Background

He was born on May 3, 1825 in Gottingen, Hanover, Germany, the eldest of the five children of Georg Fridrich Seidensticker. His father (1797 - 1862) was an influential and highly respected lawyer, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars, in which he had fought on both the French and the Austrian side. As the most prominent of the leaders of the liberal political movement in Hanover, he was arrested for his part in the so-called uprising at Gottingen on January 8, 1831, and after legal proceedings had dragged on for seven years, was finally sentenced to life-imprisonment and remanded to prison at Celle. This family calamity left a deep mark on the character of the son, depriving him of a normally carefree youth and making him reserved, serious, and resolute. His mother maintained the family by conducting a private school.

In 1845 his father was released on condition that he emigrate at once, without seeing friends or family, to the United States. He landed at New York, where various German societies welcomed him with banquets, gifts, and speeches. He lived the rest of his life in Philadelphia as a journalist, accountant, and, finally, an official of the customs house.

Education

He attended the Gymnasium and matriculated in 1843 at the University of Gottingen as a student of classical philology. In 1846, he took his doctor's degree at Gottingen with a dissertation De Oenopida Chio (1846). Seidensticker studied medicine for two years in Philadelphia.

Career

In 1846 Oswald and the other members of the family joined the father in Philadelphia. Seidensticker found the work distasteful and turned instead to teaching. He was employed in a private school at Jamaica Plain, Massachussets, 1849-52, and then conducted schools of his own at Bayridge, near Boston, 1852-55, in Brooklyn, 1855-58, and in Philadelphia, 1858-68.

In 1867 he was appointed instructor in German in the University of Pennsylvania and was advanced next year to the rank of professor. During his tenure of twenty-five years he never asked for leave and was never absent until five days before his death. To the German work of the University he gave a prestige that it has maintained to the present day.

His interest in the history of the Germans in Pennsylvania was first stimulated by Abraham H. Cassell, the Dunker antiquary and book-collector of Harleysville, Pennsylvania. Seidensticker was quick to perceive the significance and wealth of the field and made it the work of his leisure hours. He was the first student of Pennsylvania German history to bring to the subject broad culture, literary power, and a mind thoroughly trained in modern methods of historical investigation. To Heinrich Armin Rattermann's paper, Der Deutsche Pionier, he contributed a remarkable series of monographs on various phases of the subject, and in his later years he wrote with equal charm in English for the Pennsylvania Magazine.

He also did much writing for newspapers.

He was one of the chief supporters of the German Society of Pennsylvania and of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. He visited Germany in 1874 and again in 1891. In his latter years he enjoyed to the full the admiration and affection felt for him by many colleagues and friends throughout the United States.

He died at his home in Philadelphia after an illness of a few days.

Achievements

• During 25 years Oswald Seidensticker was the professor of German Language at the University of Pennsylvania and was called "Father of German American historiography". His ground-breaking research into the history of Germans in Pennsylvania led to exploration of all types of sources, including government documents, church registers, tombstones and individual reminiscences. His many books include The First German Immigration to America and the Founding of Germantown in 1683 and The First Century of German Printing in America. He was the founder of the Deutsche Pionier-Gesellschaft of Philadelphia.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The First Century of German Printing in America, 1728-1830; Preceded by a Notice of the Literary Work of F. D. Pastorius

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Ephrata, Eine Amerikanische Klostergeschichte (German Edition)

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Bilder Aus Der Deutsch-Pennsylvanischen Geschichte (German Edition)

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Connections

On December 30, 1858, he married Emma Logo of Philadelphia. His wife and daughter survived him.

Father:

Georg Fridrich Seidensticker

Spouse:

Emma Logo

influencer:

Abraham H. Cassell