George Brumder Sr. immigrated to Milwaukee from Alsace-Lorraine in 1857 and first worked at the bookstore Germania selling German Bibles. He later purchased the building that housed the store and in 1873 took over Die Germania, a weekly German paper that he built into Milwaukee's largest German-language paper. In addition to the paper, George owned and managed a variety of businesses including the Germania Publishing Company (later North American Press) housed with the paper in the Germania Building. In the years after Brumder's death in 1910, his four sons ran the press and paper. In 1932 Die Germania was sold due to increasing anti-German sentiment; Brumder's son, George F. (continued) to operate the North American Press.
George F. married Thekla Wollaegeer Brumder and together they had three children. Their youngest son, Edward John (E.J.) Brumder, was born on February 6, 1907 in Milwaukee. E.J. attended the German-English Academy and in 1929 received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. After graduation E.J. married Marion Eleanor Briggs and together they returned to Milwaukee. E.J. helped his father George F. operate the publishing company and in 1958 became the corporation's last president. E.J. and Marion had two children, Edward John Brumder Jr. and Ann Ormsbee Brumder.
