The Henry Lischer House is an historic home located in the Hamburg Historic District

Hamburg Historic District (Davenport, Iowa)

Hamburg Historic District is located on a bluff north of downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It is listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties and on the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district is where the city’s middle and upper income German community lived...

 in Davenport, Iowa

Davenport, Iowa

Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1983. The house was individually listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in 1993. The Italian Villa

Italianate architecture

The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...

 style home was designed by Davenport architect Frederick Clausen.

Henry Lischer

The home is associated with Henry Lischer, the owner and publisher of one of Davenport’s German-language newspapers Der Demokrat. The paper was founded by Theodor Gülich in November 1851. Lischer and his partner, Theodor Olshausen, bought the paper in 1856. Both were German immigrants who became newspapermen in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. At its inception the paper was aligned with the political philosophy, and financial support, of the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

. However, it was a “free paper” that was not beholden to party doctrines and supported the right of freedom and human rights. It began to support the positions of the Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

. It was opposed to slavery and printed a supportive obituary to abolitionist John Brown

John Brown

John Brown may refer to:* John Brown , American who led an anti-slavery revolt in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859* John Brown , Scottish physician who taught that disease was caused by either excessive or inadequate stimulationJohn Brown may also refer to:- American :* John Y. Brown, Sr. , U.S...

. Lischer and Olshausen left Davenport in 1860 to return to St. Louis where they took over the Westliche Post. The new owners of Der Demokrat experienced financial problems as a result of their radical views and the economic downturn as a result of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. Lischer, who still had a financial interest in the paper, returned to Davenport and became its sole owner for the next 40 years. After the Civil War editorials in the paper fought the prohibition of alcohol, which was supported by the Republican Party. Even after the state of Iowa successfully passed prohibition laws in 1882, Scott County

Scott County, Iowa

-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 165,224 in the county, with a population density of . There were 71,835 housing units, of which 66,765 were occupied.-2000 census:...

remained defiant with the support of the paper. Lischer’s sons continued their father’s work after his death.