Gottfried Duden

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Gottfried Duden was a German writer from the 19th century. He traveled in the United States and wrote of his experiences in many of them (especially Missouri) in his famous book Bericht über eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerika's ("Report of a journey to the western states of North America"). He established a farm near what is now Dutzow, Missouri along the Missouri River near Hermann, Missouri. His book on the region, comparing the Missouri River to the Rhine in Germany, and his positive remarks concerning the climate, culture and soils in Missouri led to untold tens of thousands of German immigrants to the area in the 1850s.

Gottfried Duden was born May 19, 1785, in Remscheid, Duchy of Berg. He was a Prussian lawyer who settled in rural Warren County about 50 miles west of St. Louis, in 1824. He was able to hire others to farm his land while he spent most of his time traveling and writing. He returned to Germany in 1827, and published a tract entitled, Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America and a Stay of Several Years Along the Missouri (during the years 1824, ‘25, ‘26, and 1827), first printed in 1829. It praised the virtues of settling in Missouri. Apparently numerous similar tracts circulated in Germany at that time, but Duden's was especially well known. The result was a flood of German immigrants beginning in the 1830s. By 1860, more than 38,000 Germans had settled in the lower Missouri River valley. German immigrants to Missouri are often called "followers of Duden." Duden died on October 29, 1855, in Remscheid.

[edit] References

“German Settlement in Missouri: New Land, Old Ways,” by Robyn Burnett and Ken Luebbering, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 1996, p 10.
“Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America and a Stay of Several Years Along the Missouri (during the years 1824, ‘25, ‘26, and 1827),” 1829, English translation by Elsa Nagel, manuscript on file at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection–Columbia of the University of Missouri