Politics In the 19th century, many Chicago Germans became involved in antislavery abolition movements. Notable German American abolitionists in Chicago included Wilhelm Rapp and Hermann Raster. In the late 19th century, many Germans in Chicago were involved in anarchist-radical politics. At that time German Americans were the primary leaders of the Socialist Labor Party and by 1890 it was essentially a German-speaking group. German was one of the organization's two official languages used in its meetings. German Americans disproportionately made up those who participated in the 1886 Haymarket Riot. Several factors caused German American involvement in radical politics to cease by the 20th century. In the 1880s and 1890s, the living standards of German Americans had improved, making them better than those in Germany. In addition, agitators and radical emigrant editors stopped coming to Chicago because Bismarck repealed Germany's anti-socialist laws. References Heinen, Joseph C. and Susan Barton Heinen. Lost German Chicago (Images of America). Arcadia Publishing, 2009. , 9780738577142. Holli, Melvin G. "German American Ethnic and Cultural Identity from 1890 Onward" (Chapter 3). In: Holli, Melvin G. and Peter d'Alroy Jones (editors). Ethnic Chicago: A Multicultural Portrait. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. Start p. 93. , 9780802870537. Irving, Cutler. Chicago. Southern Illinois University Press, (no date). , 9780809387953. Notes Further reading Hofmeister, Rudolf A. The Germans of Chicago. Stipes Pub. Co., 1976. - Available in Snippet view at Google Books Keil, Hartmut, and John B. Jentz (editors). German Workers in Chicago: A Documentary History of Working-Class Culture from 1850 to World War I. University of Illinois Press, 1988. , 9780252014581. Tischauser, Leslie Vincent. "The Burden of Ethnicity: The German Question in Chicago, 1914–1941." Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. 1981. Townsend, Andrew Jacke. The Germans of Chicago. - Available in Snippet view at Google Books External links "Historic Overview: Germans in Chicago" (Archive) Goethe Institute. - German version (Archive) "German Roots" (Archive) Goethe Institute. - German version (Archive) Germans Chicago German-American culture in Chicago German-American history