F.W. Sallet and the Dakota Freie Presse

The paper Sallet bought in 1903 was already twenty-nine years old. Bernhard Quinke founded it at Yankton in April 1874, and its circulation climbed from 295 in 1875 to nearly 14,000 by 1920; it went out of print on February 24, 1954, merged into the America Herold Zeitung. The nephew who followed Sallet, Richard Sallet, wrote a 1930 Königsberg thesis on Russian-German settlements in America. LaVern Rippley, who wrote this marker's text, translated it with Armand Bauer in 1974, with an essay by William Sherman, another name on the back.

What the plaque says

F. W. Sallet and the Dakota Freie Presse Two German-language newspapers, Dakota Freie Press (DFP) and Neue Deutsche Presse (NDP), were located a short distance from here at 524 South Main St. Owner and editor, Friedrich Wilhelm Sallet, emigrated from East Prussia and published DFP for Germans from Russia with NDP for Reich Germans. Aberdeen was a hub for both groups. Begun in 1874 in Yankton, the DFP was purchased by Sallet in 1903 and moved to Aberdeen in 1909. The DFP was "the oldest and most widely distributed newspaper for Germans from Russia in the world." It claimed to have subscribers in 1,500 communities on four continents. Sallet used the DFP as headquarters for a relief department which sent packages to famished Soviet villages in 1921 and four shiploads of dairy cows to supply milk to German orphanages. The DPF carried columns for people seeking addresses of "lost" individuals, operated as a clearing house on land and immigration, and in 1924 became the first U.S. paper allowed re-entry into the Soviet Union. Wrongly suspected of being pro-German, Sallet and his NDP editor, J. F. Paul Gross, were arrested in 1918 and charged for not filing English translations of two articles with the post office. Following the trial, Gross was interned in Georgia while Sallet paid a fine and legal costs. Sallet was defended by Dorothy Rehfeld, the first female attorney to practice in S. D. The NDP ceased publication in January 1918. In 1920, the DFP moved to Minnesota and continued until 1954. After Sallet's death in 1932, his nephew (Dr. Richard Sallet) became editor. F. W. Sallet and the Dakota Freie Presse Erected 1990 by the Aberdeen Chapter, Deutscher Kultur Verein, of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS), the South Dakota State Historical Society and the State Department of Transportation.

Where it stands

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