Background
Morwitz, Edward, , Germany 1815 1893 Male Physician Publisher physician and publisher, the son of a wealthy merchant, was born in Danzig, Prussia.
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Edward Morwitz
Edit ProfileEducation
After receiving his Jewish education in his native city, he was sent to Halle, where he studied Semitic languages, Oriental literature, and theology.
Deciding upon a career as a physician he began the study of medicine in the college at Danzig and continued at Leipzig University and finally at the University of Berlin, receiving the degree of M. D. from the latter institution in 1841.
Career
In 1843 he settled in Konitz, where he began to practise his profession, specializing in the treatment of nervous and mental disorders.
While thus engaged in this small town he began to write his Geschichte der Medicin (2 vols. , 1848 - 49) which was published in Leipzig.
As the work was coming from the press, the Revolutionary movement in Central Europe and France began to assume an ominous phase, and Morwitz, who was strongly inclined to democratic principles, threw in his lot with the Revolutionists.
On one occasion, the carriage in which he was riding was overturned by the royalists, and he was severely injured.
Upon his recovery he was obliged to emigrate.
He made a visit to Europe to settle his affairs and then returned in 1852, taking up his residence in Philadelphia, Pa.
In that city he once more engaged in the practice of his profession and in time established a German dispensary for the poor.
About 1853 he bought a controlling interest in the paper from John S. Hoffmann.
Morwitz formulated many plans for the improvement of Philadelphia and through the Demokrat strongly supported the consolidation of the city.
In 1855 he began the publication of a political weekly, Die Vereinigte Staaten Zeitung, and was active in securing the election of Richard Vaux as mayor of the city in 1856.
In 1866 he issued the Abendpost, which he continued to publish for some years.
He took a prominent part in the organization of the German Press Association of Pennsylvania and in 1870 called a meeting to raise funds to assist German soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War, which resulted in the collection of $600, 000 for the purpose.
In 1874 he purchased the Age, a Philadelphia daily, but the following year sold it.
He published German newspapers in several sections of Pennsylvania.
It is said that at one time three hundred newspapers in both the German and English languages were printed by the Newspaper Union, which he organized.
This was "the most extensive German establishment of its kind in the United States" (Scharf and Westcott, post, III, p. 2012).
In 1873 Morwitz began the publication of Uncle Sam's Almanac, a cheap annual which had a large sale, and in 1875 he started the Jewish Record, which he carried on for eleven years.
With others he compiled the New American Pocket Dictionary of the English and German Languages (in 2 parts, 1883), the forty-seventh edition of which was published in Milwaukee in 1911.
[J. T. Scharf and Thompson Westcott, Hist.
of Phila.
(1884), vol.
III; H. S. Morais, The Jews of Phila.
(1894); the Jewish Encyc. ; the North American (Phila. )
, Phila.
Inquirer, and Pub.
Ledger, Dec. 14, 1893. ]
Politics
Failing there in his efforts he decided in 1850 to go to the United States, where at first he fared no better, but his love for democracy influenced him in determining to remain.
As a Democrat, he advocated the election of James Buchanan for president, and for campaign purposes purchased a newspaper called the Pennsylvanian, but sold it in 1860 when Stephen A. Douglas and John C. Breckinridge were separately nominated for the presidency.
