Bernhard von Florencourt, 1890 Obituary

FLORENCOURT

Posted By: David Reineke (email)
Date: 4/6/2008 at 17:53:05

I translated the following obituary from Der Carroll Demokrat, a German-language newspaper published in Carroll, Iowa, between about 1874 and 1920. It was originally published on Friday, 26 September 1890. Any information in brackets or notes at the end are my own explanations. It reads as follows:

Dr. Bernhard von Florencourt

I was informed by cablegram last Sunday afternoon of the sad news that my dear brother Bernhard died on the morning of 21 September. At the time of his death he stood in the 55th year of his life. The cause of death was heart trouble. He was born on 1 January 1835 in Kiel, Holstein, and when he was 16 years old he went to Rome, where he studied at the Collegium Germanicum, obtained his doctorate there, and was ordained a priest. In 1858 he returned to Germany, where he devoted himself to working as a pastor for two years, but then took up the occupation of newspaper writer. In this capacity, for several years, he was editor-in-chief of the “Vaterland” in Vienna, and he then ran the “Voralberger Volksblatt” in Bregenz on the Bodensea [Lake Constance]. In both of these positions, he had to serve several harsh sentences because he too severely criticized the actions of the government. And he also had to serve a year in prison. He then edited the Silesian “Volkszeitung” and the Ratibor “Volkszeitung” during [Prussian Minister] Falk’s “Kulturkampf” [Bismark’s attempted suppression of the Catholic Church] in Prussia, and here again he was subjected to several harsh penalties. Answering the call from a friend in Bregenz, he returned again to the Voralberger “Volksblatt.” But due to the weak state of his health, he had to give up working at times, and now it appears that it has finished him. May he rest in peace! Requesting your quiet sympathies—Franz Florencourt.