Berliner Journal
A weekly German-language newspaper published every Thursday, without interruption, from 1859 to 1918 in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario.
Founded by German-born immigrants Friedrich Rittinger and John Motz, the latter serving as the paper’s editor for forty years, the Journal saw a steady increase in circulation figures from its inception until 1909, when its readership reached a peak of over 5,000.
The Journal was read far beyond the borders of Waterloo County; copies of the paper were distributed to major Canadian cities as well as to former inhabitants of Berlin, Ontario, who had settled in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. The Journals aim was to provide its readers with an overview of events in Europe, particularly in Germany, as well as to report on local and regional happenings. However, in its latter years, as the Journals readers became increasingly established in Canada, local news outweighed foreign reports. The Berliner Journal absorbed three other newspapers between 1904 and 1909, and by 1916 it was the only German- language newspaper in Ontario. The Journal was suddenly forced to cease publication after the government of Canada issued an Order in Council on October 2, 1918, which prohibited the publishing of German-language newspapers.More than a mere chronicle of events, the Berliner Journal was a key instrument in allowing German settlers to acclimatize to their new home. While maintaining a bond with the Old World by printing national and local news from Germany, the Journal also introduced its readers to the customs, laws, and opportunities of the New World; proceedings of the Parliament of Canada, the Canadian constitution, and detailed reports of the Canadian political scene were all relayed in German to the paper’s readership. The reporting of local news and gossip, as well as the advertising of local German cultural events such as concerts, theater performances, and church gatherings, although seemingly provincial, served the important purpose of building community. Articles and editorials advocated not only pride in German language and culture but also local pride in the city of Berlin.
In his first editorial, Motz, himself an active member of the Reform Party, made a claim of the Berliner Journals intended neutrality in reference to religion and politics, with slight leanings toward the Reform Party in regard to the latter. In fact, the Journal proved to be a staunch supporter of the policies of the Liberal Party (which had absorbed Reform Party remnants) up to 1904, when it merged with the Ontario Glocke (Ontario Bell) and became more independent politically.
In respect to the political situation in Germany, the Berliner Journal had a rather critical stance toward the German Empire and its restrictive policies. The proGerman stance of the Journal's competitors, notably the Freie Presse (Free Press) and the Deutsche Zeitung (German Newspaper), was not well received by the public; younger German generations did not want to be set apart on the basis of their cultural origins. On this matter, as on many others, the Berliner Journal proved to be a German Canadian newspaper, as opposed to merely being a German-language newspaper in Canada.
Agata Monkiewicz and James M. Skidmore
See also Newspaper Press, German Language in the United States; Ontario; Rittinger, John Adam
References and Further Reading
Frisse, Ulrich. Berlin, Ontario (1800—1916). New Dundee, Ontario: Trans-Atlantic Publishing, 2003, 251-254.
Kalbfleisch, Herbert Karl. The History of the Pioneer German Language Press of Ontario, 1835—1918. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968.
Richardson, Lynn Elizabeth. “A Facile Pen: John Motz and the Berliner Journal, 1859-1911.” MA thesis, University of Waterloo, 1991.