Sigrid Schultz

Unsung History

In 1926, American Sigrid Schultz became one of the first women to head a foreign bureau for a US newspaper when she was named the chief correspondent for the Berlin bureau of the Chicago Tribune. In her 26 years with the Tribune, Schultz, using her command of German and French, her knowledge of German politics and history, and her wide range of contacts, reported on the rise of Nazism and warned American readers to take Hitler seriously. Joining me in this episode to tell the story of Sigrid Schultz and her journalistic career is writer Dr. Pamela Toler, author of The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Over There,” composed by George M. Cohan, and performed by the Peerless Quartet, in New York City on June 13, 1917; the audio is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is “Journalist Sigrid Schultz,” a photo taken in 1943 and in the public domain; it is available via Wikimedia Commons.

Additional sources:

• “Sigrid Schultz Papers, 1835-1980,” Wisconsin Historical Society.
• “Dragon Lady: The Life of Sigrid Schultz,” Westport Museum for History and Culture.
• “Dragon Lady,” Chicago Tribune, Originally published September 11, 1988, and updated August 8, 2021.
• “Sigrid Schultz is dead; Early Berlin correspondent,” Chicago Tribune, May 17, 1980.
• “Sigrid L. Schultz, Reporter Who Covered Rise of Nazism, Is Dead; Tribune's Bureau Chief,” by George Goodman, Jr., The New York Times, May 17, 1980.
• “Newly Discovered Photos Reveal Childhood of Groundbreaking Journalist,” by Jay Shefsky, WTTW, January 16, 2020.

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