[2] One of the so-called "Forty-Eighters", Schnauffer was closely associated with the developing Turner movement, a broadly republican, German nationalist gymnastics and social organization.

[5][6] The Wecker under the editorship of Schnauffer was sympathetic to the philosophy of expatriate German communist and fellow Forty-Eighter Wilhelm Weitling, although this was apparently a short-lived affiliation.

In the pages of the Wecker Adolf Cluss, aligned with the faction supporting Karl Marx in the split, wrote editorials denouncing rival figures like Gottfried Kinkel, August Willich and Alexander Schimmelfennig.

[14] This made the Wecker a target for anti-Republican sentiment, and not long after the 1856 election, its offices were attacked by men attempting to incite a riot, although they were prevented from causing serious damage.

[20] Owing to the relationship between the Wecker and Turnerism, Rapp felt threatened enough to request assistance from George William Brown, who dispatched police to guard the building.

"[22] According to a widely reported anecdote, further damage to the building and equipment was stopped when editor Elise Schnauffer stood in doorway, with a child in her arms, blocking the way of the mob until they departed.

[20] Rapp briefly left Baltimore following the attack, returning before General Benjamin Butler's occupation of the city in May 1861, however he departed again for Chicago shortly thereafter, where he would remain for the duration of the war as editor of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung[17] With General Butler in possession of the city, Wilhelm Schnauffer too returned and resumed the publication of his paper and the Wecker continued to be a firm supporter of the Union cause throughout the war.

[17] The Wecker was enthusiastically on the side of Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, with Rapp giving speeches in support of the now Kaiser Wilhelm I, arguing that "although those present were republicans, they could not forget that under the old man 'von Hohenzollern' -King William- Germany had been reborn.