newspaperman, soldier, author, b. Freiberg, Saxony. He was an editor and revolutionist in Saxony before migrating to the U.S. in 1851. After doing newspaper work in New York, Boston, and Louisville, he moved to Milwaukee (1854), where he became an ardent defender of liberalism and denounced slavery and the Democratic party. He was editor and publisher of the Corsair (1854-1855), the first German-language Republican paper in Milwaukee, and after its failure issued the short-lived Milwaukee Journal (Jan.-Mar. 1856). In Mar., 1856, he established the Atlas, a Milwaukee German-language weekly (daily after 1858), and was editor and publisher of this paper until its suspension in Apr., 1861. In Nov., 1861, Dornschke, in partnership with William W. Coleman (q.v.), founded the Milwaukee Herold, with Coleman serving as business manager and Domschke as editor. During the Civil War, Domschke served in the 26th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry (Sept. 1862-Apr. 1865), and rose to the rank of captain (1863). He was captured at Gettysburg (July 1863), and was held in various Confederate prisons until his release in Feb., 1865. Returning to Milwaukee after the war, he was the author of Twenty Months as a Prisoner of War (1865), and resumed his editorship of the Herold (1865-1869). One of the leading figures in the Milwaukee German community, Domschke's inability to handle the financial business of newspaper publishing, together with his insistence on literary style and allusion, led to the failure of many of his early newspaper ventures. Wis. Mag. Hist., 29; [F. A. Flower], Hist. of Milwaukee (Chicago, 1881); Milwaukee Sentinel, May 6, 1869; WPA MS.Learn More
Dictionary of Wisconsin History
Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.
[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
