Emil Dietzsch

Emil Dietzsch (April 7, 1829 – September 12, 1890) was a German American Forty-Eighter who established himself as a journalist, businessman, and Republican politician in 19th century Chicago.

Biography Dietzsch was born in 1829 in Frankfurt and was educated at prestigious private schools in Frankfurt and Worms. He studied to be an apothecary in Kaiserslautern and attended both the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and Heidelberg University, the latter from which he graduated. He was swept up in the failed Revolutions of 1848, following which he was briefly jailed. After his imprisonment, he practiced for two years as an apothecary in Switzerland before immigrating to the United States. He established a drug store in Chicago in 1854, which was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. After the fire, Dietzsch entered the alcohol industry as a wholesale wine importer.

In addition to business pursuits, Dietzsch was a journalist who actively contributed to English and German language publications such as the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Puck, and Um Die Welt. Politically, Dietzsch was a Republican, and successfully ran in the 1874 election for Cook County Coroner. He was reelected in 1876 and served in this capacity until he was succeeded by Orrin L. Mann in 1878, the same year Dietzsch was appointed Deputy Sheriff of Cook County.