I believe that the US Declaration of Independence was first printed in German, not in English (McGrath)

It depends what you call a printing. In a technical sense you are wrong. It was first printed in English. The first publicly available printing however was in German.

Wolfgang

Question: I've always thought that German was the first language the Declaration was printed in (the Steiner printing), I've just noticed that other pages say that the first printing was on the evening of July 4th by John Dunlap, which is a bit of a disappointment! Have you got any further details?

Answer: The Dunlap boradsides was an inhouse document. It was distributed to the legislatures. On July 5, copies were dispatched by members of Congress to the various assemblies. Also on July 5, a copy of of the printed version was inserted into the "rough journal" of the Continental Congress. On July 6 it was first published in English in the Pennsylvania Evening Post. On July 5 the Declaration was announed in the Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote in German and the full text was published either July 5 or 6 as a one page broadside by Steiner and Cist and appeared prior to the "Evening Post." (The Post was an evening paper).

Ruth Reichmann, Ph.D.
Max Kade German-American Center
Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ. Indianapolis