National Carl Schurz Association

Carl Schurz was born in Liblar, near Cologne, Prussia in 1929.

After participating in the 1848-1849 German Revolution, he immigrated to the United States with his wife Margarethe in 1852 and shortly settled in Philadelphia. Schurz visited Washington, D.C. in 1854 and met with several senators and President Franklin Pierce. They advised him of political opportunities in the Midwest, and Schurz and his wife accordingly moved to Watertown, Wisconsin in 1854. There Schurz was admitted to the bar and became active in Republican Party politics. He served as American minister to Spain in 1861-1862, as a general in the Union Army from 1862 to1864, was elected to the Senate from Missouri in 1868, and served as Secretary of the Interior in 1877-1881. In addition to his political work, Schurz also worked as a journalist. He served as the main correspondent for the Washington Bureau of the New York Tribune during the winter of 1865. He then took a position as editor-in-chief at the Detroit Post, where he remained until 1867. Then he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to work with the Westliche Post, a German daily newspaper. He also served as editor of of the Evening Post from 1881-1885, and as an editorial writer for Harper's Weekly. Throughout his career he remained politically active as a recognized leader in the German American community. Schurz died in May 1906.

The National Carl Schurz Association was founded as the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation in New York in 1930, to "foster American-German friendship and cultural exchange."

It was intended to serve as an administrative agency for separately-endowed trusts formed for specific purposes. The first trust founded was the Oberlander Trust, established in 1930 to enable American citizens active in cultural or civic enterprises to visit German-speaking countries. Other foundation programs were concerned with the teaching of German in the United States and the circulation of German films and books. The foundation hosted art exhibitions and maintained a library and an active publication program, producing both books and the American-German Review. The organization moved to headquarters in Philadelphia's Old Custom House ca. 1939. The organization is currently inactive.