John Adam Rittinger | |
|---|---|
 Rittinger, undated | |
| Born | 16 February 1855 Berlin, Canada West, Province of Canada |
| Died | 29 July 1915 (aged 60) Berlin, Ontario, Canada |
| Resting place | Walkerton, Ontario 44°06′58″N 81°08′42″W / 44.116°N 81.145°W |
| Occupations |
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| Father | Friedrich Rittinger |
| Signature | |
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John Adam Rittinger (16 February 1855 – 29 July 1915) was a Canadian German-language-newspaper proprietor, editor and Pennsylvania-German humorist. In 1875, he and Aaron Eby purchased Walkerton, Ontario's German-language newspaper, the Walkerton Glocke. Affectionately known by locals as the "Glockemann" ("Bell Ringer"), Rittinger was both a shrewd businessman and a popular writer. He became the paper's sole owner in 1878, renaming it Die Ontario Glocke in 1882. A staunch conservative, he used the editorial column to comment on domestic political issues, advocating for the National Policy, individual freedoms and the teaching of the German language in Ontario schools while opposing prohibition and nativism. When the Glocke amalgamated into Berlin, Ontario's Berliner Journal in 1904, he became the Journal's editor-in-chief, a position he held until his death in 1915.
Rittinger began writing humorous letters to the editor in 1890, signing them under the pseudonym Joe Klotzkopp (Joe the Blockhead). For the next twenty-five years, he continued to publish the popular Briefe vun Joe Klotzkopp, Esq. (Letters of Joe Klotzkopp, Esq.) in both the Glocke and later the Journal. The writings uniquely and humorously combine the Pennsylvania German dialect with phonetic reproductions of English words, and are today appreciated by scholars as "superb examples of German-Canadian comic literature in dialect".[1]
- ^ Leibbrandt 1980, p. 157.