Berger, Victor L. (Victor Luitpold), 1860-1929

BERGER, Victor Luitpold, a Representative from Wisconsin; born in Nieder Rebbach, Austria-Hungary, February 28, 1860; attended the Gymnasia at Leutschau and the universities at Budapest and Vienna; immigrated to the United States in 1878 with his parents, who settled near Bridgeport, Conn.; moved to Milwaukee, Wis., in 1880; taught school 1880-1890; editor of the Milwaukee Daily Vorwaerts 1892-1898; editor of the Wahrheit, the Social Democratic Herald, and the Milwaukee Leader, being publisher of the last named at the time of his death; delegate to the People's Party Convention at St. Louis in 1896; one of the organizers of the Social Democracy in 1897 and of the Social Democratic Party in 1898, known since 1900 as the Socialist Party; unsuccessful candidate of the Socialist Party for election in 1904 to the Fifty-ninth Congress; elected a member of the charter convention of Milwaukee in 1907, and alderman at large in 1910; elected as a Socialist to the Sixty-second Congress (March 4, 1911-March 3, 1913); presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Sixty-sixth Congress, but the House by a resolution adopted on November 10, 1919, declared him not entitled to take the oath of office as a Representative or to hold a seat as such; having been opposed to the entrance of the United States in the First World War and having written articles expressing his opinion on that question, he was indicted in various places in the Federal courts, tried at Chicago, found guilty, and sentenced by Judge Kenesaw M. Landis in February 1919 to serve twenty years in the Federal penitentiary; this judgment was reversed by the United States Supreme Court in 1921, whereupon the Government withdrew all cases against him in 1922; his election to the Sixty-sixth Congress was unsuccessfully contested by Joseph P. Carney and the seat was declared vacant; presented credentials as a Member-elect to fill the vacancy caused by the action of the House and on January 10, 1920, the House again decided that he was not entitled to a seat in the Sixty-sixth Congress and declined to permit him to take the oath or qualify as a Representative; Henry H. Bodenstab unsuccessfully contested this election, and on February 25, 1921, the House again declared the seat vacant; elected as a Socialist to the Sixty-eighth, Sixty-ninth, and Seventieth Congresses (March 4, 1923-March 3, 1929); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1928 to the Seventy-first Congress; resumed his editorial work; died in Milwaukee, Wis., August 7, 1929; interment in Forest Home Cemetery.

<p><b>RACES</b>
<ul>
<li>11/06/1928 WI District 5 Lost 38.24% (-0.69%)</li>
<li>11/02/1926 WI District 5 Won 48.78% (+3.85%)</li>
<li>01/00/1926 Soc Party Chairman Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>11/04/1924 WI District 5 Won 41.64% (+0.66%)</li>
<li>11/07/1922 WI District 5 Won 53.35% (+6.70%)</li>
<li>11/02/1920 WI District 5 Lost 45.47% (-9.06%)</li>
<li>12/19/1919 WI District 5 - Special Election Won 55.45% (+10.89%)</li>
<li>11/05/1918 WI District 5 Won 43.66% (+13.33%)</li>
<li>04/02/1918 WI US Senate - Special Election Lost 26.09% (-12.64%)</li>
<li>11/07/1916 WI District 5 Lost 36.93% (-8.46%)</li>
<li>11/03/1914 WI District 5 Lost 34.87% (-11.79%)</li>
<li>11/05/1912 WI District 5 Lost 36.32% (-4.94%)</li>
<li>11/08/1910 WI District 5 Won 38.36% (+0.99%)</li>
<li>11/08/1904 WI District 5 Lost 27.63% (-17.17%)</li>
<li>04/05/1904 Milwaukee Mayor Lost 22.95% (-17.52%)</li>
</ul>
</p>

Socialist, newspaperman, Congressman, b. Nieder-Rehbach, Austria-Hungary. He attended private and public schools and universities in Vienna and Budapest. In 1878 he migrated to the U.S., learned English in New York, and about 1881 settled in Milwaukee where he taught German. In the 1880's he became interested in social reform, becoming first a "single tax" advocate and then a socialist. In 1889, with like-minded German socialists, he abandoned the radical, doctrinaire Marxism of Daniel De Leon and the Socialist Labor. party in favor of a more gradual and flexible approach, and determined to work through the existing political structure to obtain socialist ends. In 1893 he became editor of the Wisconsin Vorwaerts, a Milwaukee German-language daily and later weekly, and held this position until about 1904. He was also editor of the English-language Social Democratic Herald (1901-1902). During the 1890's, he cooperated with the Populist movement until alienated by their endorsement of Democrat William Jennings Bryan for president in 1896. Berger was instrumental in influencing Eugene V. Debs to declare for socialism and in 1897 aided him in forming the Social Democracy of America. In 1898 the organization split over the question of utopian or model socialism (the colonization plan) as opposed to political action. Debs had become disillusioned with colonization and, when the political-action group was outvoted, he joined Berger's adherents in forming the Social Democratic party. In 1901 this group combined with the Rochester faction of the Socialist Labor party to form the Socialist party. Except for brief interludes, Berger was a member of the party's executive committee until his death, and was its national chairman (1927-1929). As the leading Socialist in Wisconsin, he shaped the Milwaukee group into a disciplined party organization, and by 1900 had won and consolidated local trade-union support. The party's initial election successes came in 1904, and in 1910 it gained control of Milwaukee city and county government and Berger was the first Socialist representative to be elected to Congress (serving 1911- 1913). In 1912 he was defeated for re-election by a Milwaukee fusion ticket. Meanwhile, Berger had added an English-language daily to the Milwaukee Socialist press, the Milwaukee Leader, and was its editor (1911-1929). With the outbreak of war in Europe, Berger grew increasingly concerned with the problem of U.S. neutrality. When the U.S. declared war (Apr. 6, 1917), he approved the Socialist party's St. Louis platform condemning American action and urged resistance to war. In October the government retaliated by revoking the second- class mailing privileges of the Leader, and in Feb., 1918, Berger and four other Socialists were indicted for conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act. While still under indictment in Nov., 1918, Berger was elected to Congress but was denied his seat by the House. In Jan., 1919, he was convicted on the espionage charge and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Re-elected in a special election held in Dec., 1919, he was again denied his seat. In 1921 the U.S. Supreme court upset his conviction on a technicality and charges were dropped. He was again elected to Congress in 1922, and served from 1923 to 1929. In the House, Berger advocated repeal of the Espionage Act and prohibition, and was interested in foreign affairs and reconstruction. Following his defeat for re-election in 1928, he returned to Milwaukee (1929) with hopes of rebuilding party strength, but was killed in an accident a few months later. A voracious reader and student of socialism, Berger was a lucid and persuasive editorial writer, but a mediocre speaker. Shrewd and capable, he was the spiritual leader of Milwaukee socialism, but was egotistical and domineering. His wife, META SCHLICHTING BERGER, b. Milwaukee, whom Berger married in 1897, shared her husband's interests. She attended Milwaukee normal school, was a member of the Milwaukee school board (1909-1939), and the state board of education (1917-1919). She was a normal school regent (1927-1928) and a university regent (1928-1934). A vigorous champion of woman suffrage, during and after World War I she devoted her interests to keeping the U.S. at peace. She succeeded to her husband's seat on the executive committee of the Socialist party but disagreements over Soviet Russia, united-front activities, and war policy led to a rupture in 1936, and her resignation in 1940. Dict. Amer. Biog.; M. Wachman, Hist. of Social-Democratic Party of Milwaukee (Urbana, 1945); Milwaukee Leader, Aug. 7, 1930; Voice and Pen of V. L. Berger (Milwaukee, 1929); V. L. Berger Papers in Milwaukee Co. Hist. Soc.; Milwaukee Journal, June 17, 1944.

<p>Victor Luitpold Berger (February 28, 1860 – August 7, 1929) was an Austrian American socialist politician and journalist who was a founding member of the Social Democratic Party of America and its successor, the Socialist Party of America. Born in the Austrian Empire, Berger immigrated to the United States as a young man and became an important and influential socialist journalist in Wisconsin. He helped establish the so-called Sewer Socialist movement. Also a politician, in 1910, he was elected as the first Socialist to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a district in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.</p>

<p>In 1919, Berger was convicted of violating the Espionage Act for publicizing his anti-interventionist views and as a result was denied the seat to which he had been twice elected in the House of Representatives. The verdict was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in 1921 in Berger v. United States, and Berger was elected to three successive terms in the 1920s.</p>

<p>Berger was born into a Jewish family on February 28, 1860, in Nieder-Rehbach, Austrian Empire (today in Romania). He was the son of Julia and Ignatz Berger. He attended the Gymnasium at Leutschau (today in Slovakia), and the major universities of Budapest and Vienna. In 1878 he immigrated to the United States with his parents, settling near Bridgeport, Connecticut. Berger's wife, Meta Schlichting, later claimed that Berger had left Austria-Hungary to avoid conscription into the military.</p>