German Dignitaries Shocked by Seattle's Sophistication
Members of the German Imperial Commission visiting the World's Fair dismiss European rumors that Seattle is a lawless, wild frontier.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Three members of the German imperial commission in charge of the German exhibit at the World's fair arrived in the city yesterday morning. They have been delegated by the commission to go to San Francisco to examine plans for the Midwinter fair. The three commissioners are Herr Heinrich Welter, a lawyer of Aix la Chapelle; his brother, Carl Welter, also a lawyer, of Duesseldorf; and Prof. C. Graef, of the imperial workmen's insurance office at Berlin. They were entertained by Dietrich Hamm, and visited Lake Washington and Myers' cannery to see salmon cooked, cut, and canned. Herr Heinrich Welter stated: 'We are surprised at the exposition. We are all the more surprised because the German newspapers have been telling us that we were coming to a wild country where we should be robbed and should have to carry revolvers and daggers to defend ourselves. Instead, we have found a country as highly civilized as our own and far superior in all the comforts of life. You have a beautiful city here, and we were struck by the beauty of the lake and the Sound and the mountains on every side. This city has a great future.'
“The German newspapers have been telling us that we were coming to a wild country where we should be robbed and should have to carry revolvers and daggers to defend ourselves.”
This 1893 account captures Seattle's early anxiety about its global reputation. Just as early visitors were shocked to find a 'civilized' city rather than a lawless frontier, modern Seattle continues to grapple with the tension between its perceived image as a rustic outpost and its reality as a global tech and culture hub.
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