Otto Wilhelm Soubron was born February 15, 1846, in Bremen. He came to America at the age of ten and was raised in Milwaukee. He studied at the German-English Academy, but began earning a living at the age of fourteen.
He worked as a confections salesman, cigarmaker, and journalist, and became one of the first to join the ranks of the Milwaukee Socialists. Most of his political and social essays were published anonymously in German American socialist newspapers. Was a speaker of a Freie Gemeinde.
He translated German dramas by Goethe and others for the American stage; also translated works by Heine, Klopstock, Uhland, Hoelty, Geibel, and Eichendorff.
He wrote poetry, plays, essays, Novellen, and short stories; he was interested in Native American folklore. In 1890 he established the International Literary Bureau in Milwaukee with Maximilian Grossman.
He died May 15, 1917.
Sources: Ward, Robert E. Bio-Bibliography of German-American Writers (1985) and Soubron, Wilhelm Otto Collection (Mss-1915), Milwaukee County Historical Society.
“Deutsch-Athen,” poem from Soubron’s Souvenir. Gedichte (1878).