The Press: German into English

As an immigrant’s son, the late Herman Ridder got his start in newspaper publishing in 1900 with the German-language Staats-Zeitung. But as the vanishing immigrant became the unhyphenated American, the foreign-language press dwindled. Publisher Ridder’s interests grew into a twelve-paper, English-language group of dailies built on the cornerstone of the daily Staats-Zeitung, just as the late Joseph Pulitzer started out on St. Louis’ German-language Westliche Post. Last week, with the number of German readers still dwindling, Victor F. Ridder, 67, son of Herman Ridder, announced that he was selling the Staats-Zeitung und Herald (circ. 22,462), now the largest German-language daily in the U.S., for an undisclosed sum. The new owners: August Steuer, a retired New York restaurateur, and Erwin Single, business manager of the Ridder Journal of Commerce.