J. Hanno Deiler Papers

John Hanno Deiler was born at Altoetting, Upper Bavaria on August 8, 1849, the second son of Konrad and Magdalena Deiler. Deiler attended the public schools in his hometown. He also received training in music from a Bavarian court composer and from his father who was a court musician. In 1866 he won a scholarship to the Royal Normal College of Munich; in 1868 he graduated from that institution with honors. He then held government appointments as a teacher in several schools. While teaching in Munich, he furthered his own education at the Royal Polytechnic Institute and at the University of Munich. In 1871 he accepted a position as principal of a German school in New Orleans. He arrived in New Orleans early in 1872 and later that year married Wilhelmina Saganowski. In 1879 he became professor of German at the University of Louisiana, which later became Tulane University. It was Deiler's ambition to cultivate a taste for German literature, culture, and song in New Orleans and to improve the condition of Germans in the United States. Toward these ends he helped establish and participated in several organizations. He served for many years as director of the Deutsche Gesellschaft, an immigrant aid society. He started the German Archives for the History of the Germans in the South, now in the possession of the Deutsches Haus in New Orleans. In 1882 he founded and served as president of the New Orleans Quartette Club, which was dedicated to the preservation of German culture and song. Through his efforts the twenty-sixth national Saengerfests of the North American Singers' Union was held in New Orleans in 1890. For this event Deiler served as director-general and leader of the mass choruses. He went on to represent the union at the Saengerfests in Vienna in 1890 and at Stuttgart in 1896. He was elected president of the North American Singers' Union, first in 1896 and then again in 1903. He also wrote extensively about Germans. He was president of the New Orleans German Gazette Publishing Company. He contributed to numerous German and American periodicals. His research interests focused on the history of Germans in the United States, especially in Louisiana. His publications on this topic included many articles and one book, Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana and the Creoles of German Descent (Philadelphia, 1909). In 1898 the German Emperor recognized Deiler's literary achievements and his services to the German people in the U.S. by conferring upon him knighthood in the Order of the Crown. Deiler died at his summer home in Covington, Louisiana, on July 20, 1909.

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