As German immigration to North America increased in the early nineteenth century, stronger demands were being made on the American bishops for German parishes, German priests, and more German representation in the Catholic hierarchy. Several U.S. bishops were anxious to have Boniface Wimmer, the Benedictine abbot at St. Vincent in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, make a monastic foundation in their dioceses. Bishop Henni of Milwaukee invited Wimmer to Wisconsin in 1846, the same year the German Benedictine arrived in the U.S. There was a powerful motivation to unite the German Catholics on the frontier. Swiss born John Martin Henni was pastor of Cincinnati's first German Catholic Church, Holy Trinity, and German vicar general of Cincinnati from 1838 to 1843. Holy Trinity Church served the first German congregation of the western United States. Henni edited the weekly German language newspaper Der Wahrheitsfreund in Cincinnati, to create a religious voice for German Catholics.  In 1843 he was appointed bishop of Milwaukee, where he helped to build a "German Athens" on the shores of Lake Michigan.  German Catholics had settled in Wisconsin in the 1830's, and their artistic center had become Milwaukee, where 50% of the Catholic population was German.[1] The city became known as another focal point of German-American life in the Midwest, rivaling Cincinnati. German-language newspapers flourished, and German institutions and customs permeated daily life. For almost one hundred years the local art scene in Milwaukee was dominated by German influences. Many of the early nineteenth century artists who worked in the city, had been trained in Europe and brought with them artistic currents of their homeland. These immigrants also tutored the generation of artists that followed them.[2]

     Among the immigrant artists from Germany were several who specialized in religious art. Before discussing their contributions, it must be pointed out that despite the presence of these local German church artists in Wisconsin, many of the state's large Catholic places of worship employed Cincinnati-based painters and decorators. Thus we find a majestic mural of the Crucifixion by Johann Schmitt over the main altar at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  The artist executed the painting in 1883. It measures 35 x 50 ft. and contains more than fifty figures (Figure 85). Schmitt returned to Green Bay late in his life in 1895 to contribute two additional murals to the Cathedral: The Agony in the Garden and The Burial of Christ. Schmitt's biographer, Diomede Pohlkamp, notes that "at that time Schmitt was quite feeble, being seventy years old and having suffered a stroke of paralysis. It was his desire to finish the work he had begun twelve years ago in the Cathedral of Green Bay."[3] In 1886 the Bavarian Jesuit missionary Franz Xavier Wenninger, who had been sent to North America by the Ludwig-Missionsverein to report on the state of German mission churches, visited the Green Bay Cathedral and was deeply moved by Schmitt's Crucifixion. Father Wenninger wrote a letter in his native German on the 12^th of February 1887 to his supervisors in Munich.  His message warrants a translation: "I have never seen such a beautiful, large mural painting in Europe. It was painted by Joseph Schmitt from Baden, who used oil colors on plaster, a method that allows for a longer lasting fresco than watercolor. The figures seem almost lifelike in their emotions: Christ, Mary, St. John, and Mary-Magdalene - the group that is situated on top of the mountain below the cross - are noble individuals. This Crucifixion is the most imposing and moving depiction of the event I have ever experienced." [4] Despite the misspelled first name of the artist, this contemporary account by a European churchman, who had some measure of comparison with Old World places of worship, remains a wonderful reminder of the power of Schmitt's artistry. The beautiful Crucifixion still dominates the sanctuary of the Green Bay Cathedral.

      The church has an interesting history. For many years information had been circulated that the building was designed by the Bavarian-born second bishop of Green Bay, Francis Xavier Krautbauer, who is said to have modeled it after the Ludwigskirche in Munich, Germany.[5] However, a young architectural historian has recently discovered that the Cathedral's original design was drawn up by Adolphus Druiding. Druiding was one of a group of German Catholic architects who arrived in the United States shortly after the Civil War. He was born in 1839 and had studied at the Royal Academies of Architecture of both Berlin and Munich. He was well versed in the Neo-Gothic style that was preferred by most German-American Catholics for their new churches in North America.[6] The Green Bay Cathedral archives own a front elevation design for the church, believed to be its original design by Druiding.  In addition, the Green Bay Diocese records show that the architect was paid for a set of preliminary drawings in 1873. Yet Bishop Krautbauer was credited with the design for the building. What apparently had happened was the insistence of the Ludwig-Missionsverein that Bishop Krautbauer model his cathedral after the Munich Ludwigskirche, since the Verein had donated money for the American church construction.[7] In exchange, the Bishop was named the principal designer.  Such historical misinformation is mentioned in the context of this discussion because it illuminates the close ties binding one German-American religious community - Milwaukee - to the German Catholic hierarchy in Munich. Krautbauer's great popularity in the Wisconsin town and his dependence on Munich financial support, contributed to his finally assuming full credit for "the financing, construction, and design of the Cathedral."[8] In reality Krautbauer had provided the Ludwigmissionsverein with a drawing of the façade of the Green Bay Cathedral topped with two very tall towers resembling those of the Munich Ludwigskirche.  The Bavarian churchmen were thrilled to recognize a resemblance to the church that had been dedicated to King Ludwig I in his capital. The towers for the Green Bay Cathedral were never built, but the story of the bishop's authorship of the church was perpetuated.[9]

      The city of Milwaukee was the site of a Franciscan Seminary where German-speaking priests were trained to serve at newly founded parishes. Again it was Covington-based Johann Schmitt, who was commissioned to paint a massive mural at the Seminary chapel. The artist began working in August of 1888 on the topic of The Consecration of St. Francis de Sales and finished the fresco in January of 1889. The size of the mural is approximately eighteen by twenty-eight feet, and Schmitt is reported to have received five hundred dollars as payment.[10] (Figure 86). St. Francis de Sales was a French bishop and writer, who lived during the second half of the sixteenth century and the first quarter of the seventeenth century. In 1602 he became bishop of Geneva. He wrote extensively on the importance of religious devotion in ordinary lives and is venerated as patron of journalists and other writers.[11]

      Johann Schmitt depicted the saint kneeling while being consecrated as bishop. On the gospel side he showed the consecrating bishops and on the epistle side he painted several dignitaries connected with the early Catholic history of Wisconsin. Among them is the Archbishop Francis Xavier Katzer, who succeeded Bishop Krautbauer in the diocese of Green Bay.[12] Unfortunately Schmitt's mural was painted over in 1972.

      In Milwaukee the nineteenth century art scene was enlivened by a group of German-born painters who formed the Northwestern Panorama Company. Art historian Peter C. Merrill is to be credited with having researched the broad spectrum of Milwaukee's artistic community. He writes: "Panoramas were large paintings, commercially produced and exhibited. They were often being moved from city to city like any traveling show. Some of them were displayed by rolling a length of canvas from one reel to another, presenting a sequence of separate pictures arranged somewhat in the manner of a modern comic strip. Other panoramas consisted of separate panels, which were hung like pictures in an art show."[13]

      In Germany large panoramic views of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 became very popular around 1880. The Battle of Sedan on September 1, 1870, was painted by three Munich artists: Ludwig Braun, Franz Biberstein, and August Lohr. The painting was brought to an exhibition in New Orleans accompanied by Lohr, who in turn recruited German artists willing to come to Milwaukee, where a German-born businessman had established a company for designing panoramic scenes of the American Civil War.[14] Among the German recruit painters Hermann Michalowski, a former student at the Munich Royal Academy of Art, went on to paint two altar-pieces for St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1894. One of them depicts St.  Bernard, the Virgin and Child (Figure 87), the other "St. Francis, Christ and Virgin" (Figure 88). In the centenary publication of St. Bernard's church history, the paintings are described as "heroic in size, filling the entire space of the side arch of the sanctuary.[15] Michalowski's works still decorate the German-American church.