August Siemering
| August Siemering | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 8, 1828 Brandenburg, Germany |
| Died | September 9, 1883 (aged 55) San Antonio, Texas |
| Nationality | German Texan |
| Occupation | Publisher |
| Known for | Freethinker Abolitionist |
August Siemering (1828 – 1883), was a notable German Texan educator, writer, publisher and political leader.
August Siemering was born in Brandenburg, Germany, on February 8, 1828.
A liberal in politics, Siemering emigrated from Germany in 1851, and was among the first Forty-Eighters to settle in Sisterdale, Texas, a Free Thinker Latin Settlement resulting from the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states.
The Forty-Eighters were intellectual liberal abolitionists who enjoyed conversing in Latin and believed in utopian ideals that guaranteed basic human rights to all. They reveled in passionate conversations about literature, music and philosophy.
In 1853, Siemering was elected Secretary, and Ernest Kapp the President, of the Freethinker abolitionist organization Die Freie Verein (The Free Society), which called for a meeting of abolitionist German Texans in conjunction with the May 14, 1854 Staats-Saengerfest (State Singing Festival) in San Antonio, Texas. The convention adopted a political, social and religious platform, including:
1) Equal pay for equal work; 2) Direct election of the President of the United States; 3) Abolition of capital punishment; 4) Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles...; 5) Free schools – including universities - supported by the state, without religious influence; and 6) Total separation of church and state.
In 1856, Siemering became a teacher at the first public school in Fredericksburg, Texas a Catholic school.
Abolitionist Siemering was drafted into the Confederate States Army in 1861, serving three years before resigning his commission as a Lieutenant. He referred to that war as "...a nightmare."
The San Antonio Express News was first published by Siemering in 1865, along with co-publisher H. Palmer. Siemering and Palmer also published the German language newspaper Die Freie Presse für Texas.
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