Wittenberg: An American College

About the Book

"Half of all the colleges founded before the Civil War did not survive. Wittenberg did. This is the story of a college on the Ohio frontier that sought to Americanize millions of German immigrants and to Americanize the German Lutheran Church. In spite of that, Wittenberg was caught in the anti-foreign prejudice of “Nativists” who feared the influence of immigrants on American institutions. The school prospered after the Civil War as America embraced German culture from classical music to the Christmas tree. The school again faced prejudice in the anti-German furor of World War I. Simultaneously, this is the story of students and faculty coping with the pressures of a nation going from the poverty of the rural frontier to the wealth of an urban-industrial society and how they and Wittenberg changed."

About the Author

William A. Kinnison is well qualified to write this story by long association with Wittenberg and deep love for this highly ranked, Ohio liberal arts institution. As the eleventh President of Wittenberg, from 1974 to 1995, he has been associated with Wittenberg virtually all his life. He grew up six blocks north of campus and graduated in 1954. After military service and graduate study at the Universities of Wisconsin and Ohio State, he served for thirty eight years in the offices of Admissions, Vice President, and President. Since retirement, he and Lenore Morris, Class of 1959, have lived just north of campus. He has written extensively about higher education and Wittenberg.