Before the Civil War, Heinrich Boernstein edited the biggest and best German-language newspaper in St. Louis, was the main force behind the city’s German theater, and ran a brewery and beer hall. He led a regiment at the beginning of the war in an action that kept St. Louis on the Union side. But he possessed characteristics that made him less than admirable. He wrote a German-language novel that was outrageously anti-Catholic and was an unrepentant rabble-rouser. You can read his story on Page 12 of Beer, Brats, and Baseball: St. Louis Germans.
Jim Merkel the Writer 