On July 5, 1776, the Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote" was the country's first paper to announce that the Declaration of Independence had been adopted. The text reads as follows:

Philadelphia, den 5 July.
Gestern hat der Achtbare Cong-
ress dieses Vesten Landes die
Vereinigten Colonien Freye
und Unabhaengige Staaten erklaeret.
Die Declaration in Englisch ist jetzt in der
Presse: sie ist datiert, den 4ten July, 1776, und
wird heut oder morgen im druck erscheinen.

Before Miller was able to print a German version in the next issue of his semi-weekly paper, a one-page broadside print was published by his friends, Steiner and Cist, probably on July 5 or 6. Miller used Cist's translation with a few improvements worked in.

Karl J. R. Arndt, "First German Broadside and Newspaper Printing of the Declaration of Independence," Pennsylvania Folklife 35 (1986); 98-107

Question: I've always thought that German was the first language the Declaration was printed in (the Steiner printing), I've just noticed that other pages say that the first printing was on the evening of July 4th by John Dunlap, which is a bit of a disappointment! Have you got any further details?

Answer: The Dunlap boradsides was an inhouse document. It was distributed to the legislatures. On July 5, copies were dispatched by members of Congress to the various assemblies. Also on July 5, a copy of of the printed version was inserted into the "rough journal" of the Continental Congress. On July 6 it was first published in English in the Pennsylvania Evening Post. On July 5 the Declaration was announed in the Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote in German and the full text was published either July 5 or 6 as a one page broadside by Steiner and Cist and appeared prior to the "Evening Post." (The Post was an evening paper).

Ruth Reichmann, Ph.D.
Max Kade German-American Center
Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ. Indianapolis
https://liberalarts.iupui.edu/maxkade/ /

THE TEXT AND FURTHER RESOURCES

The German version (faksimile) of the Declaration, "Eine Erklaerung durch die Repraesentanten der Vereinigten Staaten von America, im General-Congress versammelt," is available from Das Deutsche Historische Museum, in poster format from the AATG materials center (price is $8.00 for one and $11.00 for two), or you can get a good copy of the text as it appeared in Henrich Miller's "Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote" on July 9, 1776 from:

Juergen Eichhoff, Director, Max Kade German-American Research
Institute, Pennsylvania State University
305 Burrows Building, University Park, PA 16802