Beginning in the mid-19th century, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was home to a vibrant German-langauge intellectual scene. This work documents the contributions of notable German-speaking writers and their works, including plays and operettas, prose, poetry and serial novels.

Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and continuing well into the twentieth century, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was home to a remarkably vibrant and complex German-language intellectual scene. Peter C. Merrill documents the contributions of Milwaukee's most notable German-speaking writers and their works, including plays and operettas, prose, poetry, serial novels, and Feuilleton contributions. In these essays, Merill discusses these writers and the cultural context in which they worked. He emphasizes in particular the important German-language theaters of Milwaukee, tracing their history up to the renovation of the magnificent Pabst Theater. Merrill concludes with an overview of German-American urban culture in the city.