"As an immigrant leader in St. Louis and neighboring Illinois, Friedrich Hecker forged the bonds that tied the region’s German community to the party of Abraham Lincoln and to the cause of emancipation that shaped modern America.”—Louis S. Gerteis, author of Civil War St. Louis

            Friedrich Hecker (1811–1881) lived the first half of his life in the Grand Duchy of Baden, a small state in southern Germany. He was a major leader of a rebellion on behalf of the German republican movement in 1848, but his defeat forced him into exile in America. There he spent the second half of his life as a farmer in southern Illinois, helping to found the Republican Party and campaigning among his countrymen in local and national elections. During the Civil War he served bravely, fighting in some of the most important battles. Although much better known in Germany than in America, he founded a remarkable family in the Midwest that is still flourishing and is a major example of the melding of the European and American traditions of liberty.

            The work draws heavily from original sources, including letters and diaries at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, the Missouri Historical Society, and the St. Louis Mercantile Library.

About the Author
             Sabine Freitag was previously Scholar in Residence at the German Historical Institute in London and is now a member of the Historical Seminar of the University of Cologne. She is the coeditor of British Envoys to Germany, 1816–1866.

About the Editor
             Steven Rowan is Professor of History at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. He is the author, editor, or translator of many books, most notably Germans for a Free Missouri.