‘A modest sentinel for German interests in England’: The Anglo-German Press in the Long Nineteenth Century

During the long nineteenth century, Germans grew to form one of the largest immigrant communities in Britain, reaching a peak of more than 50,000 in 1911. It is therefore no surprise that various attempts were made throughout the period to establish newspapers for this community, with greater or lesser degrees of success. Between the first venture in 1810 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, which put an end to German publishing and German community activities in Britain, some fifty titles can be identified. Of these, only nine survived their first year, and only six ran for longer than five years. This chapter will provide an initial overview of the Anglo-German press during this period before moving on to look at the motivations of newspaper founders and editors, the challenges they faced in running a newspaper, the kinds of audiences targeted, and the reasons for success or failure....