Background
Anna Behr Uhl Ottendorfer was born on February 13, 1815, in Würzburg, German, the daughter of Eduard Behr, a merchant.
Anna Behr Uhl Ottendorfer was born on February 13, 1815, in Würzburg, German, the daughter of Eduard Behr, a merchant.
Living in an age when higher education for women was generally frowned upon, Anna enjoyed only a common-school training, though showing an early aptitude for learning.
In 1836 or 1837, in company with a relative, Anna left Germany for the United States, determined to make her own way in the growing republic of the West. The first year she spent with a brother in Niagara County, New York. In 1838 she made the acquaintance of a young printer, Jacob Uhl, whom she married in New York City the same year. The early years of their married life were marked by struggle and penury. In 1844 they purchased, on the instalment plan, the German job-printing and book-and-newspaper publishing business of Julius Boetticher in New York. The New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung was printed in this office. By dint of the hard work and thriftiness of the two owners, the enterprise proved so successful that they were able the next year to purchase the Staats-Zeitung, then a small weekly.
Anna Uhl did her full share as compositor, secretary, and general manager. The paper developed first into a tri-weekly, then into a daily publication. In 1852 Uhl died, and the widow, displaying remarkable perseverance and executive ability, not only cared for her six small children but also continued to attend to the constantly growing business of her publishing concern and of the Staats-Zeitung in particular. From 1852 to 1859 she was the sole manager, declining several flattering offers of purchase.
On July 23, 1859, Anna was married to her assistant, Oswald Ottendorfer. After this marriage, which did not cause Mrs. Ottendorfer to discontinue her managerial activities, the newspaper enjoyed even greater success, financially and professionally, than before. Daily she would receive in her private offices a host of visitors, many of whom came to solicit her philanthropic cooperation. In accordance with her means Mrs. Ottendorfer had always engaged in charitable work; in her declining years, when she had amassed a considerable fortune, she did so extensively. Many of her philanthropies, of considerable scope for their day, were privately bestowed and have never been published.
In 1875 Anna founded the Isabella Home for Aged Women in Astoria, Long Island, named in memory of her deceased daughter. In 1881, she gave, in memory of her deceased son, the Hermann Uhl Memorial Fund for German-American educational purposes in New York City and Milwaukee. The next year she donated a large sum for the women's pavilion of the German Hospital in New York City, and soon after another for the German Dispensary on Second Avenue, also in New York City. Institutions in Brooklyn, New York, Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Meriden, Connecticut, also benefited by her charities. She gave liberally, too, for providing means for the study of the German language in New York and elsewhere. In 1883 she was decorated by the Empress Augusta of Germany for her charitable endeavors. Further sums for philanthropic purposes were stipulated in her last will. Of her six children, all by her first marriage, a son and three daughters survived her.
Anna Ottendorfer managed to develop the German-language New Yorker Staats-Zeitung into a major newspaper. By the 1870s, its circulation was comparable to English-language newspapers like the New York Times. Anna founded the Isabella Home for Aged Women in Astoria, Long Island (1857); Hermann Uhl Memorial Fund for German-American educational purposes in New York City and Milwaukee (1881). Anna was decorated by the Empress Augusta of Germany in 1883 for her charitable endeavors.
Anna married Jacob Uhl, a young printer, in 1838. They had six children. In 1852 Uhl died. On July 23, 1859, Anna was married to her assistant, Oswald Ottendorfer.
