Hermann Raster (1827–1891) was a German Forty-Eighter, best known for his job as chief editor for the Illinois Staats-Zeitung between 1867 and 1891.[1]
Raster was born in Zerbst, Anhalt-Dessau in 1827 to a family of aristocrats. His father, statesman Christian Raster was the official assistant and close friend of the Duke of Anhalt, Leopold IV, and had seven children. Hermann graduated from University of Leipzig in 1846 and the University of Berlin in 1848. In 1849 he took a job as the stenographer of the Anhalt Legislature. Raster took part in the revolutions of 1848, writing passionately against church and monarchy. He was forced to flee to America with fellow revolutionaries to escape prison.
Raster arrived in New York in July, 1851 and first found employment as a farmhand near Tioga, PA. He left for Buffalo in the spring of 1852, accepting the position of editor for the Buffalo Demokrat. His journalistic reputation grew quickly and in February 1853, Raster was made editor of the New York Abendzeitung, the most influential German-language paper of the time.
He was one of eight children, his siblings in order being Luise, Alexander, Wilhelm, Gustav, (then Hermann) Askan, Wolfgang, and Sophie.
In 1867, Raster accepted the position as editor for the Illinois Staats-Zeitung in Chicago, where he remained until his death. Raster died in July 1891 in Silesia, Germany where he had traveled for his poor health. His third wife Margarethe and their three children, Anna, Edwin and Walther survived him.
Raster was influential in leading the German-American switch to the Republican Party in 1856, swaying German public opinion via his pro-union, anti-slavery articles in the German press, and promoting the personal liberty cause.