Deutschtum on the prairies, 1914-1918: a study of prairie German-Canadian newspapers during the First World War

Abstract

At the outbreak of the First World War four German-Canadian weekly newspapers actively served a large prairie Gennan-speaking corrnnunity. The British Empire's declaration of war against Gennany and Canada's entry into the war on August 4, 1914 brought about a distinct change in the attitudes of Canadians towards this ethnic minority. It became very difficult for English-Canadians to feel anything but intense suspicion and hatred for the fonner citizens of the Kaiser's Reich. A Canada which had once accepted Germans treated them with contempt and labelled them "enemy aliens." It was during this period that Der Nordwesten, Der Courier, Der Deutsch-Canadier . and the Alberta Herold assumed a critical and supportive stance in the Gennan-speaking corrnnunity and in Western Canadian society at large. The thesis examines the role which the prairie foreign-language press played during World War One. An emphasis will be given to the ways in which the newspapers sustained and supported Gennan-Canadians throughout this difficult period. It will, therefore, focus on the weeklies' approach to the crisis, the manner in which they challenged and responded to the anti-Gennan sentiment, and the positive emphasis which they placed on the legitimate role of Gennan irrnnigrants in Canada's future. It is the contention of this thesis that the ethnic press expressed its corrnnitment to the cause of Gennan-Canadians through its role as a conciliator and interpreter between the dominant English­Canadian society and the prairie Gennan-speaking corrnnunity.