Two German language newspapers, Dakota Freie Press (DFP) and Neue Deutsche Presse (NDP), were located a short distance from here at 324 South Main St. Owner and editor, Friedrich Wilheim 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 1905 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.
Aberdeen Chapter, GRHS
Dr. Harry A. Delker, President
Board of Directors
Jacob Binfet.........Mike Heier
Erwin Eichelberg.........T.J. "Bud" Schaffer
Ben Feickert.........Cathy Schatz
Marvin Warns..........
Contributors
Father William Sherman..........Ann Roesch Larson
Dr. La Vern J. Rippley..........Fred Roesch
Aberdeen American News..........The Kesslers
Lust Chevrolet - Buick..........
Text by Text by Dr. La Vern J. Rippley St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN.
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