Dakota Datebook: Otto Bremer Foundation

Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis.

Otto Bremer and his brother Adolph immigrated to Minnesota in 1886 and within a few years Otto had entered into the banking business as a bookkeeper. He decided to make a run at politics as a candidate for the City Treasurer for St. Paul, an office he held from 1900 to 1910.

In 1903, Bremer became a charter member of the American National Bank in St. Paul and served on the board of directors. He joined his brother Adolph in the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company as secretary-treasurer in 1910 while retaining his position at the bank.

The farm economy saw a general upswing the years prior to World War I. Supported by the Non-Partisan League, with their own state-owned bank and flour mill, North Dakota farmers deemed the prosperous times as a good time to expand and buy new equipment. In 1920, there were 898 banks in North Dakota, most with insufficient capital, which were willing to take a chance on extending credit based on the mortgage value of the land but with inflation, drought and low grain prices the end of prosperity came quickly.

The American National Bank under Bremer and his associates had practiced tighter control in the lending practices and it was to them that many banks in North Dakota would look for help. As early as 1914, Bremer had purchased the bank in Powers Lake and had also began obtaining controlling interest in many other banks in the midwestern states. By 1933, Bremer’s banking empire had control of 55 banks. Conditions were such that 573 banks had failed in North Dakota alone. It was during this time in dealing with small town banks that Otto Bremer developed his deep commitment to the rural communities.

The early thirties were eventful in another way for him. At the Democratic convention in 1932, Bremer, along with James Farley, brought the nomination of Franklin Roosevelt to the floor, which resulted in Roosevelt’s first term. Also Edward Bremer, his nephew, was kidnapped and held for $200,000.00 ransom by the notorious Ma Baker-Alvin Karpis gang in 1934 but was released.

In 1944, Otto Bremer founded the Otto Bremer Foundation to aid educational, religious, scientific and charitable organizations. The aim of the foundation was not to build buildings but to aid organizations that provided help to enhance the lives of the average person who, like himself, were mostly immigrants or the sons and daughters of immigrants. Otto Bremer died on this date in 1951. He was a powerful, self-made man who, it appears, never lost sight of his roots.

“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from the North Dakota Humanities Council. See all the Dakota Datebooks at prairiepublic.org, subscribe to the “Dakota Datebook” podcast, or buy the Dakota Datebook book at shopprairiepublic.org.“