Carl Schurz

Carl Schurz (1829–1906) immigrated to the U.S. as one of the “Forty-Eighters,” which was a group that immigrated in 1848 due to the revolution in Germany. He became involved in the newly-formed Republican Party, and gave speeches in support of Abraham Lincoln, mainly in German, which helped raise Lincoln’s popularity among German American voters. During the 1860 and 1864 campaigns, he rallied German American voters in support of Lincoln. During the war, he served as a brigadier general under General Frémont, and later General Sigel. After the war, Schurz became chief editor of the Detroit Post and remained active in politics. In 1868, Schurz became the first German American elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1876, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him as Secretary of the Interior.