The Andreae System: Defending Brewing Interests and Consolidating German-American Political Power in the 1914 Iowa State Elections

Scholars of Iowa history have identified prohibition as one of the state’s most significant political issues from the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Throughout the 1914 Iowa elections, the Iowa Brewers Association fervently worked to elect anti-prohibition candidates and prevent further “dry” legislation. The brewers, mostly German-Americans, followed a strict campaign plan devised by Percy Andreae, a Cincinnati brewer who successfully combatted prohibitionists in the 1908 Ohio state elections. Under Andreae’s leadership, Iowa’s German-Americans followed his “system”, a campaign blueprint based on his efforts in Ohio. Beer was more than a drink to this immigrant group; it was an integral part of their social customs and a symbol of their culture overall. Using letters from the Iowa Brewers Association, the German American Alliance, Andreae’s own letters, articles from Iowa newspapers, as well as supporting secondary material, this paper will examine the campaign strategies employed by the Iowa Brewers Association during the 1914 state elections and the degree of success its anti-prohibition campaign attained. The 1914 campaign is significant because it demonstrates the consolidation and influence of German-American political power on the eve of World War I.