venture would fall into disrepute within a few years and the Staats-Zeitung returned to the Republican ranks. Concurrent with Hesing's assumption of the paper's ownership in 1867, Hermann Raster accepted the position of editor — a position he would retain until his death in 1891. Raster was the longest holder of this position, and the paper was at the peak of its financial success during his tenure. Wilhelm Rapp returned to the Staats-Zeitung in 1872, and became editor when Raster died in 1891. Great Chicago Fire The Staats-Zeitung was particularly hard hit during the October 1871 Great Chicago Fire. Not only was the building housing the publication, including its machinery and type, lost to the flames, but so, too, were back files of the paper and the publication's records of accounts. Moreover, virtually the entire staff of the paper from editors to press operators found themselves burned out of their homes. Necessary lead type for producing a German-language paper proved impossible to obtain on short notice, and as a temporary measure, production was moved briefly to the German enclave of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After a mere 20 days, production returned to a new press in a new facility in Chicago, the city in which the paper would remain for the rest of its existence, with an expansion of physical size following one month later. A new permanent home for the paper was finally located about one mile away from the Chicago city center, in a new multistory structure built at the corner of Washington Street and Fifth Avenue. The building measured 100 feet from the basement floor to the peak of the roof, making it one of the largest buildings in its area of town, and was designed with the monumental sensibilities of old Europe. Historically Republican, the newspaper endorsed Democratic candidate Samuel J. Tilden in the 1876 United States presidential election. However, it remained officially independent from that point forward, criticizing equally both major American parties. After Hesing, Brentano, and Raster died at the end of the 19th century, the paper began to decline. In 1899, the majority stockholders of the paper created a new board of directors and ousted long-time treasurer Charles Francis Pietsch. Henrietta Hesing and Margarethe Raster, the widows of Washington Hesing and Hermann Raster, controlled the property of the Staats-Zeitung, and Lorenz Brentano's son Theodore became new treasurer. World War I and termination Until the United