promised to invest and keep the business going. They decided to move the Staats-Anzieger to their hometown, hiring an editor to handle the Pierce County Tribune. It turned out the Devils Lake men wanted the typesetter machine but not Brandt, whose son Albert had recently become the typesetter. It was also soon discovered that they had no money, so the Brandts took their typesetter and began publishing the Staats-Anzeiger in Bismarck in 1912. The business continued to grow, as did the number of contributors. There were also contributors as well as correspondents among the readership abroad, especially in South Russia and Romania.

In July 1914, war in Europe broke out, and a war against German-language newspapers followed, especially after the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. Brandt later said that the eighteen months that followed were the darkest days of the family's business and personal lives. But despite having to fight in the courts for their right simply to keep space for their business, the Brandts as well as the Staats-Anzeiger survived and eventually flourished again.

The newspaper was successful in connecting many of the Germans from Russia who settled in the Great Plains of the United States. Also, family members on opposite sides of the world remained in communication through letters published in Der Staats-Anzeiger.

Frank Brandt and his wife Sophia passed away in 1942 and 1941, respectively. Sons Walter and Albert continued the newspaper until 1945, when they sold it to the Tribune Publishing Company of Omaha, Nebraska. The company maintained an office in Bismarck, staffed by an editor and business manager. The company moved to Fredonia in 1968 and then closed in 1969. In 1970, the paper merged with Die Welt-Post to form a new publication known as Die Welt-Post und der Staats-Anzeiger.