1. Hermann Raster was an American editor, abolitionist, writer, and anti-temperance political boss who served as chief editor and part-owner of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, a widely circulated newspaper in the German language in the United States, between 1867 and 1891.
Hesing, Raster exerted considerable control over the German vote in the Midwest and forced the Republican Party to formally adopt an anti-prohibition platform in 1872, known as the Raster Resolution.
Hermann Raster was appointed as Collector of Internal Revenue for the First District of Illinois by President Ulysses S Grant but resigned from this post shortly thereafter.
Hermann Raster returned to Europe in 1890 when his health began to fail him and died filling a minor diplomatic role in Berlin.
Hermann Raster was born in Zerbst, in the Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau on May 6,1827, to a family from the German nobility.
Hermann Raster was the son of statesman Wilhelm Christian Raster, a friend of Leopold IV, Duke of Anhalt who served as the chief Collector of Customs and Excise for the Duchy and was a noted translator from the English language.
Hermann Raster's father insisted he learn English from a young age and had a tutor brought from England to instruct him.
Hermann Raster graduated from the University of Leipzig in 1846 and then the University of Berlin in 1848, studying philology, linguistics, and history at his father's behest.
In 1851, during the aftermath of the failed revolutions, Hermann Raster was given the choice to emigrate permanently from the German States like other Forty-Eighters or to face criminal prosecution for his actions.
Hermann Raster arrived in New York City in July, 1851 and first found employment as a wood-chopper at a farm near Tioga, Pennsylvania.
Hermann Raster left for Buffalo in the spring of 1852, accepting the position of editor for the Buffalo Demokrat.
Hermann Raster had a wife, Emilia Berta Hahn Raster, born in 1836, and a daughter, Mathilde, with her in 1855.
Hermann Raster was influential in leading the German-American switch to the Republican Party in 1856, swaying German public opinion via his pro-union, anti-slavery articles in the German press, and promoting the personal liberty cause.
Hermann Raster was a very strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln and helped convince the German and European communities to vote Republican.
Hermann Raster is interred at Evergreens Cemetery in New York.
Hermann Raster returned to Germany briefly during the war to drum up support for the Union and find investors for Union bonds.
Hermann Raster was a delegate to the 1868 Republican National Convention, where he was chairman of the platform committee.
In 1872, Hermann Raster resigned from the position as Collector of Internal Revenue to save more time for the paper and help campaign for Grant in the upcoming election.
Hermann Raster held so much influence over the German community he once threatened to leave the party if Prohibition was not made an issue and the resolution not passed and with him the entire German vote, which was a substantial base of power for the Republican Party in the West.
Hermann Raster was an active member of the Chicago Intelligentsia of the late 19th century, and was on the first 9-member board of the Chicago Public Library in the 1870s.
Hermann Raster was on the Chicago Board of Education for many years, and was on the board of trustees for the Field Museum of Natural History.
Hermann Raster died on July 24,1891, in Kudowa-Zdroj, Silesia, where he had traveled in June 1890 because of his poor health.
Hermann Raster's body was brought back to the United States on board the SS Eider of the Norddeutscher Lloyd.
In 1893 the Hermann Raster School was opened on 6937 Wood St in Chicago and had 200 students.
Hermann Raster's son-in-law was Chicago architect Arthur Hercz and his granddaughter Corrine married Chicago-based industrialist and horticulturist Bruce Krasberg.