George Brumder

George Brumder (May 24, 1839 – May 9, 1910) was a German-American newspaper publisher and businessman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born in Breuschwickersheim, Bas-Rhin, France., Brumder emigrated to the United States, settling in Milwaukee, where he produced several publications that served the city's (and the state's) German-American community.

He was the fifteenth of sixteen children born to Georg and Christina Brumder. In 1857, at the age of 18, Brumder emigrated to Wisconsin with his older sister, Anna Maria, to attend her wedding to a Lutheran minister, Gottlieb Reim. George's first employment was clearing land near Helenville, Wisconsin, though shortly after arriving in the United States, he bade his sister and new brother-in-law farewell and set off on foot on a 45-mile journey to Milwaukee. He became a member of a crew that laid Milwaukee's first street car tracks and later became the foreman of the crew—a fact he remained proud of throughout his life. Brumder soon joined Grace Lutheran Church in Milwaukee where he met his future wife, Henriette Brandhorst, a Prussian immigrant who was born in 1841 and arrived in America in 1853.

The two were married on July 16, 1864 and they invested what little money they had in a small bookstore George had opened a few months earlier at 306 W. Water Street.

A trade label for Geo. Brumder Bookseller

Cover of a 1919 Almanac published by the George Brumder Company nine years after Brumder's death.

The bookstore flourished and the Brumders added a small printing department and book bindery and began publishing books for the Lutheran Church, especially the Wisconsin Synod. Around the same time, a group of prominent German immigrants formed the German Protestant Publishing Company and selected the name Germania for their name of their first publication, a weekly and daily newspaper. That venture ran into financial difficulty due to cost overruns and limited circulation and the group sought Brumder's assistance. Under his stewardship, the publication eventually thrived. Brumder bought out controlling interest in the company in 1874. In 1897, Brumder bought the Milwaukee daily Abend-Post and Sontags Journal and changed the name of Germania to Germania Abend-Post. Brumder acquired several other papers over the years including the Lincoln Freie Presse (1904) and the daily Milwaukee Herold (1906). Brumder eventually controlled most of Milwaukee's German language newspapers and also owned German papers in Chicago and Lincoln, Nebraska, as well as in several other Wisconsin towns. He was also president of the Germania National Bank (1903–1910) and of the Concordia Fire Insurance Company (1897–1909). Among other business ventures, Brumder briefly owned the American League Boston Red Sox from 1903 to 1904, during their first pennant win.

Germania Building

In 1896, Brumder built a new headquarters for his growing publishing empire at 135 W. Wells St. The 8-story Germania Building, as it was called, was designed by German-trained architects Schnetzky & Liebert and was, at the time of its construction, the largest office building in the city of Milwaukee. In 1918, the building's name was changed to the Brumder Building in response to anti-German sentiment during World War I but was changed back to the Germania Building after a significant renovation in 1981. 17 years after Brumder's 1910 death, the printing presses were removed from the basement levels of the building, giving the city its first underground parking garage. The Beaux-Arts/Classical Revival building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

George and Henriette had eleven children, seven of whom survived them. Amalie Christine was born April 29, 1865, Ida Johanna was born April 27, 1867, William Charles was born October 8, 1868, Emma Dorothea was born July 12, 1870, Alfred William was born April 16, 1871 (died at four and a half months), Alfred Julius was born April 9, 1874, Henriette Mathilda was born May 28, 1875 (died two and a half months), Ella was born in March 1876 (died at one month), George Fredrick was born May 27, 1878, Herman Otto was born May 21, 1880, and Herbert Paul was born July 21, 1885.

Brumder died unexpectedly at the age of 71 on May 9, 1910 from a brain hemorrhage. He is buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee (Section 33, Lots 31 and 32).

Brumder's business and social contributions to Milwaukee, to Wisconsin, and to the United States were signified in part by several conferences with President William McKinley when he was in Milwaukee, a meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House, and dinner with President William Howard Taft at the White House. Upon his death, his wife received letters of condolence from President Taft as well as many leading officials and citizens of this nation, and the flag at Milwaukee City Hall was flown at half mast.