A staunch conservative, he used the editorial column to comment on domestic political issues, advocating for the National Policy, individual freedoms and the teaching of the German language in Ontario schools while opposing prohibition and nativism.

Rittinger's two brothers – William and Herman – worked on the staff of their father's German-language newspaper, the Berliner Journal, while his sister married a Lutheran minister, Julius Badke.

"[8] In a 1911 letter, Funcken's brother Julius wrote of the Berliner Journal – by then under the editorship of Rittinger – that "we believe we are not mistaken when we see Louis' views in the trends of the paper.

[6][note 3] In the wake of his loss, Rittinger became more deeply involved in community affairs and became one of the most popular men in Bruce and Grey Counties.

[16] In December 1875, Rittinger and Dr. Aaron Eby – a Canadian-born Pennsylvania German – purchased Walkerton, Ontario's German-language newspaper from its founder, John Klein.

After he became the sole owner, the newspaper leaned Conservative in its political commentary, especially favouring its high tariff National Policy, opposition to both prohibition and nativism, and a strong focus on individual freedom.

[26] Scholar Herbert Karl Kalbfleisch writes that after the Glocke amalgamated into the Journal and Rittinger became its editor, "[a] distinct improvement in every department becomes evident".

A resulting illness led to his death on 29 July 1915, dying at his Berlin home at 132 Queen St. N. His body was interred in Walkerton next to his son Frederick.

[31] Kalbfleisch writes: "Fate spared [Rittinger] the trials and disappointments of the most critical years of the First World War, and called him away just before the edifice, which he had so painstakingly helped to construct, toppled into ruin.

"[31] Rittinger published his first humorous letter to the editor in the 22 January 1890 edition of the Glocke, signed under the pseudonym "Joe Klotzkopp".

[4] The dialect was common among the Germans of nineteenth-century Ontario, and German-language newspapers across Upper and Lower Canada and Nova Scotia regularly published letters using it.

"[1] Researcher Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek suggests that because the letters are restricted thematically to contemporaneous issues, their value to modern scholars resides in studying their style and use of language, along with "their humoristic and ironic mode of narration.

"[35] Scholar Hermann Boeschenstein writes that the letters mediate between European and Canadian cultures, and that "Rittinger proved ... that immigration can be conducive to the exchange and dissemination of valuable experience and ideas".

[39] Kalbfleisch remarks that Rittinger's "wit and humour were ever present adjunct to his racy and picturesque style", especially within the Joe Klotzkopp letters.

[37] He compares Rittinger's work to that of Thomas Chandler Haliburton and Stephen Leacock, and ultimately concludes that "[h]ad he written in the English language his reputation in Canada would now be secure.

[45] Kalbfleisch includes an 1893 letter opposing Canada's temperance movement in his 1968 book The History of the Pioneer German Language Press of Ontario, 1835–1918.