English: On pp. 256-257 of Volume Three of his Reminiscences, Carl Schurz writes:

“I had, since I left Washington, been quietly engaged in editing the Detroit Post, when one day in the spring of 1867 I received, quite unexpectedly, a proposition from the proprietors of the Westliche Post, a daily journal published in the German language in St. Louis, Missouri, inviting me to join them, and offering me, on reasonable terms, a property interest in their prosperous concern. On further inquiry I found the proposition advantageous, and I accepted it. My connection with the Detroit Post, which, owing to the excellent character of the persons with whom it brought me into contact, had been most pleasant, was amicably dissolved, and I went to St. Louis to take charge of the new duties.

“A particular attraction to me in this new arrangement was the association with Dr. Emil Preetorius, one of the proprietors of the Westliche Post. He was a native of Rhenish Hesse, close to the Bavarian Palatinate, where in 1849 the great popular uprising in favor of the National Constitution of Germany had taken place, and of the town of Alzey, which, according to ancient legend, had been the home of the great fiddler among the heroes of the Nibelungenlied — ‘Volker von Alzeien,’ grim Hagen's valiant brother in arms. The city of Alzey still carries a fiddle in its coat of arms. Mr. Preetorius was a few years older than I. He had already won the diploma of Doctor of Laws when the revolution of 1848 broke out. With all the ardor of his soul he threw himself into the movement for free government and had to leave the Fatherland in consequence. But all the idealisms of 1848 he brought with him to his new home in America. As a matter of course, he at once embraced the anti-slavery cause with the warmest devotion, and became one of the leaders of the German-born citizens of St. Louis, who, in the spring of 1861 by their courageous patriotism saved their city and their State to the Union. He then remained in public life as a journalist and as a speaker of sonorous eloquence. He was a man of absolute rectitude and honor and of infinite goodness of heart. His generosity seemed to know no thought of selfish advantage. There was something inspiring in the constant freshness of his enthusiasms for all that was good and great and beautiful, and his wrath at every wrong and meanness. His intense patriotism was that of a man of lofty ideals, and any service he could render to his country, was to him a source of almost childlike joy. We soon became warm friends, intimate in the best sense of the term. We did, indeed, not always think alike, for he was a much stronger partisan than I was. But no difference of opinion ever cast the slightest shadow upon our mutual confidence and the sincere warmth of our attachment.”