Hermann Raster, German-American journalist and politician (b. 1827)
Hermann Raster (May 6, 1827 – July 24, 1891) was a German American editor, abolitionist, letter writer, and Republican political boss who served as chief editor and part-owner of the widely circulated Illinois Staats-Zeitung newspaper between 1867 and 1891. He was appointed as Collector of Internal Revenue for the 1st District of Illinois by President Ulysses S. Grant but resigned from this post shortly thereafter. He returned to Europe in 1890 when his health began to fail him and died filling a minor diplomatic role in Berlin. Today he is best remembered for his extensive correspondence with Western intellectual and political figures of the time, such as Joseph Pulitzer, Elihu Washburne, and Francis Wayland Parker, much of which is preserved at the Newberry Library in Chicago.