St. LouisA presentation about the city‘s history,

economy and cultureby

Daniel DanzerTimea Farkas

Franziska KammleiterFranz MühleisenKendra Sopper

Overview Where is St. Louis? St. Louis History

Franziska Kammleiter

Slavery in St. Louis Kendra Sopper

St. Louis Economy Franz Mühleisen

Literature of St. Louis Timea Farkas

The Music of St. Louis Daniel Danzer

Where is St. Louis?

Where is St. Louis?

St. Louis history• 1764: St. Louis founded - named

after Louis IX, King of France• It was founded by Pierre

Laclede, a French fur trader

• „I have found a situation where I am going to form a settlement which might become, hereafter, one of the finest cities in America – so many advantages are embraced in its site, by its locality and central position, for forming settlement.”

Pierre Laclede, 1724-1778

St. Louis history• 1803: St. Louis became part of the United States

• 1822: St. Louis was incorporated as a city

• 1849: An epidemic of cholera took over thousand people – a great fire destroyed one third of the city and over 20 steamboats

• 1904: The Olympic Games and the St. Louis World’s Fair took place in St. Louis– both events focused worldwide attention on the city

• 1960: The document to unite St. Louis and Stuttgart in a sister city relationship was signed– Stuttgart was St. Louis’ first sister city

St. Louis history

• 1962: The symbol of St. Louis, the Gateway Arch, was completed

Gateway Arch – monument to Thomas Jefferson & the spirit of the western pioneers

St. Louis historyIts rapid increase and decrease in population

• 1764 about 40 settlers• 1766 about 300 inhabitants and 75 buildings• 1806 about 1,100 inhabitants and 300 buildings

St. Louis, 1885

St. Louis historyIts rapid increase and decrease in population

St. Louis, 1912

St. Louis historyIts rapid increase and decrease in population

St. Louis, 1920

St. Louis historyIts rapid increase and decrease in population

• After the population peaked at 856 000 after WW II in 1950, population decreased because people moved to suburbia

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St. Louis historyST. LOUIS TODAY:• about 2,800,000 inhabitants• very attractive to both tourists

and inhabitants:– Jefferson National

Expansion Memorial (includes the Gateway Arch)

– many theatres and music hall– Laclede’s Landing

(entertainment district)– many museums of history

and art– several buildings of former

times, e.g.

Slavery in St. Louis

• 1720: Phillipe Francois Renault introduced Slavery - he brought 500 Negroes with him

• They had to work in the lead mines near what is now St. Louis

• They were not considered citizens

• During the Industrial Revolution at the beginning of the 19th century the demand for slaves grew rapidly

Slavery in St. Louis

• 1860: The price for a male slave was $ 1300, a female slave cost $ 1000

• The black man was property, not a human being

• They even had seperated cemeteries („white“ and „colored“)

• Most slaves were employed near the Mississippi and Missouri rivers

Slavery in St. Louis

Slavery in St. Louis• 1942: after WW II a black university law professor won a case which

kept him from being forced out of a white neighbourhood in St. Louis• 1946: the Ku-Klux-Klan placed a burning cross and a hood with KKK

on it on a playground• Until 1944 St. Louis‘ 2 major league baseball teams, the Browns and

the Cardinals, restricted Negroes to the audience• 1947: Jackie Robinson was the first black player in the major league –

the Cardinals threatened to strike against his presence• 1947: St. Louis‘ churches put an end to segregation• 1948: 3 black doctors became part of the staff of the St. Louis

University Medical School• 1949: St. Louis swimming pools and playgrounds were opened to

Negroes

Slavery in St. Louis

• 1958: 30% of St. Louis‘ population is black, but only 16-20% of the residential housing is available to the Negroe population

• Most black people live in Slums, see right hand side

• 1960: Cafés and restaurants in St. Louis open to Negroes

Slavery in St. Louis

• 1970: 41% of St. Louis‘ population is black

• Still: Of the 3353 complaints to Missouri‘s Commision on Human Rights 78.3% are from people who have been refused employment because of race students protest against the conditions

• Today: St. Louis claims to be proud of its cultural variety and different neighbourhoods

St. Louis Economy

GENERAL INFORMATION:• St. Louis is the 6th fastest

growing economic center in the USA currently

• Its economic power is extremely underestimated generally

• Over 500 companies are headquartered (at position 5 in the American schedule) in St. Louis with a total turnover of over 800 billion dollars

St. Louis Economy5 LARGEST BRANCHES:• Construction and Mining: 6930 establishments• Wholesale and Retail Trade: 14292 establishments• Finance Insurance and Real Estate: 7056 establishments• Professional Scientific Services: 6627• Health Care and Social Assistance: 6290

Business Establishments by Industry

47%

3%1%7%

12%

10%

5%

15%

ServicesTCPUOtherWholesale TradeFIREConstruction and MiningManufacturingRetail Trade

St. Louis Economy

St. Louis EconomyAVERAGE INCOME:• 19, 664 $ per capita

(USA: 18, 622 $)

WORKFORCE & EMPLOYMENT:• Present employment growth rate

in the City of St. Louis: 4.9• Percentage of unemployed people:

6.3 (1980: 7.9)• Total Labor Force: 1.5 million

(1990: 1.3 million / 15% growth rate)

• Total Employment: 1.4 million (total unemployment 100 000)

St. Louis Economy

St. Louis EconomyTAX:Personal Income taxCorporate Income tax(7th lowest in the USA)Sales taxProperty taxINFLATION:Average inflationEnergy priceTransportationFoodHousingMedical care

PERCENTAGE:6.00%6.25%

4.30%7.60%PERCENTAGE:2.45%4.50%1.80%0.60%0.30%0.20%

St. Louis Economy

Cost of Living Index: 90.2 (6th lowest in the USA)

Literature of St. Louis

Some famous and important writers were either born in St. Louis or at least spent their creative years there.The following slides will introduce them to you.

Literature of St. Louis

SARA TEASDALE:

• poet• born in St. Louis• first poems published in 1907• major themes: love, nature’s

beauty and death• known for the intensity of her

lyrics• 1918 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

for Love Songs

Literature of St. Louis

MARIANNE MOORE:

• born in 1887, grew up in St. Louis area

• poet but essayist and translator as well

• first poems published in 1915• translated Fables of La Fontaine

and Rock Crystal: A Christmas Tale by ADALBERT STIFTER

• 1951 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for Collected Works

Literature of St. LouisJOSEPH PULITZER:

• immigrated to St. Louis in 1868, worked for a German-language newspaper

• bought St. Louis Post in 1872• got wealthy• started crusades against

government corruption • died in 1911 and left 2.000.000 $

for the establishment of a school of journalism

• also left a fund that established annual prizes for literature, drama, music and journalism Pulitzer Prize

Literature of St. LouisT. S. ELIOT:

• born in St. Louis in 1888• best known as a poet and a

critic• “The Waste Land” is one of the

most influential works of the 20th century

• Musical “Cats” based on his poems in “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”

• 1948 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1965 American Medal of Freedom

Literature of St. LouisTENNESSEE WILLIAMS:

• one of the greatest 20th century play writers

• moved to St. Louis in 1918• 1929 he entered University of

Missouri, wasn’t successful began to work for a shoe company

• went back to university, graduated in 1938

• wrote nearly 30 plays• Pulitzer Prizes, New York

Drama Critics Circle Awards for Streetcar named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Glass Menagerie

The Music of St. LouisGENERAL INFORMATION:

• St. Louis is home of several popular jazz clubs in the United States most popular of these is “Jazz at the Bistro” which delivers fans the finest Jazz music

• Beside the bars there are also special events like the annual “U.S. Bank St. Louis Jazz Festival” or the “Whitaker Musical Festival”

• The events attract a huge amount of fans during June and July

The Music of St. Louis• St. Louis is called the gateway to America’s Music Corridor Blues,

Jazz, Ragtime and Rock ‘n’ Roll tour which links the musical heritage of the lower Mississippi region from St. Louis to New Orleans

• Tourists have the chance to explore the history of American Music at historic sites such as the Scott Joplin house in St. Louis, Sun Studios in Memphis and the Jazz Museum in New Orleans

• The reasons for the deep rooted popularity of Jazz, Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll lies in the history of St. Louis and the other cities along the Mississippi, Memphis and New Orleans

• The connection between these three cities played a big role in the development of Jazz music and its variations.

• Especially St. Louis and Memphis boomed in population and became major centers for blues music during the northward mass migration of Southern blacks in the early nineteenth century.

• A lot of black people moved from the rural areas into the cities and brought their music with them

The Music of St. Louis• Both cities launched the fusion

of Blues, Jazz, Gospel and Country music to create not only new forms of the blues, but also the earliest forms of Rock ‘n’ Roll

• The primarily black community of East St. Louis (Illinois) was the center of the Blues and later Rock ‘n’ Roll

• While St. Louis did not make as major or as lasting an imprint on the evolution of the blues as Memphis, the artists that passed through created a strong musical tradition that permeates the city to this day

The Music of St. LouisTHE ARTISTS:

• In the 1930s popular East St. Louis pianist Peetie Wheatstraw, also known as “The Devil’s Son in Law,” was very successful with his moaning vocals about the hardships of working class life during the Depression-era

• In the 1950s artists like Albert King, Ike Turner and his wife Annie Mae Bullock – later known as Tina Turner – conquered St. Louis before they moved on to national and international success

The Music of St. Louis• Scott Joplin, the "King of Ragtime"

music, was born on November 24, 1868.

• At the age of seven, Joplin was already proficient on the banjo, and was beginning to play the piano

• After several years as a pianist playing in saloons throughout the Midwest, he settled in St. Louis about 1890

• There he studied and led in the development of a music genre now known as ragtime

• After suffering deteriorating health due to syphilis that he contracted some years earlier, Joplin died on April 1, 1917 in Manhattan State Hospital

The Music of St. Louis

• The probably most famous musician of St. Louis is Chuck Berry

• Born on October 18th, 1926 he is certainly the most important black artist of Rock ‘n’ Roll

• He was the first black guitarist singer who reached charts and the first Rock ‘n’ Roll artist who wrote lyrics that were relevant and entertaining to his young white audience without alienating his core black audience

• He had nearly twenty hits between 1957 and 1962

The Music of St. Louis• Another reason for the music

tradition is also the most long lived and popular blues song ever written by William Christopher Handy

• The song has made million of dollars in sale

• Recorded for the first time in 1914 it did not evoke much public interest at first. When Sophie Tucker recorded it in 1917, it became the first blues song selling a million copies

• A final honour for the song might be that the NHL team of St. Louis overtook the name of it. They are called St. Louis Blues

Thank you for your attention!